I have all of my animals in one room, except for my hamsters. It's a 10x7.5' room with 2 windows and 3 fans and a giant industrial sized air purifier. In this room I have:
1 tegu
1 newt
2 salamanders
5 rats
A fence lizard
3 marbled geckos
1 rosehair tarantula
1 tiger rump tarantula
1 ten foot Peruvian redtail
1 pacman frog
A 5 gallon fish tank.
As you noticed, I hope, the rats and the snake are in the same room, not very far from eachother. They can see eachother, but the rats don't seem to stress at all. Maybe because she's in a pretty much almost completely sealed 125 gallon tank. And the snake( Vienna) eats frozen rats, so she's not even remotely interested in them. I myself don't think it's cruel to have them in the same room, but my mum begs to differ. I work at a pet store, so I'm very knowledgable about rats and snakes and most animals. But I'm curious...what do you guys think?
I'm the exact same way. Tons of animals, including rats and snakes in the same room. As long as you keep your snake well fed and aren't overloading yourself with animal care, it's not cruel.
I absolutely adore all of my babies, they are my world. Vienna is fat and happy. On fact I need to slow down on feeding her because she will not stop growing.
scarletfang [forum info]
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I'd be more concerned about 1. being able to keep the environment for each individual animal appropriate to it's needs and 2. having the time to properly handle and socialize all of them more than actually having that number of animals in the same room.
Well, looking at the collection, she probably only handles the rats, tegu, and boa.
It's not healthy to handle amphibians (for the critters, not so much people), the bugs would only be stressed by handling, and reptiles don't truly "socialize," they just learn to tolerate human contact.
Heck, I have more socialable animals than she does and I have no problem keeping them happy, healthy, and in excellent conditions.
My spiders actually love coming out and sitting on my shoulders, they crawl right up to them. And my boa comes out for kisses every day. I have a Colombian gold tegu, so he's a bit skittish compared to say a black and white. He's the only reptile I've had that seems to only tolerate me. I also handle all my amphibians (except the newt considering he's aquatic) to move them to feed, but I take all the safety precautions, using oil removing soap and keeping my hands moist, and washing them in between everyone I touch. It's a pain in the ass on feeding day.
scarletfang [forum info]
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Goddess of Chaos
Fuzzy kitten lemming
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Ah. Things I should probably know but don't. I pretty much only have experience with handle-able pets. And...don't really understand having pets you can't cuddle with, but that's just me.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I was fairly certain that soap of most any form was just as toxic to amphibian skin as human oils.
In my household, the ideal way of treating your hands is by running them under a lukewarm tap for a short while and keeping handling time to a minimum.
Also, spiders don't have the brain capacity to enjoy being handled, and it only stresses them out. It's Arachnoboards 101. So... they're basically fish out of water.
I use the soap for my own safety, I rinse it totally off though. And I knew that spiders were small brained, but I figure that if they're sold as pets they have to have some form of enjoyment in being held, especially if they're docile enough not to rear back or flick hairs.
I have a Colombian gold tegu, so he's a bit skittish compared to say a black and white. He's the only reptile I've had that seems to only tolerate me. I also handle all my amphibians (except the newt considering he's aquatic) to move them to feed, but I take all the safety precautions, using oil removing soap and keeping my hands moist, and washing them in between everyone I touch. It's a pain in the ass on feeding day.
