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Hazo posted:They are insects. They are tiny and lice-sized and they move. I'm not familiar with any reptile mites that are white - maybe they are springtails/snow fleas? Those are harmless.
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Apr 7, 2015 00:28
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I think they're harmless wood mites. I still want to replace the bedding with something softer, and I don't think bleaching (in any dilution) is a good idea now that I've asked around some more.
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Apr 8, 2015 06:25
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One of my albino ball babies has hit growth spurt and demands a juvie/hopper mouse every day now. Since she was one who was a slow eater before, why the gently caress not. On the downside I am down four mice this week already just on Jesse. Heisenberg, by comparison, the runt male, debates about eating once a week.
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Apr 8, 2015 10:48
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I read somewhere that you should wait 2-3 days between feedings because it can take that long for a BP's digestive acids to fully replenish. Without enough acid, the digestive process slows down and the prey has time to rot in the snake's belly, creating a lot of nasty bacteria. Some of mine will give me the 'please feed me, I'm starving to death' puppy eyes not even five minutes after their last meal. I've learned to just ignore it if it hasn't been more than 3 days.
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Apr 8, 2015 20:58
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Hazo posted:I think they're harmless wood mites. I still want to replace the bedding with something softer, and I don't think bleaching (in any dilution) is a good idea now that I've asked around some more. Regarding cleaning, I don't know if it's a good idea (so someone tell me if I'm doing something horrible), but I use diluted rubbing alcohol whenever I want to do a thorough cleaning. I figure that will be decently deadly to any microbes, while not being too toxic to larger animals if there's any residue left behind. Of course I'm still careful about rinsing the tank out with clean water a few times afterwards, I don't want to be raising any alcoholics.
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Apr 9, 2015 07:07
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I don't have pythons, but all of my snakes are on a strict regimen for feeding. It would be madness if it was any other way here with so many lol. Also, I'm going to trade some kings for some bulls. Check these new pretties out! Cape gopher snake:  White side bull: 
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Apr 9, 2015 16:40
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Knormal posted:Parasitic mites tend to cluster in out-of-the-way areas like under scales and behind legs, where they're not likely to get rubbed off by the animal's movement. If the mite density is high enough that they're crawling freely around the tank, I think you'd know if they were parasitic because they'd be clearly visible in all the animals' crevices.
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Apr 9, 2015 17:32
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Updates: First fruit fly colony from petco is going strong, and the little frog eats pretty much all of them every time I dump them in his terrarium. Accidentally hosed his lid up, so now I need to find a new lid for a 40? gallon wide tank because he managed to escape while I was at work. Luckily he was just chilling next to his terrarium (its in a messy, packed full closet; surprised he didn't disappear in there for good.) Right now I just ghetto fixed it by covering the hole with tin foil and putting some weight over it, but it doesn't let enough light in + is a pain in the rear end. Fun. Bigger little frog sure is a jumper. Pretty much like clockwork when midnight rolls by he either starts croaking insanely loudly for an hour, or he tries his best to splat himself against the top of his enclosure. I reorganized it a bit to lessen the chances of him landing on something harmful, and I surrounded the top edge with those suction cup fake plant things to catch the majority of his leaps. Anyone know where I can get 1.5x1.5ft cork wall squares for him or something? He likes sitting on the walls, but I noticed that unlike some other tree frogs I've had, he has trouble not sliding down them. Also talked to a horticulturist/landscaper friend who was pretty interested in learning about terrarium type plants and offered to help me maintain them (we get together to smoke almost every night anyway) so in the somewhat near future I may start experimenting with live plants in my terrariums. Will definitely be starting off with an empty terrarium though. Might have to wait until my lease is up and I move into a bigger place in a few months though, I'm already testing the limits of my tiny apartment bedroom.. The python's been doing incredibly well. The previous owner was feeding her about the dead minimum, whereas I've been feeding her the largest mice I can get weekly. She's a big attention whore but luckily (almost) all of my friends have no problem handling her. Every time I have a guest over she periscopes, comes out of her hide, and slithers circles around the side of her terrarium closest to me. Still has yet to bite anyone too! The local pet store picked up on the fact that I'm using their mice as feeders, but they agreed not to ban me (store policy) in exchange for helping them cull the mice with behavioral issues. They don't even charge me half the time! I've been getting a lot of requests in real life to put her feedings on youtube if that's something goons are interested in too. By the way, I loving love snakes now, I'm probably going to be an animal hoarder when I move out of this apartment.
