Anyome who has ever worked in retail joins me in the dread for the word “inventory”. Yes, dear friends, I just survived another annual stock-counting nightmare. This one was particularly interesting, as I wore a cape for it. Actually. Our store is absolutely freezimg, and I have been sick, so I took a blanket from the back of my car, and wore it as a cape while heroically counting rawhide and entering data. Fascinating, eh? I thought it was a jolly good time. But anyways, I thought it might be time to focus on anotger finny friend! What better topic than the tetra?
The genus charracin is one of the most diverse, and widely kept in captivity, of all fish. Aquarium favorites include the ever-popular neon tetra, the peculiar blind cave tetra, and even the infamous piranha species! Yeah, did you know that big, bad piranhas and peaceful little neons are related? Probably not, I’m thinking.
Tetras in general (excluding exceptions such as piranhas and exodons) are peaceful, attractive and generally hardy schooling fish. Most do very well in a community aquarium with other friendly species. Tetras also come in a variety of shapes, sizes and colors- you can find a tetra to match nearly any color scheme! Big-bodied tetras (more triangular shaped body instead of linear shape) are among the best for starting up new tanks, as they are very adaptable to a wide range of water conditions.
The next time you think about the aquarium trade, remember to thank your lucky charracins for the tetra!
Alright, so it’s been a while since the store has experienced anything truly bizarre, but we’ve got one now.
Quaker parrots are smallish birds that pack a lot of punch into a petite package. They have intelligence, personality, quick learning capabilities and a whole lot of cute. However, this week I met two birds who made me doubt the qualities I had previously associated with Quakers.
They were cute, I will definitely admit that. But cute was the last adjective on my mind when these two showed up in the kennel used to transport them…All I could see was a Quaker head stuck between the bars of the kennel. How he fit through, I have no clue, but he wasn’t coming out on his own. Gentle attempts to pry head out of cage were unsuccessful. Thoroughly wetting the bird down helped, but alas did not free our feathery friend. So what did we do? I can now say that I have literally had to grease a bird to remove it from a wire grate. It’s a very good thing these guys are captive-bred and raised: in the wild, natural selection would have taken care of that situation!
After buttering the parrot, I attempted to put the other one in his cage to get settled. He refused to step off my finger, so I had to basically push him onto his own perch. And what does he do? Try to step off the perch, and fall face-first on the ground.
I don’t know about butterball, as he was on his way to another store, but thankfully Mr. Faceplant quickly won over the hearts of a bird loving family who found his balance issues charming. I’m sure he will mature into a clever, fun companion, however I will forever remember these two as embodiments of the exception to breed standards!
-Maddy, Rizzo, Ricky, Charlie, Poseidon, Persephone, Nommy, Soots, and all the fishies!
Today was one of those fantastic days where I just got to sit and think about how awesome my job really is. One of the main reasons is that I CAN NEVER STOP LEARNING!!!! Honestly, how many average jobs just keep on teaching? There’s only so many things you can learn about Mcdonald’s fries or t-shirts at Aeropostale. But me? I can go to work every day and learn at least one new thing EVERY TIME. I mean, how freaking cool is that??
Also, I get to cuddle everyone else’s pets, and then just give them back after! Come on, how can you cuddle a puppy or parrot and still be sad? Correct answer: you can’t. Ever feel down? Go watch a herd of ferrets rolling about, “dooking” it out (hahahaha get the pun???). I dare you to continue having a bad day after an African Clawed Frog tries to eat your fingers. Stressful day at school or work? Go snuggle a parrot, and have him give you kisses, or watch someone walk a skink on a leash. You’re just going to be happier when you leave, no matter what. I’m sorry to everyone who doesn’t get to work at a pet store, but my job is seriously. The. Best.
On that note- here’s one of many things I learned today. The CKC (Canadian Kennel Club) registers purebred dogs- 175 breeds, in fact. And every breed falls into one of seven categories: sporting (i.e. Labs), non-sporting (i.e. Dalmations), Working (i.e. Huskies), Hounds (i.e. Beagles), Terriers (i.e. Jack Russels), Toys (i.e. Chihuahua) and Herding (i.e. Border Collies).
Another cool fact that we figured out today, and will absolutely help me in my endeavors to convince everyone they should get a rescue dog. Let’s compare a few things:
a purebred pup will cost you anything from $800 to several thousand dollars; a mixed breed could be anything from free to a thousand dollars or so, depending on a huge number of factors.
A rescue puppy will cost you around $250; less for an adult. These are often unregisterable “purebreds” that are by all means 100%, say, Shih Tzu, but the lineage isn’t known so the puppy can’t be registered. Or it could just be the cutest little Heinz 57 backyard mistake. Either way- it’s a puppy, and it’s going to be awesome.
