[nepenthes]

Well, Hey guys! I love animals, Insects, and well wildlife in general. Ive always had pets, and things like that. I used to have a couple Tarantulas, and ferrets, and my Carnivorous plants. Nepenthes is a carnivorous plant and is my favorite genus so, thats how I got my online name.

I had to give the ferrets away cause my mom didnt like the smell that the two of them made (we had just gotten a male to so that could have been part of it) But, even though I cleaned out their cage regularly, (2-3 times a week) she made me get rid of them. So feeling bad about making me get rid of them she let me get a couple tarantulas, well I had them for a month before We had a fire, I lost all my pets (and large Carnivorous plant collection except the outdoor ones), the dogs were outside though so they were fine. Thank god we gave away the ferrets, i would have felt so bad if they had been stuck in the fire.

But The house is almost fixed! And my mom agreed I could get a small animal, And Ive considered a rat lately, and I've finally made up my mind on a Rat, so I'm going to be doing my research while I can on rats till we move back in! I used to have hamsters and Mice when I was younger but I didn't put any research into it and just bought stuff at the store like the food and little plastic cages. So this time I'll be a little more careful about what I buy. Ive been browsing the forum so far, just seeing what is all here, and I cant wait!

Other than Biology and Wildlife, (that being keeping pets too), I plan on majoring in photography, in fact my mom helped me invest in a Camera as well, a nice DSLR. I have Beehives, I also love music, I play Reed instruments, Guitar Bass, keyboard, and the choir teacher finally convinced me to do Choir my senior year. Other than that, Im a rather leftist guy, but im not all "ANARCHY HAHAHHAA DOWN WITH THE GOVERNMENT!", Cause it just doesn't work that way, but it just makes me sick the way things are done, and we have let it go on for so long. If my mom let me I would get a nice big yellow mow hawk, with checkers shaved into my head. But That wont happen any time soon so ill just have to wait another year.

But basically just wanted to say Hi!

 

[Forensic]

Welcome. I'm sorry about the fire and your spiders and plants.

 

[nepenthes]

Hey its OK, It was kind of sad cause they couldn't get away from the fire. But, Things happen that are out of my control, but Its just good I'm fine.

 

[renay]

... a yellow mow hawk... haha.
Rats are great pets, you should make sure your mom will be willing to let you have 2 small pets though, as rats do better in pairs. Also same sex pairs is very important, there are many things to learn, but you've come to the right place to learn it, you'll find that many people here are very educated when it comes to rats. Enjoy

 

[nepenthes]

Oh trust me the Second I get one I will show you all. The mow hawk and the rat. Wouldn't it be cool to be able to breed Hairless Rats To get Mow hawks, talk about best rats ever.

 

[renay]

...my dog has a mow hawk. but shes not hairless. lol

oh and since you're an "evil" plant buff.. how on earth do you keep venus fly traps alive. I'm great with normal plants, but i could never keep a venus flytrap alive

 

[Kimmiekins]

Hi, fellow Ohio person. Welcome.

 

[nepenthes]

VFT's they need NO nutrients in the soil and they like it acidic, and Pure water like RO water, with a low of PPM 100 at the most (i just buy pure water from the store but since I lost most my plants I don't have to buy an RO unit) Most tap water and Well Water is WAY over it. They grow in bogs, so they need wet soil, I usualy have them in 2 inches of water via tray. They also need a dormancy (they are native to NC). and you cant poke them ALL the time, the leafs can only close so many times, and No burger meat! Let them catch their own prey and Bask in FULL sun.

Thats a quick run down on how to keep them, and almost every US native CP (Carnivorous plant) and most others too but their are like 8 different kinds of CPs. But I wont devulge to much into that ill let you do your own research, its quite addicting.

www.terraforums.com (great CP forum use the search!)

Hurrah for Ohio!

 

[renay]

LMAO, speaking of burger meat, its kinda funny you mentioned that, my dad used to drive truck between canada and the states, and on one trip he bought my mom this pretty big venus flytrap... anyway after a while they thought it wasn't catching its own food, so dad fed it hamburger meat.. he killed it. When he told me that i laughed sooo hard, i asked him if he thought a venus fly trap in the wild would eat a cow. then he finally saw what he'd done wrong.

 

[nepenthes]

Unfortunetaly Many people do this, but most VFTs are Tissue Culltured so they can be grown by the thousands. But their are to many poaters (spelling?) out their, so sadly people steal from the already diminishing population, and the VFTS are ultimately doomed to die. Same thing goes with other CPS like Sarracenia and Drosera (north american pitcher platns, and sundews).

This place is great it has allot of good links, and information.

 

[mopydream44]

how interesting Welcome to the forums.......I think it'll be fun having you around

 

[renay]

Yeah this forum has helped me through a lot with my girls. I went from being an ignorant rat owner, to a pretty well educated one just in a few months, its amazing what you can find on the internet when you actually look for it

 

[nepenthes]

Thats where I do all my research! And I try to compare it to as many sources as possible as well as real people even though they can be rather, well, ignorant. Thats what this forum is for, except the ignorant part, I hope! Thanks for the Warm welcome! I probably wont be getting my new rats soon so I have plenty of time to find out what I need!

 

[renay]

Thats probably the best take on it, if you wait and learn all you can before hand, that way there you can provide the best care possible for your new friends. And for the most part the people here are extremely well educated in atleast a few things regarding rats. I think we're all uneducated in a few things but eventually we'll get them right and we wont be ignorant at all lol

 

[nepenthes]

Cant wait to get a nice little pair of rats. I still cant decide on the sex though!

 

[renay]

There was a poll done here not too long ago, most people had males i believe, I have females, I like that they're active, because so am i. Then again, I wouldn't mind having a lazy little bugger every now and again to, but Piggle is close enough I guess. whatever you chose I'm sure you'll love it. Oh yeah, females tend to smell less to, that was definately a + as my boyfriend and his whole family are allergic to animals

 

[nepenthes]

Well like from what Ive read I think I would like a pair male, but A lazy female and active one wouldn't be bad either!

 

[renay]

lol its to find one, each rat has a different temperament, I've always wanted to be picked by a rat rather than pick a rat, if I could actually GO to the shelter where I'm adopting my rats it would make a difference, but it is very far away, so I'm going to have to meet them in the middle lol.

 

[nepenthes]

Wow, my mom started talking to me about rats today, so shes kind of interested, she used to have some but they were VERY aggressive, so it was give them away or my dad would kill them. She gave them away thankfully, which I didn't know before that she even had them. But she wanted to know where they would go when I go off to college, cause the one I want to go to doesn't allow Pets that aren't in aquariums (fish basically). But I could get a 10 gallon Aquarium tank, but That probably wouldn't fly! And ill be like an hour and a half from home. so A daily trip would be a long and expensive one to see the rats! But She though that the African Gambian Pouched Rats were really cool, but to bad they are illegal! I cant wait! But this also means Ill be back in school, but who cares!

 

[renay]

hm...a 10 gallon is too small for rats, a 20gallon would do the trick though. And its good that you get your parents interested, mine never really cared lol whenever somebody brought up the fact that we had rats it was the old "ah thats renays thing" lol, they figured it was a phase... not quite lol.