Join your animal friends from Tiny Tails to You at the Austin Children’s Museum every third Saturday of the month! We will be at the Museum from 9:00-10:00 as part of their Saturday morning Cub Club. This wonderful program is available for children ages 3 and under and their caregivers.

The program offers access to all of the wonderful Museum exhibits in a relaxed atmosphere as well as programming specifically for toddlers and babies including story time, Little Explorers Lab, and Sing-a-Longs!

Admission is free for Dads, $2 for members and $4 for non-members.

Come out and join us for one of Austin’s premier baby and toddler programs!

Austin Monthly’s May issue is all about how to have fun this summer. We love having fun Summer, Winter, Spring or Fall so we are honored to be included in their list of 112 local activities to take part in. See evidence below:

We’re so proud to be one of only eight activities highlighted for kids. In order to read the full article, pick up a copy today. There are a ton of great summer ideas, both new and old, so it’s definitely worth the couple of bucks. And with hard copy in hand, make sure to turn to page 110 to read all about us! Cheers to the coolest, most exciting summer yet!

Enjoy this adorable picture of some of our Holland Lop rabbits! Holland Lops only grow to be about 3 pounds and are our very favorite breed of rabbit!

They’re excited to see you at your next zoo!

Join Tiny Tails and many other kid-friendly businesses, exhibitors and performers (we’ll be performing, too!) for Earth Day Austin at the Mueller Hanger THIS Sunday from 12:00-6:00 PM! If you love animals,  the planet, and recycling, this may be the perfect day for you!

For more information, visit http://earthdayaustin.com/for-kids/

See you soon!

We would like you to join us in welcoming the newest additions to Tiny Tails: 3 baby African Pygmy Hedgehogs! Hiccup gave birth to three baby hedgehogs about 4 weeks ago. Hedgehogs come out as tiny pink, squirmy…things, that only resemble hedgehogs because of the quills. That’s right, they are born with quills.  Don’t worry, mom is protected by the fact that the babies are born in sacks that keep the quills from poking her in uncomfortable places as they are birthed.

As a general rule, we couldn’t mess with or handle the babies until they were 3 weeks old. This is so mom has the space and calm environment she needs to properly care for them. If disturbed, mom can refuse to care for the babies, which we definitely didn’t want. I sat anxiously by, counting the days until I could pick up one of the cute little balls of spikes, and finally that day arrived! I was so excited! I picked up the smallest one first, Sprinkles. He immediately began to lick and gum me, as he was, and still is, in the process of teething. Then an amazing thing happened! He began to anoint himself.  Scientist are unclear as to why hedgehogs anoint, but they believe it has something to do with smells they really like. Sprinkles began foaming at the mouth and bending around in all sorts of strange hedgehog yoga poses in order to put his mouth froth, and my scent, all over his quills. I felt honored and knew then that we would be friends for a long time to come.  All three babies are adorable and fit in the palm of your hand, but they are growing quickly! Make sure to have Sprinkles or one of his siblings stop by your party, so you can meet one of the cutest little creatures out there.

To learn more about hedgehogs visit http://www.tinytailstoyou.com/Hedgehogs.html.

Owning a traveling petting zoo means owning a lot of animals. And owning a lot of animals means handling a lot of animal poop… we know, gross. But Chelsea, owner of Tiny Tails to You, realized there were some perks of being the possessor of what most people would only consider waste. The animal droppings are an excellent source of compost for the garden! So, instead of disposing of it a.s.a.p she created an area in her backyard where the compost pile could naturally do its thing.

Last weekend, I decided to take advantage of the empty and sad-looking garden beds that are in my front yard. I went to The Great Outdoors, where I was able to buy some seeds and plants starts. I knew I didn’t need to pay extra for compost, because my good friend Chelsea was swimming in it! (thankfully, not literally).