Now imagine you bought the purebred, and it’s a rolly polly little female Collie. Well guess what- you just paid $1000 for that pup, and now she needs to see the vet! She needs a vet check- there’s $65. She needs vaccines- that’s $15 per vaccine, plus a $65 sitting fee. She needs to be spayed- for females it’s usually $250. Dewormers- $20. And then the first month of food- anywhere from $20-$50. That’s a grand total of $1465 for your brand new puppy!
Now imagine you found a little ball of fluff at the rescue you fell in love with- it’s a Shepherd cross of some kind, but who cares? He’s freaking adorable!! So there’s your $250 adoption fee. Now let’s go to the vet….oh wait! This puppy’s already seen the vet at the rescue! He’s vaccinated! He’s dewormed! And he comes with a neuter certificate for a free neutering when he’s old enough to have his manhood removed. You still need food- there’s $20-$50. But wait…. That makes your TOTAL puppy adoption cost a max of $300!!
There’s so much more to dog ownership than the cost, and I’m by no means saying purebred dogs are bad in any way. But for a family that perhaps could use that extra $1000 for, say, an emergency vet fund for the pup, I’d say that’s a pretty darn good option.
Just my thoughts. Today was a happy-learning-filled day for me!
-Maddy, Rizzo, Ricky, Poseidon (new Red Eared Slider turtle), Charlie (not as new Red-footed Tortoise), Nommy, Soots and all the fishies!
Just kidding, I’m only talking about red feet. Red footed tortoises, to be exact. Raise your hand if you think I need another pet! No? Just me? Too bad, since I’m adding a red-footed tortoise to my collection on saturday. In my defense, he needs a home, and I can’t say no to an animal in need!! So here’s an overview of what I’m getting myself into.
Downside: Tortoises live a looonnngg time.
Upside: Most likely will never have to say goodbye to a beloved pet!
Downside: They eat a freaking lot.
Upside: They eat 95% vegetable matter.
Downside: They need a lot of humidity and frequent warm soaks.
Upside: I get to shower with my tortoise!
Downside: They cluck like a chicken.
Upside: They cluck like a chicken. Nuff said.
Downside: They get up to 12-14″ in length.
Upside: That’s a whole lot smaller than a sulcata tortoise (24″ length and 150 lbs)
Moral of the story? Tortoises rock.
-Maddy, Ricky, Rizzo, Nommy, Soots and all the fishies!
Here’s my work avoidance for the day…a post about fwoggies!! Ahem, I mean, African Clawed Frogs. But we all know that fwoggies is way more fun to say 😉 I have recently become enamoured with the world of aquatic frogs- more specifically, ACFs. These babies are not to be confused with Dwarf Aquatic Frogs, which top out at about 1 inch in length (not including legs). No, I mean full-sized, whopping 4-5 inch long, 60-200 gram, predatory frogs, which can live uop to 30 years in captivity. I’m talking about xenopus laevis, which, translated, loosely means “peculiar-foot, smooth-skin”: a perfect description of these oddball aquatic animals.
African Clawed Frogs are fascinating critters that are very personable. I am currently the proud owner of four albino ACFs, and I could watch them for hours! They “sing” to each other, and eat all sorts of yummy treats straight from my fingers. One interesting feature of ACFs is their lack of tongue- unlike most frogs, they can’t extend their tongue to bring prey into their mouths, so instead use their front “hands” to shove food into their mouths.
At approximately ten months of age, ACFs reach sexual maturity, at which point you can determine their gender, and the males will begin to sing. The biggest (no pun intended) difference between males and females is their size. Females are hefty, weighing around 200 grams, and have a small “tail” between their back legs. Males are much smaller, at around 60 grams, and have dark, sticky patches under their elbows, which are used to hold onto a slippery mate.
Here are adult xenopus with regular coloration:
And ACFs with albino coloration:
SO CUTE!!
-Maddy, Nommy, Soots, Ricky, Rizzo, Diva and lots of fishies and fwoggies!
Okay, so number one issue of having piranhas at the store is that THEY SHOULDN’T BE THERE!!! Honestly, how many people actually want to buy a piranha that will eventually get 12-13 inches long, weigh around two pounds, and attack anything (including fingers) that enter their aquarium? As if an individual piranha statistic wasn’t enough, they are schooling fish, which means you should have at least 6, and each needs at least 15-20 gallons of territory for its own; I’m not that good at math, but in my calculations that means the minimum size for a piranha tank is 90 gallons, ideally more than that to avoid territorial squirmishes that often end in fatalities. Let’s add more difficulty to the care of piranhas, shall we? They thrive in acidic water, which means that the water must be closely monitored to make sure the pH stays in an ideal range of 6.5 to 6.9. They are very messy in their eating habits, and need a filter of about double the capacity of what the actual aquarium size is, and a 30% water change every week, minimum. That means that in a 90 gallon aquarium, the filter should be made for a 180-gallon tank, and you have to change at least 30 gallons of water once a week. Thats a lot of maintenance! Then comes the feeding issue. Juveniles half the length of your finger still need a ridiculous amount of food; six young’uns go through approximately 20 feeder minnows and 100 kingworms (giant mealworms) every week. If that’s how much six juveniles eat in a week, imagine adults! A foot long, two pound carnivorous piranha probably consumes about a pound of beef heart, 30 feeder goldfish, and 50 kingworms every week in addition to pelleted food. That’s just ONE fish!! Trust me, the novelty “awesome” factor of watching one fish tear apart another wears off quickly when you realize that the more they eat, the more mess you have to clean up. And once they reach adult size, you’re going to have a heck of a time trying to scrub algae and change water without losing fingers in the proccess.
