#also im absolutely giving them a pet opossum

[xejune]

some rough outfit redesigns

#last little batch before i go back to finishing up witcher & oc art #i'm not a fan of their canon outfit so i figured drawing some redesigns would make for a fun practice #there might be more in the future. who knows #the judge #far cry #far cry new dawn #fcnd #art #fcnd judge #my art #digital art #also im absolutely giving them a pet opossum #perfect therapy animal #also i wish there were sluttier outfits for male characters in the game LMAO

[zooophagous]

I would absolutely love to have 101 different little critters like your opossum or a rat or a chinchilla or even a snake or sething but im so terrified because i know these animals aren't 110% 'domestic' so im always thinking oh lord these animals want to be in the wilderness or in the oceans or flying around and i want to know if youve got advice on empathizing woth your animals so they feel at home despite bot being in nature P.s lopers are great and i luvem

For sure!

A lot of the tricks with exotics is that many people have a frame of reference as if an animal is a dog, because dogs and humans co-evolved to a degree and dogs are the default animal to us.

With exotics, you sort of have to stop thinking of their care the way you think of a dog. For example, I see a lot of people rehome pet reptiles because they feel bad that the reptile doesnt get played with enough and think its depressed.

In all actuality the majority of reptiles only tolerate human company and don't actively want it, and 'playing' with them tends to be neutral at best but mostly at least a little scary. The same is true for tons of other small exotics too, even things like domesticated mice and rabbits don't necessarily want to be picked up or petted and trying to pick them up makes them panic, because their instincts tell them they're about to be eaten by a bird.

It's a lot of unlearning things like "how would YOU like it if you had no friends?" And learning things like "if I were a bearded dragon, how would I feel about having to share my territory with another bearded dragon?" You cant necessarily put yourself directly in an animal's shoes because you can't think like they do by default.

From there it's a matter of managing needs. Like "this animal is very smart and needs to use its brain and also needs exercise, how can I give it that in an area smaller than its usual wild range?" Or "this animal needs to be able to thermoregulate, how can I provide that without natural sunlight in an air conditioned home?"

One thing I will say is tricky almost no matter what exotic pet you have is diet. Modern dog foods have been extensively tested in actual laboratories, and while rat and mouse food is also pretty down to a science, most other exotics are prone to deficiencies and obesity.

Those diets become more studied over time, and the rise of the internet makes new information easier than ever to share, but in my experience the worry isn't so much that they're specifically missing the wild, more that they're not eating right and their humans don't understand their emotional needs (and often, that need is to be given more space than attention)