Introduction to "What Were You Thinking" - Exotic Pets Podcasts

Linda Tarte: Hello.

Bob Tarte: And also joining us are the birds that you hear in the background. You can hear a couple of parakeets and our dove Howard will chime in and maybe the parrots

Linda Tarte: The parrots.

Bob Tarte: Maybe the parrots will too. Now, each week on “What Were you Thinking,” we’ll present stories and tips about caring for all types of animals including parrots, rabbits, tarantulas, boa constrictors, ducks, geese, chickens, safety pins… I don’t know. Can you keep a safety pin as a pet? No. I guess that doesn’t count, but almost any animal that you can think of that can be legally kept as a pet, we can talk about on “What Were you Thinking.”

Linda Tarte: And we’d love to hear about it.

Bob Tarte: Now, Linda and I have somewhere over forty animals at the moment?

Linda Tarte: Forty-five. Somewhere around there.

Bob Tarte: Whoa. Linda and I have somewhere around forty-five animals at the moment and most of them are birds. Now, we’ve had several rabbits over the years too so while we do know something about birds and bunnies, we want to hear from you about other types of pets. That’s because the real star of “What Were you Thinking” is going to be you, you the listener. Yes, you. Now, you won’t be hearing celebrity interviews on our show and let’s face it: no celebrity of any renown would be caught dead talking to us. But that’s good. There’s plenty of celebrity gossip shows and not enough shows that give you the low-down on living with critters. So expect lots of conversations with people just like you or enough like you to be your twin brothers or sisters and to get in on the show just email us at bob@petliferadio.com, that’s bob@petliferadio.com, and tell us your animal stories. So, I’m going to turn it over to Linda and Linda, what are your thoughts on a radio show.

Linda Tarte: Well, I just love hearing stories about pets and I think the kind of people that would listen to this show also would love to hear stories about pets: things that you think are unusual about your pet, what are the characteristics that are very special, what are things that made you want to get that pet over some other kind of a pet, just some things that are funny, things that are heartwarming. We would just love to hear from people all over and just unusual or happy times you’ve had with your pet, things you’ve learned from having that particular pet…

Bob Tarte: Things you don’t want to do again.

Linda Tarte: Anecdotes, things you learned not to do because of having that pet.

Bob Tarte: We’ve learned lot of things we’re not going to do again.

Linda Tarte: That’s right. You learn as you go along and I’m sure you have too with your pet and I just think there needs to be more ways for people out in the public to speak about their pets, that there is not any good avenue for that on TV or the radio and we want to be that avenue, so…

Bob Tarte: Yeah, we want to hear about your best experiences with pets…

Linda Tarte: The worst

Bob Tarte: We want to hear about your worst experiences with pets. Linda had a funny idea a while ago and that is she wanted to hear a phrase that you tend to use all the time with your pets like…

Linda Tarte: Don’t bite that.

Bob Tarte: Don’t bite that or Bella, stop throwing your seeds. You know, things you probably thought you’d never say but you ended up saying. So what are some of the other things we want to know about?

Linda Tarte: Let’s see. Like maybe you’ve made some handmade toys for your pets. I know we have.

Bob Tarte: That’s right we have a…

Linda Tarte: Maybe you could tell us about some of the toys you’ve made to enhance the life of your pet.

Bob Tarte: We’ve got an African gray parrot named Dusty and any toy that you buy for Dusty, how long does it last?

Linda Tarte: Forty-five minutes.

Bob Tarte: Yeah, so.

Linda Tarte: And it costs fifteen to twenty dollars

Bob Tarte: Yeah, so you go to the pet store, you spend fifteen to twenty dollars and Dusty demolishes the toy.

Linda Tarte: You might as well make your own.

Bob Tarte: Yeah so we do make our own and we use everything from little thin pieces of wood. Lately, we’ve just been buying little small paper cups and putting holes in them…

Linda Tarte: Stringing them on leather strings…

Bob Tarte: Yeah, just dangling them. He has a ball and we have another African gray parrot named Bella and Bella likes those too so you probably have some tips and…

Linda Tarte: We want to hear them.

Bob Tarte: We also want to know the essentials for caring for different animals. On our second show, Linda’s pretty thorough about, for instance, on what ducks need.

Linda Tarte: Yes.

Bob Tarte: Because ducks are pretty easy to keep, but you have to do certain things from the beginning.

Linda Tarte: Certain things to do with their pens and this and that.

Bob Tarte: We’re going to have people on talking about keeping a pet pig and what you’d need.

Linda Tarte: What you’d need.

Bob Tarte: I’ve got a friend who has some aquarium fish that have lived over twenty-five years. How did he do that?

Linda Tarte: Yes.

Bob Tarte: Let’s find out about it.

Linda Tarte: Yes. We can learn from each other.

Bob Tarte: We can so those are the things that we’re going to do on the weeks ahead in “What Were you Thinking.” So I hope you join us.

Linda Tarte: We would love it.

Bob Tarte: So email us, listen to the show, visit my website at bobtarte.com because if you don’t, I’m going to start doing that real estate investment show. Ok, bye-bye.

Linda Tarte: Bye.

Announcer: Thinking about buying a monkey? How ‘bout a ferret or a skunk? Then check out the show that will answer the burning questions: where do you get them, what do you feed them, how do you take care of them and most of all, what were you thinking! With exotic pet expert and author Bob Tarte, every week on demand from PetLifeRadio.com.