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Rescue herps need love too! Easy beginner species can be hardy enough to survive years of poor husbandry. This is Ramses von Niblick the Third Kerplunk, Kerplunk, Whoops, Where's My Thribble? at 7 years old, a day after starting intense rehydration therapy: He had chunks of dead skin the size of peas under his eyelids, covering his eyes, and had been that way for a couple of years before I got him. It took a week to work them loose, and after a year and a half he is still totally blind.  It took him a while to learn to eat out of a bowl, and he gets lost in anything bigger than a ten gallon tank. He lost most of his toes to retained shed skin cutting off the circulation and can't climb, so his tank is pretty bare. He eats anything though, and he can feel people walking near his tank and comes running out to beg. 
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Jan 23, 2012 22:13
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| # ¿ May 21, 2024 13:47 |
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Is there any reason firebelly toads didn't make the easy beginner pet list? They're hilarious, active, and like being kept in groups. Most pet stores seem to keep them terrestrial with a water dish, but they really like spending all their time in the water. In my opinion an aquatic setup is easier to clean, and makes a nicer display, too.  These are more cast-offs, they were given to me right before I started teaching a summer class for kids about animals. Some of the kids would spend the entire 45 minute class just staring at the frogs.  The kids could tell the three frogs apart. At feeding time I would throw a few dozen crickets in the tank, and the kids would each pick a frog to cheer for and count how many crickets it ate. It was like a tiny, bizarre gladiator match. 
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Jan 23, 2012 22:48
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Cassiope posted:Where did he come from? I know it happens all the time but it still boggles my mind when I see evidence that people keep animals in near-death conditions and think everything is fine I was cruising the free section of craigslist every 5 minutes, hoping to score a free washing machine, and an ad popped up for a sick gecko that wouldn't eat and was terribly inconvenient because people were moving. I did a quick google search, learned how to make gecko slurry, and called. When I picked him up they had him on calci-sand with plastic plants instead of hides, and he looked like a dead stick. They said he had been healthy but then stopped eating well a couple of years ago, and their vet suggested they try different foods and substrates and nothing had helped. He didn't even have a name, but it's pretty obvious he had been handled a lot at some point. I really don't understand how other people approach pet care. My first step is always to go online and find a forum full of whatever-enthusiasts, then read until I really understand the best way to care for my whatever. Ramses was already well on his way from mummified to fat and sassy by the time I got him to the vet, and there was never anything actually wrong with him aside from bad husbandry. 
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Jan 25, 2012 02:16
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I used a can'o'mealworms because I definitely couldn't stomach putting live ones in the blender. I skipped the acidopholus and milk thistle. For the prescription food you can try calling or visiting a vet's office and asking nicely, or substitute a grain-free high-protein cat food. I kept dabbing it on Ramses's nose and lips and he would like a tiny bit off. I also soaked him in warm unflavored pedialyte several times a day which helped get him hydrated. Edit: The gecko slurry got him eating, waxworms made him fat. There is no way to adequately describe my delight when he gobbled that first worm.
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Jan 25, 2012 09:30
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Are they actually eating the mealworms and crickets and still look like that? Or are they being offered food and refusing to eat? The slurry works well as an appetite stimulant and a way to get calories into an animal that is not eating at all. If you're low on funds I would skip the supplemental ingredients, I don't think the recipe I used even included acidophilus or thistle.
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Jan 26, 2012 00:12
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Malalol posted:I don't actually know specifics because I dont take care of them. Ive seen one of them go for a tiny cricket some time ago, and I assumed they were eating a little bit because they are still alive. And there is poop. One did die in the past month. How long can they even go looking like that? I figure that this recipe (with some omissions/substitutes) better than nothing...) It would probably help if someone was offering them food on forceps and recording how much they actually ingested. I'm not sure how much you can do without actively working on getting food into them, leaving them a dish of slurry may not be enough.
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Jan 26, 2012 01:58
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A couple of years ago I discovered that, when you own birds, people try to give you more birds. Apparently turtles work the same way. "Hey! I haven't seen you since last summer! How's the hognose snake I gave you?" "Great! Want a three-toed box turtle? We found her eating peaches under our peach tree." This is Euclid.  "Hey, I saw your Freecycle post looking for stuff to build a turtle pen. Want our box turtle? He eats cat food, we'll give you the rest of the bag." This is Pythogoras, eating a species-appropriate food item.  "Welcome to the turtle sanctuary! Your turtles are both girls, would you like a boy to keep them company? You can pick this one...or this one...what the hell, we're trying to downsize, just take them both." This is Escher,  and Necker.  This is my turtle pen.  This is Py inhabiting the strawberries. 
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Aug 12, 2012 01:31
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| # ¿ May 21, 2024 13:47 |
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Can I leave this here?
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Nov 17, 2012 02:26
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