critter update!

ok, I am pretty sure I introduced Jenny here when I got her in May.., she is still doing great..although I dont even bother keeping her caged exept for out times anymore, she has run of 2 rooms in my basement(when I tried to bring her upstairs, she kept opening the gate and sneaking back down lol) when I tried keeping her caged, she just jumped out, no matter how high I built her pen! now I just close and lock her cage at bedtime and open it when I get up in the morning.

now for the BIG news! at the begining of this year we came into contact with a wonderful breeder in Quebec, he is a "mass" rodent breeder, but unlike most, he actually cares. he pays attention to what he is breeding, regularly imports fresh blood to avoid inbreeding, and researches genetics, he handles his animals, ensures nice temperments. and he goes way above and beyond. this guy flew to Europe and drove to Vermont for us, just to make sure we got what we wanted, and all he charged us was the flat cost of the critters and shipping from Quebec to here, thats it. even a month later he is still in contact with us, wanting to know how the critters are doing :) what did we get? we got 5 new Gerbils and a new Snake.

Chlesey, a Grey Agouti; Prize, a Slate; Munchkin, a heavy mottled black; Spirit, a gorgous Siamese. these 4 came from Europe.

Spook, a lovley Schimmel, he is a pretty boy of this guys own Breeding.

and Miami, a very big(33.5" and about to shed) female Checkered Garter Snake from southern Florida.

we had critters for some other people to ship with us to split the cost of the shipping. 4 Spiney Mice, 2 Steppe Lemmmings and 4 Blue Degu's. the mice and Lemmings were at our place for a few days before their owners could pick them up, we totally fell in love with the Steppe lemmings, so there owner promised to keep us updated on their kiddies! we wouldnt breed lemmings, we are just considering getting couple males for pets :p

the Birdies are much happier now...I got them a new cage to help out before, but basicly Electra is so obbessed with being with me that I couldnt get in the basement without her, and I couldnt let the birds out with her around..she tries to eat them. in one intance I tried crating and muzzeling her in the basment with me, so she could still see me..when she saw the birds, she broke out of the crate, out of the muzzle, and I was beating her on the head trying to make her let go of Toivo. :eek: ya, "danger" was not the least of it! sooo..I finally got enugh money for a door. I basilcy had a very strong high quality deadbolting screen door special made to fit over my basement stairs. the bottom is solid, and there is a retractable screen at the TOP of the door..where non of the dogs can reach. this way we dont loose light and ventilation to the basment, while providing very safe protection to my birds. they are much happier getting to leave the cage without fearing for their life!

now we will be living in exitment for a year lol, we just heard from the breeder in Quebec, he finally got in contact with a breeder in Europe who has the dilute colour mutation(she has Blue) and a coat mutation called Angora. these are mutations that do not exist in north america at all, and she agree'd to keep a bunch of these for him until he goes back to Europe in September to pick them up. some would be for his own breeding and some would be for us :D we are super exited now and we will be planning our breedings now to be able to incorperate these new mutations a year from now!

my bad, apperently as of June this year there actually is Dilute gerbils in North america, however the AGS(a laughable "registry") is keeping them under lock and key and only certain AGS breeders are allowed to touch them :rolleyes:. sucks to be them..we will just import our own lol