Friday 25 October 2013

Demonstrating and tissue culture

Hi everyone

So in the past couple of weeks:

1. Demonstrating:
I have begun to do some demonstrating on animal handling, I am assisting in an  undergraduate class where they learn about handling and the requirements of rabbits, guinea pigs and chinchillas. I have so far found that I am extremely fond of guinea pigs, I feel that I would like to have one again one day. I used to own a guinea pig his name was Sir Eat a lot. Which i think described his personality perfectly, we got him from a small zoo in Derbyshire when it closed down in 2000. Anyway enough about my previous guinea pig.

I am enjoying demonstrating, its nice to see how the undergrads are so enthusiastic, and wanting to learn and handle the animals. I am also learning a lot about these animals, especially about chinchillas, I had never handled a chinchilla before until I was trained for this work. I think its important not to talk down to the students, which I thought I would have a problem with but in the end it has been ok. Many of them have pets at home and they already understand a bit about the animals.

So from doing this kind of demonstrating I have so far learned, the requirements for keeping rabbits, guinea pigs and chinchillas, how to sex them and common diseases/illnesses and problems.

2. Tissue culture
Ok, so I have started to do some tissue culture which has been eventful. I have managed not to infect any of them yet and none of them have had to be thrown away yet.... watch this space.

3. Life outside uni
Since i last posted, I have moved house to be closer to uni which has been been great and very helpful as now I dont have a long commute as I did before. 

No comments:

Post a Comment