When your new baby comes home one of the first things you will try to do is figure out what litterbox works best. It makes sense. Skunks poop, and nobody wants to have a house covered in poop. Unlike with kittens, however, skunks will not instantly find a litterbox and bury their poop within it. In fact, with their bug hunting instincts, I've found them far more likely to play, dig, and sleep in their litter than to poop in it.
Read the RestI know, I missed a lot of blogging. I've been super busy with life and haven't added anything in a while. So I'm going to catch everyone up.
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We lost a wonderful skunk last week. Gingerbread came to us from a small rabbit cage in the back of a petshop stacked next to the dog food. I remember seeing her there, sending Ken a picture, and he instantly said "How much? We can't leave her like that." We brought her home and gave her room, friends, and love.
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I have been super busy getting ready for skunk feast this year. As a skunk haven rep I both wanted to attend so I could help out at the show, and wanted to find ways to contribute. I ended up stumbling on an idea while talking with a friend of mine.
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Happy 4th of July. To all my friends and skunk owners and blog readers (even the non-american ones, cause you still have a 4th of july, just not with fireworks.)
Mostly happy 4th to Insanity and Nighl, cause my night is being spent on Overwatch.
If you tried to use my app yesterday you may have noticed that it wasn't working. Sorry about that guys. More details inside.
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I haven't been on the admin portion of my site in a while, and it looks like my auto-publisher has been having issues. No posts I made since 2018 have gone out properly. My apologies for that. I'm currently working on manually publishing them out, so there should be some back reading to do if you keep up with my blog regularly.
It always makes me feel good to know that I am helping educate people not only in the good parts of skunk ownership, but also the hardships and frustrations. The more prepared you are when deciding to own an exotic animal, the better for both you and the pet. When I logged on to start looking at why my publishing wasn't working I was also greeted by a few messages. One that really made me feel great (especially since it looked like my blog went dark for three months) was from the Bel-Rea Institute of Animal Technology. A notification that Skunk Guru has been chosen for their list of Top 25 Small Animal Blogs.
After several months of working with Flower we have him down about 6 lbs. He dropped weight rather quickly at first just from calorie control and then he has slowly lost more weight through a mix of diet and exercise. Since I have been asked by several skunk owners, here is my diet regimen for him.
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With baby season only a few months away and people deciding whether or not they want to put a deposit down on a baby skunk, I want to talk about one of what I consider the "best kept secrets" of skunk ownership. Their ability to be litter trained. I talk to people when I am out with my skunk and when they ask about my skunk's restroom habits I always gloss over them with "they're litter trained" or "they use puppy pads" and move on. There is SO much more to skunk potty training than that, and it can become a disaster if you aren't prepared for it.
A bit of background to explain this: I am an anosmic. I have no sense of smell at all. I was born that way and doctors have told me that there's no way to bring it back. I'm smell blind. This fact of my everyday life makes it twice as hard to keep my house clean, since I have chosen to keep animals who hoard poop. I don't believe skunks hoard poop on purpose. I think as babies they don't know any better, and as adults they are either angry or lazy. But it happens, and far more than a lot of us like to admit. I don't know many skunk owners who don't have at least one story of finding a poop hoard somewhere their skunk had designated as a den. This is mine:
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So it has been 20 days since I first picked up Flower and he surprised me with his size. At 24 lbs I was not sure I would be able to manage getting him back to a healthier weight, especially when it became obvious that his size was impeding his ability to walk
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As a Skunk Haven Rep I am committed to taking in Skunks in need of a home. Once taken in we work with those skunks to either re-home them to people looking to own a skunk or in some rare cases, we keep them. This Saturday I went and picked up Flower from his owner. Flower's entire situation really spoke to my heart. One half of a married couple passed away, and while the skunk's owner tried to do his best dealing with grief and with the care of Flower, Flower had always been more of the partner's pet. It eventually became clear to him that he was not providing Flower with the attention and time that he needed due to long work hours. To top it off, with the loss of his primary caregiver, Flower was depressed.
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I haven't been blogging for a while because all of my free time has been spent on my super secret project. What was that project you ask? Going mobile. I've prepared for launch and now Skunk Guru is not only a website, but it has an app as well.
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My skunks tend to hide inside with me during the summer months in Florida. It's too hot outside to want to spend hours of your time baking in the sun. I grew up in Florida, I've had sunburns that have rendered me unable to walk with their severity (I know, I was an idiot) and I am in no mood to ever repeat that over exposure. Until of course, Pokemon Go appeared.
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When this time of year comes around all of my skunk owning friends start posting pictures as their skunks have babies, as they bring home their new acquisitions, as they rescue wild litters and work towards releasing them, etc. It's a time where I have to clamp firmly onto my wallet and my tendency to impulse buy and just keep saying "No no no no no." It's a hard word to say when faced with a million skunky babies. They're cuter than should be legal.
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It's happened. I finally gave in. We're having a super bowl party. Well, sort of. Deborah from Skunk Haven has finally been allowed to announce that her skunk, Tank, will be playing the part of "Stanley the referee" in this year's Animal Planet Puppy Bowl. So I called Verizon, got my channel package updated to include Animal Planet (how did I not have that already) and we're ready to go. We'll be cheering for you, Tank.
