How do you measure if an animal is thriving??
You ask it obviously.
How do you measure if an animal is thriving??
How do you measure if an animal is thriving??
what is click clack furniture I keep reading about (furniture for snakes??)
What species of ticks do you use for your snakes? Where do you get them? How do you introduce your intestinal worms? Do you simulate predatory attacks by cutting your snakes with blades and compressing their bodies in vices or do you actually get a dog to gnaw and thrash around with them? Once in how many years do you simulate a bad season in terms of food availability by starving your snake to the point where it's close to death? On what time frame do you simulate a larger animal pushing you snake out of its preferred refuge and force it to endure unfavourable temperatures?
etc etc etc etc etc.
It is a complete myth that animals in the wild live in an ideal environment. They have evolved to cope with a hostile and more often than not deadly environment, not a warm, fuzzy, loving one. When it comes to animals with simple needs, such as many snakes, we can quite easily give them much better lives than they'd have in the wild. Compare a typical captive snake with a typical wild one and you quickly see the difference.
I actually wrote my honours thesis on the topic. People interested in learning about this properly rather than following reptile forum myth might like to read up about the concepts of fundamental and realised ecological niches.
It's good news! We can be happy and proud about providing our animals with wonderful lives, much better than their wild counterparts have. We don't need to live with feelings of guilt about being unable to make our animals happy; we can leave that to the bird keepers.
(To all the ornis out there :lol: )
It is a complete myth that animals in the wild live in an ideal environment.
I actually wrote my honours thesis on the topic. People interested in learning about this properly rather than following reptile forum myth might like to read up about the concepts of fundamental and realised ecological niches.
(I literally wrote a thesis on it
my honours results for my performance curve were brilliant
figure of my performance curve is still being used in university lectures
All sorts of caveats need to be placed on this sort of thing for safety of the animal, i.e. though it is natural, feeding the animal live food etc, has the down side of possible injury to the animal. Howver, establishing an enriched environment generally doesnt, thus allowing the animal to behaviour normally.
http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg289/mavric_2008/Picture8082.jpg my coastl livesin hear loads of space she is 9ft long and is only 3 in feb 2009 so is she doing well or not cos i only give her 4 large rats a month she is growing well cos she is happy
Ifr you measure benefit by breeding, survival, or weight gain i dont think mental stimulation from "toys " has much effect. its a case of imposing human needs on animals.
You can play straw man arguments all you like.
The question is of enrichment, not simulating the environment 100%. So maybe go back to your honours degree and learn how to conduct a scientific argument rather than a straw man argument.
man that must be a great thesis, did you make up the data in that as you have made up what was said here as well.
No one is talking about introducing ticks, allowing the animal to live in a multi species environment etc, the poll question is about whether animals do better with mental stimulation.
You say you have your honours degree, well it doesn’t take that to do a lit review to discover that enrichment in non-natural environments is beneficial.
You know i used to think having a honours degree was big as well or doing a double degree was big, but not long after i had completed it i was in a taxi, with a few other guys from uni. and found out that the guy behind the wheel had his first class honours in biochemistry, so pandering around on the net making straw man statements thinking that you are king and every one should grovel at your feet doesn’t actually make you any better than the next. They are a dime a dozen champ.
breakfast and what colour the socks I'm wearing are :lol: )