Okay, so now that you realize what a pain in the arse piranhas are, imagine how I feel every time a boy comes into the store, no matter how old they are (they’re all four at heart, no offence), they all read the sign that says “Piranhas $23.99”, and ask if I can feed them. How many problems are there with this? Let’s list them off.
1) We don’t have feeder fish so that we can watch piranhas eat them instead of the cheaper pellets they should be eating,
2) The piranhas have most likely already eaten,
3) Taking pleasure in watching a living creature die slowly and painfully is kind of sick,
4) The more live food they eat, the less interested they are in pellets and frozen foods,
5) Feeders sell for 50 cents each; if you want to pay that, then by all means you can watch the piranhas eat your money,
6) Feeding live food makes them more aggressive towards each other,
7) As juveniles, they are very shy and most of the time won’t eat if they’re being watched by humans,
8) They swallow the fish whole; it’s about as fascinating to watch as seeing a goldfish eat pellets.
Long story short, THIS IS A PET STORE. If you really want to watch predators catch prey, either go for a nature walk outside, or pay for your own darn piranha aquarium!! This is why I hate having piranhas at the store. Enough said.
-Maddy, Nommy, Soots, Ricky, Rizzo, Diva and all the fishies
Axolotl! In fact, it is pronounced exactly as it looks. ax-oh-lot-il. Feel ridiculous yet? Just wait til you see this thing!! Observe, and try not to laugh. Seriously, I now know where Pokemon got its inspiration. These fully aquatic salamanders don’t look real, but in fact they are! However, axolotls aren’t common, as they hold a pretty hefty price tag- in a pet shop, around $150, and they require an aquarium “chiller” to maintain a temperature of 18 degress Celsius. Why pay that price, and then have to meticulously maintain such a low temperature, especially as axolotls are highly predatory, and cannot be kept with ANY other tankmates? I think the picture will convince you that this oddball is a must-have…
It’s freaking smiling at you!! How can you resist??? The answer is, you can’t. Impossible. Mission failed. You want one now, I know it! Who cares that they need a minimum of 20 gallons per axolotl, are best kept singly except in a very large tank, need pristine, cold water, are hard to feed, and grow up to 10 inches long? They’re like an anime cartoon. BUT REAL! Why, yes, I am indeed adding one to my collection of oddball aquatic critters. Am I excited? Just a little.
Cheers!
-Maddy, Nommy, Soots (new fuzzy fewwet!), Diva, Ricky, Rizzo, and all the fishies!
Get it? Say “demystified” with a lisp, and that’s what I’m getting at here- I’m going to demystify a myth. Funny? Not really, but I tried.
This is a SUPER DUPER COMMON myth that bugs the heck out of me, so for all of you that follow me (thanks mom and dad), please spread the word that fish DON’T ONLY GROW TO THE SIZE OF THEIR ENVIRONMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Want me to say it again? FISH DON’T JUST GROW AS BIG AS THEIR TANK. If you stick a puppy in a little kennel, or a child in a cardboard box, will he/she stop growing? Eventually they kind of will, just because they have nowhere to go, but that”s when their spine starts to fuse in weird shapes, and their organs grow bigger than the skin and bones that surround them, and they will die! SAME GOES FOR FISH. Goldfish in a bowl? Animal cruelty. Plecostamus in a 5 gallon tank? Same thing. Goldfish, depending on the breed, grow and grow and grow and grow and can be several feet long and a foot in diameter! Plecos get equally big, and at full size require a MINIMUM of a 100 gallon tank. That little baby that is two inches long? Yeah, it’s not going to stay that small. Sure, once it grows to be the size of your entire aquarium, it will stop growing, but it will implode. Does that sound pleasant? Not really. Should you keep a goldfish in a bowl with no filter and limited space? ABSO-FREAKING-LUTELY NOT!!
There. Get it??! Good.
-Maddy, Nommy, Oodles, Diva, Rizzo, Ricky and all the fishies
Ok, I know I should be writing about cute little fuzzy animals and warm happies and everything that is associated with pets, but in the past few days there have been a number of things at work that have really pi**ed me off, and I need to rant. So here we go.
