Favorite Pet

[coquina]

I voted for cat - I've had my cat for 18 years, he's a big fluffy Maine Coon cat wannabe. He's old, but he still gets around, and he sleeps with me. I call him my "furry gray heating pad".

 

I also like dogs and have a black lab mix named Sadie. She gets to go to work with me every day and all the guys in the shop are crazy about her. I need a sign on my door that says "Spoiled rotten critters live here."

[Gilded]

I think insects or spiders are the best. Or perhaps a hermit crab or something. Of course, there's nothing funnier than watching a spider-creature attack a helpless insect AND TEARING IT LIMB BY LIMB... Oh sorry, got carried away there. Btw Sayo, have you considered feeding rodents or the like to your scorpies? Although you might want to wait until they learn to hunt properly and grow a little too.

[YT2095]

What about a no pet option? I dont see what people get out of owning a pet.

vote Now Citizen!

[Sayonara]

Btw Sayo, have you considered feeding rodents or the like to your scorpies? Although you might want to wait until they learn to hunt properly and grow a little too.

They're only juveniles right now - not big enough to eat locusts, never mind pinkies

 

Still ordered The Extractor from a webbie in the US though. Trying to find a UK pharmacy that sells EpiPen over the counter, just on the off chance it's ever needed

[Sayonara]

i like big dogs. i used to have a chinchilla which was really cool but he died like 2 days ago. there fur is so soft

Soft fur just makes them more easily-swallowed.

 

GO SNAKES.

[Gilded]

I like it how snakes disjoint (if that's even a word) their jaws to swallow things. Although, if you or your neighbors have dogs or similar, you might want to reconsider the snake buying to avoid "what happened to my alsatian and why is your anaconda so fat?" type of things. :/

[YT2095]

sayo, you`ll be able to get anti-histamines though, also a good idea!

 

diphenhydramine will help

 

as for adrenaline shots, forget the pharmacy, join a club or something, they`ll prolly know more.

my friend is a bee keeper, he gets access to that kinda thing too

 

edit: here: http://www.medicinenet.com/diphenhydramine/article.htm

[Sayonara]

I could just stock up on Zantac I suppose. Wonder what the shelf life is?

[YT2095]

Zantak! what on earth for?

 

heartburn through fear? LOL ))

 

it`s useless for owt else

[Sayonara]

Because it contains ranitidine hydrochloride, an H2-receptor antagonist. Should have the same effect as Benadryl.

 

Not as good as an Epi but better than nothing.

[YT2095]

and many unwanted side effects too

 

stick to a well known and used anti-histamine, not only that, it`ll be easier to factor if sh!t hits the fan and someone gets ill, rather than have to work out possible side effects of a second best that was never designed for the job

[Sayonara]

Ranitidine hydrochloride is an anti-histamine. It has a competitive inhibitory effect at the histamine action location. Another advantage is that it does not lower serum Ca++, which you really want to keep an eye on in the case of scorpion envenomation. Anaphylaxis resulting from injected ranitidine hydrochloride is rare, and from oral it's almost unheard of.

 

The problem with diphenhydramine (the main constituent of Benadryl) is that it's main side-effects include anaphylactic shock, palpitations, excitation and urinary retention; all of which you want to avoid because if you're in a position where you need an anti-histamine, it's because the venom is already causing those effects.

[Mokele]

I like it how snakes disjoint (if that's even a word) their jaws to swallow things

 

Well, they don't *technically* disjoint their jaws. They just have several extra bones and joints in their skull, and the anterior tips of their mandibles aren't fused, but rather connected by an elastic tendon that allows them to spread quite far apart.

 

This works better in person, but try this: Hold your upper arms agains your sides, clasp you hands, and move your elbows. That's pretty much a mammal mouth, with your lower arms as the mandibles and your torso as the skull. To simulate a snake, unclasp your hands and intstead hold a long rubber band between them, and allow you upper arm to move, both relative to your lower arm and to your torso (this is more or less what the "extra jaw bone", the quadrate, is like in snakes). Look at how much wider you can open your "mouth" now.

 

On top of this, the skull itself has several mobile bones, including the premaxilla (in some species), maxilla, and palatine/pterygoid (which run parrallel to the maxilla and have teeth on them too, like a second row of teeth, in a way).

 

How snakes eat is probably one of the most fascinating things in vertebrate biology, in my opinion, and I never get tired of watching it.

 

-------------------

 

However, cool as snakes are, my absolute favorite possible pet is actually a lizard, specifically Varanus salvadorii, the New Guinea crocodile monitor lizard. They're incredibly gorgeous (pitch black with large bright yellow spots, and bright yellow speckling on the black background), and apparently marvelously intelligent. Every one of them that I've seen (which has been awake at the time) has given the distinct impression that it's not just looking at you, it's *watching* you. Reports of their behavior bear out this reputation for intelligence.

 

There's only two downsides, and for me, the first one isn't really a downside:

1) It's the longest living lizard, with specimens known to reach over 12 feet long. However, this species is arboreal, and thus slender with a very long tail, so a 12 foot adult weighs only about 70 lbs. By comparison, an 8 foot Komodo can top 200 lbs, meaning that one is the largest, the other the longest.

2) The disposition of this species ranges from "the most foul-tempered reptile I have ever worked with" to "this species makes Hannibal Lector look like Mother Theresa". They are highly aggressive, territorial towards humans, and they tend to bite rather than bluff. Coupled with their immense size, this has given them near-legendary status among herpers, and I know people who own king cobras that refuse to go anywhere near this lizard. A very few individuals have been tamed, but the taming process typically results in no longer being able to count to ten on your digits without involving both feet.

 

The good news is that several specialist monitor lizard breeders are attempting to get this species to breed in captivity. The hope is that, like the reticulated python, wild-caught individuals may be nasty, but captive-bred ones will be tame, or at least possible to tame without loss of limbs. The fact that a few individuals have been tamed leads to some hope, and currently New England Reptile Distributors is hoping for a successful breeding. They had one last year, but a cage-mate ate all the eggs before they could be found and removed.

 

These images should give you idea of just how gorgeous they are:

A pair of babies (adults don't fade or lose the pattern)

A moderately sizable adult at East Bay Vivarium

Same animal as above, different view

 

Once captive breds are availible (if they're tamable), I'll be selling most of my possessions to both afford one and make room for the size of cage it needs.

 

Mokele

[slickinfinit]

I have a cat he is awsome he likes to claw stuff up n kill mice outside lol, I seen him 2 in less than a minute but I respect all forms of life. I still chose cats they only do what they wanna do lol dogs are cool to but cats are just to funny.