OneTwentySix posted:

Most of the larger Dendrobates spp. are good beginner frogs; D. auratus, D. leucomelas, and D. tinctorius especially, along with the Phyllobates.

For salamanders, axolotls (Ambystoma mexicanum), Spanish ribbed newts (Pleurodeles waltl), the common crested newt species (Triturus spp.), healthy (captive bred/non-pet store) firebelly newts (Cynops spp.), and smaller sirens (Siren i. intermedia, Pseudobranchus spp.) are all especially hardy and beginner friendly.

https://www.dendroboard.com is a good dart frog resource, and https://www.caudata.org is the salamander site.

Greycious posted:

As long as a gray banded kingsnake is already on f/t food there is no reason a beginner shouldn't be able to handle one. My first snake was a greyband, they are still my very favorite snakes
My four are all very easy-going and reliable eaters.

Malalol posted:

Can we also get a list of 'popular' (as in cheaper/easy to find in pet stores) animals that most beginner people should probably avoid and reasons? eg. iguanas, savannahs, tortoises?(not sure how readily avail. the big ones are)

I dont recommend RES at all simply because people think little kritter keeper plus an inch of water is enough but then again, if people are actually looking for info and care on this thread, they arent too bad.

Fluffy Bunnies posted:

Can I suggest green anoles for that? Because I've never actually seen them kept properly in person.

ZarathustraFollower posted:

You may want to remove desert hairy scorpions and aphonopelma tarantulas. Yes, they are both great for beginners, but pretty much >95% of the ones you can buy are going to have been wild collected. Especially with these slow growers, this has all sort of ethical problems. You also missed the absolute best starter tarantula.

Greenbottle blues (Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens)-Practically bulletproof, gorgeous colours, decently common & cheap captive bred young, massive webbers that adapt being able to burrow or tall cages, and generally have a great attitude.

Avics generally arn't actually a beginner species-little ones tend to die randomly, and they can be really skittish for a starter species.

Salmon pink birdeaters (Lasiodora parahybana) are another good starter-super cheap, common, massive growth rate.

Captain Foxy posted:

OP looks great, IMO, other more complex stuff can probably be better explained with species-specific links to care guides or forums, right?

Thinking of picking up a pastel BP at the expo this Saturday, since crestie pickings look to be slim. Reading through the old thread before it closed made me really miss my old SBs that I had to give up to my ex. Looking forward to hunger strikes and derpy snake nonsense!

Pardalis posted:

UVA/UVB for Diurnal Herps

Animals that are awake and active during the day require specialty lighting to provide the UVA and UVB rays that allow them to produce vitamin D3 and utilize the calcium in their diets. Without these lights or with the wrong ones, animals will suffer a number of permanent ailments including calcium deficiency, metabolic bone disease (advanced calcium deficiency affecting bone growth and density), organ shut down, and death. Some reptiles may also go on hunger strikes and have their eyesight rapidly degrade with the wrong type of lighting. It is critically important to provide the proper type of lighting to diurunal herps and to pay attention to what they do with it.

Hopefully I can make this simple because there are a lot of products on the market that are downright dangerous. Always practice common sense; check your temps before adding animals, recheck again after they are added, and observe their habits. Requirements vary for different species so always recheck your parameters before purchasing your bulbs. I have found that species specific forums are great places to research your pets and find which lights work best for them.

UVA rays comes from pretty much any type of "white" or "yellow" light. You can use a regular incandescent bulb as a source of heat as well as UVA. UVA stimulates appetite among other things. UVB is more of our concern when discussing herp husbandry.

The cheapest place to purchase UVB lighting that I have found is lllreptile.com. I bulk order bulbs, get a discount, and test them all when they arrive before storing them. They also price match so if you find a better price, let them know!

Here are the basics to UVB:

All UVB bulbs are not created equal!
Okay, look. I am too lazy to type out all the exact findings and reasons I have for saying this (source material starting but not ending here ), but basically there is currently only one specific bulb on the market worth buying:

Zoomed Reptisun Linear Fluorescent (2.0, 5.0, or 10.0)
This bulb is the standard fluoro tube that comes in a variety of lengths from 12" to 4 feet. The 2.0 is for rain forest species that need low levels of UVB such as dart frogs, pygmy chameleons, and some snakes. The 5.0 is ideal for most chameleons, iguanas, anoles, and anything warmly tropical. The 10.0 is for desert species such as tortoises, bearded dragons, and uromastyx. This is your best bet for rack systems because you can use one 4 foot UVB bulb with one 4 foot regular fluorescent bulb in a $10 double bulb fixture from any home improvement store. Depending on the species you keep, you will most likely need to pair this bulb next to a regular heat lamp (any incandescent bulb will be fine) to encourage basking and to provide a temperature gradient.