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Apr 10, 2015 03:05
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Hello reptilian pet lovers! I've decided I'm going to get a pet reptile; growing up my family has always had dogs, cats, and the occasional bird. However, my current job at a government facility in the middle of the desert means I'm out of the house 12-13 hours a day which is rather poor for your standard pets. Friends have suggested adopting a lizard of some kind, and after some consultation with friends who have had many reptiles and other pets in the past, I think I'm going to get a bearded dragon. Please inform me why this is / isn't a brilliant idea.
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Apr 10, 2015 07:21
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Quezacotl posted:Hello reptilian pet lovers! Beardies make great pets, and would be a good choice for a beginner. They're a bit more work than say, leopard geckos or crested geckos, but are not difficult.
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Apr 10, 2015 07:47
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Big Centipede posted:Beardies make great pets, and would be a good choice for a beginner. They're a bit more work than say, leopard geckos or crested geckos, but are not difficult. Seconded.
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Apr 10, 2015 13:25
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Eh. I've owned a beardie before and they are sorta high maintenance (for a reptile). It's definitely doable even for a beginner, but if I spent that many hours a day away from home every day, I personally wouldn't keep a beardie. Too much time spent feeding (and aquiring/dealing with insects) and cleaning. I think that snakes are better scaly pets for people who are short on free time. Edit: Speaking of snakes, I just picked up a pair of 2014 female pastel (50% possible het clown) ball pythons. I don't normally look twice at a pastel, but these two are beautiful examples. And it'll be sweet if either one proves out as het clown. I'll take some pics after they settle in a bit. snake and bake fucked around with this message at 19:34 on Apr 12, 2015 |
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Apr 12, 2015 15:53
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  Just got a Beardie yesterday. It is tentatively named Fiesta. Currently eating about 5 crickets a feeding and absolutely nothing else, but hoping that will improve. Its tail has gotten a little darker since yesterday, and I'm hoping that's normal but I guess the new pet vet appt I set up will tell either way.
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Apr 13, 2015 23:15
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Samila posted:Eh. I've owned a beardie before and they are sorta high maintenance (for a reptile). It's definitely doable even for a beginner, but if I spent that many hours a day away from home every day, I personally wouldn't keep a beardie. Too much time spent feeding (and aquiring/dealing with insects) and cleaning. I think that snakes are better scaly pets for people who are short on free time. I recognize that it will be a lot of work; I may have overstated how often I am out of the house, it's more like 11-12 hrs 4 days a week, and then I'm home all day Saturday/Sunday/every other Friday. I've done a lot of research on what I'll need to do on a daily/weekly frequency, and I'm certain I can manage it. thousandcranes; not an expert or anything, but maybe he's just stressed from the new environment?
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Apr 14, 2015 06:45
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My Tokay has finally grown up into a fine young man. I've gotten woken up by him trying to find himself a sexy girl gecko more than once in the past few weeks. It makes a father proud.
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Apr 14, 2015 06:56
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One of my relatives rescued a ball python and is upgrading the previous owner's starter tank to something better for the snake. Stupid question: do snakes get bored in the same tank with the same layout? I can understand upgrading quality of tank, heat sources, hiding spots, bedding (or whatever that is at the bottom of a tank), food and water, etc. Do snakes need toys? I've only been around cats. 
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Apr 16, 2015 02:56
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queserasera posted:One of my relatives rescued a ball python and is upgrading the previous owner's starter tank to something better for the snake. Stupid question: do snakes get bored in the same tank with the same layout? I can understand upgrading quality of tank, heat sources, hiding spots, bedding (or whatever that is at the bottom of a tank), food and water, etc. Do snakes need toys? Not really a need, but I think it's good for them to sometimes get new sticks to investigate. Also, yesterday my annie took his chicken in his swimming pool and it was loving AWESOME. Apex predator ftw.
