The Student Naturalist class has recently acquired a new pair of parakeets, along with a few other animals.

They were given to the Student Naturalist program by Katie Schultz, who graduated last year. Her parents couldn’t find the time to take care of them anymore and gave them to the school.

The parakeets were both born in America, though their parents may have been from other countries.

“They’ve always been in America, basically for the pet industry, bred and born and raised for the pet industry,” Joan Radakovich, Student Naturalist teacher, said.  The parakeets are taken care of by students in the class, and every two weeks another person takes care of them.

The parakeets’ habits are perching, eating, and sleeping. All that is done to take care of them is wash out their cage in the sink and replenish their food and water.  They will be placed in the back room, specified for the noisier animals, because they are too loud to be kept in the classroom.

Other new animals Radakovich said are recent are a 7 ½ foot carpet python that came in about a week ago.

“I had a student bring in a praying mantis; we’ve been feeding it crickets, and so it’s been doing wonderfully. We also have a new rabbit, named Houdini, and so he’s been in the classroom; and I had a student donate a baby ferret,” she said.

Student Naturalist talks are in the spring, so the students are just taking care of and getting used to the animals right now.