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Cless Alvein posted:What are some of the horror stories with em? I've flip flopped between then and Big Cheese depending on who has what in stock when I'm ordering and I can't really think of any problems I've seen with my mice,rats, or chicks. Here is the thread over on FaunaClassifieds about Rodent Pro. As you will see, FC can be kind of a dog pile on whoever. It's actually kind of fun to read through some of the more high drama threads. http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=334751 Basically their rats had some sort of zoonotic disease and they didn't tell anyone. Later in the thread there are complaints about receiving rats that appear to be cut up. I try to only buy from RodentPro if they are at a herp show and I can see the rats while I am buying. I like Big Cheese fine. Some tiny feeders in huge bags like pinkies can get beat up from them, but the adults are arranged neatly on foam trays. I think you have to order early in the week to get them shipped the same week. I'm thinking of trying American Rodent soon because it looks like it only takes 2-3 days to get to me. Big Cheese and RodentPro can take more than a week depending on when you order. Layne Labs are super pro and clean but that extra shipping kills me too, especially because I don't order a ton of rats at a time. The $29 shipping is perfect for a couple three bags of different sizes. HungryMedusa fucked around with this message at 03:56 on Aug 10, 2016 |
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Aug 10, 2016 03:53
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Anyone know anything about euthanizing bearded dragons? I was just hired as Educational Programming Director at a local science center, and I'm also in charge of their animals. They have a rescue that looks absolutely horrible - it was just shaking its limbs and laying there with its mouth half open, looks half starved, and it isn't really moving. Severe MBD it looks like. I don't know how they got it, but they definitely didn't make it better - there are a number of problems I have with the enclosures that I'm really going to have to work to fix. Also, is it ever acceptable for two ball pythons to be kept together? They have a pair that the previous owners kept together, and they've been together a long time without issue, but it set off warnings in my head right away. Both times I saw them, they were coiled up together so they're tolerating each other at the moment, at least.
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Aug 11, 2016 21:26
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OneTwentySix posted:Anyone know any vendors that sell very small worms? I've been keeping a brown snake (Storeria dekayi) for a few months, and she's doing great, but today I went in and found 10-30 babies. I'd kind of expected that she was gravid, but now I need to find something for these guys to eat. I tried chopping up some of the worms the mother eats, but most didn't seem interested - one did try eating, but I don't think he liked the taste/defense secretions and he dropped it and rubbed his face off. Small phoenix worms were also a no-go; the mother showed absolutely no interest in the larger ones (while hunting down the single worm that I'd had in with them), and I don't think the babies were any different.
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Aug 13, 2016 05:21
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OneTwentySix posted:Anyone know anything about euthanizing bearded dragons? I was just hired as Educational Programming Director at a local science center, and I'm also in charge of their animals. They have a rescue that looks absolutely horrible - it was just shaking its limbs and laying there with its mouth half open, looks half starved, and it isn't really moving. Severe MBD it looks like. I don't know how they got it, but they definitely didn't make it better - there are a number of problems I have with the enclosures that I'm really going to have to work to fix. With balls, it can vary. I know I used to keep a trio (not knowing it was a trio) together for a decade or so, and when I did separate them, they all went off feed. Back together, eating like crazy (they were fed separately, always.). Then we have an albino female who will only tolerate a male for a week or so for breeding before we have to pull him. As for frozen versus live, sometimes it makes sense to do the former, but if you need a lot of sizes for many snakes, live can be easier. Depends on the snake. My newborn balls want live only, the sand boa babies want live only, so far the only snakes I can get onto prekilled are the hognose and one of the balls. Everyone else refuses prekilled. So my spare bedroom doubles with mouse cages and fish tanks. I'd love to get a rack system one day. Also because I have live mice, I have some spare room, which is how I ended up with two pairs of Egyptian spiny mice (and now their five babies). No, they are not for feeders!
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Aug 13, 2016 22:35
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I guess I will piggyback off Evilcat - I am a high school teacher who has been given the green light to have some reptiles/amphibians in my classroom. Its been years since I have had any herps, but I successfully kept bearded dragons, garter snakes and a variety of other things when I was younger. The first thing that came to mind for ease of care, appropriate size and temperment, cost and a host of other factors was a ball python. I believe I have a good grasp of the basics of ball python care. My question is really about taking care of it in the classroom. 1) Heating during the weekend/they day. My class stays pretty cold since I usually have the AC blasting, and I have only limited control over how the temperature fluctuates during the night/weekends. Should a decent under tank heater + ceramic heat source with a nice thermostat be ok? Classroom feels dry so a good sized water bowl + cypress fibers + a lib that is partially solid seems like it would probably be enough to maintain humidity. 2) The noise and traffic of a busy classroom is my other concern. Its an alt-ed high school program and I have kids who are loud. My thinking there was to inquire with local breeders or herp stores and see if anyone has an adult with a good personality and a strong feeding response they would be willing to part with. I don't want to go through the hassle and heartache of getting a picky juvenile who can't handle the stress. Thanks in advance!
