Where I was the squirrels were in cages. I wasn't very good at keeping them in when I was feeding and cleaning. On seveal occasions, one would run up my arm, over my back and was free! (I wan't good at catching them either - the squirrels no doubt enjoyed my being there.) What I enjoy most about squirrels is how much they like having fun - as soon as their eyes are open they're wrestling with each other. As Cindy Lauper might have sung, Squirrels Just Wanna Have Fun.
We had a possum that would hiss and make threatening gestures towards everyone. I discovered he was a sucker for vanilla wafers and I would lure him out of his cage and let him roam the room while I cleaned and then I'd lure him back in when I was done.
I came upon a raccoon in a cat's bed once. The cat didn't seem to mind so I left it to it's snoring.
What's with cats and skunks? I came home one day to find 2 cats and 2 skunks chasing each other in the backyard. I backed up and parked in the front.
ah, then you probably missed the introduction & subsequent recall of Zilla's 'desert UVB' lamps. there were serious eye burn issues from the wavelengths. i don't think there were any permanant blindnesses, but it was not fun. i had one on my Schneider skink, but he's not a basker & wasn't affected. i sent the lamps back anyway.
i have a snapper who will be 6 in August. he was a severely dehydrated hatchling when my nephew found him in the road. nephew thought it was dead, but brought it to me anyway. a little water & some lettuce and he was off & growing :) he's gone from the size of a quarter to almost the size of a tea saucer, but he's only that big because i don't hybernate him for more than 4-6 weeks... so he's eating a bit more than a snapper in the wild. i also have tortoises, a pair of Pyxis (and an egg! i hope it hatches. so far it looks good) & a Bell's Hingeback. tortoises are a little easier to keep than turtles.
it does look like it's a cold-loving fungus. that's a hopeful sign for southern bats, at least. lee
snipped-for-privacy@notme.com wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
looking evil can keep one out of fights. opposums have that down to an artform :) i just wish they had more road smarts... looking evil at a car doesn't work.
i had a pair of baby raccoons once. the cats were a bit unsure at first, but once they were getting weaned & moving around, the cats explained the use of litterboxes to them.
my barn cats are black & white. maybe they figure the skunks are smelly, near-sighted cats? the smaller skunk is a lot twitchier than our old skunk (he was around for nearly 6 years, so i think age caught up with him). i think it's fairly young. we have to be sure that one knows we're about to go into the barn, & it'll leave. the mostly white one is almost as laid back as the old skunk... good thing because we found it sleeping in our basement when we moved a board. oops. he didn't even stamp though, so no problem. we put the board back & left the door open. it left. have you ever seen red & white skunks? lee
On Wed, 24 Jun 2009 12:58:34 +0000 (UTC), Mc spuked forth:
Really? Man, I gotta get this Usenet thing figured out before those people completely run off the good folk. How does one tell the good folk from the not good folk?
I don't understand what you mean by loons. I fondly remember loons from my Boy Scout days and canoe trips to Minnesota and Canada. Could you clarify this for me, please?
Nah, I shan't waste my time searching archives upon your direction, thank you. I'm really busy these days.... and hot, as our weather has been brutal, and not having air conditioning, I spend most of the time outside because it's too hot in the house. I'll take your word for this.
BillBilly? Again, I am not clear about what you mean by this. There have been several Bills posting here over the years, including currently. Do you include Bill Rosen in the current crop of BillBilly?
You weren't worried about Raccoon Roundworm (Baylisascaris)?
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and Pathological Signs In humans, pathological lesions observed consist of skin irritations (cutaneous larval migrans) and eye and brain tissue damage (visceral larval migrans) due to the random migration of the larvae. The affected individuals may experience nausea, a lethargic feeling, incoordination and loss of eyesight.
Even worse when they have their incisors buried in yer bloody thumb. There have been many moments when I said "This is it...I'm done", but I really can't blame them for defense against the big creature with the syringe. Probably like an alien abduction for them.
Can't turn your back for a microsecond, that's for sure. I had one that did some kind of amazing contortion...I looked over and he's standing calmly -in front- of his cage door. I thought I had lapsed, but the door was locked. Put him back in and watched closely--he did this amazing twist that somehow got his skull through through a space just over an inch wide. That was a full-grown adult, too. I had to thread wire through all the wider gaps in the cages.
Never had a chance to spend much time with one. Seems like fun. They do have their own type of charm.
First time I saw a big one lumbering through a city park at 2 am, I admit that he gave me a jolt. You're expecting that movement to be a rat, so the size is startling.
I've rarely seen them any time but very late. I suppose someone could try to mess with one and pay for his ignorance, but I never saw them as a problem. Raccoons, maybe a bit more. I assume that you've heard about increased incidence of Baylisascaris procyon (a nematode). It's been killing off more small mammals lately. Exotics vets are seeing more of it.
The damn eggs are so durable and resistant that we were instructed to use propane torches to disinfect cages.
Brave little guys, eh. There's a Baylisascaris species that affects skunks too. It's not procyon...I don't remember the species. Lower incidence, so probably not as much a threat.
Thanks, Lee. Doesn't look good for immediate improvement. I don't see how it can be contained, so the only short term hope may be temperature.
There's a video at Cave Biota that may be useful to people who ask about Bats or WNS:
I had to laugh when I read this. One of my very first experiences years ago: I was able to capture an ailing squirrel easily. Took her to a specific vet tech who had lots of experience with squirrels--had even kept and raised a few. As she was reaching for the door, she said "Stand back...if you don't know what you're doing..." and of course, right on cue, the squirrel took a flying head butt against the door, and was past us in a flash. We ended up chasing a pissed off squirrel up and down a huge veterinary lab for an hour and a half. Poor little thing was probably stressed, but she ended up doing well.
Some are so quick that it's like being in a Star Trek time warp...just running in a different time reference from humans.
Such a joy to see that, isn't it. They do seem to take so much joy in being alive.
Billy wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@c-61-68-245-199.per.connect.ne t.au:
no. i have a vet that used to be a zoo vet. she's quite up on care & treatment of "exotics" (which is any non-domestic animal, although she specializes in reptiles & birds). raccoons can be given anthelmintics with no problem. besides, internal parasites like roundworms aren't passed prenatally. these guys were less than 24 hours old when i got them from a guy who shot the mother, and was too much a wuss to deal with the babies. i had permission from Fish & Game to keep them, on the condition they not be caged. lee
Yes, I think we humans can learn a lot from squirrels. My dog loved to chase squirrels in his younger days and the squirrels seems to equally enjoy it. They had a route they would follow every day. I think it's all about living in the moment.
Apparently, they can come from contact with environment contaminated by the adults, firewood for example, and possibly nests. All's well, what ends well. We had a young squirrel for a couple of months. Tried to leave it in an apple tree but it started screaming when we left it. We ran a curtain rod from our bedroom out to a tree, and the squirrel came and went as it pleased until mating season. We went to the local vet to get it a rabies shot.
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