# Some willing helpers and their knowledge.



## Scuff (Oct 4, 2007)

Hi, i'm currently doing a college assignment for my Animal Management Diploma and as a resource i have chosen this forum =)

I've chosen to research exotics, their habitats and nutritional requirements since im quite keen to learn alot about them.

I'm sorry to slap this on your forum as i could just look up many articles you've already posted and use them, but i need to show that i've done the asking and not picked things out if you know what i mean =).

It would be great if you could all take a few moments to upload some images of your exotics in their homes and what you feed and what that does for them to help me, to help others in the future =) thanks in advance, heres a picture of my turtle chillin as he does.: victory:


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## Nerys (Apr 18, 2005)

ah well any excuse to trot out some pics of the skunks lol

ok, this is a selection of what they are fed..










daily the adults gets about a mug and a half of fresh chopped veggies, with a little fruit. topped with low fat yoghurt and cottage cheese, and finished off with a little roast chicken, egg, tuna, or meal worms.

the youngsters get pretty much the same, but twice a day! 

skunks in the wild are omniverous, consuming things like small rodents, reptiles, amphibians, insects, eggs, fruit and vegetables.. they will also take carrion. they are what is known as opportunistic foragers
the wild diet does vary with seasons, its thought that in the late summer and autumn they stock up, and the diet is much wider.. with many fruits and berries available at this time. they stock up for the winter, by consuming everything in sight! Over winter they semi hibernate.. slowing down a lot, sleeping a lot, and eating less. In the Spring they then begin eating again, this time seeming to concentrate on higher protein items - this also as there is not as much plant food around coming out of winter. as spring turns to summer, so the diet reflects more vegetable matter and so on. interestingly Snuff followed this pattern over winter/spring this year. for several months she would not touch veggies at all, only eating mealworms, yoghurt and a little chicken. she started back on veggies in about June/july ish..

the captive diet needs to take into account the fact that skunks eat for england, and like children, like the sweet things best. you need to provide a balenced diet, to avoid problems such as obesity, organ damage, fur loss and discolouration, lack of mobility, bad teeth, arthritis, degenerative bone disease and paralysis etc etc

skunk diets should contain low amounts of fat and protein, and avoid processed pet foods, which are often high in sugar, and low in nutrition.

i do not supplement my skunks, preferring instead to feed a balenced diet, covering the food groups they need.

i aim for about 70% fresh veg.. 5% fruit 10% protein - chicken/egg/tuna 15% dairy - cottage cheese/yoghurt.

skunks can suffer both from hypoglycemia - too low blood sugar and hyperglycemia - too high blood sugar.. and can peak and trough alarmingly quickly.. they also fare poorly as youngsters from skipping meals. i do know of one case this year of a death through lack of enough feeding, and have taken back a youngster also, who was down to skin and bone. its is very easy to underestimate just how much a young skunk can eat!

you can also feed whole grain bread, pulses, pastas, nuts.. though nuts to be fed sparingly

feeding something "crunchy" will also help keep the teeth and gums healthy - whole raw veggies are good for this, as is low protein dog biscuit fed as a treat

the things i do not feed are Cat Food, Dog Food (bar low protein biscuits) Red Meats, Pork, Chocolate, whole sunflower seeds, Fried food, processed foods, onion/avacado/potato/asparagus, and a new one to the list NO GRAPES (we have had 4 skunks in the uk die this year after eating grapes)

a good diet is essential to the well being of your skunk, and will prolong its life and increase its enjoyment of life. a balenced diet containing natural fresh foods is the key. its unknown as to how well skunks process atrifical supplements, and its very easy to overdose on them too. 

Every Skunk owner has their own individual take on exact diets.. but these are the basic guidelines i go by, and have passed on to other skunk owners. I guess in truth, i will only find out how good my diet is, as the skunks get older with me. Skunks have the potential to live to 20 or so, though over the last few years many having been dying at between 3 and 6. Its thought this is due to poor diet recomendations.. even this year, i had one guy say to me "but skunks don't like vegetables" as he tipped a tin of cat food into their cage.. "STTTTTTTTTTTTOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPPPPPPPPPPP" said i.. "ARRRRGGGHHH" and explained the above.. 

i mean.. do these youngster look like they hate veg!!! nope!



not to mention snuffs clear enjoyment here...










some general pics anyway..

this is Teyah, she is an adult female traditional black and white skunk. 










she lives in my bedroom, with Snuff, who is an adult female albino skunk.










they bed down in the cloth and timber wardrobe at night...










Teyah came to me as her previous owners did not get on with her, she was kept in a pen, and used to be quite agressive towards them.. she has never shown any agression to me at all however.. why.. i am not sure... thats animals for you i guess!

Snuff on the other hand, i have had from 8 weeks old, and is as tame as tame could be... she comes to work sometimes with me.. sleeps under the desk..










gets taken all round the country to meet people..



















comes to my parents house, where even they like her!