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Having lived past the time in my life where I enjoy the morning clean up of having tons of people over to my house downing alcohol like fish, I had a much lazier new years eve than I used to. Ken and I spent the evening together watching the ball drop on TV and playing Hearthstone arenas online. I spent a fair bit of that time with Newt lying in my lap snuggling me. She sleeps like a log when she's comfortable and has taken to having long naps with me while I watch TV after work. Gingy popped out for a bit to say hello and Stunky spent the evening hidden in the bathroom cabinet since it's now cleaned out. Newt is really the only skunk who deigns to spend excessive hours of her time with me (probably because she spent so much time spurned by the other skunks.
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Because all of the skunks are doing well and getting used to each other I decided to try and take some "family photos." I started by setting up a chair and lights for the shoot, got my camera on a tripod and focused then it was time for the skunks.
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Newtie got spayed. It was that time of year that I always dread for my female skunks because somehow I always get the crazy skunks that won't leave their bellies alone. The vet set her up with this awesome diaper bandage that covers everything but her bum so she can't chew but she can still use the restroom. As soon as I got home I added a cone using the same technique as my previous blog "That Cone Of Shame". Then hell week began.
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In keeping skunks for years and adopting several rescues I have discovered that there are people out there who are the true unsung heroes of the skunk world. All of the rescue agencies that put their time and lives on hold to stay up at night with ailing rescues, that put their cash into keeping those rescues alive and getting them back to tip top shape, that put their care and hearts into the rescues and lose a small piece of themselves when one doesn't make it. These rescue workers are fantastic and dedicated and I look up to every single one of them.
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After a clean bill of health for Newt we have started introducing her to our other two skunks. While I find that it works pretty well for snuggle times (minus the fact that three skunks means I am running out of room on my couch) I have also found that my older skunks are not in the mood for shenanigans. No matter how much we try to get them interested in playing with Newt, they find her boundless baby energy exhausting and annoying.
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When people talk to me about their pets and how they are so frustrated that one day, one time, their dog pooped in their shoe cause they went on vacation for a week and left the dog behind, I can't help feeling like they are executing a humblebrag. I love skunks. I can't imagine life without them. But there is the undeniable fact that skunks can be wildly destructive without meaning to be. They love you and want to be with you. They are curious what is behind that door you have blocked them out of. They want to know what that smell is. (Hint: It's food you spilled on the carpet months ago, and they will attempt to dig up all of the carpet to determine if any food was left behind.)
I figured I would share a few of my skunk destruction stories to help those looking to get a skunk understand what they are in for.
I have had so many skunk issues where I have had to stay up all night watching my skunks due to stitches and a chewin habit. I was told repeatedly by my vets that skunks can't wear a cone of shame because of their head shape. The cones, they say, slide right off of the skunk. Until recently, I believed them. That is, until I had to take Newt to an emergency vet and she came out fitted with a cone that has stayed on for days.
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This is the tale of how I ended up with a new tootie.
Someone in one of the other skunk groups bought skunks and decided she didn't want them anymore. I went down to pick up one of the skunks because I live nearby and was informed that she would not be able to keep the skunk much longer.
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When I was in college I went through a lot of different roommates before I moved in by myself. I loved my roommates, don't get me wrong, in fact I am still good friends with most of them and still live near/hang out with one of them quite often. However, I wanted a small house where I could purchase a skunk or two and be able to have alone time if wanted. I purchased my first skunks in that house. A small 2 bedroom (if you could call the tiny rooms bedrooms) mother in law apartment with no doors anywhere but on the bathroom. Perfect for one college student.
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That's right. I was informed that because of the shape of their body and the fact that they are bad at climbing DOWN from things that I would never have to worry about them climbing up either. 15 years and 7 skunks later I am calling BS on this person. I have had skunks climb into the strangest of places, with no idea how they got there, and often found them highly distressed at the fact that they can't get back down. Although, there have been times when seeing them climb down was the only reason I was able to figure out how they got up in the first place.
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If you are anything like me you go through a ton of vegetables every month to feed your skunks. I look at this as part of the price of keeping my girls. But recently I started reusing my skunk's food in a new way to help cut costs.
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I used to work in marketing at my last job so I'm pretty familiar with SEO. I know it's a huge leap for most people to see themselves ranking on page one of google. But sometimes, for reasons you aren't really sure of, you start seeing an upswing of very odd keywords hitting your site. I am not sure what it is that Google thinks Skunk.Guru is about, but I am sure it's not what people expected when they hit my site after these searches.
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There have been a few times in my life where I have decided that my home is not filled with enough skunky glory. Sometimes the decision was thrust upon be by the appearance of an unwanted skunk that I just couldn't leave behind. Other times it was one made by the loss of a long time skunk, leaving behind one lonely skunk who was used to having a friend. But, whatever choice made me decide to take a new skunk and introduce it into my house when there were fullgrown skunks already residing there, I have discovered that it can be a long drawn out trial to get peace in your household once again.
Here are a few things to remember when introducing a new skunk to your home...
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Around Easter I took both of my skunks to the Florida Skunk Easter Egg Hunt. It took place outside an on a back porch, and though the temperature was OK in the morning, by mid-afternoon both me and the girls were what can only be described as sweltering. Stunky handled it the best. She found a couch to crawl under and sat in a nice cool shady place. Gingerbread, however, sat in the stroller panting and drooling trying to cool herself off.
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