The Introductions of Everyone

So lets get the introductions out of the way:

Icarus (hyrbrid dwarf): One of my four hamsters, he is my project baby right now. I planned to rehabilitate/tame him and rehome him. However that definitely didn't happen. His past care had caused severely detrimental behavioral characteristics. He is extremely aggressive, so aggressive that I didn't feel it was safe for him to be given to another family especially since a lot of families who are interested around in hamsters around here are either college students who don't have a lot of time or young kids who are afraid of biting hamsters (or don't have the patience for aggressive hamsters), then there is the fact that gaining his trust to just take a treat from my hand took 3 months. I didn't want to shove him into another home where he didn't know anyone and they had none of his trust. This last week I have been able to hold him with no biting. However a couple days ago I had to take him in due to a bacterial skin infection that I was finally able to notice after being unable to give him proper health checks for so long. I took him to the vet and during that visit I got his nails clipped and him treated (which was being prescribed silvadene due to the fact that his infection had started clearing up already) however during that half hour I knew I lost a lot of trust I built, and though right now he will take treats without biting, and petting is ok, holding is definitely out of the question.

Scotti (robo dwarf): Another one of my hamsters, however he is one of mine that I know will never be tamed and I honestly haven't tried to tame. There are some hamsters I view as untameable. However with every single one of my hamsters that I have currently and have had in the past, I have safely been able to handle, I honestly don't think Scotti would ever bite me, however I don't ever think I would be able to catch him for him to get the chance. Scotti is a robo who lived most of his life in a pet store, he came into my life at 8 months old, and since he came into my life he has been extremely fearful. I have tried every type of training technique there is for hamsters. Everything from noninvasive tissue paper that is scented, to picking up and forcing them to deal with me by sitting in a bath tub with me. However what I have realized with Scotti, is he does best when he is left alone. He has become extremely more comfortable about us talking to him and being out in the open with us out in the room after 8 months of not really bothering him other than the typical cleaning his cage, feeding, watering, and leaving the occasional treat in his cage. I have tried offering different treats of various value to him, nothing gets his attention and he'd much prefer to run. So I prefer to let him be himself, when it comes to getting to the vet, I have ways to catch him if needed, not that examining him will be easy, but I hope the need will never come.

Gabriel (golden syrian): Another one of my hamsters, he is my other untameable in most ways hamster. In fact Icarus is easier to tame than Gabriel, though Gabriel has never ever been as aggressive as Icarus. In fact I don't really think Gabriel has the capability of being aggressive. Gabriel is another rescue, who is a wet tail survivor. He came to me at 6 months old and as an avid runner, he needed a good food so back when I was feeding a commercial diet I switched him to my diet which was much healthier for a hamster than what he was eating. Gabriel didn't need long to settle in, he is always willing to take a treat (only pumpkin seeds are worthy of taking) from my fingers, but only if he wants to. When I was originally taming him he would take pumpkin seeds four at a time once a week. Then I learned that this was the most I'd ever get from him. However after trying to handle him the first time for the first cage clean, it wasn't a problem, he wasn't exactly a fan of it, but he wasn't interested in biting me at all. Now I can easily handle him by scooping my hands under him, and holding him against my chest so he can't see out. When I am doing health checks, he grunts and grumbles in obvious complaint, but then again he is vocal in general and will grunt if I move something in his cage in a way he doesn't approve of, or if something doesn't do what he wants. Gabriel is pretty much anti-social but not aggressive.

Badger (silver syrian I think): My last hamster, he is by far my most social and friendliest. He has always been friendly, when I first got him I originally thought he was a pregnant female hamster. Though he was at the point where his testicles should have dropped his physical disabilities were so severe that it caused him to get so badly constipated that his testicles were constantly constricted into his body. However, once I was able to stimulate most of the feces out of his body and get his guts moving with canned pumpkin, and some hamster probiotics he was very obviously a boy. And it was obvious he was definitely not a physically normal boy. I bought Badger expecting a healthy pregnant female, I technically got a physically and mentally disabled male. Badger has something wrong with his hips, whether it is neurological, a physical defect that he was born with, or a physical injury that happened when he was a baby that healed wrong, we don't know as we have yet to have him xrayed. However we have learned ways of keeping him healthy and moving at the moment that he shows little problems moving. When we first recognized his problems it was extremely obvious, one side of his body is atrophied compared to his other. He throws out his leg and it seems like his bad hip is almost fused in a way though we aren't sure. We realized early on, having a wheel and running on it regularly is very helpful to keeping him moving correctly. He also benefits from a few massages a week. I also add healthy omegas from seeds such as flax, sesame, and chia to keep his joints moving as good as they can. His mental capabilities aren't all normal either, he kind of has what people call OCD in the hamster world. He stares in one spot (which is normal for a hamster if its at most one minute) for five minutes sometimes, he also often seems to react to my presence almost as if I startled him because he didn't realize I was there, he often runs on his wheel or does things obsessively once he starts doing certain motions he can have a hard time getting out of them. He also isn't exactly what I'd call the smartest hamster, while Icarus is easily the smartest hamster I have ever had, I would put him on the level of an intelligent rat. However Badger is easily stupid... yet he has a great personality and I love him, stupidity and all.

