The Reptile and Amphibian Thread vol.2: how to deal with the cricket stink

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Pet Island > The Reptile and Amphibian Thread vol.2: how to deal with the cricket stink

Cassiope: Jul 7, 2010; Man, the living creature, the creating individual, is always more important than any established style or system.
Except for cats.

Here's my leopard gecko, Stanley. He's still really young and his previous owners were awful so when I got him he had pretty bad MBD. I think he's looking a lot better now but maybe someone with a better eye for geckos can tell.

Here's a video of him eating. He's not afraid of anything and it's ridiculous. One time he tried to bite my dog through the glass of his tank. You can see her in the background of this video, she's fascinated by him.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwQcNXkTf1w&feature=youtu.be

Here's another video. He doesn't have very good aim when he is eating. You get a good look at his potbelly here though. Is it normal for them to get potbellies when they eat? He probably eats 10-20 mealworms every day or every other day. I grow them and they are gutloaded and dusted in calcium.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMZ6ODUoPzI&feature=related

And now some pictures!

Here's his whole set-up. He's in a 20 gallon long with a huge hide on the warm end and a smaller one on the cool end. There is calcium everywhere because I try to get him to eat it all the time.

Coming out to see what all the ruckus is

Going in for the kill

Smiling for the camera

Stanley doesn't have time for you, dog

Cassiope fucked around with this message at 14:39 on Jan 19, 2012

# ¿ Jan 19, 2012 14:34

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 20:05

Cassiope: Jul 7, 2010; Man, the living creature, the creating individual, is always more important than any established style or system.
Except for cats.

Wow they are like little miniature Jabba the Huts...

# ¿ Jan 19, 2012 20:43

Cassiope: Jul 7, 2010; Man, the living creature, the creating individual, is always more important than any established style or system.
Except for cats.

The independent pet store near me had silkworms today. When my boss and I went in to get superworms the owner gave me a silkworm free to give to the beardie at work. Oh man, Thor had a tasty snack

It was super disgusting to watch him eat it though. So squishy...ew. I had to look away.

He also had a container of phoenix worms that someone had brought in because their beardie wouldn't eat them. He gave them to me for free so I could try them with Stanley since he's still recovering from MBD. So many fun things for reptiles today!

# ¿ Jan 20, 2012 01:02

Cassiope: Jul 7, 2010; Man, the living creature, the creating individual, is always more important than any established style or system.
Except for cats.

That's a much better write up than I could find anywhere online when I looked. I like the idea of cultivating my own especially since they are supposed to be so much healthier than mealworms....but flies give me the heebie jeebies

Actually a lot of bugs give me the heebie jeebies if I have to handle them. I use tweezers to handle the superworms at work but I can hold a mealworm without issue if I need too (but I use tweezers out of preference).

I am in Alabama, so it's probably worth a shot to try to grow my own Phoenix worms. Is it an issue if the grown flies get out when you open the container to get larva? Or do they just stick around because there's a good food source, etc. Also what do you do for a food source in the winter? Just switch back to mealworms?

Will the black soldier flies out-compete houseflies? We get a lot of house flies around in the summer because our backyard borders up to a nice wet swampy creek and everyone in this neighborhood has a dog and a backyard full of dog poop. Even if we keep our yard picked up there will be houseflies around. It would be great if black soldier flies would replace them (and stick to their little 20 gallon container).

# ¿ Jan 20, 2012 03:06

Cassiope: Jul 7, 2010; Man, the living creature, the creating individual, is always more important than any established style or system.
Except for cats.

Stalker anole is adorable. I want one.

# ¿ Jan 21, 2012 22:20

Cassiope: Jul 7, 2010; Man, the living creature, the creating individual, is always more important than any established style or system.
Except for cats.

Scary Ned posted:

Rescue herps need love too! Easy beginner species can be hardy enough to survive years of poor husbandry. This is Ramses von Niblick the Third Kerplunk, Kerplunk, Whoops, Where's My Thribble? at 7 years old, a day after starting intense rehydration therapy:

He had chunks of dead skin the size of peas under his eyelids, covering his eyes, and had been that way for a couple of years before I got him. It took a week to work them loose, and after a year and a half he is still totally blind.

