So I got a Pedipaws powered nail file for Christmas. It is basically a Dremel tool with a replaceable round Emery sandpaper band. I had doubts about this device especially knowing how their saturated marketing campaigns have become rather annoying. I swore to never buy one of these after getting ten emails a day about them for months.

Well, after some use, I am here to say that the device does work. You put the nail into a hole and it hits the spinning sandpaper wheel. The magic with this device is the plastic cap guard which makes it almost impossible to injure anything while using this so it becomes rather easy to hold the paw with one hand and the tool with the other and sand away.

As long as your animal is not afraid of the light motor sound or of a paw being held, they wont notice a thing. My dog was yawning whilst I gave him the pedicure.

The thing is not super powerful or anything like that, but all in all, nail trimming is quicker and less annoying for me and much less painful for the animal. You can easily do a small buff weekly and slowly make a previously ungroomed nail become shorter. Plus, there are never any splintering ends since it is simply sanding and not cutting.

I think this will become my preference for trimming nails as it is much easier for me to use and I do not expect to cause any pain with the tool and it leaves the nail in a healthier state over a pressure cutting tool.

Buy one and give it a try, they arent expensive.





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When it started getting cold here, I decided to make Robin a nestbox out of a large foam cooler. I figured that the foam would insulate and keep her body heat in which it has been doing very well. As it got colder, I moved her cage into the garage. It still gets cold out there so I have been keeping the house garage door open to keep the room warmer which hasnt been the most cost effective thing to do. When it finally got very cold out, I decided to sit her nestbox on top of a heating pad. The bad thing about that is most of the heat is wasted outside of the box from this oversized heater and the pad also shuts off after a few hours so a comfy temperature is not maintained.


So I did some digging and finally came up with a solution. I found a Zoo Med Repti Therm 6"x8" flat nichrome heating pad to put inside of her nestbox. This thing draws only 8 watts, but since it is inside, it doesnt really take much to warm up the foam box. Matter of fact, 8watts can collect a good amount of heat over time, so I also ordered a Repti Temp thermostat with probe to turn it off which does the job well.




While experimenting with this stuff, I ended up cutting and bending some sheet metal to be the floor and a wall which acts as a heatsink and reflector for the heating pad. Now the heat is distributed evenly inside and my South American critter is now efficiently and safely maintained at a comfy 82F and she can go out to cool off and get some exercise.

The system draws only 8 watts when heating and the thermostat turns it off when temperature is achieved which helps to saves money. I no longer have to heat the entire room for her or manually try to keep her warm with a cruddy human hot pad. The warm sealed box also retains humidity for her so ive already noticed her tail being much healthier looking and not a bit chapped.

I am happy about this new setup and I think she is too.

EDIT:

Here it is a few days later and we had a big cold front come through. It is 30F outside, 53F in the garage where the cage is wintering, and it is 82F in her nestbox thanks to this little amazing 8 watt nichrome heater on a thermostat. The hottest Ive seen it is 85F and that was her own body heat raising it past the set point.


I have also been trending power use using my plug-in watt meter. When operating, the pad seems to draw 9VA. Recording for 84.5 hours, the system has used .57kwh. That equates to an average 6.7 watts per hour when it is cold out, so the pad is obviously shutting off some even with these lower temps.

Our old APC ups system has destroyed the battery pack. This is somewhat my fault for not maintaining water levels in the pack but also the fault of the ups because it has been overcharging constantly. I now have a new battery pack and a new and much larger 5.3kva ups which should be able to maintain the new pack better. I also have quarterly maintenance checks scheduled for the batteries now, so nothing should go unmonitored.

Here is an updated photo of the racks as they sit now. I am using one of the Dell's for this and other websites, and two are running vmware with various servers and services.


This is the new 8000btu window unit. Using the plugin power meter I was able to trend the smaller unit and this newer, larger and more efficient unit and have come to realize that this newer one is cheaper to run. So yay!


This is the sub breaker panel that I assembled to run the racks. It plugs into a 220V 4 wire plug so I have access to neutral and can drop the standard US split 120V if needed but it can also supply single phase 220v which is what the ups uses.


This is the nifty whole house power meter that I bought. It clamps around each leg of the mains and has a powerline signal injector. The meter can then plug into any outlet in the house to receive an update every second. Works like a champ and has enlightened me to a lot of power hogs. The meter is the first and last thing I look at for the day and when I am coming and going. I can tell if something is on that shouldnt be with a glance.

I only have 125amp service to the house but so far that has been enough to run all the things that I run. I have been planning to add air conditioning to the garage and then add a large laser machine in there to operate a home based business, and that will come close to our power limits across our old copper wires. Luckily we are still on a very ancient PUC controlled energy plan so our rates have been rock solid over the years whereas everybody elses has fluctuated and skyrocketed. Adding up all the fees and usage, I believe that we typically get billed just under .12 per kwh and that drops as we use more power. I have a nice spreadsheet of the last ten years of power usage here. And when I arrived, it skyrocketed of course.

Some day I would like to add in a double-sized photo voltaic system as well as a vertical wind turbine all connected to a netplus system. Battery banks are a pain in the butt, but I could maintain such a system of course if ever needed.