Keep your lights on a timer to conserve their life and to keep your pets on a schedule
I have found that animals stress without a regular light cycle. It will also allow you to control breeding seasons reliably as you can increase or decrease the photoperiod season to season to match wild conditions. Timers are super cheap at IKEA.

You need to provide a usable, inviting basking spot
Observe your animal and figure out where best to place the basking area. You want to make sure that your pet is drawn to the spot and has a good place to sit and soak up the rays. The easiest way to draw an animal to bask under a linear fluorescent UVB tube is to have your heat lamp as close to the UVB strip as possible. Test your temps with a heat gun or probe thermometer to make sure the spot is at your ideal high temperature (and no more!) and position a perch under both bulbs. Your pet should be drawn to bask under both lights by the heat from the incandescent bulb as well as the rays from the UVB. If your animal doesn't actively bask, you should watch them and figure out how to make their environment more comfortable so that they will. If you are using a mercury vapor bulb, it will provide both heat and UVB.

UVB emitting bulbs have a limited lifespan and need to be replaced regularly
The general rule is that the Zoomed linear fluorescent Reptisun tubes last around 6 months. If you have a UVB meter, you can test the output and replace the bulb when needed, otherwise just change it at the end of month 6. The mercury vapor bulbs typically last a year and a half or possibly longer but I have seen it debated if these are even safe to use. Used bulbs that no longer emit enough UVB for herps make great lights for aquariums and used as normal house fluoros. I know some keepers who start with a 10.0 and let it degrade until they use it on a 5.0 tank, and then finally a 2.0 tank. Very economical.

UVB rays only penetrate a few inches into an enclosure and are blocked by glass and plastic
For the fluorescent bulbs, you need to position them ideally within 6-10 inches above where the animal will be basking. The UVB rays don't penetrate further. UVB will not go through glass or acrylic so lights should be placed over screen. The bulb will do your pet no use if they can't get close enough to it to soak up UVB rays.

We cannot replicate nature
Even the best bulbs don't put out as much usable UVB as the sun does on an overcast day. Bulbs degrade, they only go so deep, and the sun is the best thing that you can give to your reptiles. You have to be very careful about how you do this, but taking the animals out to bask in real sun on nice days is one of the greatest things you can do for their health. You absolutely have to monitor temperatures like crazy during this and don't ever put an animal or enclosure in direct sun. They will still get a ton of UVB in the shade. Be very sure that your caging is secure if you put your animals outside and don't put glass tanks out because they are basically ovens. Always provide a source of cool drinking water or mist while the animals are out. Drippers work especially well for this.

Compact fluorescent UVB bulbs are dangerous and should never be used!
These bulbs are sold under a few brands but all of them should be avoided. They are the "compact" coiled fluorescent bulbs that screw into a regular clamp lamp. You may be tempted to use them for this reason, but they emit a dangerous amount of UVC radiation. UVC breaks down eyesight and can blind reptiles over surprisingly short periods of exposure. It also can leave nasty radiation burns if an animal gets too close.

I'm sure I have missed something but I am happy to answer questions if they come up.

Golden-i posted:

This is Azula. She's my girlfriend's ball python, about a year old now.


Azula likes food.

E: While I'm posting here, maybe I can get some advice... this is our first snake, and I keep hearing mixed things about what kind of bedding/substrate to use. The stuff in the picture above is no longer in her tank, since she's got mites right now thankfully it's not a bad case. We've got her tank stripped bare until this is sorted out, but once the mites are gone what substrate would you all recommend going with?

the yeti posted:

Wasn't that in Huck Finn?


At my last job someone tried to tell me they saw a hoopsnake I've only ever read that story (along with the rattlesnake one) in discussions of Appalachian folklore

Scary Ned posted:

Is there any reason firebelly toads didn't make the easy beginner pet list?


