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MagpieConcept posted:Definitely crosspost that to critterquest in GBS if you haven't already :0 sucks they got got but they're very pretty! i'm currently the OP of that thread! i would never miss it
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Apr 8, 2023 15:43
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my cat is norris posted:i'm currently the OP of that thread! i would never miss it oh my god HOW DID I MISS THAT thank you for your service lol
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Apr 8, 2023 18:26
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We have a few Western Fence Lizards that live in our backyard. I don’t know where these guys go during the winter, but they disappeared. Now that we’re getting warm weather again, they are back out. They are awesome and very fun to watch.   Earlier today I saw something I’ve never seen before… two of them, fighting. When I first noticed them, each one had the other’s tail in his mouth. Sitting there forming a circle, a two-lizard ouroboros. They were motionless for a while, and then suddenly started scrambling around, biting and kicking at each other. Then one decided he’d had enough and tried to run off, but was held back because the other one had the end of his tail in his mouth.
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Apr 11, 2023 00:36
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Ok Comboomer posted:It’s been a week post-adoption, I think I can finally post my midterm-watching companion. welp, so much for brumating her in my room as an attempt to get a more docile/habituated tegu in the spring she is fully awake from her long winter sleep and she is ornery. She was slowly becoming more active over the past two or three weeks, but today she was having none of me intruding into her space as I attempted to clean and re-water around her tail whip attacks aside from “get a bigger enclosure”, anything I can do to protect her tail and keep her from hurting herself while she’s in this (hopefully temporary) jumpy and fighty state?
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May 1, 2023 02:10
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Found a big ol 5 lined skink outside but I was too loud and scared him off before I could get my camera to snap a pic unfortunately. Looks to be the same one from the last couple years so I'm pretty stoked he survived.
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May 2, 2023 01:42
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I may have made a terrible mistake but I have agreed to take in a bearded dragon. A friend of a friend is trying to get rid of it because her kids don't care about it anymore and won't take care of it, and I'm into lizards so I said sure, I'll have a lizard. I do not know anything about properly caring for lizards, I haven't had a herp since I was a kid who would catch anoles and slowly kill them through blistering ignorance and incompetence. As I am no longer 11, I would like to do better by this lizard. He comes with a tank and all the lizard stuff, but I don't know what that consists of (except that the tank is "3 or 4 feet long.") Can someone point me at good primers for bearded dragon care and feeding?
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May 3, 2023 18:25
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Cool Dad posted:I may have made a terrible mistake but I have agreed to take in a bearded dragon. A friend of a friend is trying to get rid of it because her kids don't care about it anymore and won't take care of it, and I'm into lizards so I said sure, I'll have a lizard. I do not know anything about properly caring for lizards, I haven't had a herp since I was a kid who would catch anoles and slowly kill them through blistering ignorance and incompetence. As I am no longer 11, I would like to do better by this lizard. More than likely the cage is a 55 gallon tank, which may or may not work for you because usually bearded dragons need wider and not taller tanks. Adults tend to need more greens but laying females will appreciate some meat as well. Your biggest problem is going to be UVB if the lizard hasn't been taken care of properly, metabolic Bone disease is highly prevalent in reptile neglect. Pictures will definitely help, but in terms of lizards, there's a reason bearded dragons are considered good beginner ones. In terms of feeding, you want mixed baby greens, not a whole lot of spinach, no iceberg lettuce, fruits are okay in moderation, same as things like melons, avoid citrus, if you can find mixed baby green salad that might be the best way to start.
