I’m at the vet with our tortoise (just a wellness check up - he’s good! 🐢) and I’m getting reports that my boyfriend is having trouble with a coworker.
By the way, the vet tech said they are always VERY excited to see an exotic pet for a wellness visit because they usually only see them when something is very wrong. Definitely take your exotics in for annual check ups if you can! 🐀🐍🦜🦎🦔🐸🐇
Our usual vet said that once when we brought one of our ex-battery caged (now retired garden) hens for a check-up. He appreciated the fact we kept them in excellent health.
Oh yeah, we take out pets to the local vet school, so you see like 2-4 people normally, but whenever we brought the chinchillas it would be more like 6-8 vets/techs/students. Like, hmm, not sure we needed an 8th opinion, but otoh they are very cute🤔
Also, they have cool stories. I'm lucky enough to have an exotic vet practice where I take my rabbits who does a lot of rescue work, pioneered a shell repair technique on turtles run over by cars, and has done surgery on sharks at the Shedd Aquarium.
i used to live around the corner of a vet who was specialized in exotic birds
he did the 'normal pets' too but it happened fairly frequently that you saw someone walk in/out with a big bird on their shoulders
This is Chester. He’s a Russian tortoise and I’ve had him for 16 years! He was angry to be in a bucket in a cold room and pooped on the vet but otherwise 💯👍🏻🏆
Could’ve used your pooping turtle during a doc visit a few years ago. Comment about my dad’s death from lung cancer, maybe 50+ years after he had quit smoking, “so he was a smoker.” Insulting and reductive. Studies show lung cancer risks go back to same as people who never smoked after a few years
CHESTER 😍😍 HI CHESTER!
I used to have a Greek called Rambo. He was amazing. He hated his glass and was happiest roaming the house, biting toes. He'd come when called and want a cuddle. Unfortunately he had cancer 😥 I still miss him.
I really like this enclosure - he has a wide range of temperatures and the little privacy area. For more enrichment I’ll put a blob of timothy hay in there for him to dig around in, or a tray of topsoil. Or suspend greens from above so he has to reach for them. Art by @reneefrench.bsky.social!
Timothy hay! Our Chinchilla eats little pellets made out of that. If you have a few weeks of spare time, dive-down the “chinchilla taking a bath YouTube video” rabbit-hole
