Hello! My name is Sylvie Allaire, and i am a professional clown owner. More specifically, I keep many breeds of venomous Scareclowns! Whereas the domesticated scareclowns such as the Great axewielder, or even the toothy favorite, the frilled Scareclown, are a tiny bit venomous at best, a lot of clowns in the scareclown category pack a punch. To be able to create antivenoms, I collect samples from these clowns for laboratories.
Hello, i have been going around a few clown husbandry blogs and i have noticed how some mention "fools" which are a feral and wild breed of clown, but was rather surprised that there aren't much Infos or pictures of them. I saw that you seem to be a professional and would like to ask if you could maybe phrase or explain exactly what a fool is? Thanks very much
Oh good question!
Fools are pretty much what wolves are to dog, the wild equivalent of most clowns. There are many species, but here’s a sheet we used to offer for ppl who go fool sighting in the reserve near where i work. It’s pretty old, so not the most pleasing to the eye ahah.
(OOC : harlequin design goes to spookygibberish)
Those were the ones that could be found in the wild in the reserve. Obviously american fools greatly differ from european ones, but usually they have rather oval faces with jester like attributes, which makes sense considering the two are closely related. Since they interact less with humans, not a lot are human like in appearance, but i believe the greater russet fool (which we are supposed to also have in the reserve, but i cannot for the life of me find his sheet) is pretty humanoid.
There’s also some jesters and clowns who are called fools, often for their tempers, but don’t have to do with the specie.
Could we please have a few more pictures of grabby? Its okay if he isn't very photogenic, but hes very cool and pretty!
Ahah, didn’t expect grabby to have fans.
Here’s some unrestrained summer fun at the clown park. a bit of an old pic!
ps : no ruff and big claws is bc he was still a growing boi at that age. the cage and plush make him look v big and impressive but he was around 1.80m to his 2.10m now.
Thanks for the tips, I think they've been helping. The clown hasn't come out all the way yet, but when I started leaving some scary videos playing where they could see from their hiding place, they started poking their head out more. I have a playlist going, and some clown-safe food and drink they can see me try some of so they know it's safe. I haven't got close enough to sample yet, but I think I'm building some trust. They've been starting to reach out for the munchies, anyway.
That was quite a comprehensive answer, thank you, it does help - at least, it probably will, if I can convince the hybrid in question to let me check for glands or collect saliva. They're a rescue, we're not really sure what sort of mix they are, but scare of some sort seems prominent. Do you have any tips for reassuring a nervous clown about the process?
Depends a lot on the level of comfort yeah.
Something that works well is to have the clown be focused on something else while we take the sample, especially with more intelligent clowns. We’ve got a little collection of horror movies and a tv because that works very well on scareclowns, so you may try that and take a sample with a tongue swab, or collect drooling saliva.
If the clown shows really herratic movements, and a clear flight or fight response, then it’s better to leave them be for now, and giving them access to something to hide in so they feel comfortable. Once they get acclimated to your presence, they may allow for contact and collecting the sample through the way described above.
What are some good ways of figuring out how venomous a hybrid is likely to be? It's not always easy to tell at a glance what kind of mix is present, or how prominent certain traits might be, at least from what I can tell
If it’s a domestic hybrid sold to you by a registred breeder, you will always have the names of the mixes.
However, in shelters, there can be some pretty diverse mixes, so in those cases, a good thing can be simply to check for venomous glands, as even if they are ineffective due to hybridization, it means an hybrid has the potential of having venom. Here’s a few pics to illustrate how to do that, using my French Horned Malin, who has venom glands, but who’s bite doesn’t affect human outside of a general numbness and swelling on the bite (they don’t use it much, i think it’s a trait that is in the way of disappearing on them), and some mutt we got because of shelter not being able to handle them due to a possibly venomous bite (extreme cases are often given out to us in the region, since we’re the one who have the antivenom for the rare case of exotic dangerous clowns)
Angery trapjaw at the vet.