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Aug 14, 2016 18:49
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Ditching a ceramic heater or heat rock device would be best since they're notorious for burning snakes. Under-tank heating pads are cool though. I'm a little worried that a ball python won't be getting enough humidity in that setup though, especially if you're not around to mist on the weekends (the ball python I kept was misted 2-3 times a day till I moved it into a rack/tupperware type setup). They need quite a bit in comparison to something like a corn snake. Other than that, including 2 or 3 hides would definitely be useful in a high traffic environment. One on the cooler side and one on the warmer side of the tank. Also maybe it might be a good idea to consider other snakes as well (like corn, king, or milk snakes) with lower humidity requirements and less likelihood to stop eating out of nowhere. But I'm also biased because I love colubrids. 
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Aug 14, 2016 21:28
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cheese posted:I guess I will piggyback off Evilcat - I am a high school teacher who has been given the green light to have some reptiles/amphibians in my classroom. Its been years since I have had any herps, but I successfully kept bearded dragons, garter snakes and a variety of other things when I was younger. The first thing that came to mind for ease of care, appropriate size and temperment, cost and a host of other factors was a ball python. I believe I have a good grasp of the basics of ball python care. My question is really about taking care of it in the classroom. Binary Logic fucked around with this message at 11:54 on Aug 15, 2016 |
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Aug 15, 2016 11:52
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Also don't get animals for a school that will live for decades (30+ years for ball pythons is what google is telling me). They are likely to outlive your stint as the person in charge of them, which means you are gambling on whoever will inherit them when you've moved on. I'd highly recommend firebellied toads (which, now I say that, can live for at least 10+ years, but:) they're quite hardy, easy to take care of, don't take up a huge amount of space, are active during the day, and - let's face it, this is a thing that happens in elementary schools - do not represent a large lost investment when the kids inadvertently kill them. You are also probably less likely to have to deal with "concerned parents" compared to keeping a large snake in a classroom. Especially if there are escapes.
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Aug 15, 2016 23:34
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Knormal posted:Have you tried waxworms? I have an insectivorous snake (western shovel-nosed) that eats those like crazy. Thawing a cube of blood worms and making them wiggle maybe, even, to try to get it started?
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Aug 16, 2016 05:20
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Hey anyone else know that sand boas can store sperm? Because my girl Nod decided she didn't want to take a year off breeding and dropped me a dozen babies a week ago. I found them last night. Most have shed, a few in the process. Yay surprise clutch! .....holy gently caress what am I going to do with more sand boas, I was trying to sell my hognose pair just to downsize!
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Aug 16, 2016 16:02
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Aww, if I weren't moving soon I'd offer to buy some. I've been wanting sand boas for years. (Assuming you're in the US I mean, I'm moving to the UK next year.) Hooray surprise babies! 
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Aug 16, 2016 16:45
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Whereabouts are you, Cowslips? Sand boas are legal in my state, and I've got space... For that matter, so are hoggies, and I've been wanting one.
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Aug 16, 2016 17:12
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Cowslips Warren posted:sand boas Hmm what do sand boas look like oh my god 
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Aug 16, 2016 17:16
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I'll try waxworms, hopefully they'll take them! Cutting worms into very small pieces has been working, but I'd prefer to feed something that can survive in the tank more than a little bit. Bloodworms might work - I'll try them if everything else fails. I've heard they can be hard to feed, but I've seen them eating, so that's a plus. I'm going to try culturing slugs, which doesn't sound too hard.Cowslips Warren posted:With balls, it can vary. I know I used to keep a trio (not knowing it was a trio) together for a decade or so, and when I did separate them, they all went off feed. Back together, eating like crazy (they were fed separately, always.). Then we have an albino female who will only tolerate a male for a week or so for breeding before we have to pull him. Thanks, sounds like they'll probably be fine, then - they've been together a long time. I was worried that we'd have issues - they've been together for a very long time, it sounds like, so my boss didn't really see a problems and I didn't want to try to argue that we needed a whole new enclosure when our space is pretty limited if I didn't have to.