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Apr 16, 2015 13:37
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Oh lord I'm too neurotic to be a snake owner. The willpower required to not check on her every few minutes is enormous. I picked up a beautiful little pastel royal python a couple days ago and have left her alone as much as I possibly can, although I've had to move a couple things around in the RUB because it wasn't getting as warm as it should have despite being absolutely FINE for several days before getting the snake. Turns out one of my digital thermometers is somehow a dud. She's planted herself firmly in the coconut hide on the warm side and hasn't really left it, not even at night. She has lots of hides and cover so I'm hoping she'll feel more comfortable after some time since this has been a big change as she was previously in a very small RUB with siblings. How long should I give her to settle before I consider moving her down a RUB size? She doesn't need to eat until Wednesday so should I just wait and see if she feeds then (I doubt it!) and decide from there if she's settling or not? I don't mind her being a shy snake, I just don't want to feel like there's something I'm not doing for her that I should be doing. Maybe she's pissed off that my housemate named her Megaman 2 (shortened to Meg though, we compromised)
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Apr 17, 2015 19:32
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What the hell is a RUB. Leave the poor thing alone - wait until Wednesday to attempt feeding. She needs time to acclimate and may not be active.
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Apr 17, 2015 23:54
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A RUB is really useful box, strong plastic tub. I feel better now because I noticed her out and about last night 
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Apr 18, 2015 10:16
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If she was in a tub with siblings, she was probably stressed out to begin with. The young ones are often nervous anyway. Be patient, give the snake more time to get comfortable. I don't understand what you mean about moving her down a RUB size though. I get what a RUB is (Americans usually just call them tubs, I'm assuming you're not from the terms you're using). What size is she in now, and why are you planning on switching sizes? snake and bake fucked around with this message at 11:34 on Apr 18, 2015 |
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Apr 18, 2015 11:27
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RUB is a brand, sorry. Assumed it was american but it's actually british. Sorry, I'm just fussing and worrying over nothing, she's been out and about and is drinking right now in the middle of the day. She's so pretty it actually makes my heart skip a beat when I notice her poking her head around checking things out 
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Apr 18, 2015 15:15
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They aren't pets, but these fellows are a regular feature when it comes time to dredge the pond. Have to take some of the weed out or the whole thing turns into a big stinkin' heap of rot and dead fish, but when you take the weed out it's crawling with larval dragonflies, leeches, weird woodlouse things, and...   Cutie newties. Though few as small as this one:  Obviously I don't like disturbing them but it's bad for the pond if the whole thing gets choked with weed, best we can think of at the moment is to take out small parts at a time, fish through it for anything living, chuck it back in the pond, and let the weed sit for a bit for anything else to crawl out of it if it wants to. The newts seem happy enough though I dislike handling amphibians given their porous skin. Not sure if newts are OK with it but I figure they'd be worse off if we didn't maintain the habitat, or left outside for the birds to eat. We'll also be inundated with frogs in a few weeks no doubt as the pond is also full of frogspawn (avoided pulling that out) so I get to enjoy dodging baby frogs for the next couple of months. It's nice having such a varied habitat in the back garden though, even if I wish the drat heron would stop eating the fish.
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Apr 21, 2015 17:16
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I've got a little story and a question for anyone who knows Bombinas. Somewhere around 2006 or 07, my wife came back from college with 4 fire bellied toads, given to her by a classmate with way too many on her hands. We've since set up a nice vivarium for them with some dry land and shallow water areas. We did what research we could on setting up a good habitat and feeding. They have done quite well since then, judging by the fact that they have bred a few times. The population in the vivarium has cycled between 4 and 40 individuals at various times. I'm wondering if there might be a need for fresh genes? It seems like a pretty messed up inbreeding situation. The original 4 she started out with came from the same hatching, and we have no idea which toads are breeding with which. We've read up on how to determine the sex of individual toads, but we've had no luck in actually determining this ourselves. I can't even tell the individuals apart, although Mrs. Chiller claims to be able to. Maybe I'm a racist. They all look the same to me. Do I need to be concerned about the inbreeding, or am I over thinking this? I don't suppose you can get a toad fixed? I suppose we can just be happy that they are still alive, and let them carry on doing their toad thing. I wouldn't mind if they never breed again, since it's a serious pain in the rear end feeding the little ones still to tiny to eat crickets.
