u/ConcertFriendly8223

Ever since I got my 2 year old Dachshund fudge (giant dog on the left) I’ve put a lot of effort into making sure he wasn’t reactive to other dogs. For the first year of his life, all was good. That is until my neighbors Cane Corso chased after us from across the street and I had to lift him up above my head to prevent him from being bitten until the dog could be recalled 15 minutes later. Though he wasn’t injured, fudge remains terrified of larger dogs (even though he lived with 2 in the past). For the past year, I’ve been training him to focus on me so that he doesn’t bark up a storm with his fear reactivity. So far , we’ve made great progress. Though he is unsure at times, I am always able to get him to refocus on me in public. He’s able to walk past large dogs now. The problem is that I think he is lonely. He went from playing with 2 dogs in a house with a yard to living in an apartment . Though I try and fulfill him with puzzles and such, he still seems down. At times, it seems that he wants to play with dogs he sees in public , but due to my fear of him being attacked, I never let him. He never goes to dog parks if other dogs are there. I posted about my predicament and was recommended to send him to this specific in home daycare for dachshunds. I figured since the are typically 5-7 dogs there, perhaps he could have an outlet were he could fulfill his want to play without being in a crowded area. I take him once a week and apparently he’s been having the time of his life. He’s still doing good with his training as well. He doesn’t try to approach dogs outside and is entirely in a focused heel during our walks. I had talked to someone about how happy he is at daycare and they mentioned that daycare makes reactivity worse and that it was terrible that I took him there. Just wanted some outside opinions haha.

TLDR: reactive dog is having great time at daycare but I am worried it might make his reactivity worse.

So I’ve had feeding issues with my ball python and ever since I got him. He would only eat rat fuzzies every 3 weeks. In desperation I gave him large mice instead and he ate them enthusiastically every week for months and put on quite a bit of weight. I was elated. Now that he is 400 grams he needed larger food so I got him weaned rats. Ik that rats are the most nutritious for them so I had always planned on switching. Well he won’t eat the rats. I tried giving him XL mice, he ate one but never had interest in eating any more. After a month long hunger strike I caved and cave him a large mouse like he was used to which he took happily. I’ve once again started trying to transition him to weaned rats and am loosing hope *sigh* he’s still young and I really don’t want his growth to slow.

What I’ve done:
-heating weaned rat with large mouse so they can smell similar?
-Blow drying prey (shows interest but leaves once he sees what it is)
-braining
- increasing humidity by 10%

Enclosure parameters:
50 gallon (planning on upgrading to 4x2x2 once eating consistently again)
Humidity at 70%
Hot side 94F cool side 72F

Ideally, I would have both lol. My partner said I could only have 1 more pet so here we are🥸 I’ve got a ball python and a Mexican black kingsnake and want to keep other reptiles.

I LOVE leachie geckos. They’re so frumpy looking. I recently got the opportunity to hold a few at repticon and I could really see myself having one. I enjoy how large they are as well. They do seem pretty pricey for certain morphs but for an animal that lives as long as they do it doesn’t bother me in the grand scheme of things. I heard that the need live bugs in addition to a powder diet. I will say I don’t enjoy the idea of keeping live bugs on hand all the time, It’s not a dealbreaker.

Crested have always been on my radar for a long time and every one I’ve interacted with has always been sweet. I do love how docile they are and heard leaches can be a bit cage aggressive. I absolutely adore harlequin morphs in particular. Cresties have such a large variety and seem a bit easier to care for.

Fudge is down 2 pounds! Which isn’t a lot but I’m happy to be getting somewhere. He’s now 22lb. I followed a bunch of the advice I was given on my previous post and I found that cutting his food from 1 cup to 2/3 of a cup daily beard on the calories he needs has worked wonders. I also give him fruit here and there. It’s quite hot where I’m at and since I work in the morning, I just made his evening walk twice the length so he’s out for about an hour a day.

