Justin Bieber + Exotic Pets = Bad Idea

Left to right- Sandy, Tia, Tamara, Tubbs, Wicket (and Moose's nose peeking out in the back hammock).  Sandy was returned to Petsmart by someone who shouldn't have bough her in the first place, Tia and Tamara came from a hoarder, Wicket out of a feeder bin.  Tubbs and Moose were not rescues.  Over their lives these six rats cost me over $2,000 in vet care.

 You may know I have more animals than just my dogs.  In fact before I got Copley and became involved in dog rescue I volunteered with a rat and mouse rescue.  Currently I own two cuddly, lovable boy rats named Eggplant and TO and a girl mouse named Nick.  We also have 13 hermit crabs that are being taken care of properly (and properly is not in that plastic container you buy in the mall, they have very specific requirements and if given those can live 20+ years).

A big pet peeve of mine is people seeing these "pocket" or "exotic" pets as throw away, or as toys, or as accessories to be tossed off once they are not cool anymore.  They deserve better than that and if you don't plan to at the very least properly house, feed, and clean that animal for it's whole life then DON'T get it.

Squeaks the mouse was adopted from an Animal Control Shelter and lived out her golden years happily at our house.

That brings me to Justin Bieber.  My problem with him is that he is idolized by a lot of people, and has a lot of influence wither he wants it or not.  At the very least he should try to show some respect to other living things.  Or hire someone to do that for him, I mean I am sure he can afford it.  Over the last little while he has been buying exotic pets and dumping them in what seems like grossly irresponsible ways that I am sure were extremely traumatic for those animals.  The one that bothers me the most is his hamster PAC, who he gave away to a screaming fan in the middle of a concert.  Maybe it is because I love hamsters so much, or I have seen my mice who get scared when I put the vacuum too close to their cage, or maybe it is that I have half a brain and know not to bring a prey animal the size of a ping pong ball to concerts- but this just rubs me the wrong way!  It just makes me go EEERRRRRR.  I mean I don't really think he is a horrible animal hating person, just irresponsible and a little out of touch with life right now.  Still I am erked.

Observe hermit crab beach- one part of our 135 gallon hermit crab habitat.  You can see Big Red (my only crab identifiable on sight) and another one going for a swim.

The entirely irresponsible behavior does not stop there.  There is also a monkey named Mally who was seized after Bieber flew him out of the country without the proper paperwork and now Bieber seems to be just leaving her there even though he could produce the proper paperwork and get her back.  Oh, and the snake he auctioned off for charity.

I am so frustrated I just don't know what to say.  Other than this- Please Justin, if you are listening, don't buy any more pets for a while.  They are animals who have feelings and get attached to you.  At the very least do it for the betterment of the rest of society.  These species have enough trouble gaining respect and finding permanent responsible homes without celebrities treating them this way.  Use your influence for good- or just stay out of the pet world for a while.

This whole thing just makes me cringe. I'm going to go to bed and try not to think about Justin Bieber anymore.

Hermit Crabs!

 

I believe the key to proper socialization of a puppy might just be to involve them in every possible crazy activity your family does.  Luckily around here we are never too short on crazy activities.

This week it was time for our annual deep clean of our hermit crab tank.  If you are thinking of those hermit crab habitats you buy at the mall or the pet store with a little plastic palm tree and some sand then you should think again!  Sadly most hermit crabs sold in stores are destined to a slow and painful death at the uninformed hands of their new owners.  Even the major chains (aka petco and petsmart) send people away with horrible information about their crabs.  Since I am not here to lecture you about proper hermit crab care I will just leave you with a few facts and urge anyone currently owning or looking to own a hermit crab to visit The Hermit Crab Association for more information.

Crab Facts-

• All land hermit crabs in captivity are wild caught.  Scientist and hobbyist alike have been spending decades attempting to breed crabs in captivity but all attempts have been unsuccessful.  In fact we do not even know what happens to baby hermit crabs during the aquatic stage of their life.  That crab in the mall may have traveled the oceans far and wide before it's little adult stage body washed up on shore and it found it's first shell.
• Land hermit crabs can live for 20+ years if cared for properly.
• Crabs need substrate at least twice as deep as their shell is tall so they can properly molt.
• The calcium sand sold as "crab sand" in the pet store kills crabs.
• Land hermit crabs need to be able to fully submerge in water from time to time and require both fresh and salt water to survive long term.

 This is "Big Red" she is one of my favorite crabs and is our biggest by far.  The pictures don't really show size, but she is BIG!  So big that when Kerrigan was just 14 weeks old I found her sitting on the stairs whining and shaking.  She had seen Big Red climbing around in the tank and did not like what she saw!  In reality Big Red probably is older than Kerrigan's great grandmother but being a crab she lacks the size and central nervous system to pose any real threat to even the smallest puppy.  I walked over to the tank and said "Don't worry Kerrigan, that's just Big Red, she can't get you."  Then went back to watching TV.  Kerri never whined at the crabs again because I showed no fear myself and just ignored her issue.  Through my example she learned not to be scared of hermit crabs and I learned that with a puppy everything is a teachable moment.

I won't bore you with all the details of the deep clean, but it is a process.  We spent nearly 7 hours carefully removing hermit crabs and carefully chasing fiddler crabs back to the 30 gallon brackish water tank on one end of the greater hermit crab tank (this is a bit of a "project" tank, don't think you need a fish tank to keep these crabs happy, but they do appreciate their occasional swims over there I think).  In the end I everything ended up looking pretty nice.

 Did I mention the tank is massive?  Kerrigan did a good job of staying out of trash bags, redirecting to appropriate toys and not pestering us while we were cleaning.  Copley spent most of the last several hours staring at me making this perticular face.

I think he is trying really, really, really, really hard to figure out what we are doing and/or thinking.  The idea of keeping pet hermit crabs seems to be totally beyond his comprehension.

Before you see this last picture I must stress that all the animals had been removed from the tank and this is just a pile of dirty sand and coconut fiber.  Also it was nearly 2am and I had been carefully scraping sand out of a tank with a soup spoon for many hours.  Both of us may have lost our minds by this point.

In conclusion I hope you take these two points away from this very long post.  1. Land Hermit crabs are really cool.  2. Introduce you puppy to as many new thing as possible- even if those thing are shells and sand and 5 gallon buckets.