Lark: He is one of my two birds, Lark is a Bourke's parakeet. And I honestly gotta say if all Bourke's Parakeets were hand tame like him I would honestly prefer them far above budgies. Budgies have their place, but if you live in an apartment and need a quiet bird but want the same intelligence as a budgie or a parrot you NEED a Bourke's parakeet. Because though they have every ability to get loud, their sounds do not carry like a screaming conure, and they are definitely more tolerable. Bourke's Parakeets do not talk from what I have learned, all they do is trill, whistle, and sing in notes. However they have every ability to learn new patterns and types of whistles, I got Lark at 2 years old, he is now almost 4 and he easily has learned at least 10 more patterns. He has learned most of the common wild birds around my area, a couple songs from the tv, and to wolf whistle. He is incredibly intelligent for a bird I thought would have lower intelligence than a budgie, he has learned to manipulate us in only ways a parrot could. He also loves attention and thrives on being able to talk to us and be held. He is strongly bonded to me, and if anyone else hold him he will most likely fly off of them immediately, while with me he will easily fall asleep and stay sitting until I put him back. He doesn't like people to pet him, though he has no problem with "stepping up" onto hands and returning kisses.

Kookie: My other bird, however she is purely my mom's. She loves my mom, is bonded to my mom and because of the species she is and the way she was brought up she does not enjoy other people very often. She is a yellow nape amazon parrot, with very little of that yellow in her nape. However she is absolutely gorgeous. She is 32 years old or so. She has been with my mom since she had just gotten her green baby feathers and was only eating gruel. She is older than me, and has been technically my older sister since I was born. It's weird, she is extremely jealous of me, doesn't trust me, is fearful of me, and so acts aggressively to me. However I will most likely be the one she is left to because I am most likely the one who will bond with her after mom dies, or will at least be able to correctly take care of her even if she is aggressive. Even if it comes to the point where I need to rehome her, I know I would screen people with such OCD and paranoia mom would be happy with whoever she went to. Even though we aren't always on the best of terms, I love her in a weird way.

Miko: One of my two cats, though he is honestly mom's I do a lot of the work for him too. He is diabetic due to poor breeding and poor care in the home before we got him. We got him in his senior years, he was at least 7 years old, and severely obese weighing at least 19 lbs when we got him possibly a pound or two more. His preferred weight is 16 pounds, so considering he naturally a big cat, 19-20 lbs was huge. He looked like a balloon and moved uncomfortably and couldn't jump really. It was sad. Eventually within a year of getting him he lost weight but then he lost weight to quickly. We took him in once he reach 13 pounds from 19 within six months. He got tested and surprise surprise he was diabetic. His sugars were way out of control. They suggested on getting on a purely wet food and preferably pate wet food diet. However with him, wet food of any kind is extremely hard to do, then we add our other cat into the mix who is pretty much the complete opposite and who desperately needs to free feed and it just wasn't possible. So we went with an extremely high in protein and high quality, low glycemic dry cat food... which let me tell you is extremely expensive. And then doing wet food with high protein levels that has gravy or juices however we also mix raw ground chicken into it, giving the protein boost (still keeping the soupy texture they all like), and giving a higher calorie meal for whatever amount they eat for the cat whose unable to keep as much weight on compared to Miko. Thankfully we've found a happy medium. Miko's personality, though he is expensive with some of his medical problems and his quirks with the kitty box and some foods are not always... desired, his personality makes up for all of it. He is a cat that is constantly happy to see you, and not just for food. He loves to cuddle and you can mold him like a teddy bear and he will purr the entire time. He will greet you like a dog at the door. He is stupidly curious and loves a piece of paper on the floor just as much as he loves laying on the couch. He is contiouosly makes me laugh. I can tell his past people did not treat him great, though I am honestly not sure if abuse or intentional abuse was a part of it. He is afraid of feet and brooms more than he should be, he is just weird about certain things, and was much worse about it in the beginning. He was declawed and not in the best way, before we got him, which has caused some severe problems with how he walks on his paws on how he deals with the litter box. Now that he's learned and adjusted to our house well, he loves his new life and is so happy here.

