Snakes, Spiders And All Kinds Of Animals

This morning, I fed two short-tailed opossums, a Sugar Glider, Two Southern Flying Squirrels, an Iguana, 2 box turtles, a Guinea Pig named Reggie, 2 ferrets, a European Collared Dove and a Cusimanse Mongoose named Mister. Yesterday, I fed two Patagonian Cavies, two raccoon (one of them is albino), 2 outdoor Cusimanse Mongooses,  2 Capybara , 2 White tailed deer, 2 Ring-Tailed Lemurs, a  Virginia Opossum, a Moluccan Cockatoo, a Blue and Gold Macaw and the Cuisimanse Mongoose named Mister. I also fed our cats and my daughter's snake, an Okeetee Corn Snake named Precious.

I used to feed Leo, the Boa Constrictor a live rat every two weeks. I would go to Plano Pets and pick up a rat. Then I would put Leo in his feeding crate with the rat and Leo would have lunch. Fortunately, now Leo eats defrosted frozen rats. When my daughter and I volunteered, we fed and looked after the live room animals, which included non-venomous snakes, large geckos, a Blue-tongued skink,  box turtles, a couple of tanks of fish, tarantulas, Madagascar hissing cockroaches and a real cool looking salamander.

A lot of people would say "Eww" when I told them that I looked after snakes and tarantulas. I think snakes and tarantulas are cool. You have to show them proper respect, like you do all wildlife, but they are really interesting creatures. One of the snakes I looked after was a Rough Green Snake. They look just like a vine. They can't harm you, they don't have teeth, they eat crickets. They can, however, musk you. That's where they spray you with a foul smelling liquid if they feel threatened or if you want to clean the snake's cage and it doesn't want it's cage cleaned. It's their method of self-defense.

I love working with animals of all different kinds. We have a "Mystery Spider" at the museum that would probably send some people to the top of chairs shrieking, but I think it's really cool. I'd love to learn more about it. A couple of guys were afraid to go in this one room in the museum because they said there was a tarantula on the counter, but it was just the shed of a tarantula and would not harm a fly. I reassured them that it was not a live tarantula.

My daughter had the job of packing up a bug exhibit last year. It was a little extra money for her. She's done the live room a lot and knows what she's doing. She packed up tarantulas, including a bird-eating tarantula, which is about the size of a dinner plate, scorpions (emperor scorpions which can't harm people), various cockroaches, a huge Katydid and lots of crabs. She did a real good job. She got a Halloween Crab and took wonderful care of it. His name was George. She loves crabs, lobsters and most crustaceans. She's no girly-girl and I like that. She loves snakes, lizards and all animals. She's not real crazy about cockroaches but they aren't high on any popularity list.

I don't fit in with a lot of people because most people don't like snakes, spiders, lizards and unusual insects. When I'm not with my family or museum friends, I have to be careful what I talk about, people get grossed out about defrosted dead mice being fed to snakes. They get antsy at the thought of feeding live crickets, mealworms and earthworms to various animals. Maybe I should just discuss politics.