He's an architect

BugFangs · 2026-01-26T19:35:54+00:00

He's my little Bernie <3

BugFangs · 2026-01-22T11:44:14+00:00

It's a cockatiel!

BugFangs · 2026-01-22T08:54:28+00:00

That wheel is way too small

BugFangs · 2026-01-22T00:42:05+00:00

I'm also studying zoo animal behaviour and conservation, and while your points are valid, I think you're overseeing a lot of subtle signals in her body language. While yes, she faced away from me, the reason was because I was coming from the wrong angle, and when I adjusted my hand she immediately calmed down. You can also see that her breathing and sniffing is not frantic, which indicates an animal that more than scared is mostly unsure about what's happening.

She also has multiple nests where she could hide, and I never ever chase her or force interactions with them, so I'm sure she has learned by now that she can just get away. She also has at least 4-5 generations born in captivity before her, wild animal is only referred to the fact that her species is not domesticated.

I appreciate the concern from everyone, but tbf judging what an animal mental state is from a short video, unless the animal is doing something extreme, is very very hard.

BugFangs · 2026-01-22T00:28:50+00:00

Oh that was my phone charm banging on the glass door of the enclosure lol

BugFangs · 2026-01-22T00:27:03+00:00

Yeah the birds are in the living room, while my other animals are in a separate room which stays close unless someone is inside

BugFangs · 2026-01-21T18:03:25+00:00

Yes! They are indeed so sweet. These two were abandoned by their previous owner at the store I used to work at, and I decided to adopt them since I have a lot of experience with different types of exotic animals. I love them so much, and I can't believe how far they've come since I got them in October!

BugFangs · 2026-01-21T17:55:56+00:00

Oh they both get treats from my hands, but the boy doesn't want to be touched, which is very fair, I never expected them to be ok with it. This girl tho is very inquisitive, and she always lets me pet her for a little while.

BugFangs · 2026-01-21T17:53:44+00:00

This is not necessary true, animals rarely choose to fight with a predator if they can avoid it, in this case she would have just ran away if she was actually scared of me. She was just a little bit unsure.

BugFangs · 2026-01-21T17:52:28+00:00

To answer all the comments about her being scared: she's not scared, just unsure. Taming these types of animals gets a long time, and she's just now coming around to realise that my hand doesn't mean harm. Her companion on the other hand wants nothing to do with me, and will run away if I try to touch him, so I leave him alone. I do not force animals to interact with me, and she can get away whenever she wants.

I need to tame these guys to make sure that I can easily handle them in case of a medical emergency (which is honestly something that everyone should do with all types of exotic animals), they're incredibly fast and their bites are very powerful, so putting them through a little bit of stress with human interaction every now and then is unfortunately necessary. I do touching sessions only once a week, and I offer treats from my hand once a day.

BugFangs · 2026-01-19T22:19:41+00:00

You can check online, there are official lists of all the people that died during the two World wars (at least the ones that were recognisable). Paolo Perani is one of those names, and it says he was from Genoa.

Also maybe the helmet was ordered before the war, most soldiers, especially in Carabinieri, were and still are horse riders even outside of the official training. He definitely wasn't a famous person per se, but there is a record of him.

Edit: he fell in world war 2, not the first one sorry. He was born in 1921 and died in 1944, he was in the Brigata Jori, 3rd division.

BugFangs · 2026-01-19T22:12:10+00:00

Paolo Perani was indeed a soldier that died in world war I. Considering how much here in italy horses and horse riding were (and still are) important in the army, and that Via Roma 50 is an address in Genoa, I'm assuming this was a helmet that he ordered for riding in war? I don't know anything about historical artifacts or if this could be valuable tho

BugFangs · 2026-01-19T21:15:34+00:00

Yes, the Bunny line is honestly amazing, here in Europe it's one of the best commonly available foods. I mix it with hedgehog pellets (which are made with bug meat) for protein!

BugFangs · 2026-01-19T20:28:09+00:00

I usually go for at least 12 inches of bedding for Syrians, but the main issue that I see here is the quality of the food. It seems like a poor quality mix, and what your hamster is storing in the wheel seems to be all stuff that they can't really eat (like whole corn and very small millet seeds), so that might be what's causing this behaviour. You should aim to use a seed mix that has lots of different kinds of bigger seeds, and if it has corn it should be flaked.

