#i love my dairy cow colony

[dogwithabug]

holding her snack !!!!

[logs-pods]

Working on isolating a colony of white P. laevis from my dairy cows. I love their peachy undertones and lil black eyes.

[crevicedwelling]

my colorful morph mix Porcellio scaber bin, sadly, has been infected with Rickettsiella bacteria that slowly kills them one by one. it’s largely spread through cannibalism of infected carcasses, and unfortunately with a colony this size the isopods are much better at noticing and disposing of the dead than I am. fortunately, it doesn’t spread from mother to offspring in the marsupium, so there are ways of dealing with an infection.

however, newborn isopods’ second meal is the frass (isopod poop pellets) from their colony (the first thing they eat is their first molted exoskeleton). frass is full of beneficial bacteria they’ll use later in life to eat all sorts of plant matter they couldn’t digest without the gut flora. unfortunately the frass also carries the killer bacteria, so while adults are at risk of infection from cannibalism, the coprophagous babies are at risk from both sources!

(Porcellio scaber morph mix adults)

my solution is to isolate all the gravid females and pluck the babies out to live separately as soon as they’re born, before they start eating.

but then I remembered that some of my Porcellio laevis “Dairy Cow” had lived with various infected isopod cultures, before I’d even realized a bacteria was causing the deaths. P. laevis love protein and won’t hesitate to cannibalize, but I’ve never seen a single “Dairy Cow” with symptoms of infection. I don’t know if this is due to just good luck, “Dairy Cow” being naturally resistant, or having a different strain of gut bacteria that can resist infection by pathogenic Rickettsiella (in fact, different beneficial Rickettsiella are potentially part of a healthy isopod gut biome). in the latter case, I wondered if there could be any resistance conferred to the “empty” baby scaber by eating “Dairy Cow” frass…

so here’s a “Dairy Cow” foster mom/frass factory for the some 200-odd orphaned scaber babies. I don’t see any reason that this experiment is likely to succeed in giving them extra resistance, but if nothing else, they’ll have clean frass to eat!

good luck little guys

(Porcellio laevis “Dairy Cow,” morph mix Porcellio scaber juveniles)

[spookykestrel]

Lets Talk Farm Terminology!

Yay! I'm here to answer all the simple farm animal questions and misconceptions you've been too afraid to ask! Why? Because im bored and have thoughts and am reading Watership Down and want people to know the difference between "bunny," "rabbit," and "hare."

Leporidae

You're probably thinking wow kes how bold of you to start out not only with an animal uncommonly kept by farmers but also starting with a scientific name few will know! And you're right, but I don't care! The Leporidae family includes rabbits and hares, and yes! they are different. Very closely related as they belong to the same family, but rabbits and hares are not the same thing. Simply: hares are bigger and wilder than rabbits. There are no domestic species of hare and they are more adapted to solitary life than living in groups/colonies. Looking at the image above you can note slight differences in facial structure and build, as well as most notably the ear length, with the smaller rabbit on the left and the larger hare on the right. Most Watership Down art features hares but I don't mind it all that much as the hare anatomy is more fun lol.

Now, what's a bunny? Bunny is an informal term used to refer to rabbits, especially young ones. It wouldn't be incorrect to refer to the long eared friend in your yard as a bunny but if you were writing a paper or just want to sound more serious, it would be better to say rabbit (as you notice, I am refraining from calling them bunnies in this post).

When referring to rabbits, their terminology is similar to other familiar animals. A male rabbit is called a buck and a female rabbit is called a doe, like deer or goats. However, a baby rabbit is called a kit or kitten and a group of siblings is called a litter, just like cats.

Goats

Aw no more latin? As the domestic breeds of goat all come from the same species, there's no need for a broad scientific name as we all have an idea of what to picture, unless you're thinking of a mountain goat which are not considered true goats and are considered a goat-antelopes, making them closer in relation to muskoxen! Which is a whole different topic! Regardless, there's lots of different breeds of domestic goats (Capra hircus), like dogs and cats. Some are better suited for dairy production, some for meat, others are bred for their cashmere! Pictured above is a Saanen goat, one of, if not the most popular dairy goat breeds (in the US at least), known for their high milk production.