They're hilarious, active, and like being kept in groups. Most pet stores seem to keep them terrestrial with a water dish, but they really like spending all their time in the water. In my opinion an aquatic setup is easier to clean, and makes a nicer display, too.


These are more cast-offs, they were given to me right before I started teaching a summer class for kids about animals. Some of the kids would spend the entire 45 minute class just staring at the frogs.


The kids could tell the three frogs apart. At feeding time I would throw a few dozen crickets in the tank, and the kids would each pick a frog to cheer for and count how many crickets it ate. It was like a tiny, bizarre gladiator match.

lwoodio posted:

Any wood is a harmful substance in a snake's belly. Also, feeding them outside of the cage is said to make them less likely to bite because they associated the cage with food. My snake goes into a paper grocery bag with chip clips at the top to eat. He has a habit of making huge watery poops immediately after he eats, so I just dump him back into the cage when he's done and throw the bag away each time.

hyperhazard posted:

Thanks, I'll try that. He's a messy eater, so it'll probably help to be able to dispose of the entire mess at once, without cleaning another tank.

He's never struck at me so far, but he knows that when the microwave goes on, it's time for food.

_{(Heating the water for the rat, not the rat itself)}


edit: drat, varying opinions.

the yeti posted:

OneTwentySix posted:

Awesome, glad he's doing well for you! That's a much better picture than I've been able to take; you can really see the gold flecks there. They generally lose those when they get bigger, unfortunately, though greater sirens tend to keep theirs.

Awesome other herps, too! Hognoses are the best.

I thought I'd share one of my friend's animals, a Necturus beyeri. Really amazing looking salamanders; I'm really jealous because Necturus is my favorite genus.




Here is one as a juvenile, and here's one as an adult.



Awesome yellow spots all over; never really expected that coloration in a salamander before. Now I wish I could get down to New Orleans so bad right now. . .

OneTwentySix posted:

The post got a bit long; basically, the only aquarium skill involved would be to change 10% of the water if it starts to stink or film over. With common sense, they're pretty hard to kill.

They can basically tolerate anything sane; they're built for survival under some really harsh conditions. You can find them as far north as Michigan and Illinois (though the Michigan population hasn't been seen for a while, even if no one's really been looking), and they thrive in southern Florida and Texas. When ponds dry up, they can form a cocoon and aestivate until the water returns; one study found that a greater siren survived like this for 5.2 years. They have lungs and can survive in areas with low dissolved oxygen, and they're tolerant of some really awful water conditions.

As far as captivity, they can take anything from freezing to the mid 80s, or even low 90s. They tolerate water quality really well; you don't even need a filter, just make periodic partial water changes every week or two instead. I've kept three small Florida lesser sirens (smaller, undescribed species) in a 10 gallon tank in my kitchen for almost a year now. The only substrate is the decaying remains of some water hyacinth plants I put in there that didn't survive indoors. It's decayed into tiny brown particles that they hide in. I take out a liter or two of water once in a while and replace it with aged tap water, and they're fine and growing really well. They need a larger tank soon, though.

The only way you're going to kill a siren would be if it escaped, didn't feed it for several months, you literally cooked it (100+ degree water temperature, and keep in mind that water is going to be cooler than air temps), or a large animal rotted in the tank. Western lesser sirens are trickier; they get bigger to the point that they can kill each other, but eastern lessers don't seem to have this problem.

I recommend a 20 or 30 gallon tank with a screen lid, but you don't need the lid if you leave 4 or so inches between the top of the tank and the water level. Rinse out some sand or gravel from a garden store, or buy it at a pet store and use an inch or so of this as substrate. Add some small PVC pipes that are just a bit larger in diameter than the sirens for tunnels, and add some easy to keep plants like java moss, Elodea, or any floating plant with roots for them to hide in (water hyacinth, water lettuce, frog's bit, Salvinia, etc., though hyacinth doesn't survive indoors) and you're pretty well set. An airstone would help keep the water looking clean, or a small filter like this or this, though any low powered filter would work, provided it's not big or strong enough to suck smaller animals into it.

You don't need all of that, but it helps. Plants and sand/gravel provide biological filtration (just don't make the gravel too deep; over 2 inches creates good conditions for anaerobic bacteria, so you'd need a filter for sure then), and a larger tank provides more space for the animal as it gets larger, and protects it from spikes in temperature/water quality, and the PVC pipes give them somewhere to hide where you can still see them, but my indoor tank doesn't have any of that, though I'm going to make a nice 20 for them soon.

