u/No-Sir-9056

This is Trans Agenda the dynamax Hatterene I’ve been raising since a Hatenna and today I finally got to evolve her into her final evolution! Honestly so happy ngl, it’s like watching my child grow up.

And before anyone says I’m being a transphobic weirdo for naming my Pokemon that.. I’m trans, so uh 😛 just silliness here! No malice, she just is The Trans Agenda lol.

For context this is Stinky, I’ve had her for about 8-9 years now and we had a horrible situation a few years ago. I’m a teenager (15) and I got my musk turtle when I was around 7 as a birthday present, I’d been asking for a turtle for a long time at that point and she was the best thing to ever happen to me. I remember when she was just the size of a toonie, truly just a little baby, and everything was fine until my parents divorced when I was 9. My dad cheated on my mom and my mom took us and left, leaving my poor turtle behind. I begged for us to go back for her, I even reached out to my dad to ask for her back, but he held her hostage. Eventually a court order said that me and my siblings would go between houses, so I finally got to see Stinky again, and everything was right in the world again until the woman my dad cheated on my mom with moved in with him. I’ll refer to her as the Mistress in this.

Right off the bat she hated me and my brothers, and she would manipulate us by hurting the things we loved most, and for me that was Stinky. She had kids, and her youngest was once refusing to help clean up his toys while we were in the middle of moving, so my dad said that if he didn’t clean up his toys that he would throw them in the trash. The Mistress did not take this lightly, and she said that if my dad was gonna throw away her kids things, then she was gonna throw away his kids things. I was in the basement at the time so I couldn’t stop her, but she took Stinky out of her tank and threw her as hard as she could into an empty metal trash can. This is where the euthanasia conversation comes in.

Stinky fractured her skull, her head got pinned between her shell and the side of the trash can and it crushed her little head. You can actually see the scar in the 3rd photo attached to this post, it’s near the back of her head partially inside her skin folds. I was horrified, and so was my dad, but he refused to take her to a vet. I ended up running with Stinky to my mom’s house so she could get medical attention, but by the time she got surgery to realign her skull plates the neurological damage had already been done. Stinky is crippled, permanently, there’s no going back from this. We can do as much physical therapy as we want but it won’t fix her broken brain, and our vet recommended euthanasia if we couldn’t care for a disabled turtle, and we debated for a long time, reached out to multiple vets, and ended up not euthanizing her. I’m so happy we gave her a chance to live again.

This whole incident was 3 years ago and Stinky has made a miraculous recovery, even if the brain damage is still there. I was reminded of her recovery this morning when I actually saw her catch a fish (a platy colony we have in her tank for enrichment) and I burst out crying because that’s the first fish she’s been able to catch in years. I am so glad we didn’t euthanize her, she’s persevered in ways nobody thought she could, and I love her so so much. The neurological damage was to her cerebellum, so the issue is balance related, she can’t swim right, and she wobbles and falls over when she walks, but we’ve made changes to her enclosure to accommodate these issues. She has a ramp to her basking platform, the water is shallower so she doesn’t risk drowning, and she has a ton of little decorations in her tank that she can pull herself up against to breathe.

I felt like I should share Stinky’s story here, just to show her perseverance in life and how we both survived a horrible household. And again I was reminded of her drive to survive by her managing to catch a fish this morning, she truly is my miracle baby, I love her so much, and I hope my little turtle’s battle to live can bring you all hope that things can get better in life. Because if a little turtle can go through so much and still catch a fish then you can get through whatever is happening in your life too, no matter what scars you bear afterwards.

Thank you for reading.

Nothing wrong with my fish, I just felt like I should include them because they’re silly, but what are the benefits and cons to flakes and pellets? I’ve used both in the time I’ve had my fish and I’m curious about what yall prefer for your fishies! I’ve noticed that Raw Chicken (the white orando) prefers pellets as it’s easier for her to eat, but Microsoft Word Document (the long common) prefers flakes and refuses to eat pellets. Jack Sparrow (the scaleless calico orando) eats either without issue, but I feed her a different mix of food to help with her slime coat because she had a really rough start to her life.

