Our other animals

Some of you may know that we don't just have dogs. We also have 3 hamsters (Fuzzle, Jet and Honey), a Siamese fighting fish (Ketchup) and a mosaic king snake (Khobi) who was one of Oscar's birthday presents.

Honey and Khobi are new additions.

We also had 2 budgies (Lemon and Lime, aka Anabella & Joey respectively) who last night had to go to a new home. Oscar has been a bit wheezy over the summer and has been diagnosed with asthma. He's physically fit and does a lot of sports so has an inhaler which he takes responsibility for using as and when he needs to. Unfortunately, the birds affected his breathing at home. They were kept in a different room so that the dogs didn't try to say hello and I ended up cleaning them out daily, vacuuming up any rogue feathers etc but it made no difference. There was a definite difference in his breathing as soon as he walked through the front door at times. So we had to let them go.

It's taken about 3 months to find a home I was happy with. They went to a friend of my Mom's who keeps pigeons. As well as that his young Son loves birds and has his own aviary. The budgies of course have each other but now they will have other birds to associate with too. We can go and visit anytime so I know they will be happy there.

We also now have problems with Khobi (snake) who is refusing to eat. Snakes can go for ages without food and if he was an adult I wouldn't be too worried. But he is just a baby. At only 5 months old, with a lifespan of around 15 years, it's not healthy for him to stop eating. So he is back with the people I bought him from. They will get him eating again and then he can come home. We can't handle him properly until he eats and is comfortable in his surroundings so Oscar is excited about him coming back home and we can at least have him out, handle him properly and let him swim in the bath.
Hopefully Khobi can come home next week and life will return to normal.

Laura xx

sounds liek a busy household you have!! Sorry to hear you had to give up your budgies but atleast they are somewhere they will be well looked after and you can go see them if you like.
I do hope your snake will be ok and will be back home with you soon.

I also have other pets.

I have 2 cats. A black cat called HArris whom we rescued as a 5 and a half month old kitten from CP he is now 3. We had alsorts of issues with him form the start from being told he was neutered then being told when we went to get him that he hadnt infact been neutered (obv we got that sorted pretty quick) we were also told he was litter trained, again he wasnt so that was a long slow process to get sorted as we finally realised he would only use compost!! (he was found wandering outside at 2month old suffering from severe cat flu) Got him onto wood pellets now. He has also just recently been diagnosed with having cholangiohepatitis which affects his liver but thankfully with the right vet care we have caught it early enough and he will recover from it. Off all his meds now with 1 last blood test to go then hopefully the all clear!! He also loves nothing better than headbutting you at 3am to eithe rget under the quilt with you or lay on top and get a cuddle and by cuddle i actually mean you have to put your arm round him to settle him and he will put his paw on you!!

We also have a tortie girl whom again we rescued from CP but a different branch. She was 13month when we got her she had also suffered from bad flu, she is also now 3. Both of them had an issue with each other to start with but they are now fine but still have the occassional growl and hiss at each other. She is a very timid cat and is only just starting to adjust to our latest addition of barney the springer spaniel. She is very much a mums girl too, to the extend she lays on my legs/feet all night!!

A busy household with pets, im glad we no longer have our 3 tropical aquariums aswell now!!!

Sounds like quite the zoo! Love to see pics if you can get any

Sorry about the budgies (they are lovely little things, arent they!) but at least Oscar finds things easier and you can visit them, which is always nice
I've got a couple of fussy feeding snakes myself, so have plenty of tips if Khobi decides to be difficult again lol

Oh lovely - a menagerie. I used to have a menagerie (I sometimes wonder now how I found the time to cope with it all and kids and husband and job) but I think it actually HELPED me cope (especially with the husband bit!)

If I have to choose ONE type of animal to share with it will always be a dawg. But I do love all other sorts of creatures too (apart from entymological species)

HI All,

I'll try to get some photos up later tonight.

Unfortunately, Khobi won't be difficult with his feeding anymore. He died this afternoon.

He wasn't weak, dehydrated or ill in any way. But as he hadn't fed in a while he had to be force fed. He took the food quite easily but his stomach couldn't deal with it and he passed away.

As a gesture of good will, the snake people offered us another snake, completely free. Very nice of them and I was going to say no. I want Khobi back. But Oscar was with me and as Khobi was an early birthday present for him, he said he still wanted a snake. So now we have a milk snake called Spot.

For those who don't know, milk snakes have stripes which is why he is called Spot. They look like coral snakes which are venomous but they have a black stripe either side of the red and yellow ones. If the red and yellow stripes are together, it's not a milk snake (so I'm told).

Spot is 14 weeks old, very quick when he does decide to move, shakes his tail like a rattlesnake if being defensive and has a big lump almost in the middle of him which used to be a mouse.

We have to wait a couple of days before handling him as he's just eaten but then we can get him out. If he does strike for any reason he won't cause any damage. He's not big enough. But we can at least get him into the bath and let him stretch out properly and have a swim.

I was told we were just unlucky with Khobi and it can so easily happen with baby snakes. So I'll probably panic next week if Spot doesn't take his mouse.

I'll get some pictures up later of Spot (assuming he hasn't buried himself in the aspen) and the other animals we have.

Laura xx

We, here he is. This is Spot. He doesn't stretch himself out too often so this is the best photo I could get atm. When he goes into the bath early next week (a couple of days after eating) I'll get better pictures.

We've had Spot now for a week so Ihad to feed him today for the first time since bringing him home. We were told he feeds really well but I didn't hold out much hope after what happened to Khobi.

Anyway, I tried him with the mouse which he initially missed, clearly thinking my thumb looked more appetising. The second attempt resulted in a successful strike.

It took Spot about 15 minutes to swallow the whole mouse. Once it had passed his neck there was no visual sign that he'd eaten ie. we couldn't see a lump where the mouse was. So next week if we cannot see where the mouse bump is after eating, he will get 2 mice. He'll then have 2 mice every week until again we cannot see a bump. Then he moves up to the next sized mouse.

So I'm really pleased. I was worried that I had done something terribly wrong with the last snake but today has brought back my confidence a little bit.

Laura xx

Hi All,

I have nice news and not so nice news.

Fuzzle, our mostly white with a brown bit hamster died this morning.

He was absolutely fine until about 10 days ago then suddenly he seemed to be almost permanently asleep. He didn't open his eyes but he did sniff out his dinner and treats. He wouldn't take water so I tried to give him some with a small dropped. He refused it.

He then took his treats out of his bowl yesterday but didn't eat them.

He was about 2 1/2 years old which is old for a hamster. I told Oscar before he went to his Dad's for the week that I thought Fuzzle was dying. Better that Oscar is there than here to see him as he would get upset and it's better he remembers him climbing the bars of his cage etc.

RIP baby Fuzzle. xx




On a somewhat lighter note - we already have a tropical fish (the blue fighter fish) and Oscar loves tropical fish. So again as the last part of his birthday present (he was 9 last Saturday) he had a large tank with 3 Bala Sharks and 5 Platties. The Platties (5 of them) are like little yellow Pikachus in fish form! This is the best picture of the sharks.



So we've had up and downs this summer with the animals which started with our first snake dying. Hopefully things will look up now and get better. Our current animals (fish and snake included) are all thriving. With any luck, Fuzzle dying will be the last of bad things to happen (yes I know it happens but it's not easy to take).

Laura xx