Pets and Animals

[sammythethief]

Been procrastinating on posting in here. Being sick fueled this. Blah.

Tonks (named after the Harry Potter character)

Spoiler

Nicknames: Chubby, Chubbums, Puppy, Tonksie, Wheat Toast, Wheaties.
Tonks is an eight year old pure bred Maltese. He's got a serious barking problem, and is rather territorial. We call this "little man" or "Napoleon" syndrome. No one ever told him he was small. We'd rather this be corrected, but we've tried everything short of dog training classes. He's very stubborn, and it seems to be getting worse as he gets older.

He doesn't do well with other dogs (though he is very fond of running the fence with Willie, our neighbor's dog, and when we put them together they don't bite or growl at one another - they're just very cautious), nor does he do well with strangers. He will bark and growl like he's having his legs ripped off, but he's never bitten anyone. I wish he would do well around other people, because he really is the cutest, funniest, sweetest dog. He's always there for a cuddle when I need it, and that tail goes a mile a minute when I come home, even if I've only been gone for an hour. He never fails to bring a smile to my face, and I couldn't imagine life without him.


Snake under spoiler. If you don't like snakes, don't click the spoiler - save the snake hate for another place.

Spoiler

Ignore my retarded self.

His name is Slash, and he's a three year old ball python. He's a very docile, non-temperamental snake with a rather sweet personality. Technically he belongs to my fiance, who bought him a few years ago, but now that Brian is in the Marine Corps, I take care of him. I can't have him at my house, because my mother is terrified of snakes. Can't even look at one on a TV let alone in real life. So he chills out at Brian's house, and I feed him every week when I go over there.

He searches for me when he's done eating, and will crawl out of his feeding box and come over to me. He curls around me, squeezing just enough to hold on. He really is an absolute peach. When I place him around my neck, he often sticks his little stub of a tail down my shirt and actually wags his tail. Not like a dog, more like a contented cat. Every once in a while, if he feels as if he hasn't spent enough time out of his tank, he'll fight me on going back in - he'd wrap around arm and stares me down as if to say "Mommy, don't do this to me. You love me, right?" If he had eyelashes, he'd bat them at me.

He would be the perfect snake to teach people that snakes are not slimy monsters to be hated, feared, and decapitated. He's gentle and calm, just a bit jumpy, but he doesn't strike - he recoils if he feels threatened, as most ball pythons do.


I also have an extraordinarily lazy beta fish. I've tried to keep him comfortable, but I think he's unhealthy and on his last leg :/ He's about three years old, which is a decent life for a beta. I used to tap the top of his tank and he would swim up and wait to be fed.

[TxCat]

Well, we didn't get either the cage or the bristlenose. They didn't have the bristlenose any more and the cages they had in stock did not meet the specifications listed in my books about budgies (namely, they lacked the horizontal bars budgies need in order to climb and/or they had those ridiculous roof embellishments which the birds cannot use and which may actually injure them.

I'll order the cage on line from a site I've had marked out for that purpose and I'll keep an eye out for the bristlenose. They'll have them again.

MadameRed: That's a fine looking snake! I used to be afraid of them but over the years I've worked on it until the fear has faded. My husband has caught a few wild hognoses in the yard (we let them go in the forest, they were too close to the other animals' enclosures) and I've stroked them. Soft, supple, oddly intelligent, and what beautiful markings!

My husband has decided he wants a ball python. We're working on building the right environment for it first before we actually procure the animal. I'd rather take longer and do it right than have the poor thing either escape or die because I overlooked something.

[sammythethief]

I have always adored snakes, but whenever I saw a wild one, my mother usually saw it, and would have my dad kill it She's irrationally afraid of snakes, thinks they should all be shoes or wallets. She's never felt fondly about cats, either... it's not cool, at all. She just doesn't see that it hurts me when she talks that way about animals. She doesn't get that I feel the same way when she talks about killing snakes the way she feels when I rant about babies. Bleh.

Ball pythons are great snakes for first time snake owners, or even for experienced snake owners. They make wonderful pets, are generally very healthy snakes. I forget what kind of bedding we use for Slash, I think it might be Aspen bedding, but I can't be sure. They don't require huge tanks, just a warm hidey-hole and a cool hidey-hole.

I'm no authority on snakes - you can find most information on ball pythons online, and it's very reliable, imo. ShenziSixaxis knows tons about snakes; I'd ask her if I had any questions about them

[TxCat]

I have always adored snakes, but whenever I saw a wild one, my mother usually saw it, and would have my dad kill it

I grew up that way too. I'll admit it's a hard reaction to override and I can partially justify it. Most of what we had were of the rattler variety, very venomous --- sidewinders and western diamondbacks for certain. Out here, the poisonous snakes are less numerous. I've only seen one eastern diamondback (sadly already dead, apparently hit by a car) and one cottonmouth. We do have pygmy rattlers but they're shy little things and it's easy to pin them down and relocate them.

The rural attitude which exists toward pets out here boggles my mind. One potential vet had a questionaire with these questions on it:

"This pet is a:

- outdoor animal
- working animal
- pet
- companion"

I never used them again. They had the office separated so that cats went one side, dogs the other (but I believe the main vet's practice was with large livestock). They treated my cat like an expendable creature. The vet in question wanted to put my hand-shy dog down because he'd never be worth anything working (this same guy later became my next service dog so there goes that particular piece of advice...it only took some careful training and positive reinforcement to fix things).

We just bought the boy a book about pythons and he's been reading about them for months. I think, once we have all the equipment they need (it would need a humidifier and some heat lamps because of how we keep the house for other animals), he'll really enjoy owning one.