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Aug 16, 2016 17:28
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cheese posted:I guess I will piggyback off Evilcat - I am a high school teacher who has been given the green light to have some reptiles/amphibians in my classroom. Its been years since I have had any herps, but I successfully kept bearded dragons, garter snakes and a variety of other things when I was younger. The first thing that came to mind for ease of care, appropriate size and temperment, cost and a host of other factors was a ball python. I believe I have a good grasp of the basics of ball python care. My question is really about taking care of it in the classroom. Going to jump in on the "ball pythons aren't good classroom pets" list. Are you going to be there at night to feed a picky eater? Do you have time in your busy schedule to clean a cage when your snake suddenly clears its month-long poop backlog, then slithers through it and gets it everywhere? It will never be out of a hide during the school day, unless things are going seriously wrong for it. Sure, yeah, you can pull it out during the day to show the kids, but a full-grown ball python will get stories and "concerned parents". Four to five feet long and as many pounds? They're not nearly as big as burmese pythons, but for many people they're big enough to cause irrational fear responses.
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Aug 18, 2016 07:08
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Here is my green tree python looking derpy.
HungryMedusa fucked around with this message at 16:29 on Aug 20, 2016 |
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Aug 20, 2016 16:25
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Leperflesh posted:Also don't get animals for a school that will live for decades (30+ years for ball pythons is what google is telling me). They are likely to outlive your stint as the person in charge of them, which means you are gambling on whoever will inherit them when you've moved on. Or you just sell them on fauna like 95% of the rest of the world, or whatever is popular. cragislist. whatever. I'd say colubrid of some nature too for the record.
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Aug 20, 2016 21:10
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I'd also nth the colubrid pick. Corns are cheap and comes in all sorts of pretty colors and their care basically boils down to water dish, heat pad( I personally have swapped out all those stick on pads they sell at pet stores for heat tape and a cheap garden temp regulators), some cypress or other non toxic wood bedding and some hides. They're also easier to feed and will allow you to really show that off to the kids. I've never had Slithers M.D or The Honorable Judge Shiloh turn down food and will eat anything I've thrown at them from mice to rats to my current feeding choice baby chicks.(Add occasionally my hand since I don't care about being bit, so I don't use tongs.) Chicks are at least as nutritious as mice and in some cases better and a hell of a lot cheaper. Only really downside is when they poop, you WILL notice as the smell will knock you on your rear end. I also have a soft spot for the absolutely gorgeous Hodurian Milk snakes. Plus hognoses that I still need to find a shady place to see me order one or a vendor at Timely Park who doesn't know the Illinois laws against it. Or I can hopefully meet up with someone from out of state at Tinley to buy me one. My balls I haven't been able to get to eat anything but rats. My main squeeze Samus Aran,(Spider Ball. Get it?) was pretty good about seeing food and eating it right away. My sister's ball, Proffessor Snake that I was taking care of for a while, was fairly picky. At first I could only get him to eat if I held him and dangled the food in his face. That eventually stopped working and found that tossing him in a tub in a dark room eventually lead to an eaten rat, usually. http://www.reptilebasics.com/heat-tape Don't fall into the hype that you need their fancy $60 crimping tool. I crimped my connectors with. $4 mini c-clamp from the hardware store. Even after shipping and having to buy aluminum tape, it comes out cheaper and more controlled temps. That isn't counting the price of a temp controller, but that should be purchased no matter what kind of heading pad solution you're using anyway. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B010GFADNM/ref=ya_aw_od_pi?ie=UTF8&psc=1 You can get one of the facny $150-200 reptiles ones If you want but those are really for tracking multiple enclosures on one single unit using multiple thermometers. Also lets you wire up a rack a alot more efficiently since you can splice and Daisy chain the connections. Cless Alvein fucked around with this message at 07:05 on Aug 21, 2016 |
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Aug 21, 2016 07:00
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dog days are over posted:Hmm what do sand boas look like oh my god  The kind people always have are Kenyan sand boas, which are more colorful, but much more regular looking. 
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Aug 22, 2016 02:51
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I've been half-assed looking for jayakari for about 10 years and only had one opportunity to buy some and it was when I was broke.
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Aug 22, 2016 11:16
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Already rescued two herps out of the road in the past month. One was a box turtle (that yelled a lot when I picked them up), the other was this rat snake that I shoved out of the street with a baking pan.  Makes me nervous seeing them out here in bumpkinville though. People run em over for fun. 
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Aug 22, 2016 20:06
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Buddy told me he just killed a kingsnake that kept sneaking into his house. He caught it and took it out like 3 times and finally killed it because his mom would have freaked over a snake or something. I'm bummed.
