www.RescueExotics.org

Safe Haven's Animals

We have over 200 animals in residence here at Safe Haven and each one has their own story.  Here are a few more of them.

Loki is a female Blue and Gold Macaw.  She is a victim of divorce where the original owners were in the process of splitting up so Loki was left in the basement without receiving the care she needed.  She is completely featherless throughout her body except for her head and wings; she does not even have any tail feathers.  There is possible long term damage such that her feathers may never grow back.  Loki has been with us for only a short time so it will take many months of proper nutrition and enrichment before we will be able to see what long term affects are left.

Charlie is a Double Yellow Amazon.  Charlie had been passed around from home to home, at least two of which included young children.  A woman with a kind heart was working at a veterinary clinic when the owner at the time simply said that “she was going to get rid of it” because her children were not interested in him.  Wanting to be sure Charlie ended up with a good home she took him in.  Two years later, she still had not found a private owner that could provide a suitable home so she donated him to Safe Haven.  Charlie is one of our most prolific talkers and will be trained to be used in our educational programs.       

Trixy is a female Blue and Gold Macaw.  She was dropped off at local pet store with the owner simply saying “he no longer wanted her”.  Trixy was completely bald on her chest and back as well as being emaciated (she had a protruding chest bone).  We are monitoring her diet carefully to put some weight back on her.  We are hopeful that most of her feathers will grow back in however it will probably many months.

Tango is a male Kinkajou, which is a rainforest animal that is related to raccoons and has a prehensile tail.  He belonged to a woman who has many years of experience with exotic animals.  Kinkajous tend to have unpredictable aggressive outbursts.  Even with her years of experience, this aggressive side was too difficult to handle in her home around other people.  Tango was donated to Safe Haven because we can care for him in a manor safe for everyone.

Our American Alligators were purchased as pets having been told by the dealer that they were Alligator Lizards.  They even received a care sheet for such lizards; that live in the desert and on sand.  This is quite the opposite environment for an American Alligator.  Needless to say, they were not doing too well so the owners began to call around for help.  Our director went out to take a look at them and told them they in fact had American Alligators and that it was illegal for them to have as pets without a permit.  Their choice was to either be reported or to sign them over to us.  We are one of 5 institutions in the state that has a permit for alligators.

Several of the large snakes (Common Boa, Carpet Python and Reticulated Python) came to us because the owners became fearful of their own animals.  They were found in enclosures with many months worth of feces and no water.  They arrived to us dehydrated and malnourished.  In some cases the snake got too big for the owner to handle.  

Iguanas are commonly sold in pet stores as “easy” reptiles to care for but seldom are people told about how large they get.  Often the animal gets too big for the owner to handle so they decide to get rid of them.  Unfortunately, this is extremely common and there just aren’t enough homes for these animals.

In many cases (such as our Bearded Dragon or Cherry-head Red-foot Tortoise) the owners simply lost interest and could no longer care for the animal.  Many of the exotics we receive arrive with nutritional deficiencies.  They all have specific vitamin requirements and need UV light to maintain proper health.  It is important for exotic animal owners to learn what the requirements are for their animal.   The tortoise is another perfect example of this because his shell is permanently deformed from being fed an inappropriate diet.

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