[sammythethief]

They had the office separated so that cats went one side, dogs the other (but I believe the main vet's practice was with large livestock).

This wouldn't be a bad idea for people with allergies. My mom is extremely allergic to cats, as in one cat hair closes her throat in about two minutes. It's a bad allergy, so I can see why a vet would do that. I often have to sit in the vet with my dog while my mom waits out in the van. But, I guess vets can't cater to every need of every person.

Where I grew up, the most venomous snakes we had around were cottonmouths and copper heads. We had a swamp in the easement behind our backyard, so they often wandered up into our yard, seeking the heat that the dryers put out on the side of the house. Most often, however, we saw common garter snakes.

We have heating pad adhered to the side of Slash's tank - Brian wanted to put it on the bottom, but I told him if it were to short out (though the kind we have isn't likely to vary up and down in temperature), it could burn him. He's also got a day time heat lamp and a night time red heat lamp. We've also elevated his water dish so that he has somewhere cool to hide under in the summer. It's not yet summer so we don't know how he'll like it, but he's crawled under there and moved the bedding around, so he doesn't hate it!

[Imposibibble]

I also have an extraordinarily lazy beta fish. I've tried to keep him comfortable, but I think he's unhealthy and on his last leg :/ He's about three years old, which is a decent life for a beta. I used to tap the top of his tank and he would swim up and wait to be fed.

I had a Betta fish when I was in 8th grade. My parents bought it as a gift for...something.
I know I didn't care for it properly. Didn't have a book or pamphlet or anything and I didn't really know what internet was used for back then. I remember feeding it these pellet things and these worms (what the fish store gave us). I think I stressed him to death. I put his bowl on my dresser (which had a mirror). He was always flared out (which I thought was just cool) and then one day I found him dead. I think I had him for less than a year.

[sammythethief]

I also have an extraordinarily lazy beta fish. I've tried to keep him comfortable, but I think he's unhealthy and on his last leg :/ He's about three years old, which is a decent life for a beta. I used to tap the top of his tank and he would swim up and wait to be fed.

I had a Betta fish when I was in 8th grade. My parents bought it as a gift for...something.
I know I didn't care for it properly. Didn't have a book or pamphlet or anything and I didn't really know what internet was used for back then. I remember feeding it these pellet things and these worms (what the fish store gave us). I think I stressed him to death. I put his bowl on my dresser (which had a mirror). He was always flared out (which I thought was just cool) and then one day I found him dead. I think I had him for less than a year.

Poor thing :[ I got my first two betta when I was in fifth grade, and I fell in love with the species, and have had at least one ever since. My favourite has been Carey - whenever I would approach the tank, he was swim to the side and move back and forth until I fed him. If I touched the tip of my finger to the water, he would come up and nibble on my fingertip.

I never had any books on betta, but I learned how to properly care for them through experience and reading things online. I still check out websites about betta from time to time, just to see if there's anything I've ever missed on them.

My mom thinks that I should put Caesar (the betta) into the main fish tank (she thinks he's unstimulated, and that if we put him into the tank it will perk him up) - we have mostly fancy tailed guppies, two dalmation mollies, a [very strange looking] plecostomus, and two or three Chinese algae eaters. TxCat, you seem to be very knowledgeable about fish. Would adding Caesar into the main tank be detrimental to him or the other fish?

[TxCat]

We have two betta fish, a male and a female. They currently reside in a glass bowl in my office. I had given them plants, but they ate them. We don't leave them in stagnant water. Ours have a small pump with an air stone to keep the water circulating and they both love to ride the bubbles. Once in a while Ryo gets amorous and chases Yoko around the bowl. I understand, from reading my aquarium books and fish lover sites, that it's somewhat normal for the male to nip at the female when courting. He initially tore her tail fin up badly, but she's recovering. Both of mine are of the dark blue crown variety and I adore them. Both beg shamelessly whenever they see a human face appear at their level.

[FennecFyre]

Madison has to be the most cuddly pit bull ever She'll lay her head in your lap, curl up next to you in bed, and make those adorable puppy dog eyes. Not fun when she takes up 75% of the bed, though.

[Tereghan]

*snip*
My mom thinks that I should put Caesar (the betta) into the main fish tank (she thinks he's unstimulated, and that if we put him into the tank it will perk him up) - we have mostly fancy tailed guppies, two dalmation mollies, a [very strange looking] plecostomus, and two or three Chinese algae eaters. TxCat, you seem to be very knowledgeable about fish. Would adding Caesar into the main tank be detrimental to him or the other fish?

Short answer is yes, that would be a very bad idea. Bettas tend to go after other fish with a)bright colors and b) long fins. Your guppies would definitely be at risk.

The longer answer is that most bettas put into a community tanks actually end up dead. It really depends on what types of schooling fish you have in there with them, but since their tails are so big the male bettas move a lot more slowly than a lot of other fish, and the quick little community fish tend to take chunks out of them and those pretty fins. A lot of community tanks have heavier filtration and more powerful currents than most males can handle.

The other issues would probably come from the mollies and the Chinese Algae Eaters. Mollies can be somewhat "dominant" fish (as much as dominance can really be applied to fish) and tend to beat up other fish similar in size to them upon new introductions. CAEs really don't belong in community tanks at all IMO, they can get up to 6" or more and become very aggressive, often eating smaller fish and taking chunks out of the bigger ones.

Sorry to but in when you were asking someone else's advice, but it's hard to know sometimes which fish are really compatible with which. I like Ultimate Bettas for betta info, and they've got a ton of info on other fish there as well.