Greetings from Ohio!

Hey hey forum-goers. I am a college student here in Ohio, majoring in Zoo & Wildlife Biology (and yes, that is as exciting as it sounds); I love animals and I love learning how to take care of them. Not sure what my dream job would be with this major but only time will tell!

At the moment there is only one pet in my household that I can say is "mine," and she is a beautiful sub-adult bearded dragon named Kaiah. Kaiah is a sweetheart even for a bearded dragon, and enjoys climbing on shoulders and onto the tops of heads; she's ornery about bath time and isn't the greatest cricket hunter in the world just yet. My favorite feature of her is a pale "y" scar near the base of her tail, and the sand color she becomes when she sleeps.

There are two cats also in my house here, Smokey (russian blue) and Snickelfritz (gray tabby). Smokey enjoys bullying Snickelfritz, and is also the most clumsy cat in the house. She purrs at the slightest sign of attention. Snick gets into trouble and doesn't care about it

At my dad's house is another cat named Tom; he's a rescue and is the most adorable cat I've ever met by virtue of also being the most innocent. Something about him exudes naivete and it's great. Also there is Spike the female leopard gecko, at least 8 years old and currently not in the greatest health for lack of food, but she's hanging in there and is MUCH better at catching crickets than Kaiah.

Then there are the random assortment of dogs, other cats and even a bird in my family's pet history...

Anyways, glad to be here on the forum!

Hey here! to the forum!
Armyofdreams? Nice user name. How did you come up with that one?


Bearded dragon is definitely one of the most human friendly lizards around. They are attention seekers. Good choice!

Great, more kitties. We have a few cat ladies here. You'll fit right in.

Leopard gecko, another beautiful lizard.

So you are majoring in zoo & wildlife biology. Well, my first childhood dream was to be a biologist, but that was soon changed to president when I got into middle school.

I am glad you are here. I have seen your question about bearded dragon in the reptile forum. Fishbone is our most active reptile guy. He always gives good advices on reptiles.

Hey Ram! ("Ram" is easier to call you in my head than "Ram8349" ) ArmyOfDreams is one of my favorite usernames across the web, but I don't remember how I initially came up with it. I do really like it, though

I'm very happy with Kaiah! She's kind of a rescue and I adopted her for free. Her former owner is a herpetologist and former professor at my school. I was really excited when he said he needed to find a home for her and wasn't charging anything.

Hahaha president is quite the ambitious dream! But I think if I was ever president I spend a lot of my time like this -->

My dream pet is a giant sticky toed gecko. The ones that are the ginormous versions of crested geckos, but I can't remember their exact name...

Also my little brother has a 5 gallon fish tank with a guppy, a tetra and some kind of algae eater (as well a host of snails which arrived on his last plant). Forgot to add that in there.

Thanks for the welcome! I am super excited about finally getting answers. Some people are just..bad..at answering questions. But I like it here

Hi again Army Or maybe AOD!

My gues to your dream pet is the New Caledonian Giant Gecko or Leach's Giant Gecko, Rhacodactylus leachianus, called a leachy for short.





(Not my animals)

Zoology and biology are great, IMHO. You seem to have a passion for it. And have had enough animals

Haha hello again! Yes those are the geckos I'm talking about. I went to a reptile show in Cleveland once (I'd love to go again, it was pretty nice to walk around and see all the awesome critters for sale) and I got to hold an adult giant gecko (or leachy...never heard them called that before) at a breeder's stand. It was the greatest two minutes of my life, next to the time one of the baby alligators my school used to have for research meeped at me. Someday, when I have about $500 for a well-bred hatchling and enough money beyond that to set up an environment...

I've had a lot of animals but my experience is nothing compared to a lot of the other students in my major. One of my friends is a chapter coordinator at a zoo, and he's only a freshman I like exotic animals a lot, and I think it will make you happy to know, Fishbone, that I seriously enjoy reptiles, especially lizards. But I have three more years left to get to know all of 'em

Hey ArmyOfDreams,

Many of us animal lovers had the dream of working at a zoo at some point. Unfortunately not every one of us are able to get a job there. Lucky your friend. Maybe you should ask him to hook you up at the same zoo if you are into it too.

I could get an internship at a zoo; he only has a job there because he's been a volunteer/intern for like seven years already. You could volunteer at a zoo easy!

Having a job to do something you love is quite different than taking on a volunteer work at your own spared time.

If your friend is a college freshman, and he had been a volunteer for seven years there, does it mean was accepted as a volunteer at zoo at age 11? I had no idea they would let 11-year-old kids to be volunteer in a zoo. What was his task back then?

I don't know if it was exactly seven years or not, but it's in the range between 5-7! I also don't know what exactly his job was at the start or how he got his foot in the door. But he probably started out as a hay sweeper, pooper scooper or something basic like that. Sorry, I don't have all the details!

And it's true that a job doing what you love is different, but volunteering is the next best thing and it counts as a foot in the door. Time spent doing what you love is time well spent!

You can certainly volunteer at zoo's and places like that at an early age with parental consent. You obviously wouldn't be feeding the hyenas, but there is always something you could do and learn. It is a job of passions, you generally don't make very much money relative to the amount of education required, and people like that also generally enjoy sharing their knowledge with others who share the same passions, whatever the age. Most zoos have youth programs of some sort as well.