Herp Megathread 3: No one will come to my house

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Pet Island > Herp Megathread 3: No one will come to my house

Professor Beetus: Apr 12, 2007; They can fight us
But they'll never Beetus

thumbtax posted:

I have always fed my snakes in feed boxes or on newspaper outside of the enclosure, but I've recently learned that this is totally old school and out of fashion. Is everybody really feeding inside the enclosure? Using frozen/thawed mice & rats, I am afraid of them making a nasty mess everywhere, and I like hand feeding my guys anyway (not with my actual hands though). But I went half-way the other day, put the snake in a plastic open-top container with the food while inside the tank, it actually worked out pretty well and kept mouse guts from getting all over the place.

And are most uromastyx really WC?

I like feeding in a separate bin because my snake will usually poop while he's in there and make spot cleaning his cage a lot easier. But I just have one corn snake so it probably gets a bit difficult with larger and more cantankerous snakes.

# ¿ Jan 19, 2015 08:31

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 10:42

Professor Beetus: Apr 12, 2007; They can fight us
But they'll never Beetus

Silver Nitrate posted:

Look at what the cat dragged in!

Where do you all get your feeders from? I finally got a freezer so I got to make my first big order. This should last me like... three months? I used RodentPro because I needed both chicks and quail, but I have enough of those for like six months, so I can try a different place for my next order. There's nothing wrong with what I got fwiw. Which place is it that has those nice vacuum sealed rats on the meat trays?

That cat is pissed as hell and wants to know why you broke all of his toys.

# ¿ Jan 21, 2015 02:48

Professor Beetus: Apr 12, 2007; They can fight us
But they'll never Beetus

Hazo posted:

What do you guys recommend? It's a public exhibit and I'd hate for some kindergartener to come by and see a footless anole getting chomped on by a turtle. Clearly the three species don't belong together, and I can try to convince them to split them up even though it's probably too late for the anole (calcium powder seems like too little too late at this point), but what's a better community for the turtle to share? Can they salvage anything at this point?

A public exhibit? Is your friend a teacher? Why are teachers so god drat stupid?

:downs:

"My class wants a turtle! Can I get a turtle?"
"Well, what kind of turtle? Aquatic or terrestrial?"
:downs:

"I don't really know or care, but they want a turtle. What about these?" *points to tank with red-eared sliders*
"Those get pretty big and aquatic turtles require specialized care and maintenance. Will you have space in your classroom for a 40 gallon tank?"
:downs:

"Can I get one of these and put it in there for a little bit? Then I can upgrade when it needs a bigger habitat." *looking at plastic pet keepers intended for transport*
"Have you thought about maybe getting a betta for your class?"
:downs:

"Bettas are lame. My class wants a turtle."

# ¿ Mar 6, 2015 15:56

Professor Beetus: Apr 12, 2007; They can fight us
But they'll never Beetus

I guess I just thought that educators coming in our doors would have more concern for animal welfare and be more open to being informed about proper care but lol nope. My favorite thing is trying to explain how low maintenance snakes are vs. pretty much everything else and being met with "EW SNAKES MY KIDS WON'T LIKE THAT, DISGUSTING!" Like, you're supposed to be opening these kids' minds, right?

# ¿ Mar 6, 2015 18:57

Professor Beetus: Apr 12, 2007; They can fight us
But they'll never Beetus

Leperflesh posted:

This is the Humane Society's page on snakes. It's full of disinformation and hyperbole. It's also completely correct about one thing: the large majority of captive reptiles are owned for less than one year, who typically kill them through ignorance and neglect.

I think the Lacy act is really really bad, but I do agree that America has a serious problem with inhumane treatment of animals. We need to do a lot better regulating who can sell exotic animals, and what responsibilities they should have in educating their customers (and refusing to sell to customers who obviously don't understand what they're getting into). This thread is a good example: we encourage first-timers to get their feet wet with hardy, easier-to-care-for animals, we're pretty clear about what constitutes adequate keeping and feeding practices, and we discourage people from casually committing to animals that can (should) live for decades.

The whole boa thing is just ridiculous fearmongering, though. 12 deaths since1990? How many people have pet dogs killed in the same time period? Does that mean nobody should keep pet dogs? People decide they don't want snakes any more and abandon them. No poo poo. They do that with literally hundreds of thousands of cats and dogs every year, too. And abandoned/irresponsibly-kept cats in particular have a massive impact on the local wildlife. We don't see the humane society advocating laws to prohibit the sale or keeping of cats, now, do we?

So I'm torn. The Humane Society does a hell of a lot of good work, but they're so wrong on this issue.

edit: My original judgment of The Humane Society was probably a little harsh but I still think ASPCA is a far better national org when it comes to animal welfare. Local Humane Society shelters are usually fantastic and only loosely affiliated with the national org though.

As someone who works at a big box pet store I'm well-aware that my company is part of the problem, but all of the staff at the stores I have worked at are extremely concerned about animal welfare and want to make sure the people we sell to take good care of their pets. It's pretty lovely that any yahoo can walk in and buy a red tail boa without understanding what they're getting into, but I will straight up tell people "no" if I get the feeling that they aren't going to at least be attempting to properly care for the animals they want to purchase. The funny thing is that the worst people aren't necessarily the uneducated (at least when it comes to herps, aquatics is another story entirely) but usually the people who have "read a few things on the internet" or "have been keeping (animals) for years now." Like people that feed their beardies pinkies and want to move them up to live adult mice or the couple today that I just barely managed to talk out of feeding crickets and worms to their baby iguana.

Professor Beetus fucked around with this message at 04:06 on Mar 11, 2015

# ¿ Mar 11, 2015 04:03

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Pet Island > Herp Megathread 3: No one will come to my house