Posted by:
Sasheena
at Thu Dec 18 23:27:59 2003 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by Sasheena ]
I agree with everything you say, Kathy! it IS important to start with teh "recipe for success" but I honestly think that people gain much deeper understanding of their animals by pressing a little bit against the boundaries of that recipe... make some mistakes, learn by them, grow, until you KNOW what works and WHY it works.
When i first started raising feeders, I was as fascinated with my little rodents as I am with my snakes. I was frequenting a lot of "pet forums" and found I got so horribly flamed, and so much of the advice seemed utterly extreme, so I stopped "going there" and started to learn on my own. I like to believe that now I have a very strong understanding of mice, both inside and out... I know what works and what doesn't. I can look at any age rodent and (95% of the time) pick out their gender, and I can glance at a cage full of mice and know right away if one of them is sick. If snakes bred as fast as mice... well there wouldn't be any mice left, but even so, I feel once I've had a few dozen generations of snakes, I'll know snakes backwards and forwards. But in the meantime I don't listen with strength to anyone who becomes RABID about any specific piece of advice. If someone is rabidly against something I'm contrary enough to try it.
Of course lucky for me, there are actually some scientific papers out there that explain WHY certain things are bad... so I don't have to make ALL the mistakes (no cedar). But it's all a process of learning. The more we learn by experience, the more we can tell people our opinion backed up with our own experiences rather than those of others.
One has only to cut a live pinkie in half to know WHY you don't feed two hatchling corns in the same container. (Day ONE of Corn Snake Ownership... and I was convinced!)
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~Sasheena
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I agree... - Sasheena, Thu Dec 18 23:27:59 2003