Now onto the problems.Fudge is actively losing his mind over this diet. He started trying to eat his own poop, and is genuinely upset when I pick it up. I have to wrestle it away from him at times. When he sees anyone in the house eating he just sits down in front of them and whines. When I’m in the living room, he will go to his food bowl and whine. Last week he chewed through and ate a tissue box. Here’s whines at me particularly any time I sit down in his vicinity. I try and play with him once he’s quiet, but it’s as if he suddenly has no interest. My 2 roommates say he doesn’t whine at them as frequently

Here’s how I’ve tried to address the problems
- fudge has a bunch of flavored benebones to chew on to thwart his boredom. He doesn’t seem as interested anymore

- I’ve taken away his treat puzzles (since he can’t have treats) and substituted it with playing more tug of war with him. He gets tired of play pretty quickly and typically just leaves

-everyone in the house ignores him when he whines for their food. It’s been 2 weeks of this and it has yet to stop

-when he whines at me I calmly leave the room. When fudge is alone he’s pretty quiet and does nothing. I usually come back 5 minutes later to sit with him and relax . He typically starts up his whining routine within 10 minutes of my return.

Fudge never seems to want anything when he cries at me. He isn’t interested in play or going outside on walks. It’s only when I feed him his 2 meals does he settle down. I’m struggling of thinking of ways to engage him that don’t include food.

So I posted here previously about having trouble getting my ball python to eat for the first 4 months of having him. He’s only eat a fuzzy rat once a month when he was under a year old. After trying y’all’s suggestions I’ve been able to get him to eat large mice (17g) with the blow dry method. He has enthusiastically eaten every week for 3 months and has gained weight. YAY! Marmalade the snake is 320 grams now at a year old which means I have to increase the size of his food. I know that rats are better for them but he only eats them once in a blue moon even with the blow dry method. I’m stressed about starting this getting him to eat battle again and wanted some advice on how to switch him to rats that are larger. I know that XL mice are a thing but I’ve heard they aren’t great long term

I’ve had my kingsnake for over 3 months now and I can’t for the life of me think of a name for him. All my pets have food related names ( my dog’s name is fudge and my ball python’s name is marmalade) and Im having trouble with coming up finding something for him that fits that theme. I’m open to non food names as well but I also had no luck coming up with one other those lol.

I put pictures of the gang for inspo✨🧚‍♀️

Before getting a dachshund i did a bunch of research and found they are likely to gain weight. keeping my 2 year old mini dachshund fudge healthy was a priority. He gets a 30-40 minute walk daily and gets fed half a cup of food twice a day. No table food ever. At first everything was going great and he was toned. After a neutered him at 7 months old he just kept gaining weight.. I heard delaying a neuter prevents this but he was cryptorchid and the vet said it had to be done asap. At 10 months old fudge was 17lbs . The vet said he may be a medium instead of a mini so I shouldn’t be concerned. Fudge is now 2 and 25lbs. The vet said I wasn’t over feeding him and it was most likely the purina one food I was giving him that was to blame. They said he maxed out their small animal scale and should loose 5lbs. I changed the food. I give him low calorie treats like twice a week. I’ve tried exercising him more. He’s still big;-; I’m so worried for his back and overall health.any advice?

I’m got my first ball python marmalade last year and he’s been lovely. I had some feeding issues that I’ve managed to get through and he’s been doing great! I got a Mexican black kingsnake this past March as well. I’ve recently been wanting a leucistic or super fire snake, but boas and rainbow boas may get way too large for me in my opinion. I feel like a BEL ball python is a great option but I don’t want to be hasty. What’s y’all’s opinions on keeping just ball pythons or a variety of snakes?

I’m a newish snake owner and would love to potentially have a boa some day :D At the moment , I have a juvenile ball python and a juvenile Mexican black kingsnake. I’ve recently fallen in love with boa’s but I want to make sure I’m well informed. I do now that they can be a bit larger. Is there anything particular extenuating about owning them otherwise? I’m think of getting one in a year or 2 so I thought I’d ask to see if they are a good fit.

About me:

-Grad student

-Working so enclosures and stuff won’t be a problem financially

- have had my ball python for a year. And my kingsnake for 2 months. Waiting 2 years before getting any more animals.(Will be my last)

-live in an apartment but should have space to fit a 6x3x3

*pick of my Bp marmalade for exposure;)