fantasticbeastsandhowtokeepthem:

hedgehogsofasgard:

My stance is: if swimming is not necessary and does not benefit the animal in any way, don’t do it. Most hedgehogs do NOT like water at all.

So unless your hedgehog likes swimming – by which I mean them actively searching out water and going in by themselves – there is no reason to let them swim, and it will likely only terrify them. Most videos of hedgehogs swimming show them anxiously looking for a way out or something to climb onto.

Letting hedgehogs swim to lose some weight is common practice with wild hedgehogs in European rescue centres, and it can work for APH too. However I would only advise it if the hedgehog is indifferent to water, and always put them in shallow water or provide shallows. Never put them in water where they cannot stand at all.

So if it isn’t needed for health reasons I wouldn’t let hedgehogs swim. And even then it really depends on the hedgehog (unless the animal is truly morbidly obese and it’s a choice between weight loss or an early death). E.g. I let Loki swim a few times but would have never let Skaði swim because she would have freaked out completely.

And please just don’t put them on their backs in the water to make them float, especially not if they’re already terrified of the water. Swimming can have benefits when it comes to weight loss and building muscle strength, floating them doesn’t and it isn’t “cute”. It is putting a prey animal with its only unprotected side, their belly, upwards in an already stressful situation.

Completely agreed with all of this. Sorry this is a slight sideways skew, but I wanted to add…You also must be very careful & work with a vet if you have a hedgehog who is overweight enough to need swimming for weight loss purposes. Hedgehogs fall into the same category as cats & ferrets – losing weight too fast can easily cause hepatic lipidosis (fatty liver disease) due to too much fat being processed too quickly by the body. FLD can kill a hedgehog & it leaves lasting health concerns. So if you have a morbidly obese hedgehog, you really need to be careful and cautious with their weight loss, and go slowly. 

hedgehogsofasgard:

Anyone who has been following my blog for a while knows I’m very interested in hedgehog nutrition and always looking for ways to improve my hedgehogs’ diet.

Diet and nutrition has always been a subject of debate in the hedgehog community, since there is so little known about the nutritional needs of our pets and because there still isn’t a proper hedgehog kibble on the market. With hedgehogs being insectivorous omnivores, creating a diet for them hasn’t been that easy. The current hedgehog foods are made with low quality and species inappropriate ingredients. For that reason many owners turn to dry cat food, as they have done for years. With hedgehogs being hedgehogs however, and not cats, it should be obvious that this diet is far from ideal. You can read more about hedgehog nutrition, hedgehog food vs cat food and more here in my nutrition article.

It shouldn’t be hard to imagine my excitement when Kimberly from West Coast Hedgehogs, who has been a respected member of the hedgehog community for years and author of the book Pet African Hedgehogs – A Complete Guide To Care, started working on developing a proper hedgehog diet.

Hedgehog Precision

Since hedgehogs are primarily insectivorous, the food is insect-based, unlike other hedgehog foods which contain mostly fillers such as soy, wheat and corn which are difficult to digest for hedgehogs.

As the food is still in development, there is no finalized form yet so I cannot give out any information regarding nutritional data or a full ingredient list at this point.
There will be three formulas of the staple diet to meet different metabolic needs: a standard diet, a high calorie diet and a weight control diet.

Right now the diet uses black soldier fly larvae meal: these feeders are known for their well balanced Ca:P ratio and their relatively low fat levels.
It should be noted that it is likely impossible to make a diet which contains no vertebrate meat or cellulose based filler at all, so I suspect the final product will at least contain some of those – but it should be a huge step up from what’s currently on the market.

On top of the food being biologically appropriate, the insects are raised on pre-consumer food waste and since their feed conversion and water/electricity usage is much more efficient than that of conventional meat production, they’re much more environmentally sustainable! So it’s not just better for your hedgehog, it’s also better for the environment.

