This is an awesome video demonstrating how to assess appropriate play between dogs! It explains things very well including video examples to display each concept. Just a really great dog behavior/body language resource.
And here is part 2, showing how you can tell for sure if you’re unsure about the play:
First, be sure that it is legal to own a tiger salamander in your state (tiger salamanders are native to much of the US and many states have laws against owning certain native species) and that you’re not getting the California tiger salamander (Ambystoma californiense) or a species that is threatened in your particular state.
Secondly, try to get a captive bred tiger salamander. It is possible to breed them in captivity but it’s not done super commonly because it is easy and legal to commercially collect them in many places. For some populations, this isn’t a huge deal because tiger salamanders are very common and widespread in many states and even seem to do fairly well (at least better than most amphibians) in human-disturbed environments. Still, captive bred is definitely much preferable. Hopefully, we will be seeing more captive bred tigers for sale as the demand for them increases.
I would recommend checking out Caudata.com to ask about reputable tiger salamander breeders (they are also a great resource for salamander care info). I can’t personally recommend any breeders or sources myself especially without knowing where you’re located.
There are lot’s of things to know about owning a dog and the internet can be an overwhelming source of information. You may find multiple different sources that all disagree with each other; so how do you know what to believe?
The best source for information is your veterinary clinic. Your pets annual physical exam is a great time to talk to your veterinarian about lifestyle topics such as diet and exercise. If you ever have a question about if certain foods or activities are safe for your dog, please reach out to the clinic.
Below I have compiled some broad tips for dog owners, including how to choose the right diet and toxins to avoid.
Tbh if you work with animals there will be times you’ll get angry with them. That’s when you need to walk away, chill out, and find a way to compromise.
If you can’t do that then you probably shouldn’t be working with animals
You have not ‘rescued’ an animal if you adopt it and fail to provide basic medical care for that pet. Food, water, and shelter are not the only things they need.
Exploration IS a tegu activity! He’s having fun and getting used to his surroundings- figuring out what things are, what he can climb, where he can hide- getting used to what he sees as his territory is engaging his mind and body!
However, if you want to shake things up, play some games with him! A holey roller feeder ball is a fun food puzzle, and there’s all kinds of things you can do with scent trails. Putting food under a cup and then setting up other cups for him to knock over is fun for both of you. If you have other animals, shed skin or fur can be super fun to smell, especially if you’ve got a variety of animals- Kaiju, for instance, totally ignores leopard gecko shed, but is always interested in my Madagascan hognose’s shed. Rubbing a large ball in some new, interesting scent and offering that to them can be interesting. PVC pipes with food in there juuuuuust out of reach are also fun- your tegu has to figure out how to knock the pipe around to get at the prize. Paper towel rolls with food are fun similarly- although destruction of the roll is more likely. This is actually similar to how they forage in the wild- they’ll split open rotting logs to get at animal nests inside, or honey, or grubs. Nest foraging is easy enough to set up- get some quail eggs and paper crinkles, and put them in a basket or tupperware or bowl or whatever. He’ll have to dig through the crinkles to get the eggs.
Also, now’s a great time to get him started on some training, if you’re into that! Target training is easy to teach and can be used as a basis for more advanced behaviors. I just did what this person did: https://sybilsden.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=13039
It works pretty great. You also might want to start harness training, too. Getting him used to the idea of a harness and associating it with fun exploration time can make taking him on walks easier, if that’s something you want to do in the future.
If you want more ideas, one of my favorite things to do is look for videos of Komodo dragon enrichment on youtube for inspiration. I have no idea how to build something like this, but it did give me the idea to set up some suspended prey that’s a little harder to reach!
Anonymous said: Any tips for a cat that loves to chew on things? We’ve been
giving him small dog chew toys and kongs with wet food (and unlike his
brother he hasn’t needed dental work yet so that’s one plus) but he
still chews on practically anything he can like books and chair legs and
plastic. I guess my question is mainly if there’s anything made for
cats that like to chew that you know of or what dog treats and chews
would be best for a cat (esp treats since they don’t have the same
nutritional needs)?
Some cats just enjoy chewing, and as long as they don’t try to eat the non-food objects this is okay, but we as humans don’t want them chewing and destroying objects we want to keep!
Small dog chews are okay so long as the cat figures out how to use them. Dogs and cats chew differently, so many dog toys will be too big or thick for a cat to show interest in.
I’ve used small dog Greenies for both my cats sometimes. Wonka is a strong chewer when he thinks he can eat something, so the cat Greenies are gone instantly and the small dog Greenies are gone after a few minutes. I will confess I also gave him a Jumbo Greenie once, designed for dogs over 30kg, just to see what he would do, and that one took him three days to chew down. They are however vegetable based and they do eat them, so I wouldn’t want them to be more than about 5% of the weekly diet.
If you want to go the all-meat route, tough strips of flesh that humans are not overly fond of eating, particularly with the sinew and connective tissue, might tempt a cat, or you can try chicken wings or chicken necks, but always raw if you’re using bones and practice good hygiene around raw meat.
Dried meat strips, like jerky style treats, can also be tempting to chewy cats, but some with just crunch through them too quickly. Also be careful about the origins of these treats, and some imported ones have been associated with melamine contamination and kidney failure. Plain and simple is generally better here as cats are not overly fussed about the taste, but rather the smell and texture. If you have a cat with food allergies, finding someone local with a food dehydrator could be a good way to get custom made ones. The thicker these chews are, the more challenging they are.
If it’s plastic he likes to chew, there are cat toys available that have crinkly, crunchy plastic liners underneath a fluffy outer lining. Trash Bag loves this style of toy and seems to find chewing it very satisfying. It was just a cheap Kmart thing but it’s been very durable so far.
He also has a thing for chewing cardboard boxes, so honestly I just let him. Cardboard is cheap to replace and can be recycled when he’s done, and since he doesn’t actually eat it, just spreads it around the room, he seems to get most of his chewing desires out of the way on these poor innocent boxes.
You can also freeze wet food into chew toys like kongs to make them a little more challenging.
You have not ‘rescued’ an animal if you adopt it and fail to provide basic medical care for that pet. Food, water, and shelter are not the only things they need.
Hello anon! Here are a few books I’ve seen being recommended, however I haven’t read all of these so you’ll have to form your own opinion on them. I’ll link more PDFs than books due to them being more accessible! Keep in mind any books / PDFs may have outdated views, so you’ll have to keep on top of what is approved of now in the pet communities / resent research:
NB: I decided not to include reptiles/amphibians and fish because it’s so vastly different between species and breeds, so you’d have to research for each individual.Thanks for the ask, lovely anon! Have a nice day!
This is Cheeruk, my first goldfish, and the bowl I was told he could live in when I first got him. That was two years ago, he was an inch long.
I won him at the local carnival, in the ping pong toss game. I loved him immediately and took him to the pet shop in town for advice. They gave me the bowl, some gravel, and a single plastic plant and told me he should live a few years at least. Luckily I did a bit of research, which led to more research and two years later he shares a 55 gallon tank with three other goldfish. If I can move them up even further, ideally to a pond someday, he can reach age 20.
20 years. Compared to a maximum of 3 in a bowl. That is some serious misinformation, and so many first time fish owners get goldfish thinking they’re low-maintenence, short-term pets, when they have so much more potential.
ifesbob 