I am back down to 17 animals today which reside in my three colony cages. The last two abandons found a home today with Krista from Ohio who was here with her husband on business and driving back tomorrow. They got a small travel cage, some frozen foods and other stuff and I think the pair will do fine on the trip back to Ohio.

To remove the last tumor from Robin's tummy area, the vet was forced to cut away her pouch. So Robin is no longer a marsupial and she probably doesnt have any remaining mammary glands. I hope this will end her need of surgeries to remove tumors.

Dropped Robin off this morning for surgery again. She has another growth on her belly/pouch that needs to be removed. I believe they are growths from her mammary glands.

The temp is supposed to be well below 50F tonight so I decided to move Robin into the garage. Took me some hours to collect all of the gasolene, chemical, fertilizer, car oils, most of the paints and other fuming junk and load it onto a large metro shelf with wheels. So when Robin is in the garage, the bad stuff gets parked outside. I also rearranged a bunch of stuff to make room for her large cage.

Last night it got to 50F and the wireless temp probe in the base of her foam nestbox measured 65F so she had plenty enough body heat to keep herself well above 65F snuggled into her box at that outside temp. Nonetheless, 40F is a bit nippy so I figured she'd be best inside.

It's now 54 outside but her garage nestbox is measuring 73 at the base, so she is prolly nice and toasty in her wraps.

We paid 12.5 cents per kwh this month and probably consumed much more than the average home although down here in Texas many homes have two central (zoned) air conditioners and they arent very efficient homes. Many folks are seeing power bills of $700 on up and they are paying up to .25 a kwh on their new "money saving" energy plans.

I am also very happy to announce that my energy saving efforts have paid off greatly. This was the hottest month of the year and the bill is always the most. By following the trending in my spreadsheet, this month was guestimated to be around 5173 kwh consumed and it ended up being 3357. This bill was $120 cheaper than last months and I expected it to be $80 more. So I calculate that we saved around $200 this month by my simple efforts alone. I have turned off equipment that we dont really need. All computers are in S3 sleep mode now including my TV pc. I have a more efficient air conditioner in the server room. We dont run ceiling fans all day anymore unless the room is occupied. We turn off tv's when leaving house or not in room... These things mentioned prolly saved an average of 100 watts per hour each.

Using my portable wattmeter and the whole house meter I have been able to slow down our energy usage and keep tabs on it.

I never thought Id be excited over a $419.53 energy bill, but I expected $620.

My goal is to keep chopping that down moving forward. Radiant barrier and insulation will help some. Sealing the house better will help some. A new HVAC system should help some. Earning more money on my websites will help a lot. And then some day Id like to have solar and wind systems helping a lot. Hopefully we will see a day where our city, state and fed govt all work together to help fund these renewable energy initiatives. Right now the city of Austin will pay for more than 50% of your solar system and you can also get a $2000 rebate on your taxes from the fed. That would be a nice business to be in down there right now. I hope to see this in Dallas some day.

I should probably get certified as a solar and wind installer and general electrician.

Well it looks like Jennifer did the necropsy yesterday and came to some conclusions.

quote:

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I did go ahead and do the necropsy yesterday, and I found multiple nodules in his lungs, and a very enlarged, pale liver. It appears he had metastatic lung cancer, meaning cancer from somewhere else had invaded his lungs. I'm thinking maybe from the nodules in his skin or by his mouth? I didn't see any signs of problems in any of his other organs. Probably the liver failure was because he hadn't been eating (hepatic lipidosis or "fatty liver disease"). It does mean, though, that there was nothing you or I could have done to save him. I'm sorry for your loss, but know you did everything you could for him.

~Jenny

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Rest in peace Mr Phil Philander Opossum.

Phil died today at around 9:30am in the vets hands. He had not been eating since surgery and I cant even be sure that he was swallowing his meds as he was such a stubborn creature. She took his exhausted panting body away to draw some blood from his neck. Apparently his heart stopped during that procedure and she couldnt revive him and he was brought back to me dead.

I am sure it's the same for everyone, but it seems so surreal seeing this once hyper hissing flighty nippy animal lying there, still, limp, eyes open. I am sad for him as I did not want him to end this way. I was happy to put up with his odd temperament in order to see him become a daddy. His offspring would have been the tame kept animals I was wanting.

I left him with Jennifer so she could do a necropsy to determine what may have went wrong, what we can learn from it and if it is any threat to Robin, my sugars or even me.

   

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kazko
Gender: Male
Occupation:computer geek
Member since: Jan 24, 1997
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My Bio
NUTHOUSE (3) Pican 4/30/2002, died 6/02/2010 Buddy 5/01/2006 Hazel 2/01/2007, rehomed 11/28/2011 Maya 4/25/2007 Pili 4/25/2007 MISFITS (3) Big Guy 9/23/2003, died 1/29/2014 Lil Guy 9/23/2003, died 5/13/2015 Hunter 4/19/2006, died 3/23/2014 JP 8/12/2006 Shikoni 2004 Kioko 2003 Washi 2003, died 5/27/2014 SUGARSHACK (3) Chico 1/15/2006, died 9/14/2011 Cookie 10/15/2005 Kimmie 10/15/2005 Lucky 5/25/2007 Spritz 8/24/2007, died 7/06/2011 Ginger 8/24/2007, died 12/16/2012 Rock 9/09/2007, died 3/23/2013 Crystal 9/09/2007, died 11/01/2012

   

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