Next to the staple diet Hedgehog Precision also sells treats (which are already for sale at this moment): dried mealworms, dried black soldier fly larvae and Bug Blocks, which are small cubes made of 100% insects.

A closer look at the HP food

I got to preliminary test the food – or rather, my animals got to test it. Because who’s a better tester than the hedgehogs themselves?

However they can’t do it without me (although admittedly that would make things a lot easier): first of all it has to be ordered through the website, which is easy to navigate and use. There are different payment options including PayPal, which is a huge plus for an international customer like me. Shipping was $20, which is not terrible for international (although not very cheap either) but it was FAST. Usually orders from the US take 2-3 weeks to arrive, but my HP order got shipped on a Tuesday and arrived next Monday – so within a week!
(Shipping within the US costs around $10-$15)

My test package contained a few samples of the Hedgehog Precision formula, a sample of Bug Blocks, and some dried black soldier fly larvae.
Let’s take a look at the HP formula and the bug blocks:

The HP formula is a small kibble with pieces in slightly varying sizes. It is relatively hard, but can be crumbled between your fingers by using some force. The bug blocks are easily crumbled or pulverized and are a bit of an odd mix between crispy and soft.

When compared to a standard cat kibble, the small size is very obvious. What is a bit more difficult to see in the pictures but something I immediately noticed is how the HP formula doesn’t have that fatty sheen most cat kibble has. It appears less fatty, is smaller and easier to crumble. This makes it much more suitable for hedgehogs: most cat kibble is too big and hard for hedgehogs, which can cause dental problems, something hedgehogs are already prone to.
(Please note that this might not be the final form and shape of the food)

Testing the food

Of course the next step was to have the food tested! I gave it to all my hedgehogs and tenrecs. Tenrecs have similar dietary needs and tend – at least the lesser hedgehog tenrecs – to be very picky when it comes to kibble.
Most of my animals are quite the easy eaters, except for Máni (African pygmy hedgehog). He’s extremely picky and trying new foods with him has always been difficult.

I started out by trying the Bug Block treats – and they were a complete hit with everyone except Máni, which was to be expected.
Embla (North African hedgehog) is a very skittish guy and doesn’t like to take treats from my hands or tweezers unless they are very tasty morioworms, but he grabbed the Bug Blocks straight from my fingers! Bowie (common tenrec) liked them so much she grabbed the second one together WITH my fingers…

… well, at least she really liked them (and my fingers are okay)!

In the evening everyone got the HP kibble formula added to their regular food. Embla and Bowie hovered it up straight away, and the lesser hedgehog tenrecs have been nibbling from it over the course of several days (they are slowing down for hibernation already and have largely stopped eating).
Only Máni didn’t eat any of the HP formula in the first night and picked out his old food between the new. As the “cold turkey” method is usually the only thing that works to get him to eat new food (and even then he doesn’t always eat it), I decided to take out his old kibble on the second night and just fill his bowl with the HP food. The next morning it was all gone, and he has been eating it for several nights until I ran out of my test samples.
Usually it is advised to gradually introduce new foods so it doesn’t upset the hedgehog’s stomach, but other than a slightly greenish tint to his faeces the first night there weren’t any issues with switching Máni over.
While he has been eating the HP formula, he still refused to eat the Bug Blocks and I haven’t been able to convince him to eat those. Don’t think the others will mind though, more for them!

Conclusion

The food was a huge hit from the beginning with all my animals except for Máni, but even with him being such a picky eater it was actually fairly easy to switch him over.
The Bug Blocks could be a good option for people who are unable to feed live insects, although I still think those are a must for hedgehogs due to their nutritional value and since they provide important foraging enrichment. I am not sure if I would use the blocks since I already feed a lot of insects, but I could see them being useful to bring along to the vet or on other trips as it’s much easier than carrying a box of worms around.

