WaterRaven
New Member
- Messages
- 24
Hey everyone.
Longtime animal handler and educator here. I grew up in Florida originally, so it's no surprise that as an animal lover, I'm a huge reptile fan.
My first real experience with reptiles was in university where I volunteered at a herpetarium. The animals there were primarily kept for genetic studies. Students at the university would breed the reptiles to get different morphs and then the animals were sold by the professor and volunteers at expos. So it was kind of neat in that it was a breeding facility but also utilized by students. None of the animals were tested on, it wasn't that kind of facility. The students just got to produce cool morphs for their projects and labs
As a volunteer I got to handle, feed, collect the eggs and live-born babies, and of course clean, clean, clean. I loved it. Our largest animal was a common boa and she was just lovely.
Later I moved into wildlife rehabilitation. I worked for a rehab center until I graduated from university. After I graduated and moved home, I became an outreach educator for a not for profit--and that's where I got to work with my first tegus! The facility had quite a few reptiles for outreach, but the black and white tegus were my favorite. The red tegu was a sweetie too, but the b&ws stole my heart. I worked with a water monitor as well and she was a wonderful creature.
I ended up switching careers after working for the not for profit and left the animal field for a while, but I really miss working with reptiles and am ready to have my own and here I am
I'm planning on getting my first at-home tegu and wanted to make sure I was up to speed with the current knowledge on proper housing and husbandry.
So hello and thanks for taking the time to read
Longtime animal handler and educator here. I grew up in Florida originally, so it's no surprise that as an animal lover, I'm a huge reptile fan.
My first real experience with reptiles was in university where I volunteered at a herpetarium. The animals there were primarily kept for genetic studies. Students at the university would breed the reptiles to get different morphs and then the animals were sold by the professor and volunteers at expos. So it was kind of neat in that it was a breeding facility but also utilized by students. None of the animals were tested on, it wasn't that kind of facility. The students just got to produce cool morphs for their projects and labs
As a volunteer I got to handle, feed, collect the eggs and live-born babies, and of course clean, clean, clean. I loved it. Our largest animal was a common boa and she was just lovely.
Later I moved into wildlife rehabilitation. I worked for a rehab center until I graduated from university. After I graduated and moved home, I became an outreach educator for a not for profit--and that's where I got to work with my first tegus! The facility had quite a few reptiles for outreach, but the black and white tegus were my favorite. The red tegu was a sweetie too, but the b&ws stole my heart. I worked with a water monitor as well and she was a wonderful creature.
I ended up switching careers after working for the not for profit and left the animal field for a while, but I really miss working with reptiles and am ready to have my own and here I am
I'm planning on getting my first at-home tegu and wanted to make sure I was up to speed with the current knowledge on proper housing and husbandry.
So hello and thanks for taking the time to read
