Rescuing Feral Felines And Feeding An Exotic Reptile
Transcript for:
Rescuing Feral Felines And Feeding An Exotic Reptile MR. SAM LITZINGER
12:17:39
Welcome back to the "Animal House." I’m Sam Litzinger with Dr. Gary Weitzman of the San Diego Humane Society. You can call us at 1-877-610-3647 if you have an animal related question. You could send your question via email to animalhouse@wamu.org. Again, that telephone number is 877-610-3647. You could email us, animalhouse@wamu.org. And don't forget to visit our "Animal House" Facebook page to see animal news, videos, our Animal of the Day, all kind of cool things on that page. How are you, Gary?
DR. GARY WEITZMAN
12:18:12
I'm very good, Sam.
LITZINGER
12:18:14
Ready to get to work?
WEITZMAN
12:18:15
Absolutely.
LITZINGER
12:18:15
All right. Let's see if you can help somebody. Here's Elizabeth calling. Elizabeth, glad to have you with us in "The Animal House." Question for Dr. Gary?
ELIZABETH
12:18:22
Oh, thank you very much. I do enjoy your program. It has a feeling of like a country doctor. A sweet program...
WEITZMAN
12:18:31
Great.
ELIZABETH
12:18:31
...getting out this sage advice to all these wonderful, lucky people who have pets.
WEITZMAN
12:18:36
Well, thank you. We hope it's gonna be sage advice. (laugh) What do you have?
ELIZABETH
12:18:39
Well, I listen to you a lot. Even though at the moment I'm between pets, I keep all the information in my head. No. And it's charming. And I love to hear all the love around. And actually I think I'm gonna bring up a subject that may dispel a lot of the sweetness around here.
WEITZMAN
12:18:58
Uh-oh. Okay.
LITZINGER
12:18:59
Here's a tough one for the country doctor then.
ELIZABETH
12:19:00
I'm terribly sorry to be a downer.
LITZINGER
12:19:02
All right. Go ahead, Elizabeth. He's ready for you.
WEITZMAN
12:19:04
Okay.
ELIZABETH
12:19:04
I don't know what to do about -- the present count is about nine wild cats …
WEITZMAN
12:19:12
Oh, I thought you were gonna say that. Okay.
ELIZABETH
12:19:13
Oh, did you? Oh, you -- oh, gosh. I hate to say it, 'cause I love pussycats. (laugh)
LITZINGER
12:19:19
He's used to this, Elizabeth. It's not a problem. He can take anything.
ELIZABETH
12:19:22
I know (word?).
WEITZMAN
12:19:22
The dark side of animal welfare.
LITZINGER
12:19:24
He's ready for anything.
ELIZABETH
12:19:25
Oh, gosh.
WEITZMAN
12:19:26
Oh, okay.
ELIZABETH
12:19:27
But I've never heard anything like this on your program. But, no, I heard someone talk about a coyote, I think.
LITZINGER
12:19:33
Yeah.
WEITZMAN
12:19:34
Okay.
LITZINGER
12:19:34
So we've got feral cats here and you're concerned about what to do with them particularly?
ELIZABETH
12:19:38
Yes. Well, I've been told what to do with them, but I don't agree with it. (laugh)
WEITZMAN
12:19:43
Oh, what have you been told?
ELIZABETH
12:19:45
Well, I called my next door neighbor who had just -- she was in grief. She had just lost her great big yellow cat. And I had helped her nurse it through its illness. And I knew, although she was a quiet, rather shy person, that she maybe would tell me what happened. She did give me the name of a woman that she had been in contact with, but didn't give me her name. So I called this woman and I was trying to find out how did they get here. I have an enclosed garden. And I have a side entrance, though.
ELIZABETH
12:20:16
Someone -- cats would get in -- but I never saw this in all my time here. So I tried -- I said -- she said, oh, there was a cat had kittens in your garden. I said, really? I didn't know that. And then …
WEITZMAN
12:20:29
You have a whole cattery going on there.
ELIZABETH
12:20:31
I said, well, would you please tell me how many cats there are? And I said, what is your name? She wouldn't tell me, and she hung up on me, which I was amazed at.
WEITZMAN
12:20:40
Ah, what was the advice that you were given?
ELIZABETH
12:20:44
She just acted as if I should be happy. Oh, she said, you have community cats. So you'll enjoy having these cats in your neighborhood.