Some pros I’ve noticed about flakes:
- usually cheaper
- easy to feed fish
- readily available at all pet stores

Some cons I’ve noticed about flakes:
- really messy, they miss half the flakes it gets everywhere and spikes ammonia
- clogs my filter if it gets stuck on it
- smells really bad sometimes
- Raw Chicken sometimes refuses to eat them

Some pros I’ve noticed about pellets:
- available at almost all pet stores
- doesn’t smell as bad
- much easier to clean up
- fish (except Doc) don’t have issues eating them and there’s less wasted food

Some cons I’ve noticed about pellets:
- soaking certain brands to get the bubbles out is mildly annoying
- Doc hates them
- if they get into my filter it makes my cartridges disgusting really fast
- sometimes more expensive then flakes

What are yalls preferences? I’m using flakes currently but I alternate between them depending on what I buy at the store, it just happens to be flakes this month. Also if any of Yall have suggestions about what breed my fish are that’s also welcome! I’m purely guessing based off what stores told me, and Jack Sparrow is a complete mystery but I think she’s a hybrid.

I pretty much just started playing Pokemon Go again after losing my account last year, and these are the shinys I’ve caught in about a month! They’re all pretty mid quality but they’re shiny so I don’t care lol, Lemon the Arcanine is probably my favourite since she was my buddy Pokemon for a while, but they’re all loved! (Except for maybe the really weak shiny sudowoodo, that thing took forever to catch lol)

I didn’t really know where to post this, but how would I make these eyes close entirely? It’s a rig using a string attached to eyelids that are connected to a toothpick with the eye itself on it, so when I pull the string its eyes open, but I can’t find a way to make them close properly? I’ve considered using elastics but that would cover the eye somewhat.

I’ve posted a lot about my baby Cinnamon on here and I’ve always been quite confident that she’s female, but she has this weird lump right after her cloaca on only one side, and I’ve only ever seen this in males with swollen hemipenes. I’m worried I’ll hurt her if I try to pop out hemipenes, but I’m also worried about her health. Has anyone seen this in corn snakes, regardless of gender? I’d like to know if this is vet worthy.

Just took Cinnamon out on a desensitization walk and she behaved very well! We went on a loop of my complex with her in my hands and she was a good little noodle, very curious and silly.

It’s crazy to think this is the same snake who would relentlessly bite me a couple months ago, all the cuddling and braving her definitely life-threatening bites (she’s not holding me at gunpoint I swear yall) paid off and now I have a well behaved little spaghetti noodle. Gold stars for everyone and their tamed spicy nope ropes!

I bought a snail a long time ago (2-3 years ago) for my goldfish tank because the algae was getting annoying, and I didn’t expect him to last long but he’s still alive and thriving! Should I get him some friends? My ex named him Buttmuncher as a joke and it stuck, also the photo isn’t mine! It’s just a generic picture of his species because I’m away from home right now. How long can I expect my little snail buddy to live + should I get him some friends?

I need help. I have been posting about Cinnamon on here for weeks, and I need someone to tell me their honest opinion on what is wrong with my snake and why they think that. I’ve had people say she’s overweight, she’s underweight, that she’s on the brink of starving to death, that she’s dying, and I genuinely don’t know what to do anymore. A vet isn’t necessary in this situation because I know this is a husbandry issue, but what am I doing wrong? I live with my mom and we haven’t moved Cinnamon to my room yet, which is cat free, so I know that is an issue, but is there anything wrong with my baby? This is my first snake and I want to know what I can change to let her live out her days in peace, please help.

This is Cinnamon, she’s my baby, and she keeps refusing to drink from her water dish. We’ve been manually getting her hydrated by spraying her with some water in the hopes she’ll drink it but we want her to actually use her water dish, any ideas?

Drew a sleepy baby! I know it’s not entirely accurate but this lil guy is very eepy fr. He looks very sassy.

I should clarify I AM NOT POSTING PALEOART PLS DONT REMOVE MY POST THIS IS A DISCUSSION

I was trying to figure out how a front facing raptor (ignore the lack of feathers, I add those last and this was a sketch) would look with its eyes and I created this.. creature. It looks like one of those creepypasta dinosaur comics😭✌️