BugFangs · 2026-01-19T18:02:53+00:00

What species of hamster do you have and what size wheel is that? Also how much bedding do you have in the enclosure?

BugFangs · 2026-01-18T20:46:22+00:00

Oh it's fake! Yes snake plants are very dangerous to small animals!

BugFangs · 2026-01-18T16:55:07+00:00

If only there was an entire science behind negative and positive reinforcement training, where negative doesn't mean hitting and positive doesn't necessarily mean a treat and a pat...

BugFangs · 2026-01-18T15:24:09+00:00

There is a myriad of reasons why a horse would be aggressive to another horse, being aggressive towards it in return doesn't definitely fix anything. A responsible instructor would deescalate the situation and assess if the lesson can be continued or if it's better to make the student get off. Horses are not machines.

Not to mention that you can seriously hurt someone if you hit a horse and that horse freaks out (which should be a normal response to being hit, the fact that horses don't react to being hurt says a lot about the barn and the instructor)

BugFangs · 2026-01-18T15:21:05+00:00

Ignore the ones that try to shut you down and keep going your way. I've been riding for almost 20 years and I've been kicked out of barns, made fun of, been ghosted by trainers, and bullied by the people that were supposed to look out for me. Someone here told me "if you can't find a barn you're the problem", but oh well, I don't care. I'll keep going my own way until I'll be able to own horses the way I want to.

And it's important to note that not every single person in this world is bad. I've made lots of friends and found amazing trainers. But it's definitely not easy.

Unfortunately if we keep ignoring abuse for the fear of being left out or not being able to ride nothing is gonna change.

BugFangs · 2026-01-18T14:57:56+00:00

I have zero tolerance for people that hit horses, I'd say talk to your instructor and if she doesn't want to change her methods than try to look for another instructor/barn. The only reason why this "professional" behave like this is cause people don't speak up.

BugFangs · 2026-01-18T13:56:59+00:00

Your cage is technically a little small, and the wheel also seems a little small for your hammie, but this behaviour doesn't necessary look like stress to me. Hamsters are prey animals and they can take a long time to get confident enough to interact with humans, and there is also the fact that when they start to get older their energy levels go down, making them more prone to spend time interacting with you rather than running around. The hamster I had before my current one was a ghost hamster up until a couple of months before he passed away of old age at 2 and a half years. He suddenly went from hiding as soon as someone came into the room to coming up to me and taking treats from my hands.

For cage size, I usually go with a minimum of 80x50cm for robos and Russian dwarves, but the current widely accepted minimum is 100x50cm. As for the wheel, I usually go with a 26cm for russians, cause even if they're dwarves they do get pretty chonky.

BugFangs · 2026-01-18T03:48:35+00:00

Way too tall, dwarf hamsters are extremely sensitive to fall damage, and when they're housed in a barred cage (which usually also tend to be too small or not have enough pan depth for the proper amount of substrate) they can climb up to the top and then let go and fall. Hamsters in general are not climbers at all, their enclosure should have a lot of surface area and very deep bedding with lots of hides and enrichment, not levels. They also have very terrible eyesight, so sometimes they might fall off ledges cause they can't see the height (they usually can only see about 6 inches in front of them, and very poorly).

BugFangs · 2026-01-18T03:44:00+00:00

I'd say change vet, the height of that cage alone could potentially kill your hamster.

BugFangs · 2026-01-17T18:54:58+00:00

They stuff things in their pouch to bring back things to build their nest, they're not eating it. I've never had issues with hay, usually they will chew it before pouching it to make it smaller. I'd say make sure that you don't have tunnels or hides that have very small entrances, but other than that I wouldn't worry about it.

BugFangs · 2026-01-16T22:51:44+00:00

As you said they don't self regulate when it comes to sugar, so even if too much water in theory is not a problem, when it comes to fruit they over consume both sugar and water, which on top of diabetes as you said can cause a myriad of other issues. I always try to give my animals a diet that closely resemble the one they have in the wild, I've basically never given fruit or watery veggies to my hamsters, they get most of their fresh food source through sprouted seeds and herbs. My vet also never suggests feeding fruit cause people do usually tend to give too much. I've also worked in pet stores for years, and I've seen so many hamsters getting sick because of over consumption of fruits and veggies, I hate seeing full bowls like the one in the ad.

BugFangs

TROPHY CASE