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May 3, 2023 20:55
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Does anyone here have experience owning Bamboo Rat Snakes? The traffic cone looking guys. I want to get one in the future but how do they compare to something like a milk snake or corn snake? (both ones I've owned)
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May 4, 2023 01:41
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Very possibly looking to add to our ball python breeding by picking up a female lesser ball python. That said it's been several years since we've gotten any new reptiles, and with quarantine being so important, I'm just trying to figure out the best spot for a quarantine tank. Most of our snake cages are in the living room, then there's my bedroom, the spare room which is the mouse room, probably not good for a quarantine spot for a snake, and then the master bedroom where we might be able to fit a tank. My biggest worry would be cross contamination via the cats though. I know that snake mites only prey upon snakes, but how likely would it be for one of our cats to pick something up and transfer to our main area? I'm a little leery of adding any new snake to our collection, we had to deal with snake mites twice in the past and we lost almost all of our Brazilian rainbow boas as a result, and also had a very bad miscarriage from one of the females that did survive the initial treatment. I know with proper quarantine it's very unlikely we'll have to deal with that again, but in the past we didn't have cats that can act as potential disease carriers. Pretty easy to rub your arms down with rubbing alcohol or take a shower in between handling a quarantine snake, but pretty difficult to convince a cat to do the same. edit: so this is going on the back burner. I just checked my mohave ball and she's sitting on eggs. Almost exactly the time as last year. Cowslips Warren fucked around with this message at 21:56 on May 6, 2023 |
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May 4, 2023 05:10
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Thread's pretty dead, here's some pics of my Rio Cascajal Auratus dart froggos.   I got two that ended up being a pair about two years ago and they had two offspring that I just traded for credit to the local reptile store for another identical Exo terra frog tank. I kinda want to get some Citronella Tinctorius for the new one. The custom bioactive tank is half the fun in keeping the frogs. 
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Jun 30, 2023 13:28
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That is a beautiful tank and a beautiful froggy!
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Jul 2, 2023 08:36
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Another one or two weeks and Hornet's eggs will hopefully pip.
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Jul 2, 2023 14:03
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Within a couple of weeks since taking the offspring out of the tank, they have started up with another clutch of 6 fertilized eggs. Hopefully I can keep more than 2 of them alive this time. 
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Jul 4, 2023 22:08
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5 babies! 1 mojave and 3 blue eyed lucys. The last one was a mojave as well but he died in the egg; it was opened enough he could breathe, but he died without getting the egg opened more. Mom snake Hornet finally left the hatch box yesterday, so I snagged them all out, and they're chilling in a communal container for a few days; after their first shed and meal they go into their own totes. which brings me to happy birthday Jean Jacket, our surviving blue eyed lucy ball from last year; his three mohave sibs were sold, and the other lucy sadly never ate. But JJ lives up to his NOPE namesake.
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Jul 11, 2023 00:38
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I feed my beardie soldier fly larva. I've got a sifter thing that I use to shake out the oat bran that the larva come in before I pour the larva in her bowl. Would it be bad to pour the larva and bran directly into her bowl, giving her more of a "hunting" experience having to dig through to find all of the larva? I don't want to risk her health but if I can make feeding more mentally stimulating for her that seems like a good thing. I wouldn't think oat bran would pose a health risk but also some fruits and veggies that I assumed would be harmless are apparently bad for them.
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Jul 18, 2023 17:47
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I saw a Youtuber use a ketchup/mustard/mayo squeeze bottle to dispense pre-made crested gecko diet to his (many) animals, and it got me thinking how long does that stuff keep in a fridge? can I just mix up a batch of repashy/etc and pre-bottle it? Stick it in a tupperware? For whatever reason I find the brief process of mixing up gecko food tedious, so even if this saves me like 5 minutes every other day it feels like it might be worthwhile, idk
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Jul 23, 2023 13:43
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kept refrigerated i would guess it would be good for a couple of days
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Jul 23, 2023 18:49
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So far only 1 of the baby balls has eaten. I put them in deli cups with the fuzzy mouse and keep them dark for several hours. Maybe I need to leave them overnight? I do have some chicken water on hand if I need to get the fuzzies wet. They are live fuzzies.
