I don’t know a lot about axolotls specifically, but I do know that for any animal a lot of change over a short period can be very stressful. I would suggest staggering them so that he has time to get used to each new thing and isn’t overwhelmed.
Gradually change things. Swap individual decor items out, as long as you leave several good places to hide. Odd items placed outside the tank are good, too, if your critter can look at them.
On my schedule today was a pancake tortoise that was coming in because it wasn’t eating. I got all of my examination equipment ready and went into the exam room to get started. A young man was sitting in a chair with a shoebox on his lap. We chatted for a bit and then I started asking him questions about his tortoise.
I found out he had purchased the tortoise from a reptile show 8 years ago and that it lived in a ten gallon aquarium with gravel for substrate. It’s diet consisted of lettuce and carrots. Only. The only water provided was from a spray bottle that was used to mist the cage every other day. There was no heat, UV light, cage decor, hide, nothing. I wrote everything down and asked him for the box.
I opened the box and looked inside and nearly lost my composure. Inside was a stunted, gnarled creature about 4 inches long with a grossly abnormal shell. I took him out and put him on the table and pulled himself across the table bits and pieces of his carapace fell off. I don’t mean the scutes, I mean the actual pieces of bone that make up the shell. You could see his organs through gaps in his ribs.
“I will be right back” I said and grabbed the tortoise and went into the treatment room. I was so angry that my hands were shaking. Calculating some dosages I handed them to my tech and asked her to draw up pain medication and a sedative. “Did he approve this?” she asked.
“No. I don’t care. Please draw it up and give this IM.”
Slowly I walked back into the room. I asked the owner how long the tortoise had been like that. He wasn’t sure. He had just stopped eating a day ago. Up until then it was perfectly healthy.
“Your tortoise has been very poorly taken care of. If he were a dog this would be considered animal abuse. Because he is a reptile I am not very likely to get far with the authorities so I’m gonna make you a deal. You sign him over to me and pay for the examination and you can go.”
He thought about it and told me no, it was his tortoise. I asked why he didn’t take care of it. “I thought I was” was his response.
“Why doesn’t he have any source of heat?”
“I didn’t know they needed it.”
“Why didn’t you give him UV light?”
“I didn’t know they needed it.”
“You are telling me that you never opened a book, magazine, internet care sheet, nothing to find out how to care for a tortoise?”
“Yeah. I just thought I knew.”
We talked some more and I finally convinced him to sign the tortoise over. I went back to check on him and he looked even worse. More of his shell had fallen off. I could see his lungs now. I decided it would be for the best to humanely euthanize him so he wouldn’t suffer anymore.
In this day and age “I didn’t know” is not a valid excuse. You can look up anything on your phone from who invented pizza to where the closest movie theater is. There are literally hundreds of books, websites, and internet forums all about reptile care. You can call any veterinarian before purchasing an animal and ask them about their care and I promise you they will talk to you.
I am no longer going to gently nudge people in the right direction husbandry wise. I will no longer tell them “well, lots of people make that mistake, it’s ok”. I am going to call it like it is and if an animal is suffering they will know it is abuse. There is zero excuse for this.
It is sad that reptiles and other exotics don’t have the “cute” factor other animals do. No one would allow an owner to get away with feeding their dog nothing but potato peelings because they just “didn’t know” and yet it is perfectly fine to own a reptile and watch it slowly starve to death because someone “didn’t know” it needed to eat insects.
Iguanas that live in cages so small they can’t turn around. Tortoises kept without the proper heat gradient. Monitor lizards over fed until they are morbidly obese and can’t even walk. This is all abuse and it is wrong. Unfortunately reptiles are survivors and they can be dying for YEARS before anything is noticed. Owners confuse being alive with being healthy far too often.
I simply cannot stand by and watch this happen anymore. I allowed myself to be drawn into the “well, exotics are different, people just don’t know” mind set and did lots of hand holding while owners declined or refused my recommendations. From now on I promise I will flat out tell people it is animal cruelty and will have to make a phone call if things don’t change. It will not make me a popular vet nor a rich one but at least I will be able to sleep at night.
My challenge to everyone is that if they notice an animal being abused politely but firmly call the owner out. There is no need to internet shame, threaten violence or bully someone. Simply tell them what they are doing is wrong, their animal is suffering and they need to fix it. There are numerous reliable resources to find the proper information. If they won’t fix it the proper authorities need to be contacted.
“i didnt know” is not a valid excuse!!!
They’re lovely, but they MUST be kept in a pot, or a raised bed, or on a good-quality leash with a chest harness, because mint and its cousins spread like… IDEK, like a rash. Like dandelions. They’re tough, hardy and highly motivated. Even a tiny root fragment will suddenly turn into a Mint Tree if you don’t tear it up. I swear I’ve seen new plants popping up from BURIED SCRAPS OF LEAF. Once they’re in the ground they establish a beachhead and spawn secretly, possibly through osmosis. I cannot advise you to stick a mint plant in the ground unless you are a bold and unconventional disciplinarian.
The joke is that after running around after the mint like a spaniel chasing a whack-a-mole for a year, Dr Glass then planted a plant that would do the same thing.
Great plants, hard to kill, keep them in a pot (ESPECIALLY where invasive)
I would really recommend against planting mint in raised beds, and also, if in a pot, DO NOT PUT THE POT ON SOIL. The pot needs to be on rock or concrete. Otherwise the roots will head straight for freedom through the drainage holes, and you will Never Be Free.
of course, on the other hand, if you’re at all inclined to pettiness expressed via herbology, mint makes a GREAT vehicle for plant-based vengeance.
i have absolutely thrown mint roots into the perfectly manicured lawns of people i hate.
