A Little :/

[kiffie]

Recently there was a post on stupidpetowners about a woman in Ohio who kept a box turtle in a glass tank. The turtle was small and deformed and seriously ill. The poster made the point that glass tanks are horrible for turtles, so, of course, this made me go ;_; and be paranoid that I'm not providing for Timmy like I should.

I knew right off when we got Timmy that he really should be kept outside and that tanks were not so great. At the time, we knew it was impossible simply by location -- we don't own this house, and there are possums and raccoons that would love to om nom nom a small, stupid turtle.

Which made me even more paranoid. Right off, should we have surrendered Timmy to a rescue? Would they have been able to find a better home for him?

Even with the walks and the delicious salads and the HAY YOU BATH TIEM, I feel that, just by not keeping him outside, I'm committing some horrible crime that the pet police will come and get me for.

Which then brings me to this -- if the turtle is happy, healthy, and well-fed, but lives in a tank, what gives? Hell, he probably has Stockholm Syndrome, for all I know.

"I IS PEOPLE I LIVE IN BOX!" B|

Uhn. This is ridiculous. Why am I panicing over this?

Comments

[lilblueunicorn.livejournal.com]

I know it's not "ideal" (it's not really ideal for any fish, if you think about it) but the fact of the matter is, I've kept bettas for over a year in a bowl with no ill effects. And they can be kept in a bowl without dying. It's not like you put them in a bowl and immediately they shrivel up and die.

I don't mind people telling me that, I just don't like people acting superior and berating me over it, this girl was mean and snotty about it and that's why I got upset. I wouldn't have gotten upset had she said it like you did. I didn't like the fact that she implied I was abusing my animal, when I wasn't.

-§parky

[edward-hyde.livejournal.com]

aaa~ well I have to nitpick that too. :o It's kind of like a less obvious version of the mistaken logic "but I kept a goldfish in a bowl for two years, so it must be okay to do so" when a goldfish's lifespan is like 30 years and their actual adult size is pretty huge. But so many generations of people kept them in bowls without filters, that now the general public thinks a goldfish only lives one or two years, and that a baby-sized goldfish is a mature adult.

I've read accounts of bettas living five or...I want to say like eight years, kept with the tank and the heat and the filter and stuff. As well as some pretty dramatic changes in color, alertness, behavior and things. Stuff and things. Scientific terms, you know. ._.

[lilblueunicorn.livejournal.com]

*shrug* Like I said, if the girl had been civil about it, I wouldn't have gotten so upset. The way she said it though was so inflammatory and assinine that it made me want to slap her upside the head.

I've never heard of bettas living that long. Then again, I've only ever gotten bettas from wal-mart that are already 1-2 years old. I've never bought from a breeder, or even an upscale petshop. Just wal-mart.

-§parky

[edward-hyde.livejournal.com]

Might be worth a shot, though. I think some of the pet forum people had good luck with some of the healthier "from a kinda cruddy place" bettas and a good setup. You never know, right? :D?

[lilblueunicorn.livejournal.com]

If I ever get another betta again, I'll look into it.

-§parky

[kiffie.livejournal.com]

I love how all my internet friends can have intellegent pet discussions, even if they disagree.

I wish my irl friends were like that. :/

[edward-hyde.livejournal.com]

I *can* have intelligent pet discussions, but I admit I degenerate into ARGH I'MA COME UP THERE AND MURDER EVERYTHING YOU HOLD DEAR a little easier than I'd like. X3 I couldn't help it, Del was approached by this lady who'd let a snake get so infested with mites that you could just brush them off and your hand would be covered in blood, and they were keeping it on sand, and slkhfdhgkdghdjh

Although that was more like me yelling to myself/del instead of at the lady who was not on the internet. X3 Then I gave del many articles of science and help to print off for the lady. B|

...I never did find out if they saved the snake. :(

(And then there was the guy who was housing multiple snakes with a drastic size difference in the same enclosure, to say nothing of the fact that it was about the worst possible enclosure for burrow-dwelling ground snakes like ball pythons, and aaaaaaaa X| )

[kiffie.livejournal.com]

And then there was the guy who was housing multiple snakes with a drastic size difference in the same enclosure, to say nothing of the fact that it was about the worst possible enclosure for burrow-dwelling ground snakes like ball pythons, and aaaaaaaa X|

I remember that.

At least they (eventually) fixed it. It would have been a great tank for an arboreal species, but alas, some people think all snakes live in trees. (AUGH BEES TREES!)

As for the mites... WTF. I want to steal animals from people like that. And then beat the people severely. Or possibly give them FLEAS so they know what it feels like to be covered in tiny, blood-sucking things. B|

[edward-hyde.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the ball python guy got his act together, gave the snakes good seperate enclosures, and now has a rescue (unwanted older/neglected pet, not pet store rescue) iguana living in the big arboreal tank. I helped him find iguana stuff. :) So at least one of those two awful recent stories has a good ending.

[lilblueunicorn.livejournal.com]

Aw, thanks Kiffie. ;D

-§parky

[kiffie.livejournal.com]

:3