Feeding is easy; they're so much easier to feed than other salamanders. Dry dog food (careful that uneaten pieces don't foul the water), pieces of fake crab, shrimp, or fish, tubifex worms from a pet store, or live inverts such as Daphnia, blackworms, mosquito larvae, amphipods (scuds), or earthworms as they get bigger, they all work really well. I used to hand feed my westerns and that was neat, but they were different from easterns in a lot of ways; I haven't seen that kind of foraging in easterns, though I haven't kept any large ones indoors.

Axolotls are generally recommended as a beginner salamander, and they are really easy to take care of. But they have all sorts of potential health problems (gill fungus, nipping, infections), they need live food or pellets (and some won't take pellets), they excrete a lot of ammonia and aren't very tolerant of it, and need low 70s for temperatures. Sirens really don't have any of those problems or any others, except for the larger species that need a lot of room and can kill each other and the fact that they're extremely hard to breed indoors.

Basically, this was a really long post, but the only real skill involved would be to change the water if it starts to smell or film over and that only happens if you don't have anything circulating the water (which you can get from a $6 aquarium pump.) You don't need a heater, don't need a light (unless you have plants), don't even need substrate or plants (though they help and look a lot better; look at the sand in the beyeri pictures above), and you don't need any special food since any pet or grocery store will carry something they'll eat. Sirens are really neat, and pretty simple to care for.

Hypnolobster posted:

Holy god that looks like so much fun. Want dig around in those traps so bad

OneTwentySix posted:

Josh's Frogs is a pretty decent place, I've bought a lot of bugs from them. You can feed them yeast, or even wet fish flakes.


Pachytriton are really, really aggressive, so any other animals you add to the tank would be a bad idea, unless you didn't mind them getting eaten. I don't really recommend fish for food, though; they tend to carry parasites and diseases and newts don't really eat a lot of fish in the wild. With the aggression, I'd also advise against keeping them with other paddletails; breeding them is difficult because they tend to fight with each other. As long as you're happy with the one newt, though, she should do well.

Pachytriton are stream-dwelling newts, so they can tolerate more current from a filter than other animals. They don't require it, though. The setup looks pretty good, though you might add some larger rocks for cover, or use PVC pipe, clay flower pots, etc.

You may want to include some sort of floating platform. She shouldn't use it unless something is wrong, but that would be a tip off that it's too hot, the water quality is poor, or that it is otherwise sick.

This page may be useful to you, too:

http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Pachytriton/Pachytriton.shtml

OneTwentySix posted:

There are people that are far smarter than me; my friend literally makes me feel REALLY stupid when I talk with him, though to be fair he's going for his doctorate in herpetology. On the Internet, though, I get to pick and choose the topics I know about to answer, so it works out well for me, haha. I'm terrible with identifying certain groups, don't even bother with Desmognathus spp., and I'm not really very knowledgeable about some (or maybe most) groups Plethodontids, which is unfortunately also the largest group of salamanders. But when it comes to basic care, aside from illnesses generally, I've got a pretty good idea for how to keep every group and most of the species you're going to run into in the pet trade.

Thanks for the compliment, though! If you're ever in South Carolina for some reason and feel like going out for salamanders, feel free to message me. Or anyone else in the thread, really. I'm going out for four-toed salamanders in April, I'm hoping to go herping in the Francis Marion near Charleston in March if I can raise some money, and I'm overdue for a trip to the Congaree near Columbia for dwarf waterdogs and whatever other aquatics turn up. Salamander herping isn't as fun as going for snakes, but dip netting for sirens/waterdogs/amphiumas/Stereochilus is awesome (especially if you find some) and looking for four-toeds is always a blast, though extremely easy.

Bobbaganoosh posted:

Warm desert temps on Saturday brought forth the first two snakes of the herping year, coinciding with some terrific poppy blooms thanks to winter rains.

California King:


Sonoran Gopher, roadcruised at 7:30pm:


The earliest snake I saw last year was a juvenile diamondback on 3/6.

Several small earless and zebra-tailed lizards have been scurrying about the past week, staking their territorial claims.

hyperhazard posted:

Python curtus (Blood Pythons). I am in love with these little sausages.

