12 votes

Weekly thread for casual chat and photos of pets

This is the place for casual discussion about our pets.

Photos are welcome, show us your pet(s) and tell us about them!

16 comments

  1. [6]
    Jeybork
    Link
    This Sprout, my new rescue, and she is wonderful. I love her. https://envs.sh/Aej.jpg

    This Sprout, my new rescue, and she is wonderful. I love her.

    https://envs.sh/Aej.jpg

    7 votes
    1. PnkNBlck71817
      Link Parent
      She is adorable! Rescued pups are the best.

      She is adorable! Rescued pups are the best.

      1 vote
    2. l_one
      Link Parent
      That is adorably derpy.

      That is adorably derpy.

      1 vote
  2. [3]
    chocobean
    Link
    Tapioca has been on a diet for a long while now but I'm not really seeing results. We don't even do daily treats, and she's stopped rummaging in garbage can for food for years now. Just a fluffy...

    Tapioca has been on a diet for a long while now but I'm not really seeing results. We don't even do daily treats, and she's stopped rummaging in garbage can for food for years now. Just a fluffy fluffy foster fail. Photo is of her being a zen sand garden

    6 votes
    1. [2]
      first-must-burn
      (edited )
      Link Parent
      It seems to be working now. A beautiful creature. Since you didn't say what kind of creature Tapioca is, I choose to believe they are a llama with an emo haircut.

      The link is broken? I get an address not found for the whole domain. It seems to be working now. A beautiful creature.

      Since you didn't say what kind of creature Tapioca is, I choose to believe they are a llama with an emo haircut.

      3 votes
      1. chocobean
        Link Parent
        oh good heavens I hadn't meant to upload a full size image, apologies for folks on dial up / limited data. She's a Naptunian Fur Beast! :D Her birth name contained too many sounds unpronounceable...

        oh good heavens I hadn't meant to upload a full size image, apologies for folks on dial up / limited data.

        She's a Naptunian Fur Beast! :D Her birth name contained too many sounds unpronounceable with our human bodies so we changed it upon adoption

        3 votes
  3. [2]
    smithsonian
    Link
    Pepper is officially heartworm-free! (She is from the South and was infected before she was rescued.) Today we can officially start to ease her exercise restrictions, which is super exciting! She...

    Pepper is officially heartworm-free! (She is from the South and was infected before she was rescued.)

    Today we can officially start to ease her exercise restrictions, which is super exciting! She got to play with her favorite squeaky ball for the first time in like four months and it was awesome seeing how proud she was while she pranced around showing it off in between squeaking sessions.

    Bonus derpy sleeping position picture.

    5 votes
    1. ahatlikethat
      Link Parent
      Yay! My first dog got heartworms when we moved to a place that we didn't realize required year-round prevention. I was just a young college kid. I still feel terrible for letting that happen--the...

      Yay! My first dog got heartworms when we moved to a place that we didn't realize required year-round prevention. I was just a young college kid. I still feel terrible for letting that happen--the treatment is so tough and survival is not guaranteed,as you know, and it was my ignorance that caused it. Fortunately we had a friend who got us to see their fantastic vet, and that dog lived 12 more years to be 15--pretty good for a 90-lb rescue mutt. And of course she forgave me. Thirty years since, I never forgotten a heartworm pill!

      I hope you and your dog have a very long and happy life together!

      2 votes
  4. [5]
    first-must-burn
    Link
    We are on a quest to get pet rats, primarily as pets for my daughter. During the pandemic, we got three rats, but they were from a rescue and weren't socialized at all, so we could never really...

    We are on a quest to get pet rats, primarily as pets for my daughter. During the pandemic, we got three rats, but they were from a rescue and weren't socialized at all, so we could never really handle them. We're hoping for a better outcome this time. We found a pet breeder in ohio who seems to have pretty high quality rats.

    My daughter's bed is a loft, so the current plan is to put the cage under the loft. I want to rig some kind of tunnel system so they can come up to the top of the loft, but I haven't fully worked that out yet. It seems like something like this tubing I saw on Reddit would be good, but I'm not certain about how to keep the vertical lift from being too steep. I'm thinking about either a zig zag vertical or trying to make a tight spiral out of the elbows. I also might want some sections out of clear pipe so we can see where they are in it. Ideally it would all come apart for cleaning as well. Open to suggestions if anyone has any.

    3 votes
    1. [2]
      caliper
      Link Parent
      Rats are amazing. My pet rat would open part of his cage at night and roam my bedroom while I was asleep. He would chew some cables here, buttons on a remote there, and then climb into his cage...

      Rats are amazing. My pet rat would open part of his cage at night and roam my bedroom while I was asleep. He would chew some cables here, buttons on a remote there, and then climb into his cage again. He’d close the section and in the morning I would pull my hair out trying to figure out when he would’ve chewed up stuff the day before. It took me quite a while to figure out how that smart asshole got out of there.

      That PVC tubing looks like the perfect tunnel system. It will be slippery for large sections of incline. One way to counteract that is to drill many holes into it, creating some claw grips. Although that will also create places where they’ll easily start to chew the plastic. Thinking about it more, that would be my main concern with PVC, that they’ll find a way to ingest a lot of plastic.

      4 votes
      1. first-must-burn
        Link Parent
        That's amazing. I am looking forward to seeing what they can do. From what I've read, when they chew the plastic they mostly spit it out. But we're also planning to have a gate on the tunnel so...

        That's amazing. I am looking forward to seeing what they can do.

        From what I've read, when they chew the plastic they mostly spit it out. But we're also planning to have a gate on the tunnel so that they don't have access to it all the time. That way they won't come knocking on the door for treats when my daughter is sleeping (hopefully).

        2 votes
    2. [2]
      chocobean
      Link Parent
      I don't have any experience with rats but I've had hamsters. My rabbit chews plastic and I don't want her doing that even if she isn't eating a lot. I use wood, grass and hemp rope type stuff for...

      I don't have any experience with rats but I've had hamsters. My rabbit chews plastic and I don't want her doing that even if she isn't eating a lot. I use wood, grass and hemp rope type stuff for her toys.

      If you're worried about the vertical climb, how about a natural fibre rope draped over a wood plank with grooves? Like this

      | § |
      | § |
      | § |

      My hams would have had no trouble going up, so rats I would imagine doing even better. The plank will clean pretty easily with a little power washing, the rope you can soak in light bleach or detergent. Both elements should be pretty cheap to replace frequently and you won't have to worry about plastic for your dudes.

      2 votes
      1. first-must-burn
        Link Parent
        Just in case it wasn't clear, this is for a tunnel to connect their main cage with a smaller one mounted up by her bed. So it needs to be something that keeps them completely in the enclosed...

        Just in case it wasn't clear, this is for a tunnel to connect their main cage with a smaller one mounted up by her bed. So it needs to be something that keeps them completely in the enclosed space. We had something like what you described for inside the cage with the previous set of rats, and it worked very well for something for them to climb on.

        2 votes