WEITZMAN
12:20:51
Well, what you're describing is what happens in a lot of the cities that, you know …
ELIZABETH
12:20:55
Really?
WEITZMAN
12:20:55
…that's one of the biggest problems, feral cats. And you're describing exactly what we're dealing with in urban environments now. And, you know, frankly, what you -- if it's a huge problem for you, you should get with your neighborhood commission and talk about it in your block. And really get in an agreement with your neighbors that either, you know, don't feed them if they're not already in the area. If they are, it's actually good to have, you know, kind-hearted people actually feeding these colonies because we want them to be okay.
WEITZMAN
12:21:27
The only humane solution is to trap those animals and get them spayed and neutered and then re-released, but sadly, there's not a whole lot else you can do really, except for don't feed them if you don’t want them to come by. It's a neighborhood commission issue. And you know we always recommend call the Humane Society or in your area, call the Washington Animal Rescue League, too. And there are a lot of very good-hearted people there that do a lot of programs called Trap, Neuter, Release and actually can get those animals spayed and neutered. But that's about the only thing that you can do, unfortunately.
LITZINGER
12:22:00
But good for you for even being concerned about this. Elizabeth, you're gonna have to call in some outside help it sounds like on this one. Thank you very much.
WEITZMAN
12:22:07
Yeah, good luck.
LITZINGER
12:22:09
Our telephone number is 877-610-3647. Our email address is animalhouse@wamu.org. And let's take a telephone call from Terry. Terry, glad to have you with us in "The Animal House." Question for Dr. Gary, the country doctor?
TERRY
12:22:23
Yes. Thank you for having me. Dr. Gary, one of the creatures with which I share my life is a blue-tongued skink.
WEITZMAN
12:22:31
Really?
LITZINGER
12:22:31
That kinda stopped him. (laugh)
WEITZMAN
12:22:33
Yeah. We haven't had -- I don't think I've ever heard that sentence before.
LITZINGER
12:22:36
Now, (laugh) you may never hear it again.
WEITZMAN
12:22:39
I hope not.
LITZINGER
12:22:39
So Terry, for those who don't know, please, what is a blue-tongued skink?
TERRY
12:22:44
A blue-tongued skink is an Australian reptile. Mine's about 14 or 15 inches long. They make very good pets because they're slow. They won't dart away on you like some smaller lizards will. They are very attractive if you like lizards. And they are some of the more intelligent of reptiles. I feel certain this one knows me, as well as …
WEITZMAN
12:23:12
Ah, that's fantastic. Well, what's going on with your skink? Well, he has to get some help.
LITZINGER
12:23:16
And that's another question that you'll never ask again, probably.
WEITZMAN
12:23:19
Right.
TERRY
12:23:21
I haven't heard that formulated quite that way.
LITZINGER
12:23:22
Yeah, what is going on with your skink, Terry?
TERRY
12:23:25
Well, since he is comparatively intelligent, one doubts about the quality of life. You know, for all animals that are caged, inevitably there are questions of quality of life and enrichment. And one wonders how much enrichment is he getting as opposed to how much he needs.
WEITZMAN
12:23:44
Right.
TERRY
12:23:44
On the other hand, you know, he's a lizard.
LITZINGER
12:23:49
(laugh) Now, Gary, do you wanna phone a friend on this one?
WEITZMAN
12:23:52
Could we please?
LITZINGER
12:23:53
Yes, we could.
WEITZMAN
12:23:54
Oh, that would be great.
LITZINGER
12:23:55
Let's bring in Dr. Scott Stahl of Stahl Exotic Animal Veterinary Services in Fairfax, Va. Scott, glad to talk to you again here in "The Animal House."
DR. SCOTT STAHL
12:24:04
Hey, Sam and Dr. Gary. Thanks for letting me help out again today. I really appreciate it.
WEITZMAN
12:24:08
No. We appreciate it very much. Let me tell you.
LITZINGER
12:24:12
How do you make life more interesting for a blue-tongued skink?
STAHL
12:24:15
Yeah, that's a great question. So Terry, I agree with you. I think these Australian and actually Indonesian -- they actually come from Australia and Indonesia. These large giant lizards are probably, I think, one of the more intelligent of the lizard species that we work with. And I have kept blue-tongued skinks for years. I don't currently have any now, but the ones that we see, our clients say the same sort of things that you're telling us, is that they're very intelligent and they seem to track and follow you when you, you know, have them out. And certainly like to come and respond to treats and food items and things.