So trapjaw, who is a female French Horned Malin, has venom, but it’s not the kind that require a lot of intensive care afterward. Moreover, they are one of the biggest size of Jacks but are surprisingly not very inclined to bite hard, they kinda have weak jaw, since they usually just swallow their prey in one go, they don’t have to really apply force. But their size has an advantage : Big Mouth Pics. I use that particular breed for another reason, which is that their venom glands are brightly marked like ocelluses, it’s however not the case with every clown. As you can see here, she has four venom glands that make her saliva have a numbing effect on human and cause swelling.
Also she has a bit of plexiglass in her mouth bc she throws hissy fits at the vet and that calms her down. Not sure why, so I assume it’s because it makes her feel like she bit down on something and is being Impressive and Dangerous? She does it on her own, with whatever she can grab, so that piece of plexiglass is Hers now.
Now onto mixes, where it’s less visible :
This guy’s name is Toothpaste, and although he isn’t seen completely here, he was quite the case, a mix of scare, mime and god knows what, just a real weird deal.
He was sent to us due to off color salivating, as well as just his general strange appearance and behavior, and lo and behold, he did have venoms that we tested and categorized as some kind of,,, strange offshoot of a Romanian White Scareclown? Which, if you don’t see the particular breed, are the wild ones with vampire type teeth, they are one of the source of the myth.
They are not supposed to bred by particulars since they have a very nervous behavior and are pretty endangered. Those have an hemotoxin that disable the coagulation processes and cause intense vertigo. So yeah bit of a strange deal.
But it means that one did have the venom glands (active at that!) that you can see circled. We often use this pic to show newbies what to look for.
Finally, if you do locate glands, or simply want to be sure, just send a sample of the saliva to your nearest vet or, if you have such a thing, some place specialized in clown venoms like ours. They should be able to help you know what to expect from the venom, although that doesn’t always help know what hybrid caused the particular effect of it.
True Jack-in-the-box, relatives of the more common box devils, are a breed of pseudo clowns that have found a particular niche in the clown husbandry community.
Their peculiar behavior involving hidding away in boxes to suddenly jump out at the sign of food, as well as their odd appearance, reminiscent of a reptile, with two small arms and a long body and a big toothy mouth, has captured the hearts of many nowadays. However, there is still a lot of misinformations on these creatures.
As a professional keeper of domestic and wild Jacks alike, here are my advices keeping one of these clowns.
(Sock, my bell-capped Jack-in-the-box)
First of all, the topic of getting a Jack arise. Some breeds are nowadays bred in captivity, like the Blue Jestercap Jack, the Bicolor British Jack, the French horned malin, or even the Sawtoothed Candy can Jack, also called Jumpscare Jack.
Other are often wild caught, and should therefore be avoided unless in the case of professional looking to breed them, like the Monochrome German Teufel, or the Birthday Box Jack.
Finally, a good part of Jacks are venomous, so some require a permit to own. That includes the bell capped jack, or the Tricolor Woodbox Devil, for exemple.
I’ll personally talk about the two first categories, since the last one is a bit peculiar.
Housing
Housing a jack is much less expensive compared to size to other clowns. Since they prefer a cluttered nest to dive in and out of, a tent can actually be detrimental. The best things for me are a wide area of package that may be reorganized every few months for enrichment, as well as possibly several floors for them to climb.
I house my Bell-Capped Jack in a two floor terrarium that i created by repurposing a wooden closet.
Feeding
True Jacks are obligate carnivores. They can eat sweet food, but it is not nearly enough for them to survive. I feed my jacks, including sock, thawed plush animals and from time to time gummy mouse, worms, spiders or any other significant size gummy animals. The feed shouldn’t however be larger than twice the mouthspan of the Jack, as they cannot unhinge further and may get stuck and choke.
Some Jacks are picky and may look for something that moves. I don’t recommend live feeds, but i know it’s the only possibility for some very picky ones. A good technique to avoid having to live feed is to mock movement with the grabber, which should grab the Jack’s attention.
