The Beauty of Being a Picky Eater Is..

Oh no! Are these silly ASFs as picky as I am??

...If you don't like it, you can just give it to your rats!

Okay, so maybe not everyone has rats. But there's always use for that food that didn't come out quite right, or that you wouldn't even consider dirtying your fork with.

Things like veggies, some fruits, and raw, or lightly cooked, non-greasy meat can be fed to your pups, or maybe even your cat, if s/he isn't too picky!

If none of your pets like vegetables, and you have a lot of local wildlife, your neighborhood rabbits would definitely enjoy a less-than-fresh(but not rotten!) head of romaine lettuce.

Grainy foods - Bread, crackers, rice, and so on - can be fed to wild birds. If there's ever any bread that goes stale before I can eat it, I take a trip to a local pond and feed the geese and ducks. Don't overdo it though, they need room for the healthy food that they can find in the wild!

All non-meat, non-greasy foods can be composted, which is one of the reasons why it's a great idea to cook healthy, or even become a vegetarian. (Don't feel too bad, I haven't quite gotten their either - lol)

Finally, a brave soul.

Today, all of our ASFs, rats, and mice got some yummy, healthy, whole-grain pumpernickel bread because, well, to be honest - I didn't like it. As long as you are feeding your pets and local wildlife wholesome, healthy snacks, it's great for them and it keeps more things out of the land fills. Too bad I didn't think to post this on Earth Day!

-Cynthia

Pet Project 365

Just a picture of Mrs. Copper, doing what she loves best: Basking under the heat lamp. You can see Mr. Copper's tail if you look closely!

Pet Project 365 96/365

We anticipate another 10-20 days until she & Mr. Copper breed, if it's going to happen. We're keeping our fingers crossed!

-Cynthia

Wordless Wednesday: Let's Make It Work

Pet Project 365 95/365

 

Pet Project 365 + Some Updates

Pet Project 365 88/365

Pet Project 365 89/365

One of the goats at my AmeriCorps service location. One of the reasons I've been so busy lately!

Pet Project 365 90/365

Our pack headed to the wooded section of the dog park for a nice walk. The yellow dog is Jack's buddy, and the black pup is Midget's buddy. Later that day, Zora met her buddy: a feisty little puggle, but we didn't get any pictures. ): It's usually hard for Zora to make friends, she's very feisty.

Pet Project 365 91/365

Okay so I didn't get a photo of any of our traditional(or untraditional) pets on Saturday. Forgive me, but I'm throwing a personal picture in here. I got to visit with my birth son on Saturday!

Pet Project 365 92/365

Another "mess-up". Jet was adopted on Sunday. We didn't get a last picture. ): So 92/365 is more of a memorial than an actual "daily photo". He isn't adjusting well in his new home, so please keep him in your thoughts!

Pet Project 365 93/645

Pet Project 365 94/365

I volunteered at the zoo today. They have a new baby Sichuan Takin, a vulnerable species. Less than 20 zoos have this species. I tried to get a picture.. but little Jet Lee was hiding behind momma Mulan.

-Cynthia

I'm Excited About Pee, Pt. 2

    Are you close enough with your dog to know the specific gravity of his pee? I am.

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   Anyways, are you ready to talk about what's actually in pee?

    Pee can contain many things, like bacteria, cells, casts, and crystals.

    Jack's pee contains a lot of these crystals:

They're called struvite crystals, or triple phosphate crystals. They're very pretty! Their presence doesn't mean anything significant, although I am looking into why they're in Jack's urine but not in some other dogs' urine.

   And the urine of a cat that I examined had a lot of these:

Bilirubin crystals! Yay! Or maybe not so yay. The kitty was very sick. Bilirubin crystals are normal in dog urine, but an abnormal finding in any other species' urine.

  And, finally, after performing a urinary catheterization on a dog, we found some renal epithelial cells. I can't find a good picture, but they looked like a dozen or so little circles with black dots in the middle, and they were clumped together.