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Aug 22, 2016 20:23
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Hey everyone - I live in Louisiana and after the recent weather down here we're (finally) trying to get ourselves proper prepared for a hurricane, especially now that things seem to be heating up in the tropics. Anyway, we have a beardie that we are also trying to prep for. Our biggest concern is heat. Are there battery operated basking lamps out there? Or some sort of workaround solution with other kinds of heat sources? We don't flood where we live but long-term power outages are definitely a thing so we're trying to figure out what the hell to do for him.
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Aug 25, 2016 01:00
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Getting some kind of gas-powered generator might be the best option. You can convert electronics to run off batteries if they don't already, but from what I know (and I don't know much), it's pretty inefficient. http://www.homedepot.com/p/WEN-1800-Watt-Gasoline-Portable-Generator-CARB-Compliant-56180/205887403 -- just to give you an idea of what I'm referring to my cat is norris fucked around with this message at 13:49 on Aug 25, 2016 |
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Aug 25, 2016 13:47
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HungryMedusa posted:Here is my green tree python looking derpy. I need more comparison photos to properly judge derpiness, thanks.
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Aug 26, 2016 09:34
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I need to take newer photos of him, I just have a bunch from his old cage setup. Him looking more dignified:  Fresh Greens by HungryMedusa, on FlickrCloseup:  Tikka May 2015 2 by HungryMedusa, on Flickr
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Aug 26, 2016 15:38
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Beautiful snake you got.
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Aug 26, 2016 17:17
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BarqueCat posted:
 They even compress and spit out the shells. Total pros. Anne Whateley fucked around with this message at 04:40 on Aug 27, 2016 |
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Aug 27, 2016 04:36
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i like nice words
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beyonder posted:Beautiful snake you got. Thanks! Green tree pythons were my holy grail and I am glad I finally got one. Of course now that I have one, my sights are set on a Boelen's. I probably will never be able to afford a CB one though. I get the not wanting to feed rodents thing. I have pet rats too and they are so sweet and gentle. It took me a while to get used to the idea before I got in to keeping snakes. It's especially hard to feed the cute baby rodents to my babies. Everyone has to eat, though. They make these new snake sausages that I have heard good things about. I haven't tried them because they are more expensive than rodents and I am at 22 snakes currently. The sausages are at http://www.reptilinks.com/ and some carpet python people swear by them. It might be tough to get some pickier snakes on them, but they are interesting for sure. Those egg eaters are awesome.I love the photos of them all full of a giant egg in their throats.
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Aug 27, 2016 05:04
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I used to have a co-worker whose son had a ribbon snake that ate fish. The snake's tank had a pretty good deep pond that they'd put feeder fish in and it would eat them when it got hungry. Might be easier to deal with than feeding live mammals and birds. Plus, ribbon snakes are cool. mactheknife posted:Hey everyone - In the wild, most animals manage to deal with inclement weather that lasts a few days. Even in deserts, tropics, temperate climates, etc. there can be cold snaps that last a few days to a weekish. Overheating is probably more dangerous than being too cold for a few days for most reptiles. In the tropics it doesn't really freeze much even in the dead of winter, either. If your beardy had to deal with, say, a week without basking, it would survive unless it was already seriously malnourished, sick, or super elderly or frail for some reason. That said, I suggest getting some of those chemical-activated handwarmers. They're nice to have around anyway and in a no-power or (especially) evacuation scenario, you could crack one, stuff it in a sock or something, and give your herp a warm thing to cuddle with for a few hours.
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Aug 27, 2016 08:22
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I don't really like feeding snakes mice, either, which was on thing that kept me from keeping any, but I ended up getting a brown snake (Storeria dekayi) and she eats worms. Really neat animal, does really well in captivity, definitely glad I decided to keep her (was originally for showing kids through work for one day, and it went so well that I hung onto her - we didn't have a snake; now I'm at a new job that has tons of them). She just had a bunch of babies, too - was gravid from being in the wild. She pays a lot of attention to me, since she knows where food comes from now.
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Aug 27, 2016 11:27
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Leperflesh posted:I used to have a co-worker whose son had a ribbon snake that ate fish. The snake's tank had a pretty good deep pond that they'd put feeder fish in and it would eat them when it got hungry. Also works for some garter snakes. Personally even though I've owned rats and mice, feeding f/t mice and rats doesn't bother me. I've been lucky though, none of my snakes have refused f/t (which is another reason I love colubrids).
