Pet aquatic turtles have been implicated in three outbreaks of salmonellosis involving 43 US states over the past year and a half.  Disappointing, but not surprising.

Disappointing, obviously, because people are getting sick. Disappointing also because these outbreaks have occurred over and over, despite availability of good information on how to reduce the risks.

It’s

I write a lot about reptiles, and while it’s usually in the context of their biohazardous nature, I actually like them. I’ve owned some before and it’s not outside of the realm of possibility that we’ll get more in the future (I might be safe with that statement since Heather doesn’t read this blog. However

The fact that Salmonella and reptiles go together is old news. I often get questions about testing reptiles to see if they are Salmonella carriers and I tell people not to bother since even with a negative result, I’d consider the animal to be positive. A recent study in the Journal of Zoo and Wildlife

I received an email from a relative the other day with a pet question. I get lots of these, but the surprising part is this relative doesn’t have any pets (and I think is generally of the opinion that pets are okay, as long as they’re not hers). She was asking about turtles. As a

I get a lot of emails about this blog. Some are complementary, some… well… not so much.

When it comes to the latter group, the most common (and often the most grammatically-challenged) group is raw meat feeders. They’re a constant source of interesting comments about my intelligence and other aspects of my life. Some actually provide