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Jul 23, 2023 19:19
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Ok Comboomer posted:I saw a Youtuber use a ketchup/mustard/mayo squeeze bottle to dispense pre-made crested gecko diet to his (many) animals, and it got me thinking This Zoo Med I use  is good for at least a week, pre-mized with filtered water, kept in a squeezy ketchup bottle with a lid, stored in the fridge. I make it up for our house sitter when I go and she just used a supply for the last 10 days successfully and what's left is still fine. I've pulled a forgotten bottle after like three weeks and spotted some mold and threw that out, IRL these geckos basically eat rotting fruit so even moldy might not be bad but who knows, not all mold is the same so obviously don't do that. But yeah a week is fine. If you want to be very sure, email the manufacturer, they usually are happy to answer questions like that. e. There are three different (safe) preservatives in the above product, which probably helps give it a longer shelf life but also helps it stay fresh after mixing. Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 06:11 on Jul 24, 2023 |
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Jul 24, 2023 06:07
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Finally caught up! So, I’ve got a small backyard pond, came when I bought the house, didn’t care much about it until the frogs showed up and then that was that. Then frogs did what frogs do and our pond was teeming with tadpoles, so we put in a lotus and a couple water lilies for shade/sitting. So far, so good. Of course I’ve got all these worries about predation, algae blooms, accidental contamination, this that and the other. What I didn’t expect was losing six tadpoles and a froglet to “trying to eat frogspawn that was too sticky.” So now I’ve buckets of frogspawn that I’ll need to keep any of these idiots from getting into until whatever survived the transfer hatches. Also: should I be concerned that I’ve never seen the green frogs and gray tree frogs eat a single one of the many, many water striders and flying insects out and about in the couple months we’ve had this house? If they were living entirely off of their own children then surely we would have noticed by now?
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Aug 10, 2023 23:30
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CommunityEdition posted:Finally caught up! Grey tree frogs eat at night. If you don’t have any lights on overnight that flies and moths love, you might try getting some. There were regularly multiple frogs sitting on my mom’s porch light at night, just going for the easy meal. Also, the rule for feeding frogs: is that the insects are no longer than the space between the frog’s eyes, so maybe your frogs aren’t big enough yet? (Rules are different for, like, feeding frogs the super fatty caterpillars pet stores sell as treats for herps) Frogs and fish often don’t eat what you’d think they should be eating. I was always annoyed that they wouldn’t eat the mosquito larvae around the edges of our koi pond when I was a kid. Those water striders might be something they don’t want to eat. Edit: it looks like frogs sometimes eat water striders, but don’t really like them much. Also, waterstriders eat tadpoles. Bored fucked around with this message at 00:13 on Aug 11, 2023 |
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Aug 11, 2023 00:10
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Bored posted:I was always annoyed that they wouldn’t eat the mosquito larvae around the edges of our koi pond when I was a kid. This! Such a disappointment, and it took forever to realize what was happening since tadpole respiration looks exactly like you’d think hunting something at the water surface would. Thank goodness mosquito dunks are so specific.
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Aug 11, 2023 00:16
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One ball python baby has refused to eat. Has been about a month since hatch. Anyone else assist fed their hatchlings before?
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Aug 11, 2023 00:26
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Bored posted:Also, waterstriders eat tadpoles. Even small water striders? I caught and killed a backswimmer, but it might be more than I can handle to deal with all those mosquito-sized ones. Edit: still coming up with another dead tadpole each day. Starting to wonder if some of the frogspawn sunk to the bottom where I can’t see it during the scooping. Is frog spawn choking/entrapment an issue anyone else here has run into? I’m not really a fan of the incoming class doing the graduating tadpoles dirty like this so close to froghood, but aside from my imperfect quarantine this doesn’t seem like the sort of problem that would have a clean solution. CommunityEdition fucked around with this message at 21:17 on Aug 11, 2023 |
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Aug 11, 2023 01:30
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Hey guys, last year you helped me prepare a small enclosure for a baby Russian rat snake, thanks very much! He's now over a year old and growing fast. I just got an unusually good bonus at work and I want to This is such a big purchase for me, though, and I would feel better if experienced snake handlers gave me their approval (or recommended better alternatives to anything I'm considering.) - Toad Ranch 5x2x3 (LxDxH) PVC enclosure; glass sliding doors, acrylic windows on the sides, 4 vents at the top (currently his cage humidity is 40-50% and seems to work fine for him, I'm hoping this will be about the same with a water bowl in the new cage) - ProProducts Radiant Heat Panel on one side (I'm waiting on them to get back to me with recommendations for the size/wattage needed) He's a climber, and while looking for large branches/decorations I came across bird stands like these --thoughts? Thanks guys!