If the Hedgehog Precision kibble formula would end up in the direction I’m hoping it’s going – primarily insect based, and with little fillers – I think it could be a great staple diet. As we know so little about what hedgehogs need it should likely have similar nutritional values as high quality cat kibble (with some needed adjustments) since that seems to be working to some extent – but with much better, biologically appropriate ingredients. I can’t wait to see the final formula and am hoping for a chitin-rich, high fibre, high protein and low fat food. I am very excited to see what the end result will look like and with the information I’ve received so far, I think it would definitely be worth feeding and could very well become the best dry kibble option currently on the market. 

The Hedgehog Precision food is currently being developed and will be for sale sometime soon. Right now you can already order the Bug Blocks, dried mealworms and dried black soldier fly larvae on the HP website.
Note: this review was not sponsored in any way.

Read more:

Hedgehog Precision website

Hedgehog Precision Facebook page

theexoticvet:

What does husbandry have to do with impaction in reptiles, and what happens in the wild?

Impaction is when some kind of material, usually substrate, causes a blockage in the GI tract. Sand is a common culprit but rocks, bark, moss, insect pieces, and wood shavings can all cause impactions. Signs of impaction in a reptile are not eating, weight loss, constipation, distended coelom, lethargy, and many others. Often affected animals starve to death but the impaction can sometimes rupture the intestines and cause death.

(This is a lateral view of an Argentine Tegu with an impaction of coconut bedding.)

Reptile metabolism is regulated mostly by the external temperature and each species has their own optimum temperature where there bodies work the best. If the proper temperature is not maintained, everything slows down including their guts. So if a reptile eats some sand and is not at the right temperature, that sand can just sit in the GI tract. Eventually more and more sand will build up and could cause a blockage.

If not supplied with the proper nutrients, reptiles will resort to pica, or eating non-food items like dirt, sand, rocks, to try and get the missing nutrients. Lack of environmental stimulation can also cause pica. If the missing nutrient is calcium, the gut cannot move properly so any sand or rock that is eaten will just sit there.

Dehydration plays a role in impaction as well. If reptiles are not supplied with enough water or if their humidity needs are not met, they can become dehydrated. This also makes it more difficult for the intestines to properly move objects through them and foreign material can dry out and become stuck.

This is why it is so important to properly research the species being kept to ensure the right care is provided. Simply providing the correct temperature zone, nutrition, and humidity will eliminate the vast majority of health problems.

In the wild reptiles generally live in their preferred habitat so their metabolism functions properly and a little sand or other material will just be defecated out. Also know that many “desert” reptiles don’t truly live on huge expanses of sand. Leopard geckos for instance come from very rocky areas and so they are not going to encounter tons of loose sand that they could ingest. If for some reason a reptile in the wild does get an impaction, they die.

I am a proponent of naturalistic enclosures for reptiles but because so many are not properly cared for, I recommend most owners use reptile carpet, slate tile, or other substrates that cannot be ingested to reduce the risk of impaction.

the-awkward-turt:

zooophagous:

kaijutegu:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/10/science/reptiles-amphibians-pets.html

There’s an article from the New York Times that was published on the 10th of November that claims that reptiles and amphibians are unethical to keep.  However, this article relies on a lot of unsupported data to make its claims, which is a problem because it’s trying to take a moral standpoint based on available evidence… and the evidence used here is bad.  

I’ll do a tl;dr now because this gets long. 
-When you base your ethical opinions on what you think is scientific evidence, you need to look at what the actual evidence is. Not all “scientific studies” are actually worthwhile, valid, or grounded in reality. 
-Disregard anything Clifford Warwick is involved with because a.) he’s in bed with PETA and therefore has a MAJOR conflict of interest in these studies despite pretending not to and b.) he doesn’t actually have a clue how to do science
-You should also not listen to a person who thinks that macaws are good pets (and keeps parrots, including at least one macaw, as a private owner) but it’s unethical to keep reptiles because we can’t provide for their needs. This person is either deluded or has been misrepresented.