First of all, NO MEANS NO. I thought this would be apparent to just about everyone over the age of two, but according to numerous people I’ve met recently, this concept isn’t so clear to everyone. There is this one group of kids, maybe 5 of them around the age of 12, that come to the pet store at least once or twice a week, and harass us workers into letting them play with the animals. Our answer is the same every time- by our rules, you aren’t allowed to touch any animals unless you are either 18 years or older, or accompanied by a parent. It’s an insurance thing. So when we say no, we mean no!! Yet these kids continue to ask if they can hold one of the animals, hoping that someone will give in and say yes. When we don’t, they just stick their fingers through the cage bars and attempt to pet the animals, and of course they get bitten! Wow, well done. Couldn’t have predicted that outcome- when you startle a bird or ferret or whatever, they won’t take kindly to intruding fingers. THEN one of them said “Come on, if you add up all our ages we’re like, a hundred! Doesn’t that count?” To which I replied “When there are five of you, and your ages add up to a hundred, you’d each have to be 20 for that to work out. And then if you were 20, you wouldn’t have to add your ages to be allowed to hold the animals anyways! If you’re not old enough to divide 100 by 5 properly, you’re definitely not old enough to handle the pets.” And you know what? The darn kids didn’t even leave after that!! And I bet they’ll be back.
Phew. With that rant over, I shall move on to the next: unqualified pet owners and the impulse buy. A pet is a living, breathing responsibility that needs to be researched, discussed and properly planned. An impulse buy (“Look mommy, a little chameleon! It’s so cute, I want it!”) almost always leads to the animal being neglected and improperly cared for, because the “awww” factor wears off and the new owner realizes that yes, their precious little hamster does indeed urinate. Then awwww turns into ewwww and “My turn” turns into “your turn” and everyone ends up unhappy. That darling little snake is going to be 6 feet long and eat live mice or frozen rats. The irresistably cute and “low maintenance” parrot is going to outlive you. THINK BEFORE YOU BUY!!!! For example, this one woman came in with her 6 or 7 year old daughter, who decided she HAD to have a bunny. So the mom said yes, and said she was going to keep the rabbit in a tupperware container on her back porch. Um, what?! So of course we said “No, you absoluely cannot keep a rabbit in a tupperware, and they won’t survive outdoors.” To which she replied, “Well can you just sell me the bunny anyways?” “No, ma’am, we have to be sure the rabbit is going to be properly taken care of before we will let it be sold.” Then, her daughter lay down on the ground and started crying, and the mom said “Look what you’ve done to her! Just sell me the d*mn bunny!” And finally we had to consent, because technically we can’t refuse to sell a customer something. A few weeks later, she came back to buy a bag of bunny food, and talked about what a nuisance the rabbit is, and how she wanted to give it back to us for free! Honestly, what is wrong with people?? Do they not understand that a pet needs care and attention?
OK, I shall rant no more.
-Maddy, Nommy, Oodles, Diva, Rizzo, Ricky and all the fishies
Mm-mm went the little green frog one day, mm-mm went the little green frog…Well if you don’t know that song, I reccommend you learn it. It goes absolutely nowhere and is absolutely awesome.
On that note, guess what we got in at work?? DWARF PACMAN FROGS!! What the heck is a dwarf pacman frog, you may be wondering? Well, they are simply awesome. And I didn’t know they came in “mini” size until…ummm…three days ago! But I want a pair!! Let’s go into the info about these froggies, shall we?
Apparently I’m not the only one who hasn’t heard of DWARF pacman frogs, as there is no info available on the internet…Hmmmm. Well, apart from feeding, I am going to assume that care is the same as that of the “true” pacman frogs (they get their name from their round shape and big mouth), so here we go.
Neither dwarfs nor large pacmans require much space, despite regular sized pacman frogs getting to be a hefty 6-7 inches long AND wide. They don’t move much, so more than a 10 gallon terrarium would just be overkill. They are eager eaters, and will eat anything from crickets to worms to pinkie mice. The average lifespan on a regular pacman frog is a 7-10 years.
In my opinion, frogs are pretty boss. They are big and fat and have awesome jumping skills. They are also pretty ninja in their ability to sink deep down into their moist dirt and moss and hide. Our two frogs at the store are Howard and Henry (as per yours truly), and Howard is rather lazy, mostly just chilling out, taking a sunbath. However, Henry is super sneaky ninja, making me dig through 4 inches of dirt and moss substrate to eventually poke him accidentally, which didn’t make him too happy. But long story short, they like to burrow.
Most importantly, they are cute.
These are dwarf pacman frogs!
And then this is a full-sized pacman. Quite hefty, but still remarkably adorable!
-Maddy, Nommy, Diva, Oodles, Rizzo, Ricky and all the fishies
petstorereflections 