STAHL
12:24:50
But let's see if we can get to the question. So I think the main things to remember about these guys is that they're, you know, omnivorous in their intake of food and fuel. And I assume that you've got this kid eating well.
TERRY
12:25:05
Yes. He has a number of favorites, including pinky mice.
STAHL
12:25:09
Okay.
TERRY
12:25:10
And I guess his all-time favorite is baby food organic squash.
STAHL
12:25:16
Oh, I see, it's gotta be organic only, right? He wants the best. So again, as an omnivore, we're obviously looking at, you know, meat protein and, you know, vegetable-based proteins, as well. And so it sounds like the diet you're providing sounds good. I usually encourage people to try to make sure they're adding in fruits that tend to have a high vitamin A content, such as papaya and the different types of melons, cantaloupe and honeydew. And then your berries, blueberries, you know, blackberries, raspberries, those all tend to have a high vitamin A content.
STAHL
12:25:47
And so we may wanna see if we might be able to stimulate him and get him to kinda be more investigative in his enclosure by placing little, you know, a couple of these berries here and there or pieces of fresh-cut melon in certain places in the cage or some of the other foods that you're saying he likes, like even his baby food. Maybe make him look for it or hunt for it a little more. They are sort of a big lizard with tiny little legs. And they're not, you know, super active. And so we do find a lot of them tend to become obese in captivity. So we may need to get him on like a little treadmill or a stepper there to try to keep the calories burning. And seriously may …
TERRY
12:26:24
You wouldn't know where I can get a lizard treadmill would you?
STAHL
12:26:27
Those are hard to come by. So we have to figure out ways to keep him moving around. I usually recommend -- for mine, I used to have like a particulate substrate in the cage. They like to burrow and dig. And we usually recommend there's a number of paper pulp products that are out there like Care Fresh Bedding is one of them. We don't like to use the walnut shell or the corncob bedding 'cause those tend to have issues with fungal growth and fungus. But these paper ones are good. I would also suggest that maybe we soak him in a warm water bath maybe once or twice a week to help, you know, just encourage him to drink and hydrate.
TERRY
12:27:02
Uh-huh. Twice a week.
STAHL
12:27:03
Do you have a light system for him? And maybe having him on a light cycle…
TERRY
12:27:06
Yes.
STAHL
12:27:06
… of maybe, you know -- go ahead.
TERRY
12:27:08
He gets full spectrum light on timers.
STAHL
12:27:10
Yeah, very good. And you want, you know, something in a full spectrum bulb to make sure he's getting ultraviolet light in the B range, of course. And then I don't know if there's like a room in the house where we could sort of lizard-proof, if you will, where we can let him kind of walk around and get a little exercise in there, too. That might be another way.
TERRY
12:27:28
Well, I do that occasionally. The guests are thrilled.
STAHL
12:27:31
I'm sure. (laugh)
LITZINGER
12:27:33
Say, there's a blue-tongued skink on the floor. I wonder what's going on in Terry's house. Now, Gary, do you want me to ask Dr. Stahl the question that I know you would probably ask anyway because this is one skink we're talking about, or do you wanna ask the question?
WEITZMAN
12:27:48
Right, right. Well, I think you can go right ahead. You know exactly what it is, Sam.
LITZINGER
12:27:51
All right. My question is one skink, why not two skinks, Dr. Stahl? Would that enrich -- what's the skink's name, by the way?
TERRY
12:28:00
Kitchen.
LITZINGER
12:28:01
What?
TERRY
12:28:01
Kitchen.
WEITZMAN
12:28:02
Kitchen.
LITZINGER
12:28:02
Oh, Kitchen. (laugh)
TERRY
12:28:03
Does that make sense?
LITZINGER
12:28:08
That took me about two seconds on that one. That's very, very clever, Terry. I like that. So we've got Kitchen here, Dr. Stahl. What about if we got Bathroom skink?
STAHL
12:28:18
Well, I'll tell you, that's a very good question. I love that name, too. That is very original. I've never heard a blue-tongued skink named Kitchen.
WEITZMAN
12:28:24
That's great.