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## HABU (Mar 21, 2007)

i almost stepped on a skunk once, going to work early one morning.


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## Nerys (Apr 18, 2005)

i am lucky enough to be working with 4 young ones too, well 5 if you count the one in rehab at the momnent, 3 of the 4 are long term "we've not been well" youngsters that i have had in to treat and will keep, the 4th is a chocolate swirl boy with a real attitude.. i can get him to cuddle up to me, but not to anyone else, lol.. he is a real stamp and pounce boy!

this is Little Choc - not got a proper name yet.. Mmm... LC.. Elsie maybe.. that might do..










this is Big Choc - stampy boy! again, not found the "right" name yet..










this angel is Holly - used to be called "holey" as she had a HUGE hole in her back..










she has bonded incredibly with me.. a real gem is our holly..



















and lastly i have Pro.. named for the fact he came to me with a Prolapsed bowel.. i only have pics of his arse so far i am afraid, must rectify that!!!!

oh no, tell a lie.. this is Holly and Pro when we went to see Emma (brittone) not only did she cook rory and i a lamb roast.. but she even prepared dinner for the skunks bless her! Pro is the one in the back ground.. amazing how many of my pics involve them with food lol..











as i said, i need no excuse to show off my little stars.. is there anything else you need? i have a billion and one pics, videos etc etc

Hubu - if you ever get a chance to get some pics of wild ones, i would love to see them


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## brittone05 (Sep 29, 2006)

Oh no how messy does my kitchen look there lmao and no I don't drink Earl grey and vanilla - they are for my father in law while he was in hospital heehe 

Can honeslty say Holly and Pro are both little gems as is Snuff - only had the pleasure of meeting Teyah when she first arrived literally and couldn't come out as Nerys was unsure of her general temperament with her history being tol dof an aggressive wee grl 

All the visitors to my house get food of one type or another - lamb roasts for N and Rory, veggies for the babies and the odd super worm too lol


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## DeanThorpe (Apr 9, 2006)

I will give this a go...
The Bearded Dragon









They are given a vivarium which includes a Basking light [or multiples]
















As well as areas within the vivarium that are much cooler and not in direct heat from the basking Bulbs.








This allows them to regulate thier body temperature and is one of the most, if not the most important aspect of keeping "cold blooded" creatures as they have no means of regulating thier body temp withing thier own bodies and must rely on outside forces.

In a vivarium They must have areas that are as warm as 105-120+ F for basking and warming up.
With places to seek shade and/or cool where the temperature is no higher than 85f.

Arboreal set ups are not usualyl used for bearded dragons...
but in the case of the viv pictures..the basking bulbs were all positioned towards the top, mainly at the back.
The cool end in this vivarium was the lower half of the viv with the very bottom of the vivarium staying at room temperature.










Ventialtion to allow a good air flow was places at the top [roof] and at the middle/bottom on the back wall.

In more standard set ups [i usually go from left to right, no good reason for this.








As you can imagine directly under the reflector bulbs would be the warmest...with a gradual decline down the log towards the cooler, lower, farthest end of the vivarium closest to the glass front being the coolest area within.
At the back you can see the UV tube.
These are important to give the inhabitants important uva and uvb rays to help keep them healthy and well..Alive.
There are other methods of giving UV light other than the tubes.
There are MVB's Mercury Vapour Bulbs which work just like the reflector bulbs used for the basking lights but aswell as giving out heat and white light they also give off high amounts of the important uv.
[There are more too]

Bearded Dragons often will not drink from a standing water bowl.
Methods of giving them water to drink include direct feeding with a pipette or syringe.









They should be fed both Vegetables/leafy greens and live insects.
Insects include Crickets, mealworms, Morio worms, Locusts, and waxworm.
Roach sp such as lobster and Dubia roaches are becoming more commonly fed now too.
Sorry no insect pics.


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## Nerys (Apr 18, 2005)

nice vivs dean, like that top pic too..

N


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## DeanThorpe (Apr 9, 2006)

oh thanks, they are old pics though.
love all your skunk pics, searched the forum for "skunk" and "skunks" the other night and was watchin all your various skunk vids, looking at the pics and reading the threads.Was cool.
As you may be aware trese has an interest so thought id read up what i can alllowing the possibility, maybe, you know at soem point lol.


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## Nerys (Apr 18, 2005)

yeah they are neat i have to say 

if you want the full range of pics.. they are on

Image hosting, free photo sharing & video sharing at Photobucket

login as: nerysg
use password: nerys

(reader password - not admin  )

and they are under skunks - oddly enough.. there are 1000's of pics on there overall lol

N


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## Raiden (Sep 8, 2007)

Here's some shots of our baby beardies. 