There's something about the darker morphs that especially appeals to me, although the vibrant ones are also pretty easy on the eyes.

I don't have the resources to take care of a 35+ lb python right now, but maybe some day...

OneTwentySix posted:

salamander stuff

OneTwentySix posted:

As far as not finding salamanders, you're probably looking in the wrong spots if you're not finding any. Right now's actually a pretty great time to look for them; the Ambystomids would be breeding now in your area (mole, spotted*, and maybe even tigers). Just look for a nearby forested pond without large fish and you might find spotted salamander egg masses. Come back at night and you could see hundreds of them. I need to get out to my pond; it just rained tonight and they should start moving around here pretty soon.

*Edit: Went to look up the range on A. mabeei, and you might not even have spotteds in your area, which is a bit surprising. You should still have talps, though, but they lay eggs singly, so you won't find any masses.

Otherwise, flip logs in a forest stream and you should find red salamanders (though they're uncommon; you need to look for a few hours before finding one in most areas). There will be larvae in the streams, and you can always find tons of Desmognathus and Eurycea if you flip rocks and logs in and right next to streams. Slimy salamanders are pretty common, just flip forest logs, though you probably find them when looking for snakes and things already. As far as newts go, if the pond has them, there will be tons of them. Finding the right pond can be tricky, though, and it helps to go at night.

The thing about salamanders is that while they're awesome, it generally gets boring looking for most species because they're TOO easy to find. I can find ten slimies in a day without too much trouble, and I could find 30+ newts if I tried at it. Eurycea and Desmognathus are extremely abundant; I could possibly find over a hundred of either (especially Desmogs) if I really worked at it. Ambystomids are a group I really like, but you don't tend to find many of them outside of the breeding season or when they're coming out of the water. The breeding congregations are great to see though, since you see so many all at once. The harder to find groups are the best, though, or finding things you haven't found before. Red salamanders are always a nice surprise, since they're so brightly colored and you don't find so many of them, and sirens/amphiumas/waterdogs are always a blast because it's like a treasure hunt through mud. And there's always the larger mudpuppies and hellbenders, which are simply amazing.

If you ever want to see a bender in the wild though, let me know this summer and it's possible a trip could be arranged. You'd have to drive all the way to NC, though, which is pretty far from where you're at. I don't know if the herping group I go with is going to go again in April, and if they don't, I'd like to get out there since I don't know how much longer I'll be living here. I absolutely need to find Aneides, Plethodon yonahlossee, and Plethodon jordani before I move, and I'm even thinking I might want to try central NC for Necturus lewisi if I can spring the gas money.

5er posted:

They look cool as gently caress, really. Very primordial.

Dr 14 INCH DICK Md posted:

I found a 1 yr old crested gecko on Craigslist I've been talking to the owner about. For a nominal fee I get the gecko, cage, and a whole crate of heat lamps and supplies that could be used on other setups. I asked about temps and food and I was told kept at 'normal' room temps with feeding Repashi 3 times a week and crickets once or twice a week which seems to be in the normal feeding ranges? I'd like to give an animal a good home, they want to give it up because their job requires them more and more to be away and they don't like having to constantly talk to their room mate about care. Does this sound like something to look into? Just going off of dollar value its about 1/3 what everything would cost brand new retail.

mushroom_spore posted:

If you want a pet that will like you, you probably shouldn't have gotten a reptile. At best they just kinda tolerate you. AFAIK chameleons are really display pets.

RabbitMage posted:

Oh god, I need this right now.

ZarathustraFollower posted:

Are you going to take better care of it then your spider?

Saturniid19 posted:

I posted a few months ago that my baby hog wouldn't eat. Here's what worked for me.

She stopped eating in November, so I brumated her for six weeks starting in December. She still wouldn't eat so, on the suggestion of a breeder, I took away her water for two days prior to feeding. At feeding time, I dunked the thawed pink in warm water. She's always been a good drinker so the idea was that drinking the water off the pink would trigger a response. She ate the pink before I even had a chance to put the lid on the feeding container. The next week, same thing, but I had to cover the container for a couple hours and let her eat in peace. I think I'm in the clear at least until next winter.