STAHL
12:28:25
And now, like you said, so Bathroom, what would happen there is one of the problems with having lizards together -- the first question would be, you know, is Terry interested in making more skinks? And if Terry was, then trying to get, you know, the opposite-sex skink and getting them together for breeding is something that some people enjoy doing. It's challenging though. It's very difficult to sex this particular species of lizard. And sometimes we have to use some techniques that are like endoscopy and things like that to actually figure out whether we have boys and girls.
STAHL
12:28:54
So it's difficult to figure that out sometimes. So oftentimes when we get another skink, if we have two males, there's a lot of fighting that goes on. And they can bite and damage each other's skin and toes and tails and things like that. The other thing that happens is socially they don’t typically hang out together for extended periods of time. They tend to come together, potentially for breeding, and then they move away from each other. Or males, of course, have individual territory. So when you try to confine them to a smaller enclosure like that, we tend to have a lot of issues with fighting and damage.
STAHL
12:29:25
In fact, commonly, that's what we see a lot of them for, is people are trying to force a social situation and the animals are coming in with injuries to each other. Sometimes though we can put in what we call like a stuffed-animal sort of a faux skink, if you will, you know. The animal will typically have an amorous relationship with a stuffed animal or a rock or something in the cage that it will potentially mount and actually socially interact with. So sometimes we can get by with using something like that, that will allow them to, you know, have that amorous feeling without the risks of having the other animal.
STAHL
12:30:05
But honestly, it really relates to how Terry feels about having other lizards in his life.
LITZINGER
12:30:09
You might ask, Terry, what Kitchen thinks about this, but don’t be surprised if he says I'd rather be alone, thank you. And your job now, Terry, is apparently to turn this into, as Dr. Gary likes to say, not cat Disneyland, but skink Disneyland, if you're up for that.
TERRY
12:30:25
I'm on the case and particularly upping the intake of vitamin A.
LITZINGER
12:30:29
All right, very good. Thank you, Terry.
STAHL
12:30:30
Great.
TERRY
12:30:31
Thank you so much.
STAHL
12:30:32
Thanks, Terry.
LITZINGER
12:30:32
And thank you very much Dr. Stahl. That was fascinating. That was one of the odder conversations I think we've had in recent weeks on "The Animal House," but one of the more fascinating as well.
WEITZMAN
12:30:39
It was a first.
STAHL
12:30:40
Gotta love a kitchen sink. Everybody needs one of those in their house, right?
LITZINGER
12:30:43
(laugh) Thank you very much.
STAHL
12:30:44
Thanks, guys.
LITZINGER
12:30:45
All right. Bye. Did you learn a good deal about skinks there, Gary?
WEITZMAN
12:30:49
Much more than I ever even knew I needed to learn. That was great though.
LITZINGER
12:30:52
Kitchen skink. That is just genius. I am telling you.
WEITZMAN
12:30:55
It was genius.
LITZINGER
12:30:56
Thanks, Dr. Gary.
MS. KAREN MUNSON
12:31:03
I'm Karen Munson and this is "The Animal House Dateline."
MR. JOSH DUHAMEL
12:31:05
So any time anybody is looking for a dog or a cat or a pet of any sort I tell them to adopt.
MUNSON
12:31:12
That's the actor Josh Duhamel who has added his voice to the battle cry of Shelter Pet Adoption awareness. The heartthrob action star who rescued a dachshund named Meatloaf, recently teamed up with a national charity to help spread the word about the benefits of adopting a furry friend from a local shelter. His efforts include deeply personal and candid pieces for the "Huffington Post" and "People" magazine.
MUNSON
12:31:36
Pierre, an African penguin, was suffering from a bout of baldness. Pierre began shedding his insulating waterproof feathers, leaving him unwilling to plunge into the penguin tank. So biologists at the California Academy of Sciences commissioned a custom-crafted wet suit. In the six weeks he's been using the suit, Pierre has gained weight, grown back his feathers and is acting like his feisty alpha-male self again.
MUNSON
12:31:59
And happy birthday to Sharkey the goldfish who just turned 24 years old. His owner won the goldfish Sharkey when he was four years old. Sharkey has survived being flushed down the toilet. Goldfish Sharkey's secret to longevity, only having lived in two bowls his whole life and eating fish flakes. The world's oldest goldfish, by the way, is entered in "The Guinness Book of World Records" was Tish, who died in 1998 at age 43.
MUNSON
12:32:23
More information about these stories is at wamuanimalhouse.org.
LITZINGER
12:32:27
Coming up, an award-winning documentarian gives us a preview of his new film in "The Animal House."
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