  There's tons of other stuff you can find in urine. Red blood cells, white blood cells, fat globules, calcium oxalate crystals, and so on. It's really very exciting Various findings can be indicative of inflammation and/or infection, and other(most, even) findings mean absolutely nothing. The class I am currently in is more about identifying "things", later on I'll learn more about what "things" mean what.

  

 

 

   We also test the urine on dipsticks, which measure various chemical properties of the urine. And, we use a refractometer to measure the specific gravity of the urine, or the amount of solids compared to the liquid. Distilled water has a specific gravity of 1.0. This is just in case you've ever wondered what the veterinary team is doing with your pet's pee when you give it to them. I know I never knew half of this stuff!

   Midget's pee didn't contain anything interesting. On one hand, that is good: it means she's healthy. On the other hand: bummer, nothing interesting to look at.

   I have yet to acquire Zora's pee. She is very private and sneaky. Wish me luck on Thursday. ;)


-Cynthia



P.S.

Pet Project 365 87/365

I'm Excited About Pee, Pt. 1

   Yep. You read that right. I'm excited about pee. This whole month has all been about pee for me. Pee, pee, pee, pee, pee. And you know what? It's exciting.

   I can talk a whole lot about pee, really. That's why I'm dividing this subject up into two parts.Today? How to collect pee.

This is how you collect pee:


And this is how I collect pee(don't press play if you have a sharp object phobia):



Oh yeah, and I collect pee like this too:

And, last but not least, here is Zora explaining to me that she will never trust me again after I tried to shove a tupperware container under her girly bits while she was trying to enjoy a relaxing whizz... because I was trying to collect pee:

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And what will we discuss tomorrow? Why, the wondrous things you can find inside pee! It's a lot better, I promise.


-Cynthia







P.S. This has nothing to do with pee. This is a bad photo of the elusive peppered corydora that lives in the aquarium, and also Saturday's Pet Project 365 photo. Today's photo(and tomorrow's photo) will be posted tomorrow.

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Long Overdue: Our New Additions

   To buffer the 'negativity' that may have accompanied yesterday's post, I'm ((finally)) introducing some of our new additions.

Four New Mice

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   We were beginning to have some fertility issues with our original mouse colony, so I decided it was time to "switch out". We got one new male mouse and three new female mice. The male is a gorgeous merle, two of the females are orange with some white, and one female is a PEW(pink-eyed white). The male went into a tank with all of our original females, and the females went into a tank with all of our original males. So far, we have no new babies.

Two New Marimo Moss Balls

These things are pretty cool. They prefer low(although still some) light conditions and high water flow. We bought the lowest wattage bulb we could, and put them right underneath the filter. So far, they aren't doing bad.. But they aren't doing great, either. I'm crossing my fingers. We've had back luck with plants thus far.

What the lights did help was green algae. Then, after we cleaned the green algae, brown algae started growing. You can't use algae killers with Marimo moss balls because they actually are a species of algae - under normal conditions, they grow out on surfaces like normal algae. Read more about them here.

-Cynthia

A Touchy Subject: Feeder Euthanasia

Pet Project 365: 82/365

    Perhaps it's a bit cynical, unusual, and even cruel that I was excited to have finally completed a euthanasia chamber for the Coppers' "food".

   But if you ever dangle a living animal helplessly in front of its predator's face, because the predator doesn't posses the skills, sight, or desire to actually locate and secure their prey without help, you'll understand.

  Feeling like Hitler somehow feels a tiny bit better than feeling like the ancient Romans.

  Don't get me wrong. I love my snakes. I just don't like the "dirty work" that comes with owning them.

  And thus, the best thing that I could do(in my mind), is construct a CO2 euthanasia chamber. So Jonathan and I set to work and did it. For any other snake owners out there that are looking for a more humane euthanasia method, kudos and you've found one of the right places. Here are some instructions on building the chamber.

