Karen

...why do you have guinea-pigs teeth trimmed. I've owned GP's for years and
never had this done.
I'm intrigued.

Shyrley....


Rodents' teeth grow continually, and if they're lucky, they have lots of
roughage to eat and normal teeth and they wear naturally and you don't have
to trim them. If they're not, and they have a slight overbite or crossbite
or their teeth don't wear normally, then their teeth grow long and must be
trimmed. It's a major hassle!

Karen

Scott P. Cook

I'm back from the dinner! It drives me nuts that I get nervous over
making a silly 3 minute award presentation speech, but it went well
anyway.

Thanks Karen for giving a better explanation of guinea pig teeth than I
could have. I wonder what Shyrley's secret is. After many successful
years with many species of animals, we weren't terribly successful with
guinea pigs.

In regard to rats, we had hooded rats - white with black, brown or gray
"hoods" around their heads and a stripe going down their back to their
tail. Lest people think I'm completely nuts, there's a reason we had 33
rats at once. We got two with the intention of having a litter. Very
quickly we had a litter of nine. We kept all of them because everybody
seemed grossed out by the idea of pet rats, so we couldn't find homes
for them and I wasn't comfortable with the idea of having a pet shop
sell them. We separated the two original rats so we wouldn't have
another litter, but they managed to get together through the wire of the
cages when she was loose! 3 weeks later we had a litter of 14! We
decided to take those to a really reputable pet shop for homes, but just
before they were weaned and ready to go, we discovered that we'd left
the first litter together a bit too long (they can conceive really
young!), and we had another litter of 8! We only had the 33 for about a
week, after which the litter of 14 was ready to go to the pet store. We
kept one from each of those 2 litters, so we ultimately ended up with
13.
Rats come in over 30 colors, including Dalmatian (yeah!), and I'd like
to eventually get some of the more exotic colors, but they're hard to
get around here. Most of the really interesting ones are bred in CA,
but it's very expensive to have them shipped. The rat people sometimes
smuggle them by going through airport security with the rats in a zipped
jacket pocket, then transferring them to a container in the airplane
bathroom and put them in a carry on bag for the ride.

Good Dalmatians? It's all about finding a really reputable breeder that
breeds for show purposes and makes a high priority of health and
temperament, testing all puppies for congenital deafness, euthanizing
the deaf puppies and neutering the unilateral hearing puppies. All
three of our Dalmatians have really nice temperaments, though the breed
really does belong in families who like their personality traits -
silly, bouncy, demanding, kissy high energy, and very allergic to
sleeping on hard surfaces! Interestingly enough, after the second
movie, the Dalmatian clubs did such a good job of educating people about
the breed that it plummeted in AKC registrations. It was good that
people didn't rush out to get them, but the rapid drop in popularity was
really hard on reputable breeders and show people.

Out homeschool theatre group is called YPT (Young People's Theatre) and
was started several years ago by 2 moms. One moved to Arkansas, and
still runs a branch there. The other director has rehearsals at a
church in Lakeridge, VA, and we hold our performances at Lazy Susan
Dinner Theatre. We do 2 performances a year, and sometimes a summer
show. This is our 3rd season with the group. We've done The Little
Prince, Little Women of Orchard House, and now Fiddler, Jr. Next season
we'll be doing Annie. The quality is truly amazing. Our director
attends to every little detail and the shows are incredibly
professional! We're quite addicted!

BTW, my next species is going to be a parrot, much to my husband's
consternation. Anyone have parrot experience?

Laurel in Burke, VA

-----Original Message-----
From: Karen [mailto:kbmatlock@...]
Sent: Thursday, April 04, 2002 9:46 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [AlwaysLearning] RE: Pets


...why do you have guinea-pigs teeth trimmed. I've owned GP's for years
and
never had this done.
I'm intrigued.

Shyrley....


Rodents' teeth grow continually, and if they're lucky, they have lots of
roughage to eat and normal teeth and they wear naturally and you don't
have
to trim them. If they're not, and they have a slight overbite or
crossbite
or their teeth don't wear normally, then their teeth grow long and must
be
trimmed. It's a major hassle!