I think the biggest issue was her sensitivity to the photoperiod because the temperature didn't change much inside and it's been a very mild winter here. She does see natural light though, so she definitely noticed winter was coming. I tried cutting off heads, braining, various feeding containers, live pinks, day, night, scenting, everything I knew. I was about ready to take her to the vet before I tried the water trick.

Depending on how long it's been since your snake ate, you may also try a smaller meal. Good luck! It can be very stressful, but you just need a lot of patience.

Dr 14 INCH DICK Md posted:

I brought home my Crestie, named Geiko It came in the Zoomed enclosure with all the decorations I posted above. I also got a cricket thing with some tubes in it, a big tub of yellow cricket gel, a decade's worth of repashi food, a giant heat lamp of pretty nice quality I'm going to test out for the hot side of my ball's tank, and a UV light. I didn't handle (her? I don't see a bulge and I'd assume this old you could tell visually?) because my hands were dirty from work but the owner did take it out so I could see. Very, very calm and well mannered, I was warned it likes to jump so take caution when handling. Other than that, everything sounded good. Apparently he bought it as a baby at last year's Seattle reptile expo from a breeder there.

Just missed: a non blurry picture of licking an eyeball



I've currently got it set up next to the cool side of my python tank with a piece of cardboard cut to completely block any possibility of sight between the two tanks, is this ok? I just set it down there and can easily find another spot, I just happened to have some room.

OneTwentySix posted:

Thanks!

Axolotls are really easy, though. If you want to be absolutely safe, get one animal, put it in a 30 gallon or larger tank with a relatively weak filter/airstone, a bunch of java moss and/or Elodea, and keep it in a basement/area that never gets very hot. Feed chunks of earthworm, and really, I don't see how anything could go wrong.

Problems come from a few areas, and you can avoid them if you're careful: temperatures, feeding, fighting/aggression, disease, water quality.

Temperature is pretty simple; get a thermometer in the tank, and keep the tank in an air conditioned house, and out of sunlight. Basements work great for this. Keep in mind that water temperature is going to be a few degrees cooler than air temperature; filters and lights can add to this, but generally not by much. Fans can decrease water temps by a few degrees, and in emergencies, you can float frozen water bottles; I've done this for a few weeks back in college.

Feeding is easy; worms are a great food for all salamanders big enough to eat them, and you can cut them up for smaller animals usually. Axolotls will also eat pellets, some/most of the time.

Fighting isn't generally a big deal with salamanders (outside of the larger animals, like mudpuppies, sirens, and especially amphiumas, or things like Pachytriton - paddletail newts - that are just aggressive by principle). Just watch animals and if necessary, separate them if they nip each other.

Disease is generally a sign of other problems; temperatures and water quality mostly. Caudata.org offers health advice on their forums, and there are a number of amphibian vets that frequent the site. Provided you don't mix species or keep chytrid carriers like dwarf frogs, disease isn't a common issue, and is usually treatable.

Water quality is generally pretty simple. More tank volume is best, as it provides a buffer zone. Use gravel or sand as a substrate to provide areas for beneficial bacteria to grow (don't use small gravel for things like axies, though; they can swallow it and that causes problems). Plants are excellent filters; I have a friend that jams his tanks full of java moss, that's it for his filter, minus a partial water change a few times a year. Elodea is also a good oxygenator. Use a relatively weak filter to avoid stress (most salamanders don't like current, stream species not counted); an airstone to agitate the surface can work really well. And if you can smell, just keep an eye on what the tank smells like.

Salamanders are generally easier than most fish; they're not so susceptible to water quality issues, and don't excrete as toxic waste. Some groups thrive in bad water, and literally die in clean water (one-toed amphiumas Stereochilus).

Next time you go to a herp show and see axies, consider picking one up. You would not believe the things retarded keepers do to them that they manage to survive. A little common sense and some preparation in advance can make them really simple and problem free, and they're pretty tough so that if there is a problem, if you pay attention to it and its tank, you can generally see what's wrong and solve it before anything bad happens.

Dr 14 INCH DICK Md posted:

My sales writer just came up to me at work asking about tortoises since he heard I had a snake, I warned him when they grow they tend to need a ton of space. Apparently guy has a ranch where he can take the time to build a proper outdoor run for nice days and wants to know what it would take to get into. I said id look into it for him, are there any tortoise resources I can research for him to get him started?