The article presents itself as a debate over the ethics of keeping reptiles as pets, framed around this review of some of the issues surrounding the practice. http://veterinaryrecord.bmj.com/content/181/17/450

The review is ultimately hopeful and talks about how many issues are resolving. It acknowledges that there are bad actors and bad elements in the trade (particularly when it comes to illegal importation), but overall things are kind of improving.  But the article in the NYT doesn’t really acknowledge the scientific basis behind why reptiles can make good pets and frankly it kind of seems like the author didn’t really read the review fully; instead, it relies heavily on opposing opinions that aren’t grounded in the same level of peer-reviewed science that the first review is.

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The article uses a lot of dodgy sources. HSUS is one of them (not to be confused with your local humane society, HSUS is a different animal altogether). Clifford Warwick is another and hoo boy are there issues with using his work, primarily that it’s not based in objective reality. Rather, he’s notorious for making up numbers. One of the big objections to keeping reptiles as pets, which a lot of people have heard, is that 75% of pet reptiles die within their first year of captivity. That’s a pretty shocking number- and blatantly false. This claim was first published in a 2012 study by Warwick- the whole article spends a lot of time leaning on Warwick, which is bad because his scientific methods are simplistic, reductionist, and fear-mongering. Warwick’s 75% fatality claim comes from a really poorly-conducted study which can be found in this article: http://chelydra.unm.edu/consbio_2014/Literature_Discussion/PetHate.pdf

The methods were simplistic: see how many reptiles were imported into the UK over a time span and then see how many people in the UK have pet reptiles. The 75% claim is enumerated as such:

“We calculated that in the six years from 2006 to 2011, over 4.2 million
reptiles probably entered the UK trade system. At least 3.2 million of
these are likely to have survived to reach households, and just 800,000
will currently be surviving in homes.” 

This is going to fall apart very quickly. 

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Warwick’s legal import data is bad. He pulled it from TRACE, which is an intranational data collection that pulls from all over the EU to track live animal imports and exports. Hypothetically, this could be good! Except… reptile movements aren’t required to be logged in TRACE. You can’t use the data there for good stats on reptiles. It’s misrepresentative reporting. 

Imported animals: ~400,000 per year (including an estimated 25% illegal trade, which he pulls from an article not about reptiles, but about the spread of avian influenza)- this is said to be an average+an estimation (so in other words… not an actual number)
Animals bred in the UK: ~300,000  
Total animals: ~700k, and then take that over 6 years, that’s 4.2 million

There’s some major problems here. First, it’s statistics done by using a handful of estimates and pretending they’re real hard data. Estimates have their place and can be very useful, but this is neither the time nor place to use them. Secondly, there’s no indication as to what those animals were imported for– labs still use reptiles on a regular basis, zoos still import animals, and his 300,000 number is made up. In 2012, when this article came out, the Federation of British Herpetologists (FBH)- the UK’s USARK, basically- reported 250,000 as their number- he added in the 50k just because, I guess. Over a six year period, that’s an additional 300,000 animals that didn’t exist. 

So what about that 800,000 number? Well, first, it’s wrong, but also? That’s not the data that the PFMA reported. For 2012, the PFMA didn’t say there were 800,000 pet reptiles. They said there were 700,000 pet reptiles total (300K lizards, 200K torts/turts, and 200K snakes- that adds up to 700K, not 800K)- and these estimates are done by surveying 2,000 randomly selected adults across the UK. An organization that’s significantly better placed to know how many reptiles there are is the Reptile and Amphibian Pet Trade Association (REPTA). This is a professional association that looks specifically at pet trade numbers- not household ownership. Their estimation is more like 8 million- which is a HUGE disparity. But of the two, REPTA has much better data collection methods and a much more carefully targeted survey technique. I rather like this summary/presentation: http://www.repta.org/Overview-of-the-reptile-trade-(PDF)-2014.pdf. It goes into a lot of detail on the state of the reptile trade in the UK, where the discrepancies come from between the PFMA and the REPTA numbers, and . BUT. This isn’t a piece on the reptile trade in the UK, it’s about why bad science leads to bad opinions.