Many goat breeds have horns, which vary from antlers bc of how they grow and their composition. Horns can be removed when the goats are young, in a process called dehorning or disbudding. When horns are removed, their growth is stunted and they will not grow back once the animal is older. However, disbudding is a controversial topic as it is not painless and often unnecessary. Both male and female goats can have horns, although their appearance may differ.

I mentioned above that (mature, uncastrated) male goats are called bucks and females are called does. Many, many people use the terms billy and nanny to refer to goats. However, the better term would be buck/doe, and when people use billy/nanny it does peeve me. You may also hear the word wether to refer to castrated goats. Baby goats are called kids.

Cattle

My favorites of the post, let's finish with cattle (Bos taurus)! Same as goats, cattle can be bred and used for many purposes like the lovely Brahman I've included above, a very recognizable meat breed. Cattle terminology can get a little tricky as its not as straightforward as some other animals.

Cattle is the correct term for these animals, as cow technically refers to a mature female (has been bred). No one's going to freak out if you say cows instead of cattle, myself included, especially because if you dont know the specific details of the animal its hard to know whether to say cow or heifer or bull or steer.

So, a cow is a mature female, and a mature male is called a bull. An immature, young female is called a heifer. A castrated male is called a steer. When referring to an immature male you can use bull or bull calf.

Many places you will see the term "ox" thrown around (not to be confused with a MUSKox mentioned previously) and there's a lot of misconceptions surrounding the name. An ox is a specially trained bovine. That's all it is. There's lots of regulations on how they are trained and all that, but that's the basics of it. It is most common and recommended to use castrated males (steers) because castration should temper their aggression and testosterone production; additionally, males are typically larger than the females. However! Female cows can be trained as oxen, as can bulls.

Technically an ox should not be referred to as such until they have completed their training, which can take years. Typically oxen are selected at a young age and routinely worked to develop good skills. They are used for tasks plowing or pulling carts, and as modern technology has improved, use of oxen has declined.

Thaaaat's all I have to say about that today, I sort of led into each topic in little ways and I've nothing more to mention. Hopefully you learned a little, I think livestock are cool 👍

[straightboyfriend2]

Oh yeah also forgot to mention on here. I'm starting my own isopod colonies!! I have access to a lot of species at work, so I decided to just give it a go. These are old pics, they are in proper habitats now. But I'm raising, Dairy Cows, Lavas, Japanese Magic Potions, Silver Ghosts and Panda King's!!! I love my funny little critters

[shrineofdolls]

pasting a thread i made on tw*tt*r about isopods (and then accidentally posted to my side tumblr LOL)

initially I wanted pet millipedes, but after doing research I found out that they rarely breed in captivity. I switched to isopods because I read they were easier to care for, hardier, and most species Breed

now I have 9 different isopod cultures. It's been about a year since I started the hobby and overall I have to say I highly recommend it. It's really fun seeing them multiple in numbers lol...I get especially excited when I see the babies (usually piled around food scraps)

I'm due to upgrade about half of my colonies to larger bins. I'm not sure what I'll do within a years time from now, but I think I'll eventually start selling them. There's also a bug museum that I might wish to gift some species to, though idk if they take live bugs!

I actually purchased my dairy cows from that bug museum, about 25 for $15. now I have over a hundred LOL !!! I'd love to contribute some panda kings as I believe they didn't have any in their collection.

[feralfennecfox]

How did you start taking care of isopods?

First off, I’m so excited that this is my first question on this blog!

To answer, I got into animal husbandry after interning with the Wildlife Conservation Society. I got hired last autumn at a museum in New York that has a live animal collection, to be on the animal care team. The animals under my care there include lizards, snakes, toads, tarantulas, hissing roaches, aquatic invertebrates, and - yes - isopods!

