Keeper Inexperience And Lack Of Research Is Often So Much More Punishing To Exotics Than It Is To Truly

Keeper inexperience and lack of research is often so much more punishing to exotics than it is to truly domesticated animals. Canine experts and breeders rightfully spend so much time begging first time (and sometimes longtime) owners to understand the unique needs and expectations of their type of dog before committing, because the difference between some pure breeds is literally night and day regarding everything from activity levels, grooming requirements, health risks, to general temperament, etc. And this is just for different breeds within the same species. Imagine the catching up one has to do to familizarize themselves with what to expect from not just a completely different species, different family, but whole different phylum than the majority of people are familiar with. Caring for Old world tarantulas vs. New world tarantulas are completely different games to sign up for. Same with tarantulas generally vs jumping spiders, even more so for arachnids vs. mantids vs. whip scorpions. All of the above times 500 for arthropods vs anything like a guinea pig.

This exact thing is also what makes me nervous from time to time keeping an ear to the reptile community. Leopard and crested geckos are frequently touted as beginner friendly introductions to herp keeping. I’ve known children who had leos. “Beginner friendly” in pet husbandry means relatively easy/cheap to keep alive and healthy. It says NOTHING about the general tolerance of the animal to human handling or the amount of dedicated time and care you have to put in to desensitize said animal to human contact if your provider didn’t. These things will literally amputate their tails if startled too badly or handled wrong once, and tolerance to handling is not something anyone should be taking for granted from a new reptile. Times 500 again for athropods. There’s a huge reason that near every video of a smart keeper handling a defensive arachnid is preceded by moments of them testing where the line is with a pencil/stick and what sort of mood their pet is in before human hands come anywhere near it. You think owning cats is a strict lesson in respecting boundaries? Try and see how little leeway for harassment you’ll be granted from a cornered arachnid. That’s the thing- they’ll always be the one in a corner if they feel threatened, and their instincts are not unjustified to remind them of that. In terms of size alone, you’re basically Cthulhu in comparison to them.

It’s amazing and awesome to see enthusiasm for invertebrate keeping on a rise, but first and foremost as long as that enthusiasm is matched by a willingness to treat them with no less respect and humility than any other exotic. Loving invertebrates means loving them for what they really are instead of some anthropomorphized ideal of them. It’s part of what makes them truly unique and in their own category of experience, and maybe that’s not for everyone and okay! You can still find them cute without needing them to be cuddly.

I am somewhat happy that jumping spiders are becoming popular as pets and even people who normally don't like spiders seem to find them cute, but people have GOT to stop acting like they are miniature mammals who want love and affection and pets and want to hang out with you.

I have seen countless posts in jumper groups from people asking why their jumper tries to escape when they're holding it or seems skittish or threat poses at them. It's because you are a giant predator and they want to get away from you. They don't get any happy chemicals from handling like mammals would.

I'm starting to see this in millipede groups as well. "Why is my millipede secreting this liquid on me?" Because it does not want to be handled. It's stressful for the animal, and stress can kill them.

Not only does it stress them, but often taking them out of their enclosure is dangerous for them - I have seen a lot of posts from people whose spider escaped and was injured or was crushed in the door of the enclosure because they were taking it in and out frequently. Drops can also be harmful, especially for larger invertebrates like tarantulas and bigger millipedes.

In general, invertebrate pets are not going to be a good option if you want to handle something frequently. There are definitely some species and individuals who tolerate it more, and if you're an experienced keeper, you can learn the signs of a stressed animal and only handle ones that are chill about it. But the majority of the time, they should be left alone and observed only.

Now I don’t mind this established trope at all where people are basically ants in the minds of dragons, but then, just once in any fantasy media or campaign I want a dragon or other massive higher creature that responds to the existence to humans in the exact way that I do to bugs.

Dragon that stops flying because it saw someone sleeping in a field and pokes them with a branch out of sheer curiosity to check if they’re dead or not.

Dragon that watches goblins scurry into one of their little huts and just pries the roof off to stare at them and look at the inside of their little shelter before putting it back down with a satisfied grin and leaving.

Dragon that sees a person treading water in the middle of a lake or the ocean, carefully plucks them out, and sets them down on dry land. Maybe puts a goat’s leg in their lap in case they need a snack. Also calls them “Harold” for no apparent reason.

Very young dragon that screams and freaks out upon seeing a bearded man with brightly colored robes and a pointed hat until it realizes the guy isn’t casting any spells. “Ohhhh you’re a wizard mimic” and then proceeds to handle the guy for a few minutes, fascinated. It also addresses the dude as “Craig” the entire time.

Dragon grabs a wild boar and repeatedly starts placing it in front of a town because it wants to see some hunting behavior in action.

Thief gets caught sneaking into a dragon’s lair. Resident reptile roars and is seemingly about to obliterate them when its mate suddenly comes rushing in with a giant cup. They have a grumbly back and forth before the thief is scooped up and promptly brought to be dropped off at the nearest random village. Dragon’s mate refers to the thief as “Sullivan SillyMan” the whole way.

Dragon that encounters a member of a humanoid race it has never heard of or seen before, at least in this region. Stops everything it’s doing and immediately kidnaps the individual. Speeds back to its lair and keeps them imprisoned while trying to flip through some tomes. Eventually drags out a magical item that they use to open a communication with another dragon, describing the prisoner, showing them the prisoner, exchanging friendly banter. There’s a whole 30 minute to and hour convo and everything. Dragon refers to the captive as “Thaddeus” the whole time. Last thing it does is sketch out a drawing of the person before taking them back to where they found them and turning them loose again.

Dragon doing this to a gnome

they need to come up with more words like necrosis and miasma and mausoleum and cadaver and morose and decrepit and stuff like that just so metal bands can expand their vocabulary

I read one of your answers to a post where you mentioned that Skoodge is the ugly duckling who is being done dirty (I couldn't agree more). But what about Dib? Where does he stand? Is he one too?

Dib is literally just a post-March 15th Denzel Crocker that’s still a child.

He’s the larval form of this.

(Or, you could say this is his final Pokémon evolution)

And don’t tell me the warning signs aren’t already cracking through

That may paint a very tragic trajectory for Dib if he or his environment doesn’t fundamentally change in some way, but that was exactly what Denzel’s story was. This “creep” was the result of a genuine intellectual who fell deeper and deeper into a fixation towards a great secret that simply vexed his every attempt to possess and reveal. He’s a series antagonist whose days are spent like a frustrated cat twitching and chattering at birds beyond glass, made all the worse and more obsessive because of the actions (past and present) of the protagonist. The relationship between young Crocker and his mother is damn mirrored in lock step with that gaping, validation-shaped hole Dib is trying so hard to fill by proving something to Professor Membrane.

It’s an observation so ready to be talked about I’m far from the first person to even say so. I literally plucked these insights alone up just from the comment sections of the various videos I had to skim through for the Crocker screenshots.

Freaking seriously. Hats off to these accounts for saving me the time writing it myself.

Enjoying the smell of something I only started cooking real recently

this website is horrible and everyone is mean as fuck. with that being said reblog and compliment the previous person in the tags ✨