Know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em...

...to quote a few lines from an old Kenny Rogers song.  No, I'm not into country music, and no, this is not about holding your favorite reptile.  This is about when to keep you mouth shut when someone tells you some ridiculously tall stories about reptiles, and you want to inform them that they're misinformed, but...you don't.

The reason for this blog...I went to buy some fish food for my (legally obtained) alligator snapper.  When I was leaving the bait shop an older gentleman (think 70s probably) asked me if "the fish are biting."  I said no, that I was feeding a turtle.  Of course, to a fisherman, that's anathema!  Because turtles eat all the fish! 

Anyway, he proceeded to tell me that he has a huge snapping turtle in his pond.  All his friends want him to get rid of it, but he said it eats the excess bluegill, as he has too many in his pond.  I told him it would indeed eat the sick ones, etc, and that it was a good idea to leave the turtle there because the fish that survive will be bigger and more hearty.

Okay, he then tells me how it sits there with its mouth open, and the little "worm" in its mouth lures the fish in.  Huh?  I always thought that alligator snappers lived in big river systems, and they have the tongue lure, and common snapping turtles lived in farm ponds.   But I'm not going to tell this man he probably misidentified the turtle.  He'd probably deny me anyway.  After all, he knew his turtle, and I would just be going by heresay.

Then he told me if the "wood ducks" nested there, and the turtle started to eat the ducklings, the turtle would have to go.  He said the turtles just "suck the babies" down into the water.  Okay...another misunderstanding?  Better to let it go, i.e. hold 'em.

When trying to educate the public, you learn when to keep your mouth shut, just nod in agreement, and try to make positive remarks to offset some of the bad information, while not offending the person(s) you're speaking to, or just walk away on a, hopefully, positive note.   Know when to fold 'em!

To rehab...or not...

We recently acquired the rhinocerous iguana shown below.  I'm holding him to show how he looks.   His previous owner fell ill, and was hospitalized.  Due to the owner's health problems, the remainder of his collection was sold/given away.  The iguana was kept with the thought that perhaps if he got better, he would have something to "come home to."  Something to boost his spirits.  Alas he passed away, and the iguana was forgotten about.   Fast forward a few months, and the family realized this animal was more than they could properly care for.  As many of you know, rhino iguanas are not known for their wonderful temperments.

So we got a call and were apprised of the situation, and would we take the animal.  Of course we said yes, as we already have two rhino iguanas.  We did not realize what shape this animal was in.  After bringing him home, we questioned our sanity, and our resources.  This of course meant yet another cage to be built, with the hope that this animal will survive long enough to enjoy it. 

With that in mind, we wondered if we should even try to rehab him, or just have him euthanized.  Which is preferable?  How does the animal feel?  Is he in pain?  How's his attitude?  That alone made a big difference on what we planned to do, as he was feisty.    If he were lethargic, we may not have bothered with him.

So how does one go about rehabbing?  Our plan, so far, has been to keep him warm, and hydrated, and feed him every single day.  We are feeding him only vegetables, and some fruit.  We feed our other iguanas veggies, and some dog food, but he's too thin to try to pack on the pounds in a hurry.  We feel he needs to get his digestive system operating properly again, and give us some good looking stools.

The picture is him after a month in our care, so you can tell, he was almost more than emaciated.  He's actually gained weight in this picture.  Look at the folds of skin in his tail and rib cage.  With horses there is a scale called the Henneke scale, 1 being the thinnest (1=Poor:Emaciated. Prominent spinous processes, ribs, tailhead and hooks and pins. Noticeable bone structure on withers, shoulders and neck. No fatty tissues can be palpated), 9 being almost too fat.  This poor guy was a 1 or perhaps even a negative 1.

With any luck he'll start to really fill out, and we can call it a success.   Since starvation can hide other problems, and/or cause other problems, we'll probably consider him "out of the woods" a year from now.   These things cannot be rushed.  As much as we want him to be fat practically overnight, he didn't get skinny overnight, so it will take time to refit this very desirable animal.

If this all works out, we'll post pictures of the fully recovered animal.  His attitude, at this point, is "better" (read that to mean even more feisty) than when we originally retrieved him.