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Apr 25, 2015 05:39
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B33rChiller posted:I've got a little story and a question for anyone who knows Bombinas. Somewhere around 2006 or 07, my wife came back from college with 4 fire bellied toads, given to her by a classmate with way too many on her hands. We've since set up a nice vivarium for them with some dry land and shallow water areas. We did what research we could on setting up a good habitat and feeding. They have done quite well since then, judging by the fact that they have bred a few times. The population in the vivarium has cycled between 4 and 40 individuals at various times. If they are still breeding and producing healthy babies, you don't have to worry about it. You could just destroy the eggs if it's a concern. Edit: A lot of captive reptiles are severely inbred, that's how you end up with morphs.
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Apr 25, 2015 17:01
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We were lucky in that all three of our Bombina orientalis turned out to be males, so we've never had eggs or breeding. The only way you're going to control the breeding is by always finding and destroying eggs, or, by separating males and females. The males are generally going to be the ones that call, but the females can make noise too, so even that isn't super easy to judge by.
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Apr 25, 2015 21:00
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Thanks for the info. I guess I won't worry about it, and just let them do their thing.Hood Ornament posted:Edit: A lot of captive reptiles are severely inbred, that's how you end up with morphs.
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Apr 26, 2015 00:26
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She had a tricky first shed with me, but a couple baths and a stint in a pillowcase and Meg's all shed except for the tip of her nose. She's been with me nearly two weeks now and has taken two meals with very little issue (postponed first feed for a day because she struck the side of the tub and it made her too shy to try again, haha) She's so super cute and chill, and very curious when I handle her. Help, I'm in love 
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Apr 26, 2015 03:34
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Hood Ornament posted:Edit: A lot of captive reptiles are severely inbred, that's how you end up with morphs. Not always, and this is particularly untrue for most ball python morphs. Dominant morphs produce 50% morph offspring (of course I mean that statistically, not literally) no matter what you breed them to, so there's no reason for inbreeding.
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Apr 27, 2015 20:56
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Samila posted:Not always, and this is particularly untrue for most ball python morphs. Dominant morphs produce 50% morph offspring (of course I mean that statistically, not literally) no matter what you breed them to, so there's no reason for inbreeding. I think you might be misreading what Hood Ornament was saying. To put it another way, to get true breeding morphs, you generally have to cross siblings with sibling or siblings to parents so you have a lot of inbreeding in captive reptiles. Also, most captive populations don't have a large founder population to begin with, but that's a different issue.
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Apr 27, 2015 23:00
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ZarathustraFollower posted:I think you might be misreading what Hood Ornament was saying. To put it another way, to get true breeding morphs, you generally have to cross siblings with sibling or siblings to parents so you have a lot of inbreeding in captive reptiles. Also, most captive populations don't have a large founder population to begin with, but that's a different issue. This, yes. When morphs are being discovered/developed, a lot of inbreeding and linebreeding is done in order to determine the inheritability of the trait and to maximize the number of animals that show or carry the trait so they can be marketed and sold. The original point being that inbreeding is very common in the herp trade and isn't really seen as a problem. The biggest issue you have is when you start accidentally breeding in a negative trait (stargazing, for example).
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Apr 28, 2015 15:57
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Hood Ornament posted:The original point being that inbreeding is very common in the herp trade and isn't really seen as a problem. It's common but it's becoming looked down upon which is a good thing. We don't need it to become a problem. It is a slow moving opinion though, but I'm seeing it more and more and I like it. I don't care of that means less ball python morphs because they already have 1.9 million. Same with corns.
