Finished my duties and got the top mark!

I got the highest grade in the group! And I was commended on my patience while dealing with 'problem students' I wouldn't really call it patience, but they didn't hear the ranting afterwards when I was telling mum about it all!

Had several minor issues and a couple of major issues through the week with the students. Chameleon, milk snake and crested gecko enclosures left open on one occasion; old food left in the enclosures; forgetting to mist the iguanas when they were shedding; forgetting to clean up the monkey poop; failing to open the hatch to the mongoose enclosure, so that they could go outside; incorrect food given to the boa constrictor (thankfully, I managed to alter the feeding schedule for that week to compensate); failing to change the basilisk pool for two days; failing to notice two injuries and one death.

Now the last ones on the list were the ones that really bothered me. The injuries involved one bearded dragon and one chameleon. The bearded dragon was quite an obvious injury, so it should have been easily spotted when his water was changed. The death, unfortunately, was another of the bearded dragons. I was furious about that one, as the beardie enclosure really isn't that complicated! Sand, a water bowl, some large roots and some cacti. Very easy to spot the animals inside. So failing to notice that one out of three of the inhabitants had died was just unacceptable.

As for the basilisk, he's scary and dangerous, yes, but he still needs taking care of. The sod nearly had my hand off when I went to check the enclosure temperature and humidity at the beginning of the week, but it still had to be done. I wouldn't even have minded if the students had asked me to service his enclosure if they were nervous, as long as they'd said something! In the Exotics Centre, the students were very nervous of the iguanas, so they let me know and I did the servicing in their walk-in enclosure.

Aside from that, though, it didn't go too badly. There was a lot of improvement as the week went on, especially in regards to time management and attention to detail.

Congratulations to you!

Sounds like some of the students have a very lackadaisical attitude towards their job. That's not very good for the future animals they're going to be in contact with.

How old are the students Eleanor?  Not noticing injuries and deaths is worrying; not doing a duty because you're scared is one thing - but not mentioning it so that the animals still get cared for should be second nature.  What is the course they are on?

Congratulations on your mark.

Lorraine wrote:How old are the students Eleanor?  Not noticing injuries and deaths is worrying; not doing a duty because you're scared is one thing - but not mentioning it so that the animals still get cared for should be second nature.  What is the course they are on?

Congratulations on your mark.

They're on an Animal Management Diploma, and they're around 17 +. Some will be a few years older, but mainly 17/18. Unfortunately I think a lot of them go on the course thinking it'll be an easy option dealing with cutie fluffies - that's not the case at all!!

Such a shame - I'd have jumped at the chance of a course like that when I was that age. (I think, it's so long ago, I don't remember!)

Many congratulations Eleanor on your top marks, which were very well deserved considering the idiots you had to cope with and clear up after (and I'm not talking about the animals )

Well done El! Very proud of ya!

congrats

Well done! You have made my day reading this.

Thank you, everyone! I'm relieved that it's over, but I also miss it!

The students were about 16/17-years-old and they're on an Advanced Level 3 College Diploma in Animal Welfare. I'm on the Applied Animal Studies university course. Every one of them will have had several practical sessions before their duties, though, so that they knew what to do. I think most of the problems stemmed from laziness!

Well done, that's brilliant!

Thankoo!