I’ve always loved the little guys. (When I was a kid I used to flip rocks over to look for “roly-polies”) So I was excited. At work our isopod colony has dairy cows, gestrois, and Montenegro clowns.

Here’s a recent photo of one of our dairy cows molting!

So yeah I kind of just fell into it and I honestly couldn’t be happier with it. I love both my jobs, and I love all the animals under my care, the isopod colony (aka the crustacean station) included!

[digikaa]

these guys are always out on this cork bark! I love always being able to see them, my last colony of dairy cows preferred to burrow down into the soil

[houndpitspub]

adding some more leaf litter to my dairy cow colony and wow I love these little guys ❤

[austinwehaveaproblem]

Hey! Big ask here

What's your favourite bug(s)? And also, what's your favourite moth(s)?

HELLO THANK YOU SO MJUC very lots bugs under the cut

moths!!!

hyalophora cecropia

just.. very fond of them don't have a solid reason

2. acherontia atropos

they squeak

3. pachypodistes angulata

shaped

4. clymene

named my guitar after them

5. automeris frankae

Oh FrAnKiE? + pretty

bugs in general!

this is hard bc i'm a lepidopterologist but

nala lividipes

they have two dicks.

2. black slug

absolute dude

3. phidippus regius

single handedly (8. legedly. i don't know okay.) got me over my fear over spiders!

4. chlamisus kermes

absolute dude

5. dairy cow

i love isopods i want a colony VERY badly

[theshitpostcalligrapher]

kay i've got my bin filled with bark and topsoil, i got some dead leaves (which i'm supposed to boil for a bit? idk) from the backyard for stable food reserves. I got some sphagnum moss for the top lining of the substrate

alls i gotta do now is head out to home hardware, I'm gonna try to do the classic ventilation method of chopping a hole out of the dry side's lid, smoothing the edges with the heat gun and hot-gluing some mesh to the hole.

ALSO when I took a closer look at the transport container I've discovered that

a) they've already torn the little bit of peppercorn shed I popped in there up with MANY holes (that was fast)

b) the transport container's substrate seems to come WITH springtails so I don't need to figure that out

c) there are NOT a dozen dairy cows in there - BECAUSE THERE ARE TINY BABY ISOPODS!!!!!!! I saw at least 2 of 'em, each about 3 mm long and spots already coming in

I am filling my house with so many creatures I am living my bogwitch dreams.

Creature count:

chao (roommate's cat, am petsitting)

peppercorn (my lovely babey corn snake)

lassy (short for lactobacillus, my sourdough. has been combined with the starter I brought from britain from that Restaurant Myse, so it's a unique blended strain of yeast)

The Herd (new colony of isopods and springtails that I am setting up enclosure for rn)

I'm also germinating some basil at the moment, idk if I'm feeling full vegetable growth this year but I DID buy that bag of vermicompost so I'm probably gonna end up at LEAST doing beans

kay so i've watched some isopod videos and i've learned that first of all, porcellio laevis means "smooth little pig" which is so damn cute

but also that the jar vivarium idea isn't gonna provide decent humidity range, so the new plan is to drill a few airholes in this plastic bin I've been keeping some of the calligraphy cards in. I can fill that with some soil, sphagnum moss, and wood chips to keep the substrate decently aerated, and I can get some leaves from the backyard for food source. I'll look into ordering some cork bark as well for a longer term item

for now tho, they're just gonna have to hang out in their transport enclosure for one more night, since i am WAY too tired to sort this out now x_x

[onenicebugperday]

@onism-and-rubatosis​ submitted: I got new friends! I’ve been wanting Porcellio laevis “Dairy cows” ever since I learned that isopods could be kept as pets but when I was ready to order my first colony, they were all out of P. laevis so I got P. scaber “Calico” instead. Now a few months later I finally have the isopods that got me interested in starting a collection!