Karen





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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Mary Hickman

Guinea Pigs worked really well for my family when the younger two kids were
little. They were bigger and could handle the little guy, 2 at the time, who
sometimes squeezed a bit.. They squeaked to let him know, loosen up your
grip. I was afraid mice would not make it and rat babies too. I agree that
piggies are a special friend and we truly enjoyed them in our life. We are
ready to try rats soon. Just lost a pet chicken to a clever racoon. I hope
the repairs on the coop keep the racoon away from our remaining hen. I have
enjoyed all the personal stories regarding pets lately. Thank you,

Mary H.



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Tia Leschke

> Just lost a pet chicken to a clever racoon. I hope
>the repairs on the coop keep the racoon away from our remaining hen.

Getting a rooster offers a lot of protection from coons. Ours has fought
them off at least a couple of times. We haven't lost any hens since we got
him.
Tia

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
Eleanor Roosevelt
*********************************************
Tia Leschke
leschke@...
On Vancouver Island

Sharon Rudd

The 'coons (down here, anyway) are often big, and
mean, too. Need dogs to watch out for things. Several
dogs, and one, at least needs to be big. 'coons also
are a reservour for rabies. If there is a marauding
one, it may not be healthy. Make sure the dogs are
vaccinated and be ready to provide back-up for them.
It is not unusual for a 'coon to hurt a dog.

On the Florida Gulf Coast 'possums were a problem.
They latch onto whatever part they bump into first and
start gnawing. Chew chew chew, won't let go just
burrow in. Nasty. The chicken doesn't die right away,
just screams, unless the 'possum starts on the neck.
He slips in at night, and starts on a sleeping bird.
Shotgun is the only cure we found. Some people eat
'possum.....???????

We put wire over the chicken pen, here and haven't had
any problems, except egg eating snakes, occasionally.
Silly things go through the chicken wire, eat a bunch
of eggs and can't get back out!! 'Til the eggs digest
some. I catch them in 5 gallon buckets (they are easy
to trick) and DH takes them away from the house.

What kind of rooster do you have Tia? The most
ferocious one I ever had was a barred-rock. XDH (the
karate instructor) broke his toe trying to kick the
rooster!! Oooo that was one bad bird!! Nobody went in
his territory!

Sharon of the Swamp


> > Just lost a pet chicken to a clever racoon. I
> hope
> >the repairs on the coop keep the racoon away from
> our remaining hen.
>
> Getting a rooster offers a lot of protection from
> coons. Ours has fought
> them off at least a couple of times. We haven't
> lost any hens since we got
> him.
>
>


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Tia Leschke

>The 'coons (down here, anyway) are often big, and
>mean, too. Need dogs to watch out for things. Several
>dogs, and one, at least needs to be big.

They're big and mean here too. The rooster isn't infallible, just one more
bit of protection.

> 'coons also
>are a reservour for rabies.

No rabies on Vancouver Island, thank goodness. I have to get the dog
vaccinated every year, but that's to get over the border to the States and
back.

>On the Florida Gulf Coast 'possums were a problem.
>They latch onto whatever part they bump into first and
>start gnawing. Chew chew chew, won't let go just
>burrow in. Nasty. The chicken doesn't die right away,
>just screams, unless the 'possum starts on the neck.
>He slips in at night, and starts on a sleeping bird.
>Shotgun is the only cure we found. Some people eat
>'possum.....???????

The coons here start on the guts of a live bird. It's not pretty.



>What kind of rooster do you have Tia? The most
>ferocious one I ever had was a barred-rock.

Yup! Dan's a barred-rock. I don't go into the chicken yard without a
baseball bat. About once a month, the pea-brain forgets and I have to use
it. I whack him across the chest with it when he starts looking like he's
in attack mode. Dh said that he goes for the head. I say I'd miss. <g>
Tia

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
Eleanor Roosevelt
*********************************************
Tia Leschke
leschke@...
On Vancouver Island