Andee: My other cat, we call her our perpetual kitten. She is absolutely tiny, loses weight extremely fast when not on the correct diet, but when she weighs the right amount she weighs a mere 7-8 lbs. She is pure cat through and through. She prefers affection when she wants it and will run away from you if you are doing something she doesn't agree with. However she has some of the cutest quirks and is absolutely loving when the sun goes down. I got her as a kitten at 3 weeks old from a neighbor across the street. She needed bottle feeding and lots of care. I still miss caring for her as a kitten.

Cleopatra (Cleo): One of my breeder leopard geckos, she is absolutely the friendliest thing considering when I first got her I didn't have to tame her at all. However I have always had to deal with too much albinism in her gene pool. She has severe problems with seeing any sort of prey with any sort of lighting that would be considered normal for a human. She is absolutely gorgeous, but she needs to be fed a lot and very often compared to my other leos to keep a good weight on her. She is also relatively large compared to my other leos.

Amazon: Another one of my breeder leos, she is a beautiful jungle pattern leo. She has gorgeous colors and is relatively short and chubby for a normal sized leo. I call her my bull dog. She is friendly and easy to keep weight on, she also has good breeding. She eats like a champ, her favorite feeders are probably silkworms or isopods.

Phantom: A petco rescue, she is stunted and has interesting ghost morph markings. However she is hard to get growing. She is also extremely aggressive. She has the most active tail out of all my leos, her tail easily expresses her feelings more than any other leo I have ever had.

Chronos: He is my Blue Tongue Skink, he is named after the titan though I did take some liberties with the spelling. If you meet him you would know why he named as such. I can handle him easily without any sort of injuries, however he never stops complaining. When he was a juvenile we had to deal with a severe case of reptile mites with him, I bought him under the pretenses he was captive bred, however if he had been he would not have had mites. So the lesson I took away from this, pay the extra expenses for a captive bred, there is usually a good reason for it and at least know for sure if it is a reputable breeder. He loves his diet, which consists of all types of feeder insects, raw meat, raw organs, raw frozen dog food just to make sure he is getting the bones he needs in his diet, and fruit, and sometimes veggies if I can convince him to eat them.

Teo: My Hermanni Tortoise, he is absolutely gorgeous and sweet. He is spoiled with organic greens and squashes on occasion. When I have them I give him fresh edible flowers from my garden and cactus certain times of the month. I very occasionally give him a tiny bit of fruit, like every other month at most. He lives inside but goes outside regularly for sun. He also gets soaked pellets once a week that I mix with pure canned pumpkin otherwise he wont eat it.

Hope: One of my permanent chameleons, she is a jackson's xanth, which if anyone knows their jacksons knows that those ones are supposedly the largest. However Hope is considered extremely small for her sub-species, her length at most is six inches including her tail. She was brought into a pet store at probably 6 months at the oldest, she spent an entire year there getting poor supplementation at best and no uvb. The side effects were eventually mbd so bad that even as healthy as she is now, she will never look physically normal, she will always have bent legs from the way her bones healed after every break. When I got her, she was constantly falling and pretty much lived on the floor of her terrarium, which people in the store didn't know enough to see that as wrong. She was so sick that it took me six months to get her even near normal. But in my opinion she is truly amazing, and after having her near a year she has shown a trust in me I thought she would never have because as soon as I got her I was constantly medicating her or feeding her through a syringe. However she has proved me wrong in so many ways.

Ryker: My other chameleon, who was my original chameleon and pretty much my guinea pig and my gateway drug into the chameleon addiction. He was and is truly different than any other chameleon in both his personality and many ways on how he is affected by life in captivity. He is captive bred and born, which means he is from a captive line and was born and raised in captivity. However his health problems can show how detrimental that can be. He, unlike other chameleon, cannot tolerate halogen bulbs or too strong of artificial basking bulbs at all, he burns extremely easily no matter how far away I place the bulb or how low of wattage I go. His eyes are also extremely sensitive. He does not do well with any kind of artificial uvb lighting without enough cover, no matter how strong it is. Yet he is my most tolerant chameleon, even now when he is having trust issues with me because of medicating at the moment, I have never worried about him biting me. Though it hurts me that he won't eat from my fingers or with me in the room at all, at the moment.

Dewey: And then there is Dewey, my beautiful and amazing dog. My companion through out life, my service dog, My love, someone I can always count on to be there. There is so much to his story that it would be impossible to do it correctly through a small introductory paragraph, I plan to do a whole post on him and all the trials we have through together. He is an amazing creature, he is not just a dog, he is everything. He is one of the most important things in my life. It's hard to explain how important he is to people who think dogs are just animals.

That is technically all the individual animals. There is of course the insects, but I will have to introduce their colonies later, because I plan to do care for their colonies later on.

~Amber