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Sep 17, 2023 14:51
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Is there a good resources for mixing different desert lizards and plants in a bioactive enclosure? I've gotten really into succulents over the last couple years to the point where I now have a a few thousand in plants and grow lights. I unfortunately have pretty much all my stuff on shelves with reflective foil on them to help stuff grow better. Good for plants but really boring to look at. I was thinking about making a big arrangement in an old aquarium so I could admire stuff while also keeping it under lights. That turned into an idea to get a really big aquarium for a whole little desert forest. At that point I kind of figured out I really just want to make a whole ecosystem with critters. Problem I'm having is all the advice I'm finding isn't consistent and I even got mixed answers from the staff at the local exotic pet store which is a very reputable place. Id like to mix some small lizards and maybe one big one with some death feigning beetles, isopods, and other appropriate insects. The insects all seem to be easy to work with in relation to plants, but I've been told both that anything more tender than a Zebra plant or cactus will be trampled to death or dug up immediately when mixed with lizards as well as the opposite.
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Sep 19, 2023 19:37
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-Zydeco- posted:Is there a good resources for mixing different desert lizards and plants in a bioactive enclosure? I hate to say it but what you want is like... a room sized bio-active vivarium?
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Sep 19, 2023 19:46
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Like 4x2x2' is about the biggest I could imagine this being. I wouldn't want to house more than 1 larger animal and would prefer more smaller ones that would be able to hide in and around the plants without destroying them. By larger animal I mean something along the lines of a leopard gecko of bearded dragon. E: I'd only use some of my plants. Ill deal with the rest by making getting some display shelves and hopefully just by not buying every interesting plant I come across. -Zydeco- fucked around with this message at 20:04 on Sep 19, 2023 |
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Sep 19, 2023 20:01
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-Zydeco- posted:Is there a good resources for mixing different desert lizards and plants in a bioactive enclosure? Mixing species is always fraught. In the real world, most animals can escape a locale where it's overcrowded, whether due to actual risk of death or lack of food, or just the perceived risk. Real ecosystems are rarely the size of a tank you can put in your home. That said, there are lots of tiny biosphere type arrangements people have made, I like looking at them on youtube. "life in jars?" is one youtube channel. These almost always focus on just a variety of plants and invertebrates, though, because those can reach some kind of equalibrium and also it seems less gross to watch tons of them die off as they swing wildly towards that equilibrium. All of the above notwithstanding, there are some species of herps that "do well" with each other, by which we mean they mostly ignore one another. I've seen enclosures with a few frogs and a few anoles, for example. If you stick to obligate herbivore/insectivores at least they probably won't try to kill and eat each other, but you can still have very stressed animals. IMO if you have never kept herps or amphibians before, start with baby steps and keep one species in a live vivarium first, for a good long while. Get the hang of all the stuff you have to control for, feeding live food, etc. There are live plants that can hold up fine in a viv with a smaller animal - for example my frogs thrive with a variety of plants including the bromiliads they prefer to lay in. Small lizards like anoles are not too destructive. If you want a bearded dragon, I don't think your succulents will survive the high activity. e. just saw your post. A leopard gecko is small and spends most of its time hiding under a rock. A bearded dragon is twenty times bigger and will spaz around your tank regularly, they're far bigger and more active. Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 20:07 on Sep 19, 2023 |
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Sep 19, 2023 20:04
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Leperflesh posted:Mixing species is always fraught. In the real world, most animals can escape a locale where it's overcrowded, whether due to actual risk of death or lack of food, or just the perceived risk. Real ecosystems are rarely the size of a tank you can put in your home. Oh, for some reason I thought they grew to similar sizes. I did plan on introducing anything beyond plants gradually. The succulents will take a while to properly root in and there will be a few that inevitably don't make it and need to be replaced. Things like even small finger sized lizards would be the last step I'd try once the whole arrangement seemed to be working for the plants and bugs. I don't want to end up with an animal I don't have a proper setup to care for them. Are there smaller lizards that are fine in a colony that can be controlled by restricting the sex of the individuals in it?
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Sep 19, 2023 20:19
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Narrow down your fauna choices to what will work with your flora (the succulents). Native or close to native is always easier.