I feed mine once a week, sometimes a bit less if they had a very big meal, it also depends on breed and their choice of prey. It’s quite easy to see when they are hungry, as they peak out from their box cyclically.
Behavior
True Jacks are very peculiar compared to most clowns. They do not rely on performing for enrichment, the amusement they give being simply a consequence of their natural behavior. They find enrichment in exploring their envirronement and in watching what happens outside of their box (glass panels are great for that). They do not need interaction with other clowns even their own specie, but highly appreciate busy envirronements to observe (Sock is placed near a window, and often looks out in the street. He has a particular obsession with a ginger cat of the neighbourhood that he follows from his side of the window when she comes out. A frend.)
They aren’t particularly good to handle, although some domesticated jacks enjoy contact. It should be mentioned that they have feeding reaction that can lead to bites, but a pat on the head is obv reasonable with non venomous breeds.
They are also surprisingly fast for something that does not move for the most part of the day, springing into action when they need to.
Although I care for a variety of clowns, the single one i can really call my pet is Grabby, full name Grabby Mc Fancypants, a Spotted Stiltwalker/Red Hamshire Box Devil, which makes it a circus/Scare mix. Afaik, the mix doesn’t particularly have a name yet.
Grabby is a Dark red morph, as it was bred in a clutch hoped to bring monochromes. As he was a fail, I took him in.
Here’s a pic of him in his enclosure! He is approximately 2.10 meters tall (think it means 7 feet, but i’m not sure). His dome tent is around 10 x 10 m, but he also roams in the house and has some outdoor enrichment. I take him to the clown park, since he’s a rather gentle scare who has demonstrated no tendency toward clown aggressivity. I tend to keep him away from dominant breeds like augustes or really small ones just in case though, can never be too sure.
Although stiltwalkers aren’t typically carnivorous, he ended up as such, the jack in the box traits winning here. I usually feed him thawed plush animals, as it’s the easiest, but I sprinkle some easter eggs, balloon animals, or even candy beard here and there. He also loves caramelized apple treats and fake candy blood.
A last pic of this good boy from today!
I might breed him one day, he isn’t neutered, since it may give out some fancy colored stiltjacks.
Hey I've been lurking on the clown husbandry tag and I wanted to clear up some of the misinformation I've seen there.
Scary clowns were in fact bred for clown fighting, not nannying. This means that they’re predisposed towards aggression to other clowns.
However, I've seen a lot of people say that they're human aggressive which is just not true. A well bred and well cared for scary clown should NEVER show aggression towards a human. Unfortunately these days theres so much buzz about scary clowns that the general public generally can't tell the difference between a scary clown and any colorful clown breed, causing an incorrect inflation of the amount of sacry clown attacks reported.
All of this to say that if you'd like to welcome a scary clown into your home then thats wonderful, but take care and be sure that you're properly ensuring that they don’t have access to other clowns.
Finally, remember, any clown is capable of attacking, and you should always take proper safety precautions when handling clowns (along with mimes), especially clowns you're unfamiliar with.
On the topic of fools, unless you have proper training and a good reason don't handle fools at all. They're wild animals.
Additionally, some scareclown are bred to be guards (jack-in-the-box come to my mind) but are added to that category due to hightened territoriality, as well as usually an appearance that scare people off.
Breeds like the Great Axeclown, or Frilled Scareclown are however very much fighting clowns, which does not mean they are any less sweet with humans! I would, however, never recommend to attempt letting any sort of clown “nanny” a baby : they are omnivorous, and may find an appeal to something sweet smelling and harmless, or even simply play too rough (one of the most common situations).
I highly recommend anti-bite devices for a lot of scareclowns, as their jaw strenght is often extremely impressive. Although it may almost never happen for a gentle one to get spooked or territorial, only one time is enough to inflict serious damage.
I’ve finally created a place for myself to put out pics and information. I’m a professional scareclown owner, more specifically venomous breeds, often not domesticated ones. I work for labs creating antivenoms for these lads, collecting samples.
I also own a stiltwalker/jack-in-the-box hybrid (so circus/scare), who’s name is Grabby.