I went over to her house and was able to get a large amount of compost without even making a dent in her gigantic pile. With rich compost in one hand and planting material in the other, I set-up my first garden bed and couldn’t be more excited!

If you’re interested in starting your own garden, or already have one and would like dibs on some of the best compost around, fee free to email Chelsea at chelsea@tinytailstoyou.com. Let the gardening begin!

Our red-footed tortoise really likes raising his hand when he knows the answer. Or maybe he’s raising the roof… we haven’t quite figured it out yet. Knuckles Tortellini, whom we call Mr. T for short, originally hails from the jungles of South America but fits in perfectly at our zoo here in Austin. Red-footed tortoises are the most responsive, outgoing and curious of tortoises, which you can tell as soon as you meet Mr. T. He loves poking his head out of his shell to see what’s going on around him as he slowly wanders around. He loves to eat flowers, vegetables and fruit and likes temperatures in the 80s and 90s (good thing he’s in Texas). Red-footed tortoises can live to be 50 years-old, so Mr. T will be part of our family for a long time. Feel free to request Mr. T for your next petting zoo event!

Everybody loves photos of animals, and sometimes at Tiny Tails to You we can’t help but want to be part of the picture too. We have a feeling a lot of people feel the same way, so we’re holding an awesome photo contest!  Whether you already have the perfect picture of you or someone in your family with a pet, or need to create a new memory, submit your best pic for a chance to win 50% off your next zoo! It’s an activity that’s fun for the whole family (humans and animals alike). Good luck!

Contest Rules

Submit a photo of your or someone in your family with a pet. We’re looking for fun and creative photos so don’t be afraid to let loose!

Email the image to chelsea@tinytailstoyou.com. Put “Photo Contest”  in the subject.

The winner will be announced in March and featured on our blog. The winner receives 50% their next zoo!

Snakes tend to evoke strong feelings, positive and/or negative.  Luckily for us at Tiny Tails, we now have a great ambassador for the serpentine species!  Meet our newest animal friend, Archimedes.

He is a two year old ghost corn snake, native to the eastern United States as far as New Jersey and as far west as Kentucky and Louisiana.  There are a few tales surrounding how the corn snake got their name.  According to several internet sites, the name could have come from the intricate patterns on their stomachs, which look very similar to the pattern on maize, or Mexican corn.  Growing up, I had always heard that corn snakes got their name because they were most commonly found in corn fields or granaries due to the high population of their prey, rodents.  This is similar to the story of how milk snakes got their name. They do not actually drink milk. The name comes from the fact that they are commonly found in dairies because livestock means grain and grain means rodents.  Go figure!

Despite our inherent fear of snakes, they provide us with a wonderful service:  they are nature’s pest control.  Snakes such as Archimedes keep the rodent and rabbit populations in check, and are even known to eat other species of snake!  These creatures are actually very shy and reclusive and are not the blood thirsty monsters movies and media would like us to believe.  If you are educated about the snakes in your area, the odds of even seeing a snake, much less getting bitten, are remarkably low.

Archimedes is a fascinating animal.  He stretches to about 3 feet and likes to give your wrist a nice squeeze so he can dangle off and “sniff” (snakes don’t have noses, they use their tongues) the area.   Corn snakes are one of the only snakes besides constrictors that, well, constrict their food instead of just swallowing it live.  Although Archimedes isn’t trying to strangle anyone’s wrist, his grip can still be felt and it feels pretty cool!  Snakes do not have external ears.  Instead, they “hear” by sensing the vibrations all around them.

Just recently, Archimedes displayed another of the snake’s spiffy traits: he crawled right out of his skin!  Adult corn snakes shed about every 6 weeks.  Right before shedding, snakes will often seek water to laze about in as the moisture helps them slip off the molt.  Their eyes will also get milky because they even shed the scale that protects them. Crazy!

So if you have hesitations about snakes, invite Archimedes to your next party or special event, and learn first-hand that snakes are nothing to fear.