It took him a while to learn to eat out of a bowl, and he gets lost in anything bigger than a ten gallon tank. He lost most of his toes to retained shed skin cutting off the circulation and can't climb, so his tank is pretty bare. He eats anything though, and he can feel people walking near his tank and comes running out to beg.

Oh my god that first picture is so pathetic and even though he's blind his eyes are so pretty! Also, his name is the best.

Where did he come from? I know it happens all the time but it still boggles my mind when I see evidence that people keep animals in near-death conditions and think everything is fine

# ¿ Jan 24, 2012 13:05

Cassiope: Jul 7, 2010; Man, the living creature, the creating individual, is always more important than any established style or system.
Except for cats.

Kijiro posted:

Can someone post some do's and dont's for bathing and cleaning bearded dragons? I'm fuzzy on details such as 'how often' and 'how much water is good'.

I bathe our beardie at work about once a week. I just put him in a rubbermaid and run lukewarm water slowly down the side of the bin in front of his face. He usually drinks a good bit of it, and I stop adding water when he is starting to float but can still touch the bottom easily (1-2 inches?).

I let him play around in the water for about 10 minutes and then take him out, dry him off, and feed him some worms.

Make sure the rubbermaid is tall enough that he can't jump out, and supervise him the whole time he is in there. We also have a dedicated beardie toothbrush I use to lightly scrub him.

I don't know if that is the correct way to bathe a beardie but it has worked for me so far.

# ¿ Feb 8, 2012 13:17

Cassiope: Jul 7, 2010; Man, the living creature, the creating individual, is always more important than any established style or system.
Except for cats.

Oh my god, that is the cutest gecko. Where is she coming from?

# ¿ Feb 9, 2012 16:22

Cassiope: Jul 7, 2010; Man, the living creature, the creating individual, is always more important than any established style or system.
Except for cats.

I want one just so I can name it Toothless. That's such an awesome movie.

edit: Do you know the species name?

Cassiope fucked around with this message at 00:51 on Feb 22, 2012

# ¿ Feb 22, 2012 00:48

Cassiope: Jul 7, 2010; Man, the living creature, the creating individual, is always more important than any established style or system.
Except for cats.

My vet told me to use it on a busted up turtle I found one time, and he got all better so I would say yes.

# ¿ Mar 6, 2012 04:17

Cassiope: Jul 7, 2010; Man, the living creature, the creating individual, is always more important than any established style or system.
Except for cats.

Stanley is my juvenile leopard gecko rescued a few months ago. He had MBD when I got him but is getting better (but still iffy on being handled). After his last shed he has been keeping his right eye closed. I suspect he did not shed his eyelid properly and it is irritating him.
I have soaked him for 60 minutes at a time in warm water, and used a dropper to put drops of water and saline solution on his eye. After the soaking and eye drops he will keep his eye open for a while but will have closed it again by the next day.
He is still eating well but is restless and occasionally rubs his eye against the side of his tank like it is bothering him. His substrate is reptile carpet, so I don't think there is anything in his enclosure that could have gotten into his eye to bother him.

Should I just keep soaking him and hope he will shed properly the next time he sheds or is this something that needs immediate attention?

I've also sent an email describing this to a couple of herp vets I know through work and I'm hoping one of them will have time to see him or can shed some light on whether or not this is an emergency. The actual vet herp expert won't be in town for another month though.

# ¿ Mar 8, 2012 16:50

Cassiope: Jul 7, 2010; Man, the living creature, the creating individual, is always more important than any established style or system.
Except for cats.

Does anyone know what kind of eggs these are? Found under a log in Baldwin County, Alabama.

Thanks!

# ¿ Mar 28, 2012 00:41

Cassiope: Jul 7, 2010; Man, the living creature, the creating individual, is always more important than any established style or system.
Except for cats.

I need advice on setting up an enclosure for an itty, itty, bitty salamander (OneTwentySix).