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So. Let’s hop back to that 75% mortality claim. 

Simply put, it’s wrong. It’s based on comparing two averages and drawing a conclusion. In the world of Better Science, actual studies have been done on reptile mortality. A PLOS1 article looking at reptile mortality within the first year after purchase came out in 2015- this is the most recent of such studies.

http://europepmc.org/backend/ptpmcrender.fcgi?accid=PMC4640569&blobtype=pdf 

These researchers actually talked to reptile keepers and importers instead of relying on estimates. They went to reptile shows and collected real data and used data collection techniques that hold up to peer review. Their conclusion? 

“Overall, 3.6% of snakes, chelonians and lizards died
within one year of acquisition. Boas and pythons had the lowest reported mortality rates of
1.9% and chameleons had the highest at 28.2%.” 

This is crucial to understanding why the NYT piece and all of the anti-pet-reptile rhetoric that uses that 75% number are flawed. There’s actual reasons to dislike the pet reptile trade (conservation, unethical breeding, animal welfare standards, to name a few), but not the ones that are represented here. 

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The NYT article also leans heavily on another opinion piece written by Warwick, which is also full of really bad science. I didn’t mean to turn this into a Cliff Warwick character assassination, but he’s really representative of something here. He’s not animal rights or animal liberation himself (and apparently got litiginous about that once before), but he does consult for AR groups and works with them regularly. He’s also SUPER onboard with fear-mongering tactics. Particularly bad is the use of zoonoses associated with reptiles- what Warwick and his coauthors don’t seem to understand is that this is not unique to reptiles. They refer to dogs as being good pets- and they are! But dogs are also associated with zoonoses. Warwick also makes the claim that “In addition, there are at least 30 behavioural signs of stress regularly observed in captive reptiles, such as hyperactivity, interaction with transparent boundaries, hypoactivity, co-occupant and aggression.”

Well, yes. Those are signs of behavioral stress. Animals do that. They have body language. It’s kind of a thing, you know? I can think of at least thirty behavioral signs of stress regularly observed in dogs. The fact that an animal has body language means absolutely nothing- and the fact that we know what that body language indicates means that captive management, whether in a pet home or a professional setting like a zoo or aquarium, is improved. 

Warwick’s anti-pet stance doesn’t come as much of a surprise, though, given his professional associations. He has strong ties to PETA and other animal rights groups that advocate for the complete non interaction of humans and animals. Like in this article about zoonotic diseases and public animal markets (aka reptile shows): https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3545344/. If you scroll down to the bottom, PETA funding. Here he is again, perpetuating the myth of live animal skinning on an article about the fur trade: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/inquirer/fashion-victims/news-story/26aa7e2f11ad121b7a4a22c01089889c?nk=dfc323fd8f4bcec32f3b4c0faf415922-1510544448

It’s not just a one-off thing, it’s habitual. PETA doesn’t help animals, and the studies they produce aren’t science. 

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I also want to point out another figure interviewed for the article: Lorelei Tibbetts. I’m not gonna tear into her like I did Warwick because she is not pretending to be a scientist, she’s just a vet tech who said something ridiculous and I don’t wanna get too creepy. Here’s her bit from the article:

“Reptiles and amphibians don’t make good pets “and should not be part of the pet trade,” said Lorelei Tibbetts, a vet technician and manager at The Center for Avian and Exotic Medicine in New York. Most of the time, animal patients come to her with metabolic or reproductive issues related to improper nutrition, husbandry and life in captivity.“It’s really not possible for us to care for these animals in order for them to thrive and live a decent life,” she said.”

And yet she sees nothing wrong with keeping macaws- to the point that she has one (listed on her staff page at the link in the article- seriously, I’m not being creepy here, I’m only talking publicly available, published material) and talks about what lovely pets they make. While she cautions against it for most people, ultimately what’s represented is a person who thinks that macaws are appropriate pets while leopard geckos are not. 