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Aug 27, 2016 15:35
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This week I was taking a medium f/t rat out of the freezer bag with tongs in one hand and it slipped and THE FROZEN RAT TOUCHED MY HAND for a second. I know it's all psychological but still freaked me out. I mean when you really think about it, handling frozen chicken legs or forming ground beef into a burger patty should be more 'disgusting' but I had to go and thoroughly scrub my hands immediately after that calamitously traumatic event. LOL. And the actual feeding is great, it looks like there's no way the rat is going to fit into that little mouth and the thin throat of a ball python, but with some effort and muscle contractions it gets worked all the way down. Binary Logic fucked around with this message at 16:35 on Aug 27, 2016 |
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Aug 27, 2016 16:26
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Hello herpers. I seem to have come into possession into a 6ish month old garter snake. I've been reading about them since I learned I would be taking care of this one and I was wondering if you guys had any tips? I have a 5gal aquarium for now and a 20gallon long for in the future. I read that mice are the best food for them? If so we can go to the pet store and get some frozen pinkies Edit: this is Pphflph (the name is a work in progress) 
SSJ_naruto_2003 fucked around with this message at 23:58 on Aug 27, 2016 |
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Aug 27, 2016 18:46
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Leperflesh posted:In the wild, most animals manage to deal with inclement weather that lasts a few days. Even in deserts, tropics, temperate climates, etc. there can be cold snaps that last a few days to a weekish. Overheating is probably more dangerous than being too cold for a few days for most reptiles. In the tropics it doesn't really freeze much even in the dead of winter, either. If your beardy had to deal with, say, a week without basking, it would survive unless it was already seriously malnourished, sick, or super elderly or frail for some reason. Thanks, I'd kind of figured as much but still thought coming here to ask would be good. We did go out and get some hand warmers for our hurricane kit today based on this, though. Thanks!
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Aug 27, 2016 20:47
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GreyPowerVan posted:Hello herpers. I seem to have come into possession into a 6ish month old garter snake. I've been reading about them since I learned I would be taking care of this one and I was wondering if you guys had any tips? I am no snake expert, but from my experience they eat small fish, like to swim and stay mostly on warm rocks or hiding in gaps in rocks. Most of my experience with them comes from running into them at the rivers or watching them there, so there is that major caveat. I'd try in a tank maybe a deeper water bowl with a filter and waterfall pump to get flowing water and keep it stocked with some feeder fish for the snake, then figure out some way to build it a hide and all.
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Aug 28, 2016 00:07
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Most use fish just because they're pretty easy to get ahold of. They technically mostly eat frogs in the wild as adults, but those are a pain in the rear end in captivity. Most will eat small mice just fine along with some fish and for babies, earthworms. I feel bad at times feeding these frozen rats and chicks, but then I also feed bad about feeding roaches. I seem to be the only person I know in person who actually likes insects. If I had a problem feeder that required live mammals to eat reliably, I would quickly get rid of it because I couldn't handle that. I know where my food comes from, but if I had to slaughter my own animals to eat, I'd probably end up a vegetarian. Edit: I fed the snakes today. The rat that Samus got was huge. I have no idea how she managed to swallow the drat thing. Now she has tubby budda belly. 
Cless Alvein fucked around with this message at 09:43 on Aug 28, 2016 |
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Aug 28, 2016 01:10
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Anne Whateley posted:Late to the party, but me too. At some point I really want a vegetarian, toothless Dasypeltis. They're very neat snakes, but you need a source for tiny finch or pigeon eggs before you can move up to the more common quail eggs. Dasypeltis arent really that hard. If you get an adult they'll eat quail eggs that you can buy from most Asian markets. Juvies are more challenging but the ones I had took finch eggs that I got for free from the local Petsmarts and small pet shops believe it or not.
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Aug 28, 2016 11:30
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HungryMedusa posted:Here is my green tree python looking derpy. How long have you had this python? They are my favorite!
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Sep 3, 2016 02:31
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TJs12Stones posted:How long have you had this python? They are my favorite! I got him as a juvie in 2013. Here he is as a yellow worm:  iPhone 2013 by HungryMedusa, on FlickrAbout to shed and starting his color change:  Tikka in Blue by HungryMedusa, on FlickrThis guy is such a great snake. The only thing "wrong" with him is that scaleless patch on the middle of his head. As far as I can tell from reading about it, it can be a genetic thing in GTPs and doesn't hurt them. I don't plan on breeding him or anything. The only green tree python hopes and dreams I have is to some day buy a red neo and grow it up. Here is one of my my favorite hatchlings from my jungle carpet clutch this year. I bred a high yellow female to a Palmerston locality male looking to make some nice bright yellow stripes. They have the stripe part down, hoping for some nice yellows as they grow.  Untitled by HungryMedusa, on Flickr
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Sep 3, 2016 03:53
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