Reaserch Project- 6-21-12 update- Cage help?

[Mistress of Rain]

Updated!

Project Animal: Sugar Gliders ([insert scientific name here when I know it])
Location: Saginaw Children's Zoo
Goal: Create an exhibit so they may put their current sugar gliders (who are educational only animals current) on exhibit for the public.

Current Stage: figuring out the Cage

Cage help:
so going to email them about doing maybe a 2x3x4 foot cage. And have one side be a door.
Ceiling and 3 walls will be a safe mesh (still trying to figure out what is safe)
1 wall will be plexiglass
Natrual sticks around the sides for running and climbing,
2 normal pouches, and 1 see through back pouch
perhaps a fleece vine
find a stump to maybe set up as a dinning area, and a water bottle attached to one side of a cage (perhaps hidden a bit from the public?)
Buy a wheel, to be placed in perhaps ship it to the zoo for them to try out before they get my set up?

Anyone think of anything else? Maybe a fun way to make selves areas for them.

Questions:
How many sugar gliders? 2
What are their sexes? Male and Female (Siblings)
What is their current diet? forgot to ask
Are any of the sugar gliders special needs? No, but need to be taken out daily, and cage really needs to be easy to get into
Do they have any favorite things (toys/pouches/ect.)?POUCHES=AMZING
Do they happily come to their care takers?No, still in training for shows
How active are they during the day?Nope, cage should be dark for so they are active for visitors to the zoo
How do they deal with the noise of children/people? Can sleep through the noise
How natural would you want the design/exhibit?As much as possible, pouches, hammocks, vines = enrichment
What would be your general budget for building the exhibit?didn't ask, sounds like much of it might be out of my own pocket, and donated to the zoo <.<

[Mistress of Rain]

Reserved for something new.....

[Mistress of Rain]

So here is the Project I want to do:

Design an enclosure for a Small Animal (create plans, and depending on size/pricing build)
-possibly one that is seen as domestic and a pocket pet, to show what their natural habitat would be like.

Design enrichment items, and activities to help stimulate the animal(s) to keep them mentally and physically healthy.

Design a healthy diet for the small animal, that would mimic the most natural diet they would have in the wild, if possible supplementing it with a pelleted/block diet.

Make sure it is educational.
- Little "did you know" type things that could be places outside of the enclosure
- Create areas of the enclosure that could show places you wouldn't be able to see (see through tunnels, sleeping areas)
- If for domestic animal, possibly place the most up to date housing information for them that is from reliable breeders and sources.

[Latrans]

Assuming it's okay to post now...

I don't think the letter really explains what you're doing well enough, and it doesn't communicate to the other party what it is you want from them.

Otherwise, it sounds like it could be a neat project.

[Mistress of Rain]

Latrans

Assuming it's okay to post now...

I don't think the letter really explains what you're doing well enough, and it doesn't communicate to the other party what it is you want from them.

Otherwise, it sounds like it could be a neat project.

yep. smile

and yeah I just can't really figure out a good way to explain it with out it seeming rambling and the crazy animal lover person I am coming out. <.<

I will see if I can explain my project to you guys the best i can.

[Mistress of Rain]

Latrans

.

updated my last post to explain what I want to do...or hope i am explaining it a bit better.

[Erin puppy]

What exactly do you want from the places you're contacting?

and what is the purpose of the project?

I think that's what you're letter is missing or at least not making clear. sweatdrop

[Mistress of Rain]

Eri fox

What exactly do you want from the places you're contacting?

and what is the purpose of the project?

I think that's what you're letter is missing or at least not making clear. sweatdrop

Umm, my professor mostly wanted me to find if there is a client pool for a project like this. So even if the places don't want it for themselves they think it would be something they could do in the future or something....

Purpose would be for me to learn about an animal, and try to create an educational exhibit that a park could use.

[Latrans]

Yeah, but what do you want from them? Like, do you want them to finance the project? House the animal? Provide you with materials? Just... be interested? Your letter isn't very clear, and seems really vague.

I find it helpful to read things like that out-loud to myself, too, to make sure they flow well.

[Erin puppy]

Mistress of Rain

Eri fox

What exactly do you want from the places you're contacting?

and what is the purpose of the project?

I think that's what you're letter is missing or at least not making clear. sweatdrop

Umm, my professor mostly wanted me to find if there is a client pool for a project like this. So even if the places don't want it for themselves they think it would be something they could do in the future or something....

Purpose would be for me to learn about an animal, and try to create an educational exhibit that a park could use.

I'll refer you to what Latrans wrote about writing out what exactly you need from the places you contact.

as for the purpose, that's great, you can actually write out quite obviously: "The purpose of this project will be to help me gain experience and educate myself about the life, diet, and habitat of the chosen animal and to create an educational exhibit that can be used by a park or zoo."

You still need to add a line about what you are requesting. I am not quite sure myself or else I would give an example sweatdrop

[Mistress of Rain]

Eri fox

Latrans

Letter updated

[Payton Leeroy]

As much as you love gerbils, I don't think zoos would be too interested in something so prominent in the pet trade... Perhaps look into using rarer animals, like Elephant Shrews! They're just so cute with their long wiggly noses! And it's not something that a kid can take a couple bucks to his local pet store and get one. Course, it would be difficult to actually have a working setup for just that reason, as I don't think you'd be able to get one as a pet...

[Latrans]

I still don't think the letter tells the person who gets it what you want from them.

[Mistress of Rain]

MlizGr

As much as you love gerbils, I don't think zoos would be too interested in something so prominent in the pet trade... Perhaps look into using rarer animals, like Elephant Shrews! They're just so cute with their long wiggly noses! And it's not something that a kid can take a couple bucks to his local pet store and get one. Course, it would be difficult to actually have a working setup for just that reason, as I don't think you'd be able to get one as a pet...

If i could do it for something else, I would be willing to try. Like last semester I did all the research on the Black-bellied hamster. I would love to do research focusing on Jerboas...who many of their species are kind of on the endangered species list, even doing that Possum (or is it an Opossum...) that crazy chick had would be an interesting one to do. I just need ideas.

[Mistress of Rain]

Latrans

I still don't think the letter tells the person who gets it what you want from them.

Would saying something like this help at all?

Currently this project is just research. I would love to hear feed back on the project itself, other ideas for animals I could choose from, or even if this is a project you would like to see go on to the next step, where the designs are tried out.




With it I can include a list of small animals I could work on. But I wouldn't really want to go into it going to the next step unless they got back to me with interest of taking it that far.