Or at least that’s what’s published- I don’t know what questions were asked of her, or if there’s more things she said that clarify her position. But as it’s published, it really doesn’t make sense. 

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Ultimately, everyone has a right to an opinion. You may not like the reptile pet trade, and that’s your right! But when you try to say that science agrees with you, make sure that you know what you’re talking about. Not all data is good data. I know that reading papers is hard work, and I know that it’s super time-consuming, but understanding how to tell good science from bad science is important. We live in a time that can be defined by Fake News- why contribute to that? Why form an opinion based on categorical falsehoods and manipulated data- and why would you want to? That’s I think my ultimate problem with this article. It doesn’t present the sides fairly at all because it gives credence and representation to junk science. The article ends with this: “The contributors to the review (referring to the first article presented) hope that by heeding scientific arguments, rules about reptile ownership will be conceived of fairly.” Science isn’t a monolith and it’s not an actor on its own- it’s a process. It’s a crucible in which evidence is tested and refined and tested again, over and over, until you have something useful- a scientific argument. What are those arguments actually saying? That’s what people actually need to find out. 

Macaws don’t die within their first year as pets though! They just hit maturity, become aggressive and end up ripping their feathers out and mutilating themselves when the only people they ever loved can’t tolerate them anymore while they languish for years!

WAY more ethical than a pet toad!

Reblogging again because this is really important!

vet-and-wild:

missnoodliness:

First off, let’s start with some very basic husbandry principles! Domestic ferrets, Mustela putorius furo, are obligate carnivores with a similar digestive tract to cats. This means that feeding diets high in carbohydrates without the supervision or recommendation of a veterinarian is not recommended. Some cat/kitten foods may be appropriate if a ferret diet is not available to you, but this should be run by your veterinarian. It is also important to avoid excessively sugary foods. Ferrets are cute, I know, but sugary treats should be kept to a minimum!

If you are from the U.S. (sorry, but that’s where I happen to be), then almost all of the ferrets produced and sold in the country come from Marshall Farms in upstate NY. They sell commercially available diets and all ferrets that come out of their production are desexed and ‘descented’. They will have 2 dots on their pinna to show that this procedure has been performed. Marshall Farms has used their own breeding program and at some point, there was some inbreeding. Long story short, they have made a beautiful model of oncogenesis–which we will get to later!

There are some private breeders in the US, but Marshall Farms has such a monopoly on the industry that it means you will likely not get away from the health concerns associated with the breeding done at Marshall Farms. It’s good to check with the breeder to see what issues their ferrets have had before investing, but there is such a thing as love at first sight, so I will not fault anyone for that!

If your ferret is not desexed/ you plan on breeding your ferret, it’s important to know that they are induced ovulaters and are seasonally polyestrus. Ovulation only occurs after being physically bred. The heat cycle is a little unfortunate for ferrets because if they are not bred, they remain in their heat cycle. If that sounds like being in heat for days on end might not be fun, you’re right. When I say seasonally polyestrus, that is more in the wild. The advent of electrical lighting can affect when these ferrets will go into heat, despite the weather outside.

Ferrets are incredibly social creatures. They need lots of loving and if you are not going to be with them a lot, why not have two? I mean, look at these three. Do you really want just one?

Ferrets Part 2: We’ll discuss some common diseases.

Adding on to the bit about heat cycles–not only does being in raging heat all the time sound terribly unpleasant, female ferrets will actually develop aplastic anemia if not bred on every heat cycle. Basically, the continued high levels of estrogen suppress the bone marrow, and that causes a massive deficiency in all blood cells. So that means, no red cells, no white cells, no platelets. No good.

On a happier note, a group of ferrets is called a business! And therefore, the ferrets in the above GIF are having a very productive business meeting.