Meet the Animals: Painted Turtle

Meet Milkshake, our painted turtle! Milkshake is a newer addition to our family. We adopted him from the animal shelter a few months ago. He lives in a large aquarium with several goldfish whom he was a bit overly excited about at first. He quickly realized, however, that they were way too large to fit in his eager mouth. Milkshakes new philosophy on life is, "If you can't have them for dinner, make them your best friends!"

Painted turtles are indigenous to most of the United States. They live in freshwater ponds, rivers and lakes. They are very common, much like their cousins the red eared slider. Painted turtles get their name from the beautiful coloration on their skin. Milkshake has some awesomely gorgeous orange stripes interspaced between his equally handsome green and light yellow markings. His favorite hobbies are sun bathing (well, in his case, that would be basking under his uv light,) eating crickets, turtle pellets, and fresh veggies and, from time to time, chasing after his "best friends" just to make sure they still don't fit in his mouth. :)

Someday we will have an outdoor pond for Milkshake...really the most humane and best way to keep these types of turtles. Until then, we will make sure he is continues to be healthy and happy in his aquarium and can't wait to bring him along on our next Animal Outpost presentation!

Meet the Animals: Fire Bellied Toads!!

These cute little guys are easy to find at most pet stores. A handsome amphibian with brown to green skin and black spots, their most impressive feature, and where their name comes from, is their bright orange belly. You can see a peak of it in the picture below.

These fun little pets live in a terrarium with a few plants and a nice water bowl that they love to hang out in, especially after a meal of some fat, juicy crickets! Amphibians, in general, should not be held a whole lot due to the delicate nature of their skin and the secretions they produce to help keep it moist and healthy and these guys are no different. We handle them infrequently and only when necessary to clean out their cages or to help educate people at presentations.

Fire Bellied Toads are the most entertaining while hunting their favorite meal: bugs! The kids all get a big kick out of watching them hop after a cricket and gulp it down!

These guys have huge first pet potential! All that is really needed to keep them happy and healthy is a 10 gallon aquarium, some pesticide/fertilizer free soil, a few plants and a water dish! They need to eat a handful of crickets a week and they are happy campers!

Of course, the highlight of our toads lives are when they get to help us educate through entertainment at an Animal Outpost presentation! :)

Conner's Birthday Party!

We had lots of fun helping Conner and his friends celebrate his 8th birthday! We brought all the animals out to say "hello" and help teach the kids about what they eat, where they live and how their bodies work. Conner chose to hold Anna-Beth, our resident garter snake, for his special birthday picture with animal wrangler/educator Sebastian.

After the presentation, we invited any kids who were interested up to get a closer look at some of the animals. They even got to watch a few hunt and eat crickets!

Happy Birthday, Conner!! :) Sebastian, me and the animals all had a GREAT time! :)

Meet the animals: Rose Hair Tarantula!

This is Fluffy, our wonderful Rose Hair Tarantula! Her species hails from the deserts of south America, one of the most dry environments on earth. Some people think that tarantulas are dangerous, or aggressive. But Fluffy has never tried to bite or attack anyone, and over all she is the best pet spider anyone could want! Fluffy's main defense is to flick itchy hairs from her abdomen, which can cause swelling and infection. of course, fluffy has never done this to us, and she is a very nice spider. Right now, Fluffy is just a baby, but when she is fully grown she will be up to five inches across! Her hobbies include resting in her cave, digging, spinning webs, and hunting crickets, her favorite food. Her species gets it's name from the beautiful reddish colored hair all over her body. Rose hair Tarantula's are nocturnal, which means they sleep during the day and hunt at night. Their reddish hair may help them blend in with the desert terrain at night. Rose hair Tarantula's in captivity may live up to twenty five years old, a lot longer than most spiders. In our opinion, Rose Hair Tarantula's are the best pet spiders you can own, because they are usually docile, are easy to take care of, and are very cool to watch.