News & Events

Have you ever seen an Amboina King Parrot? We have  a locally bred male that is a joy to behold. He is DNA sexed but you don’t need to do that to his next door neighbor, a 12 week old male Solomon Island Eclectus Parrot. The male and female Eclectus are so different in appearance that they were originally described as 2 different species.

Yes, we have bunnies but they are not Easter bunnies. Our bunnies are year round rabbits that are great pets that live about 8 years. Most of our bunnies come from a nationally ranked Holland Lop breeder so they are tinyand have their ears hanging down with adorable faces. Come and see them and you will understand why we choose these bunnies.

Finches? Yes, lots from Green Singing Finches to Red Headed Parrot finches to Lady Goulds. Zebras and Societies too.

We are now into our second year of sponsoring Science Cafes in conjunction with Rockville Science Center Inc and Sigma Xi.  If you have been to any of them, I know you look foreward to the next one every month. Speakers have presented fascinating glimpses into their field of scientific inquiry and engaged the audience, responding to an amazing list of questions each time.

Cafes are held at Branded’72, a very good barbecue restaurant on Gude Drive at 7:00 PM on the 3rd Wednesday of the month except in March when we we moved to March 10 so as not to interfere with your St. Patricks day celebrations.

Cafes  are FREE but  you can order food and all beverages if you desire. Vegetarians can even find lots of options so join us March 10 to hear all about Bees with our speaker from the University of Maryland.

After the February snows, it’s hard to believe I considered the December event a blizzard. This time I spent 5 days at the store and there were a number of issues that came up that were shared by customers:

*Power outages – We had a number of folks with power out for a long time and these are suggestions for how to deal with it:

Birds maintain their own body temperature even warmer than ours. Be sure they have lots of food and they will be fine. Covering their cage tightly with blankets will keep heat in but they don’t eat in the dark so one of our creative customers put a battery operated LED lantern by their food. It worked bu remember only to do this with finches and other birds that will not eat the lantern.

Another customer who had their house go down to 41, put their Senegal in it’s carrier and slept with it. I think the owner benefited the most.

Small animals also generate their own heat so the same applies to them as to birds except they will eat in the dark and might even eat the lantern. A  small box for them to sleep in is a good idea.

Reptiles are best put in a bag and kept under your shirt where your body heat will keep them warm. If they get too active, move them to a pocket where they will not be as warm.

Fish are a problem. If you still have hot water, float covered jars of hot water in the tank and replace a needed. Watch the thermometer in the tank. Large tanks decrease slower than small ones. A single Betta can go in a small amount of water and be kept in your pocket if you have a totally secure plastic bag.

E-mail us with any other tips you may have at animalexchange@erols.com