General Care Discussion :: White, floating skin-like STUFF

[kikicool]

Wow, DavidY--a vivarium? Neat! I don't think I have ever even heard of one! Is it just plants, or animal life as well? Do tell! I am also very interested in husbandry.

I recently interned at a zoo, and one of my FAVORITE parts was caring for the "education" animals. These were the animals that tour around at schools etc. And, sadly were otherwise ignored: not put on display, not given REAL enclosures. It was HORRIBLE. There were two hedgehogs. I learned they have special dust because they like to roll around in it. A "dustbath!" they called it. LOVE that. Staff gave dustbaths once a week--but I read and learned that 'chillas should have these daily. In fact, I just uploaded the video because um, well, you know. Vivarium, chinchilla bath... it's an obvious leap

http://www.vmix.com/myvideos.php?cmd=vi ... rchkey=all

Sidenote: I got canned from my internship, the day I was planning on leaving. The head vet tech and I couldn't see eye to eye because I, apparently, "harped too much" on enrichment, my advisor told me. It wasn't in the budget and I kept talking about the importance of it. When you see the little cage this guy was kept in, please know that it killed me, too.

[DavidY]

Hi Kiki,

A vivarium is pretty much a mix of everything: live plants and animals both on land and in water. I bought one of those large ExoTerra Glass Cages with the front doors and made it half land and half water. I used live tropical plants, bamboo, and live moss with a waterfall running down the middle. It houses a Peacock Day Gecko, a pair of firebelly toads, a pair of local native tree frogs and a swordtail fish.

Here's a picture of the upper half with the gecko on the back wall...


I have pics of the lower half but I have to resize and upload them still and it's late and I need to get to bed soon, so I'll post those later.

I also have another viv for my pacman frog...


Wow, that's cool that you interned at a zoo. It must be hard though to see the animals that don't get to have the nice display homes. I volunteered at the Boston Science Museum's Live Animal Center when I was in high school and got to take care of the educational animals there. Their holding facility was pretty nice though and I got to work with a lot of cool animals. Everything from ferrets, porcupines and owls to an 18 foot reticulated python, a pair of crocodiles and several venomous snakes (they wouldn't let me handle the venomous snakes though, bummer!). That was one of the best jobs I ever had.

I love your video of the chinchilla and his dust bath! I couldn't stop laughing (thanks, I needed that, by the way ). I love how soft their fur is. They have like 50 strands of hair for every follicle whereas a cat has like a dozen (we humans have only one).

[DavidY]

Here's some more pics of vivarium (not the greatest pics, need to get some better ones of the entire setup)...

[SpotsMama]

How fascinating! Is it hard to keep clean or does it clean itself?

[DavidY]

It keeps itself clean for the most part. The plants consume the nitrogenous waste (natural fertilizer). After a couple of months the detritus builds up so I take a small fine fish net, stir up the water and just sweep the net back and forth collecting the mulm (solid waste). I also have to prune the plants about once a month or so. The only other maintenance is cleaning the gecko poop off the glass doors (he likes pooping on the glass doors for some odd reason).

[kikicool]

Wow, that is so cool! I want a vivarium!! I think I'll stick to learnign about the turts first Apparently, I have much to learn as a young cricket! LOVE the pacman frog. And that must be so peaceful to have in the home. I wonder how we can incorporate this into our new home... it's still being built...

I got to work with cool animals at the zoo: a Mexican porcupine, the chincillas, rabbits, a falcon... but honestly, they were (along with various other animals) kept in the same room, in cages. They all need different temperatures, but they were all kept at a temp too low for the chinchillas. I also got to assist on surgery on a snow leopard. Still, I hated the zoo. There's so much I didn't know about how they operate. It's a business of animals, more than a business of caring for animals.

My favorite thing was volunteering at a SANCTUARY called Big Cat Rescue in Tampa. It was marvelous. I got to work with all sorts of big cats, from little southern bobcats to a barbary lion. Amazing. Tigers "chuff" when they know you, it's a little "hello, I mean no harm!" thing. To picture it, it's like the way kids will say "what's up" with an upward nod. But while doing this, tigers snarfle. So one tiger always used to chuff a hello at me. If he was sleeping, I'd chuff first, he'd lift his head, see me, chuff and go back to sleep. Sometimes he'd "stalk" me, and as I walked by his enclosure, he'd jump in his pool and then splash all over me and run around crazy, very pleased with himself. My month there was the best experience of my life.

Okay, enough ranting from me. Must go stare at my turtles in neurotic consternation now. Thanks for sharing about the vivarium. I'm thrilled to start planning one... one day.