Mad Manatee Mentors, Part 2! CLOSED (Page 71)

Ooo so much to catch up on after only a day...

Job wise, I sort of have the same job as Johnathan, the arctic manatee... I am a E-6 in the USAF and a Crew Chief/Engine Troop on C-130-H3 cargo planes.  We fly cargo, people and medevacs from place to place and occasionally drop the people and cargo out in mid flight, not the medevacs though, because that would be bad.  So basically while I took my month break from BT I was inspecting, fueling and fixing my plane as we moved from mission to mission.  Thankfully most of our missions seemed to involve the south so I got to get in some decent runs in shorts!

I am single and thinking about maybe putting up an actual profile on some of the dating sites so yes I check out the dating thread for the entertainment and to see what shenanigans I should avoid.  I don't know if going there is giving me the encouragement to sign up or run away...

Is there a link to watch Yanti's live progress at the race?

Chad - 911 operator would be a sweet gig, I hope you get that expunginated so you can pursue it!

Kate - What does a Lead Reptile Trainer do?

Felicia - English prof!!! Ugh, my least favorite subject.  I think I will hold off on it until my final term.  It's not that it is hard for me I just have a hard time motivating myself for it.  Sorry.

I'm sure I missed a ton but we have a pretty diverse group of brainiacs in here, who would of thunk it?!

It's a move up. Well, up and over so diagonal 

I've actually never ventured in there, if you can believe it!

Need the boys to start us off!

Melbournians! Get to the Crown River Walk & make sure your down underpants are up over! The most creative, bedazzled underpants'll win big!

Jo, aren't you in Melbourne?  Get going!

Can't say that's ever the case with me. 

Oooooohhhhh ziiiinnnnnnng

Ha! Yes, go Jo, GOOOO! 

DP

That just assumes I'm wearing underpants.....

I don't often need help!

Basically, I am responsible for creating a training program for specific reptiles--for instance, the Dwarf Croc we used to have (he is in sunny San Diego now), was NOT friendly, and would literally charge out of his exhibit door and fall onto the floor at feeding time--he would be okay, but its kind of stressful (for him and us) to have to pick up an angry 4.5 foot long croc off the floor and shove him back in his house...so I basically started training him to swim to the spot where I told him to go, using a painted broom handle (he liked the color orange!)--I would tap the handle anywhere, and say "target", and he would go there; after he caught on and did it reliably, then I added "hold", to get him to stay put, then I would use a clicker(to let him know he was awesome) and give him his food on tongs. The endgame was eventually to train him to go into a crate on his own so we wouldn't have to wrestle him in for a vet exam. It never happened, thanks to a tiny exhibit space and no managerial support...(i.e. time and supplies for a new crate)

Anyway, I am now doing the same type of thing for our basilisk lizards (desensitization and handling--its working great, I can hold them!), our new Blue Tree Monitors (very shy lizards, time will tell), our Fiji Island Iguanas(--they're easy--totally food motivated, and not too scared of anything) and our Smooth Fronted Caiman (small crocodilian)--he's tough, not food motivated, very fast, and getting MEAN...I got my work cut out for me!

Oh yeah, I trained our Sulcata Tortoises to get on a scale for me too--good thing as one of them is about 100 pounds!  .....I also trained my tiger salamanders to chomp on fingers--but that's for sheer cuteness factor

Short answer: I train the animals to do my bidding.

Sorry, I got a bit wordy....back to pod bidness now!

Honestly - when you said you trained reptiles.. I thought, "what a croc" (pun intended).. 

Now that you described what you do, that sounds bad AZZ!!!!  Thanks for getting wordy.  

Kate Dundee.

I appreciate thoughts like this.

Thanks! Yes, most people--even other zookeepers---believe that herps aren't intelligent enough to comprehend any commands, but I have seen monitor lizards, tegu lizards, crocs, and gators that rival some dogs in their training. In my case, with the smaller lizards, my objective is to just get them to be comfy with me or others nearby and some handling (okay--technically, I really wanna wear them on my shoulders and look cool, but that's just me...)

Its still a relatively new area of work though.

jogo - 2013-02-27 1:45 PM

cdban66 - 2013-02-26 9:08 AM

jogo - 2013-02-26 7:50 AM

FREAK OUT in progress!! 

Last week, I started training for Big Sur 9 mile.  I hired a personal trainer to help with the strength stuff and weight loss efforts.  I gave up sweetners/sugar on Ash Wednesday (so almost 2 weeks) and have been eating fairly healthy (wine on the weekends, but that was really it for slips).  By Friday, I felt like crap.  Totally fatigued, sick, sore, etc...  I talked to cutie patootie trainer guy and he suggested that I drop to the beginner running program for a couple of weeks until my body adjusts to moving regularly.  I did that and it does seem more doable.  Now for the freak out, my weight has SKYROCKETED!!!   I am up 5lbs since Friday, when the fatigue started.  I am scary close to a decade I have NEVER seen, even 9 months pregnant. 

Already have the sweetners gone, so today, I go full on primal.   Is there anything else I can do?   Where is this gain coming from?   It can't be muscle, its only been a week. 

I was able to find a dress for my step-daughter's wedding that has a long black skirt to cover all the dimples and dents.   I couldn't believe that in 1 month since I have shopped, my size has gone up again.   This is unreal.   I am the incredible, enlarging woman.  Must stop this.  Suggestions?

Jo, my input would be to relax, not change anything else and keep steady for a couple of weeks. Give your body the chance to "catch up" to what you are trying to do. After that, only use the scale once a week. Examine yourself at that point, analyze the food choices and the training time that you have done. If it is sensible, make 1 small change, maybe dumping a meal and replacing it with a filling salad, or adding another 30 minute workout to the next weeks training schedule. Small tweaks along the way will probably do a better job than a huge change, as those are more challenging to maintain over any period of time.

Good luck, the road is tough, but you are tougher!

I will try to relax. I never thought about the body catching up but I have heard others talk about it in their blogs. Today I managed to stay primal. Tons of veggies. Thanks for talking me off the ledge.

Feb 1st, gave up alcohol and chocolate - gained 4lbs in 23 days, on my bewbs!  Clearly some of that will be some kind of hormonal thing...but mainly by depriving myself of things that i enjoy I substituted with more cheese and crackers, more potato chips and more snacking generally.  So I'm allowed everything again now and already lost 2 of those lbs.  It is a mindset thing with me, if nothing is banned I relax and eat when and what I want.  I can't say I lose weight but I don't gain.  I am astonished that I can train so hard and gain weight, astounded, agog, aghast!

Os after having a relatively decent day, I got home and received a call from my dad--apparently, he visited his doctor as he has been having some energy issues--just getting really tired really easily. Mind you, my father is 74 and obese--he has type 2 diabetes, but other than that, he is actually kinda healthy--BP is awesome in fact--and always has been! Anyway, the dr said that he has an irregular heart beat and that he CANNOT exercise (no worries there, as my dad isn't too active), AND he MUST lose weight! In any case, my dad is scared, so he is actually going to watch what he eats (this has always been his MO--eats whatever until he has a health scare, then does as instructed and gets better quick--then goes right back to old ways...)but the fact that he is so scared has got me worried too--I offered him all info I have on paleo diet, as that will most likely help him--and he is actually interested, so that's something...

Please, pod, keep my dad in your thoughts/prayers/etc. as I told him, he's got to be here in May to see me finally graduate! (yes, that is what I told him)

Sending healthy hugs.