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Apr 28, 2015 18:45
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From the dart frog perspective, line breeding is common and there are arguments for and against it. Wild-caught dart frogs tend to be caught by someone going up some trail or to some village or whtaever and then catching every frog they find in the immediate area. These frogs are all probably fairly closely related, and they tend to all have similar patternation. Then you get these frogs being called a morph. There are a number of species of darts that have a bunch of (attractive and interesting) morphs. The question then becomes: is this really a "different frog" from some other frog of the same species but different morph? Or did you just create a morph by collecting twenty related frogs and linebreeding them in captivity to flood the hobby with 200 F1 frogs, in a way that would not have happened in the wild? It's an important question for conservation reasons. So far, nobody has successfully reintroduced dart frogs to the wild to repopulate an area where a given species has been extirpated. But there is the thought that such a thing might happen in the future. And zoos are notoriously terrible at dart frog husbandry. Where zoos have the advantage is in record-keeping. Most people who buy dart frogs know what the "morph" is that they have, but have no other records of parentage, or locale where the original wild caught ancestors were taken. A much smaller number (but the ones most active on online dart frog forums and email listservs) do have locale information, and a decent number can at least identify the breeder they bought from. Over time (decades), dart frog species and individual morphs have waxed and waned in popularity. It's clear that in some cases, an initial flood of a specific morph from WC animals gets out into the hobby, most buyers are not breeders, and then as they die off, the remaining frogs are too dispersed to sustain a network of true-bred exchange to maintain it... this also takes place as other morphs/species show up and are the new thing that dart frog keepers gravitate towards. There has been a long-standing, very loud and very insistent majority that says "never ever crossbreed dart frogs" because of the desire to sustain populations that could one-day be reintroduced to the wild as "the right frog that belongs here." Many dart frog species are closely related enough that cross-breeding is probably very easy and likely, when males and females are kept together in these tiny vivariums we keep in our homes. If we don't sustain these pure morphs, then perhaps the day will come when we want to reintroduce the frogs but we can't, because they're effectively "gone" from the hobby in their original form. And as I mentioned, zoos do not keep a lot of frogs (certainly not anywhere near the kinds of huge collections that are out there in the hobby), they tend to kill their frogs due to poor husbandry, and just like hobbyists, they tend to focus on a minority of especially colorful and bold species/morphs that attract the public eye. But. Line-breeding is obviously problematic for genetic health. In the wild, frogs readily breed with siblings, and there are usually not horrible consequences right away. But basically nobody knows if the tenth generation of inbred frogs of a specific morph of a specific species of dart frogs is "healthy" in a way that it would survive reintroduction. Linebreeding doesn't just allow negative recessive traits to get concentrated: it also tends to lose genetic traits altogether. The founder effect is critical here because of the WC practices. Frog collectors looking for animals to sell commercially do not take care to collect just one frog from "this" spot, and just one frog from "that" spot that is 100 yards away through some thick jungle, or is on someone's private property, or whatever. So a wild population that has many rare, but extant traits (say, 5% of the population has a given trait) is then represented in the hobby by line-bred morphs that lack that trait, because the collector simply didn't collect evenly from a dispersed area. Perhaps even worse, "negative" traits that would kill a frog in the wild may not be sufficiently disadvantageous to kill it in captivity; so, we may be inadvertently reinforcing "bad genes", spreading them around amongst an otherwise-healthy captive population, without even knowing it. For example, we are probably all creating populations of dart frogs that specialize in obtaining maximum nutrition from fruit flies. We may be breeding away the ability to metabolize and manufacture dart frog poison (batrachotoxin), because we do not offer the food items that the frogs synthesize the toxin in the wild. One of the additional effects of these breeding practices is that there have been some "morphs" that turned out to not be "real." They simply don't represent a consistent patternation found in the wild. They were created by the founder effect, most likely. That doesn't make them automatically wrong to own or breed, but it may mean that it's "ok" to crossbreed members of that fake-morph with other similar-looking morphs of the same species... perhaps even desirable, to gain some genetic diversity in their offspring. In more recent years, there have been arguments back and forth about the real-ness of specific morphs. Hobbyists, particularly the kind of dart frog hobbyist who is active on the major forums and goes to club meetings and attends Frog Day, are increasingly aware of the need to develop sustainable populations in the hobby that are genuine representations - as much as possible, anyway - of threatened wild populations. There are organizations like Treewalkers International who have done preliminary work getting genetic samples and documenting the state of frogs in the hobby. Anyway. That's a lot of words, but the important point here is; among dart frogs, exactly what you breed with what can be important, unless you're certain you will never ever sell or give away offspring of your frogs. Some folks believe that captive populations are never going to be suitable for reintroduction (the idea that we can recreate destroyed ecosystems is itself controversial, but even if we're just talking about trying to restore areas that are damaged but not completely ruined, it's unlikely that whoever is in charge of such an endeavor would appeal to the general hobby - notorious for poor or nonexistent documentation - for individual frogs for such a reintroduction). In which case, who cares whether you tried cross-breeding? Maybe you'd come up with an interesting new pattern that would be commercially successful. Others believe that a day may come where some species - and by extension, some morphs - only exist in the hobby, and perhaps only in small, dispersed numbers within the hobby, especially for the less-popular, less-charismatic dart frogs. In that event, it may be that the only way we save a morph from outright extinction is if every individual of that morph has been purebred within the population of that morph. I personally think that there's a gray area. I suspect that 99% of the work of saving dart frogs from extinction will and is focused on habitat preservation, and that if we get to the point where a morph is only alive in captivity, we have probably lost that frog. Sooner or later. Until someone somewhere reintroduces dart frogs and then verifies over the span of a decade or more that the reintroduced population has survived, we simply can't know how much genetic diversity can or must be preserved. The controlled, peer-reviewed studies of morph DNA drift, founder effects, sustainability of CB populations, etc. just haven't been done. Hobbyists should be engaged and involved as much as they can be, but can't be expected or relied upon to keep a given morph absolutely "pure" but also healthy and avoiding excessive inbreeding. But people who own exotic dart frogs (and by extension, exotic pets of any kind) that breed them ought to at least inform themselves of the issues, so they can make intelligent choices about whether and how they choose to cross-breed, document it, and share their offspring with the world. Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 20:09 on Apr 28, 2015 |
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Apr 28, 2015 20:03
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   (Sorry about lovely filters/quality, took these on my phone.)