The specimen in the third picture is 2CM long and I called them Chonker on arrival because they’re the biggest on the bunch. After reading a few scientific papers on sexual dimorphism in P. laevis and observing Chonker’s underside, I believe they’re actually Lady Chonker.

New friends!!! What beautiful cows you have. Please tell them all I love them...but especially Lady Chonker :)

[taiyami]

💝🔮🐞🎃 for the emoji meme!

💝 <- Favorite colour(s)?

Peachy Pink is what I'd consider my favorite! I also love soft baby blues and golden yellows!

🔮 <- What advice would you give to your 10 y/o self?

Stop fighting so hard kiddo !! Strength comes in many forms that don't always involve physically proving yourself. Learn to value strength of love over strength of body.

🎃 <- Favorite Holiday?

Halloween and Midsommer!

🐞 <- Are you afraid of Insects? If so, which ones are you afraid of?

AH SPIDERS. I developed a horrific case of arachnophobia as a child. I love spiders and I think they're indescribably beautiful and very important to the wellbeing of ecosystems. I used to get panic attacks seeing ANY image of them, but after exposure therapy I can now (mostly) handle them enough to take them outside. Media with spiders in it or have spiders crawling around cause physical tics sometimes (its their legs !! 🤢) Like the episodes with the spider demons in Kny.. No thanks I'm good. 😭 absolute worst nightmare for me

When I was in Australia I nearly relapsed in all my years of therapy because of one ginormous huntsman spider. I went to the restroom in a campsite at like 2 am before my bird surveys and when I shut the bathroom stall door it was just sitting there. It was the side of a large DINNER PLATE (had to have had a leg span of 1 foot in diameter at least). I nearly passed out 😭 If they're so peaceful why did evolution make them so freaking scary looking??

Other bugs (..technically spiders aren't bugs i know) are great! I love isopods and I actually own a colony of dairy cow isopods. Mosquitoes are important but the bane of my existence.

Emoji Ask Meme!

[ramenreptiles]

I know people may be having a hard time right now securing food for their skinks. Here's an example of some food sources you can give your skink if your having a hard time getting other insects.

I feed my skinks primarily dubia roaches and isopods from my own colonies. Mine really enjoy dairy cows and powder oranges which are easy to keep, prolific, and cheap! You can also supplement with mealworms, Phoenix worms (black soldier fly larvea), and occasionally wax worms (though they're fatty and should be a treat). I ordered all of my worms from rainbowmealworms.net which is still operating but slow with shipping currently.

Aside from these, fire skinks love butterworms, silkworms, and hornworms. You can also occasionally give them eggs as well as Repashy Omnivore and Insectivore diets to add variety, these can also be ordered online. Variety is always best but dubia are a great staple. Don't forget calcium and vitamin supplements!

[wheremyscalesslither]

when you start a colony of the dairy cow isopods would you be open to selling me some? they're so cute, and I'm currently working on setting up an isopod terrarium.

A tentative yes to selling them! My biggest challenge right now is that it is nearly impossible to ship into and out of this town for a reasonable price, without killing the crustaceans. I had 2 packs sent to me, one with a cold pack and by the time they got here 2 days later they were dead as hell and the cold pack was 89 (then the ebay seller blocked me and stole my money even though it was his fault both times and I told him it was too hot to ship)

But I'm hoping I'll be able to sell them and save the money to buy more types 👀 I love these critters.

[sneksnack-dot-me]

This expo was a lot of fun! I didn’t get any new reptile children, there were still children added to the Sneksnack family! Including...

Tako-San, my Girlfriend’s new Crested Gecko!

And my new Isopod cultures, the Bessie Colony which are my Dairy cow Isopods, and my Rio Colony, my Blue Isopods!! All which are lovely children!!!

Thanks for joining this Adventure! They’ll definitely be more this year! Stay tuned for the next Sneksnack Adventure!!