You'll Need:

 A paintball CO2 canister - Around $20

 

A remote line/coil - Around $30

 

 

(optional)Silicone - <$10

 

 Appropriately sized plastic container - <$10

Soldering Iron - <$10

Instructions are pretty simple. Get the CO2 tank filled at your local sporting goods store. Use the soldering iron to first melt a hole near the top of the container to allow oxygen to escape as CO2 fills it, and then to melt a hole large enough for the quick release part of the remote coil. Do this by moving your soldering iron around the edges of the hole, making it progressively larger until it is large enough to fit the coil. If you'd like, use the silicone to seal the hole around the releasable portion of the remote coil. Attach the other end of the remote coil to the canister.Line the bottom of the container with paper towels or some other absorbent material and you     are ready to go.

-Cynthia

Wordless Wednesday: Exotics Day at School

Pet Project 365: 81/365

-Cynthia

Happy Gotcha Day, Midgey!

Pet Project 365: 80/365

   Woohoo! Exactly one year ago today, we found little Midget, thus making today her first Gotcha Day. For Zora and Jack, we don't celebrate Gotcha Days because we know what month/year they were born in. We guestimate an actual date, which happens to be the 15th for both.. How original is that?

   We've got no idea how old Midget is. All we know is that we've had her for one year!

   Today, Midget came with the Dad to pick me up from school and we stopped by the pet store to pick up her birthday cookie. She had a blast at the store, and all of the employees gave her tons of love and pets and compliments and cookies. She also got to meet two Shelties, and she actually really liked them. Poor Midgey was even crying when they left the store. Dakota, if you're reading, they really made me think of you!

   Everydog got to enjoy a little bit of the birthday cookie, and there's even leftovers for later today.



   I'm sure some of you already read Midget's blog intro, but I'll tell you a little bit of her Gotcha Story anyhow.

  Last year, we took my grandma to the grocery store and waited while she shopped. When she got back out, she told me that there was a little dog running into the store. I'm somewhat of an "oh-my-god-a-homeless-dog-I-need-to-help-it" kind of person, and I've always had great luck reuniting missing dogs with their people. So, of course, I went to check this little grocery store pup out. When I reached the doors, an employee was carrying her out. I was pretty worried about what he was going to do with her, so I offered to take her and find her home.
  All the way home, Midget stayed on the floor of the car between my legs. She panted nonstop- no wonder she was trying to get into the store! Who doesn't love some great air conditioning? My first thought when I saw her was that she looked like a hyena. Apparently, my mom thought so too. When I got home, Midget in my arms, I walked up to my mom and told her that I had found a hyena. Her response? "Oh my god! Why is it tame??" I don't blame her for believing me. Have you seen my other critters?
   We tried to find her home, but had no luck. The closest we got was someone who had actually snapped a cell phone shot of her while she was in the grocery store! We never really planned on keeping her, but she just kind of stuck.
   Original plans were made to call her something along the lines of Shenzie, the hyena from the Lion King, hyena, hiney, etc. She didn't like those names, but when we jokingly called her a midget, she ran straight to us! So it stuck just like she did.

   Anyways, Happy Gotcha Day, Midget! <3



-Cynthia

Pet Project 365

Pet Project 365: Day Seventy-Five:

Day Seventy-Five: was not a good day. Zora rolled in stinky poo.

Pet Project 365: Day-Seventy-Five:

Day Seventy-Five: He's a very pretty kitty. So adopt him.

Pet Project 365: Day Seventy-Six:

Day Seventy-Six: Here's Lilly, looking alright even after her land ordeal last week.

Pet Project 365: Day Seventy-Seven:

Pet Project 365: Day Seventy-Eight:

Day Seventy-Eight: Happy Easter!! Even the ratties got to enjoy some Easter eggs.

Pet Project 365: Day Seventy-Nine:

Day Seventy-Nine: We're still finishing off those leftover Easter eggs. I don't like the yolk, so guess who gets them?

 

 

-Cynthia