mydogscuterthanyou-blog - Tumblr blog

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Pet Sitter Woes

Hi, longish rant ahead. Just tired of trying to explain my anxieties to non animal people. I have to go to a funeral out of state and I'm flipping my lid.

I'm leaving for the weekend this afternoon, and won't be back til late sunday. And I am flipping out about leaving my babies with other people. I feel like a freakin basket case.

Nikola is wonderful, but shes a bit of a handful. So I just told the bird sitters (aka my parental units) to worry about feeding and changing her papers and leave it at that. But I'm still nervous, I haven't spent a night away from her since I brought her home. And she gets feisty with everyone, kind of worried about her getting out of the cage and them not being able to grab her.

Sarge is a basket case in his own right. My rehab pound puppy has some hard core separation anxiety that magically transforms him into a beaver if left alone for too long. Hes also an escape artist, so theres that to worry about.

Not to mention, I'm still cycling Rhodey's tank... with him inside it. My best friend is gonna be doing his water changes, but I'm still nervous about leaving him.

I don't trust the parental units to properly care for Rhodey. After all "it's just a fish" and its "too spoiled, they do fine in bowls". For some reason, pets have to be fluffy to have worth in their eyes. Which is annoying and worrying, hence the imported bestie for water changes.

All I keep thinking about is all the ways something could go wrong, and I'm probably over reacting, but what can I say? I'm an anxious person at the best of times. Frankly, I think I'm worried most about Rhodey and Nikola. Rhodey, cuz my best friend has seen me do water changes, but hasn't actually researched stuff. Nikola, cuz good god is she a diva, and a parrot. I don't think theres any good way to leave a bird with someone else tbh. But, I think I gotta go, cuz what if someday theres something insanely important and I gotta go, I'd rather have a trial run under my belt.

So, yeah. I'm gonna go be a basket case all weekend long, and try not to imagine the worst. Congrats if you made it this far in the post, complimentary pet pics below. You've earned them.

Also, anyone else this anxious when they leave their pets with sitters? Is this normal or am I especially crazy?

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Fired up gorgeous boy

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Rhodey peeping from his lair

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Nikola is not happy with me rn, I rearranged the room, didn't let her eat the new leafy things, and wouldn't let her 'help' me with the water change today. I'm gonna bribe her with strawberries and bananas and hope that gets me back into her good graces

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Rhodey enjoying his tank, he enjoys zipping around all over, and finally made a truce with his reflection this morning.

He took his first water change like a champ, but I'm on a bit of a learning curve, so I did remove him while I refilled the tank.

He seems to enjoy hiding in his rock, when hes not busy cruising around the tank. He has so much personality, I don't understand how people look at these fish and think "throwaway pet".

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Nikola helping me beat a dragon, shes a better gamer than me tbh

The only valid gamer

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Damp birb fresh from shower

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Meet Rhodey. Two tail halfmoon male betta.

My plan when I bought this 5 gallon tank, was to get it nice, cycled, and have more established plants. But, my aunt had the poor little guy in a bowl, half of which was taken up by bamboo, which is lucky because her cat was desperately trying to eat him. So, now I have Rhodey and I'm doubled down trying to read up on 'safely' cycling a tank with the fish already there.

Which is irksome. I couldn't exactly turn him away though, so here he is. Gorgeous and unexpected, and attacking his own reflection in between exhilarated laps of the tank. Hes annoyingly endearing, I swear.

Current plan of attack, formulated by helpful associate from lfs is half water changes every other day and double dose of seachem prime, test for ammonia daily, test for nitrites/trates weekly, feed one day on, one day off to keep toxins down.

He has really pretty colors, is active, alert, greedy with the food. I bought him Omega One betta flakes and Hikari blood worms, he wolf's them down easy. He's been exploring every inch of his tank since he finished acclimating. Named him Rhodey, because his colors remind me of the armor from Iron Man 3

Current water parameters are:

7.4pH

74°F

0ppm ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates

Anyone else with experience in cycling with the fish, hmu if you got ideas/tips/tricks.

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Got my 5 gallon set up, the water is still kinda murky from my moving stuff around. Time for water change or just wait for it to settle out?

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Was going through some of my old videos this morning and found this. Not sure why I recorded it, but imma post it anyway. Cuz shes beautiful and I enjoy staring at her pretty face, hope y'all do too

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Feetz Friday pt.4

TGIFF (thank god its feetz friday)

Her Grace showed off her lovely pink dino feetzies last night in her vacation home in the exotic down of stairs

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I'm getting my new aquarium this weekend and I'm so excited! I haven't had any fishies since we moved a few years ago, and I'm gonna try live plants this time around!

I'm doing a smaller tank for now, 5 or 7 gallons. I picked two out, but I'm waiting on final decision until I see them in the store. It's gonna be just for a betta and low light plants. Planning on putting in some driftwood and planting java ferns, java moss, anacharis, and maybe anubias.

Not getting the fish this weekend, gotta get the tank all set and cycled first, but I'm so excited!! Really hoping my plants do good, and my fish is happy. I'm definitely getting a female, but haven't decided on veiltail or plakat yet. Think I might just pick whichever sticks out the most to me. At some point, I might consider adding in a nerite or mystery snail, maybe ghost shrimp.

I've been reading up again on all things aquarium for a month now, so I'm hoping I won't kill too many plants. I tried to pick out the hardiest I could lol. I know not to put rhizomes in substrate, let them get nice and established before tossing any overly voracious herbivores in there... Hoping for the best. I've taken care of bettas before, so I'm not worried about my future buddy too much.

I think I've done enough research, but if anyone with more experience has tips for the new kid, hmu!

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Nikola's newest odd habit, thumb tasting. Nothing on my finger, but she licks it anyway

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Feetz Friday pt.3

Hi, I'm obsessed with her dino feetz. Her grace was not in the mood for photos this morning, so have an old pic

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Scruffy disaster birb

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Niko exploring her new travel pack, took hefty bribes to get her this far.

Next step? Convincing her the water bottle is a friend

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Feetz Friday pt.2

Another post dedicated to her lil dino feetz