An ever growing mint plant appearing in my lawn would seem like the opposite of a problem to me?
They’re invasive, which means if they’re anywhere in your garden or manicured areas they could ruin the other plants, I think? But yeah I’d love to have a damn mint plant in my yard sounds ideal.
Has anyone ever thought of just having a lawn of mint instead of grass? Like how you have moss lawns?
… I am not judging!! but I don’t think the people in the notes who are like “oh a mint lawn would be lovely!” have met mint!
You know what would be a lovely herbal lawn? Chamomile. Because it’s a damn compact, densely-growing, hardy, winter-green perennial that’s springy underfoot, smells nice when you walk on it, and has some basic manners. Lawn chamomile is plushy and soft and produces tiny pretty daisy-looking flowers. It naturally stays at pretty much the height you would want grass to be, and then you can cut it and it goes “fair enough.”
Mint is not any of those things. Mint is leggy, patchy, muddy and rampageous. It grows randomly and fitfully. It bullies other plants. It sends runners into the neighbor’s houses and across the street and it barks at the postman. Your mint lawn would look like a poorly tended graveyard AND THEN IN THE WINTER IT WOULD DIE, DRAMATICALLY, and ROT
THERE. It would outcompete native plants and eat your vegetable garden alive. It is so wet and stalky that it would be dreadful to trim, and when you trimmed it, it would scab over and sulk. It would refuse to grow where it was put (the lawn) and would instead show up in places you don’t want it (the patio, the sidewalk, your intrusive thoughts.) IT IS AN INVASIVE PLANT, WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO YOUR FAMILYIt’s like asking why people don’t make lawns out of cabbages, or hyenas, or the cold virus. BECAUSE THEN IT WOULDN’T BE A LAWN OR A GARDEN
Basically my thoughts on the “Millennials are Killing X” trend.
Disabled Person: “I struggle with this.”
Ableist: “I don’t believe you. It’s not normal to struggle with that.”
Disabled Person: “I struggle with this because of a disability.”
Ableist: “I don’t believe you. Unless you’ve been diagnosed, you don’t have a disability.”
Disabled Person: “I struggle with this because of a diagnosed disability.”
Ableist: “I don’t believe you. You’re high functioning. Disabilities are overdiagnosed. You’re nothing like those low functioning people who actually struggle.”
Watch this stir up a shitstorm because you’re not REALLY disabled if you could find the will to get on the computer and type this out
there is no medical component to a trans kid transitioning
if a little trans boy comes out to his parents & is like 4 all youd do for his transition is cut his hair, buy a new wardrobe, & switch pronouns & possibly change names
no one is gonna put a little 4 year old on testosterone OR puberty blockers until theyre actually about to start puberty & then they give them a few years to really decide if they want to start hormones
a trans kid existing isnt “child abuse.”
child abuse is refusing to let your kid live their lives as they truly are & forcing them to present as a gender they arentradfems who interact with this post will be blocked & your argument will not be read or even considered. i do not care about the opinion of a transphobe & my original post still stands.
Wonder Woman isn’t the only deity anymore. Eugene Brave Rock, who plays Chief in DC’s blockbuster film Wonder Woman, looks to have confirmed one of the movie’s big secrets: Chief is a demi-god.
Indian Country Today previously reported a little-known detail about Wonder Woman’s first encounter with Chief, one of the men recruited by Steve Trevor to help Wonder Woman on her mission. The two of them first addressed each other in the Blackfoot language, a native language of the Americas spoken by about 8,000 people in northern Montana and southern Alberta, Canada. It was the only language that wasn’t subtitled in the film, which makes this next part kind of amazing. During their chat, Chief introduced himself as Napi, a Blackfoot demi-god.
Napi, known as Old Man, is the culture hero of the Blackfoot tribe. He was the first man made by the Creator, and he helped shape the world and its people, along with his wife, Kipitaki. As Moviepilot pointed out, Napi’s origin story is unique in the creation mythos. Rather than being benevolent or kind, Napi is a troublesome trickster, showing how the natural world cannot be controlled.
This could’ve easily been an inside joke for the audience, but Brave Rock told io9 on Twitter that Chief is, in fact, Napi. And even though director Patty Jenkins gave Brave Rock a lot of creative freedom with the character, Chief’s introduction wasn’t improvised. Brave Rock said his reveal as Napi was a bonafide part of the script. It makes sense when you consider that Chief is the first person Diana shakes hands with, even though she’s presented with the opportunity several times beforehand with other people.
This doesn’t necessarily mean Napi will be a larger part of the DCEU in the future (although that would be pretty awesome), but it’s exciting to see another side of Chief and his place in Wonder Woman’s world.
O_O
Cool!
Awesome seeing some proper Native culture representation.
THIS IS SO AWESOME 😀
This means he is one character from the films supporting cast (Besides the immortal Amazons of course) who could be brought back for the sequel set in the present day, since a god isn’t going to have to worry about getting older
The iodine clock reaction. A solution of hydrogen peroxide is mixed with one containing potassium iodide, starch and sodium thiosulfate. After a few seconds the colourless mixture suddenly turns dark blue. (Source) @sixpenceee
Oooh
WOOOOOOOOOOOW I WASNT EXPECTING THAT HOLY SHHIT
BettSplendens Tumblr Evac 