Being semi arboreal lizards the little weasels love climbing things. Sitting on things, and basking on high spots as Dean said.

As has already been said they eat a combo of live food (crickets gut loaded with vit supplements in our case) and veggies (Green leafy stuff, bok-choi etc. you get the idea, have a look at the beardie food charts linked from this forum as we pretty much stick by that tbh). Food gets dusted with either nutrabal or calcium powder depending on what day it is, we alternate between the two with the calcium being used twice a week and 2 days a week we leave it alone and don't dust the greenery. At this young age it's about 70% live food that goes hop, and about 30% Greenery.

On occasion they get a mealworm as a treat, we've been using mealies placed on crooks of elbows or on insides of wrists to get a particularly skittery beardie by the name of Victor to get used to being on people and it's working a treat!

and here's the pics  Apologies for any excessive sizes... blame me being too lazy to reinstall the gimp on my linux box 

Teeny the Hades gold x yellow staring at a moth beating itself stupid on the UV tube.









Tamianth the Hades Hypo trying to work out what the black thing pointed at her is, and why some stupid human is interrupting her basking time.









Victor the normal phase henpecked Beardie on his favourite rock in the cool end of the viv about 5 hours after he met Tamianth and wondering how on earth he's going to get through the glass and bite me for putting this mad woman in there with him :razz:










Teeny is on her own at the moment after Tamianth tried to eat her head (much fun was had prising jaws open gently and making sure everyone was ok) and that has given me the perfect excuse to fire up some CAD software and plan out the design for a new shiney Viv.

I'm a self confessed newbie when it comes to Reps (my other half has bucketloads more experience having in the past bred beardies and Yemen chameleons) and am learning more and more about their habits, likes, dislikes, care, and personalities as each day passes. 99% of the knowledge I'm absorbing like a dry sponge is from this very forum, so when it comes to getting the answers you're looking for you're in the right place 

Hope this wall of text helps you out


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## Scuff (Oct 4, 2007)

Whoa guys major props for all that info! didnt expect so much so quickly =D but its damned great and will use everybit for other projects to. Nerys, i just noticed you're a fellow dorseter =D you wouldnt happen to be around the Dorchester-Weymouth area would you? 

the bearded dragon drinking from a pipette is brilliant for what i need, and seeing the scenery and items which geckos and such enjoy, it looks like you've done a great job.

just wondering, do you ever change the habitats around for the specified species? maybe move a log at a different angle, or do they like the fact they know where everything is?

thanks again guys, :mf_dribble:


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## DeanThorpe (Apr 9, 2006)

As a general rule it is best not too continuely change or move objects in the reptiles vivarium.
To soem extent this is thier only "safe area" and is there home.
However it seems that once the lizard is ok with and very aware and knows its keeper, things changing within thier vivarium do not seem to bother them.

Either way, things ar eonly moved around when theres a need and usually a complete re-decoration whenever the vivarium is completely cleaned out.
We tend to do ours in bits so its really when the substrate gets changed more than anything else as when the substare gets changed...it gets a full clean top to bottom, every item is scrubbed and then its dried and re decorated either similar or totally different depending on whether new bits have recently been bought for the ocasion.

So yeh...as things are put in thier place usually for good reason, the inhabitants benefit from knowing thier terrain and small thinsg can easily stress out reptiles, especially the smaller species... then things are left alone where possible... but no need usually to tread too carefully or worry too much.


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## Scuff (Oct 4, 2007)

awesome. i kinda figured they wouldnt like too much of a change, but wasnt too sure if they needed stimulation in their surroundings. its alright if i get all your consent to quote you in my paperwork and use your pictures? its quite a big project, i have until now and april to finish it haha, so the questions will go very deep as i continue and learn X)


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## DeanThorpe (Apr 9, 2006)

erm yeh...but quoting me is a bad idea... I dont word things [or even attempt to] professionally at all.

plenty of time to go then..


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## HABU (Mar 21, 2007)

Hubu - if you ever get a chance to get some pics of wild ones, i would love to see them - nerys




we are literally ate up with them! i mean ATE UP! skunks and ***** and 'possums! you wouldn't believe it. it's dangerous to even take the trash out to the dumpster! you'll get a half dozen ***** jumping out, big 'ole fat ones. the skunks have a bit more class. they aren't a bit afraid of you. they will just stand there like "what? what you want?":lol2: 'possums just scavenge. my old dog was trained to let me know when there was a possum in the yard. we'd go out sometimes and give it a little kick(more like a nudge) and it would freeze or play dead. then you can pick it up and scare the neighbors! one time i got back at this guy who lived next to me...he was a jerk, so i put a big 'ole greasy possum in his car with a couple apples one night......next day his car was a total mess! stunk like high heaven! chewed up apples were stuck all over the interior! the possum climbed out the window after he ate his meal.........ha ha!! payback!!!


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