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Apr 30, 2015 18:12
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Nice pics. I didn't get any photos last night. The room was dark and quiet when my ball python finally ate again after a month-long fast. Can't believe how relieved I felt after he struck the f/t weaned rat and proceeded to gulp it down. He was noticeably thin and lacking in energy, so this feeding will help a lot.
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May 1, 2015 11:29
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Mimetastic posted:
These are great! Mex King?
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May 1, 2015 20:22
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So, I've been offered an axolotl and I'm trying to figure out how much it would cost to maintain, and if I have the room for another animal. Right now, I got 2 pine snakes, a box turtle and 2 tarantulas. I think I could fit a 10gal next to the box turtle, which should be big enough for even an adult (which it wouldn't be). How much does it generally cost to set one up & weekly maintenance? I'd get a submersible filter with a flow bar for water quality, and am considering a hood to have live plants to better control water quality too, but that may be more long term. Do those little aquarium fans actually help with cooling the water? It seemed like a big jump between those and heavy-duty chillers. Ugh, I never even thought about getting one but a bunch were used in a developmental biology class and they are going to get euth'd if they don't find homes by the end of the semester. I really want to know what the gently caress the prof was thinking with that. ......Anyone want an axolotl?
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May 2, 2015 15:07
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It all depends on your typical house temperature. If you keep your house about 68 degrees and have constant a/c, the little fans are usually alright.
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May 2, 2015 18:50
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Mimetastic posted:
Love these. That snake looks good and he knows it!
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May 2, 2015 19:12
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ZarathustraFollower posted:So, I've been offered an axolotl and I'm trying to figure out how much it would cost to maintain, and if I have the room for another animal. Right now, I got 2 pine snakes, a box turtle and 2 tarantulas. I think I could fit a 10gal next to the box turtle, which should be big enough for even an adult (which it wouldn't be). How much does it generally cost to set one up & weekly maintenance? I'd get a submersible filter with a flow bar for water quality, and am considering a hood to have live plants to better control water quality too, but that may be more long term. Do those little aquarium fans actually help with cooling the water? It seemed like a big jump between those and heavy-duty chillers. A ten gallon tank really isn't big enough for an adult, though; it'll kill the water quality really quickly in a tank that small. Go for a 20 long or a 29 for the smallest, and get lots of plants (java moss works best - filters out ammonia and nitrates, etc., and doesn't need much light or anything). Weekly cost of having an axolotl should be really small - a dollar or two for some worms, electricity for an air pump, and maybe a light. You don't really need a filter if you have a large enough tank and enough plants - filters can raise the water temperature by a degree or so, and can stress the animals out if it generates too much current. What temperature is your house? You shouldn't need a fan unless you don't have any A/C at all - but they will generally lower the temp by a few degrees. Water temperature is usually a bit cooler than the house's ambient temp anyhow, and assuming you have enough water, it'll be resistant a bit to temperature changes over the course of the day, so it'll moderate any spikes in temp if they're not too high. If high temps are an issue for a short period of time, you can float a container of frozen water on top, but this is really labor intensive. I did that and a fan in college for my 75 gallon tank that I had a mudpuppy in when we didn't have A/C and it worked pretty well, but that was 3-4 weeks max and was a huge pain to keep up on.
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May 2, 2015 20:16
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