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Sep 19, 2023 20:22
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This person is REALLY good, check their stuffs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FicUXNnvQzg
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Sep 19, 2023 20:24
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Desert Bus posted:Narrow down your fauna choices to what will work with your flora (the succulents). Native or close to native is always easier. Flora would be actually kind of determined by the fauna for this. I have succulents that are probably inedible to anything without a beak all the hr way to ones that lose leaves just from being wiggled too vigorously. The fragile stuff I wouldn't bother with as even isopods could cause issue crawling on them, but if like to be able to put in some moderately durable and "fast" growing crassula varieties like Watch Chain Plants. Being able to include crassula (jade plants) or echeveria would be ideal, but neither can really take being walked on so most likely not. Most plants would be cacti or haworthia varieties however as they are durable and should be immune to anything a small reptile might do as long as they didn't dig them up. Since I'm approving this from the plant rather than animal side, I'd like to have a more plant heavy enclosure than most desert vivariums seem to be and I'll make sure to keep some open spaces and basking spots reserved so I don't crowd out any animals in the enclosure. Some sort of reptile between 1-4" that would like to hide, be ok with cohabitating with its own species, and not be bothered by death feigning beetles is kind of what seems to be the best thing. Australian helmeted geckos came up online, but the exotics shop here didn't have any info on them. E: looking further and helmeted geckos apparently should never cohabitate. Desert Bus posted:This person is REALLY good, check their stuffs: Yeah, I found his desert vivarium video and it was very informative. I'm still looking for details on mixing plants and animals beyond using sacrificial plants or combinations that can't harm each other. -Zydeco- fucked around with this message at 21:07 on Sep 19, 2023 |
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Sep 19, 2023 20:51
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Yeah so another thing with small animals vs. bigger ones is the poops. You can plant a live vivarium with small animals because the poops can kinda wash down and turn into part of the mulch at the bottom. Larger animals, like especially a bearded dragon, you need bedding you can remove and change regularly, not soil with live plants planted in it. Epiphytic plants are especially nice for enclosures you want to be able to change the substrate in, because you can just wire them to a cork background or a log or whatever and they'll be fine, and then you can remove stuff to dig up the poopy substrate and replace it whenever you want. Very small lizards are escape artists, keep that in mind too. Like nothing gets out of an enclosure better than a really small animal that can climb anything and is exploratory and curious and once it gets out it'll be hard as hell to find and capture. Just... be cognizant of that when choosing your enclosure.
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Sep 19, 2023 22:29
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After doing more research, I think I'm just going to stick to insects for the near future. Between blue feigning death/hide/darkling beetles, Sonoran desert/Texas striped millipedes, and all the various varieties of isopods there is plenty of interesting stuff that is much less prone to being cared for incorrectly. They'll also make more of themselves, will eat pretty much any sort of garbage I throw in there, and are much less likely to cause issues with plants. Maybe in the future I'll see about a semi-arid tolerant garter snake variety that can feed on the insect population if I end up with h something larger than beetles
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Sep 25, 2023 14:33
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my tegu has what looks like a bunch of stuck shed in/around one of her nostrils and I have no idea how to go about getting it without also getting bit a whole bunch 
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Sep 27, 2023 16:32
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Ok Comboomer posted:my tegu has what looks like a bunch of stuck shed in/around one of her nostrils and I have no idea how to go about getting it without also getting bit a whole bunch Long tweezers?
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Sep 27, 2023 21:01
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took in a male/female subadult pair of giant day geckos (I’ve separated them, don’t worry, but AFAIK they’ve never fought). Trying to get them to eat prepared diet the past several days, they seem to be ignoring it. I think their previous owner had them exclusively on crickets (ugh). Any advice on getting them to switch over? I’m not against providing feeders but I got two big jars of repashy day gecko diet and I’d love for them to actually make use of it, aside from the obvious benefit to getting them eating more balanced
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Oct 9, 2023 13:36
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Ok Comboomer posted:took in a male/female subadult pair of giant day geckos (I’ve separated them, don’t worry, but AFAIK they’ve never fought). Trying to get them to eat prepared diet the past several days, they seem to be ignoring it. any way to coat the crickets in the power form of repashy? or at least gut load them with the stuff.
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Oct 9, 2023 14:42
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Cowslips Warren posted:any way to coat the crickets in the power form of repashy? or at least gut load them with the stuff. yeah, both would be easy. I just don’t want to keep crickets long term (ugh) I’ll happily make tegu mash and eggs and mix up crested gecko food and even hand-feed canned snails every day but gently caress me I did not want to go back to having to deal with loving crickets I hate them so much
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Oct 9, 2023 14:54
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