We went herping for a grad student's research project last week and brought back a teensy tiny salamander we couldn't field ID. Advisor looked at it and apparently it's a Spotted Dusky Salamander (Desmognathus conanti). New find for the study site, but not ecologically exciting as they occur basically everywhere in Alabama.

Since they don't need to keep him as a specimen and aren't going to be back in the study area for awhile I'm going to hang onto him and maybe bring him on some environmental education field days.

He's super tiny, but not in larval form anymore. I was planning on setting him up in a critter keeper with pond water to provide tiny invertebrates for food and gravel/leaf litter for the land area.

I know several of you have a lot more experience with salamanders so please tell me what to do in order to not kill him. Also, name suggestions are welcome. I'll post pics when I pick him up later today or tomorrow.

# ¿ May 23, 2012 13:52

Cassiope: Jul 7, 2010; Man, the living creature, the creating individual, is always more important than any established style or system.
Except for cats.

OneTwentySix posted:

How big is this salamander? Smaller animals might be trickier to feed and care for.

Desmogs are kinda tricky; they're not really what I'd call a beginner salamander, mainly due to their requirements in tank setup. They also have to be kept cool; water temperatures into the low to mid 70s may kill them; if you don't have a basement or air conditioning, you probably don't want a Desmog. Water is generally a few degrees cooler than the air temperature, and fans can help keep water cool with evaporative cooling, but if you can't keep the average water temperature below 72 or so, it's probably not the animal for you. However, if you can set things up right and keep it cool, Desmogs do make pretty neat pets, and the larger ones will tame up and beg for food.

One note though, is that if you decide to keep it, don't release it later, especially if you've fed it any captive food or you keep other herps. It can be really easy to introduce parasites and disease to wild populations, and releasing captive animals (even temporary captives) is technically illegal in a number of states.

I'll do my best to offer some tips on setting up a tank for Desmogs.

Desmogs are obligate stream salamanders. You really don't find them in ponds or lakes, except near where there's a stream nearby, etc. The problem is that most aquariums are best for pond-type tanks; still water, etc. I wouldn't try keeping a Desmog in a tank smaller than a 20 gallon long, preferably larger; you want something wide and long rather than tall. Set it up to best mimic a stream side as possible.

I haven't tried to make a Desmog tank, but I've thought about it a bit. You want a filter that outputs a jet of water; preferably one where you can attach tubing to divert it. The idea is to have water sucked in at one end of the tank, and then output at the opposite end. If you have a wide enough tank, I'd split it in half with a pane of glass siliconed in place, have the filter on one end, and then divert the outflow from the filter to the other end. The glass prevents the water from crossing directly over to the filter, so it has to go the long way, creating a stream-like current. Sort of like this:

You'll want to block access to the filter so that animals don't get sucked in, so you'll need to screen off a small section of the tank where the filter is.

Next, pile gravel and rocks against the pane of glass to make a land area. Then, add flat rocks on top of the land area for hides and places to rest, and larger rocks in the water area for other land areas, and Desmogs should do well like that. Be sure to keep it cool and and to provide small invertebrates for food, and a Desmog should do well like that, and a small group may even breed.

This caresheet may help; different species, but same care.

http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Desmognathus/Desmognathus_sp.shtml

Let me know if you have any specific questions!

Awesome, thanks so much! He's super tiny, like less than an inch long. I wouldn't be trying to keep him except that we had to collect him for the project for ID and I thought I could at least give a shot at keeping him alive. The project lead said he's probably only just left the larval stage.

Right now I've got him in a critter keeper with fabric over the top to keep him from climbing out (he'll fit through those little cracks no problem). I can definitely keep him cool, but I'm worried about setting up a big tank because I'll lose him in it.

We have two other salamanders at work (environmental education institute), a marbled and spotted. The herpetology guys at my university just suggested keeping them in critter keepers with unbleached paper towels wet with unchlorinated water, cleaned regularly. Would this type of set up work for my little guy (until he grows) as long as I can find a food source small enough for him?

I've ordered some wingless fruit flies but they won't be in until next week. I was planning on trying to collect a leaf with aphids or just some leaf litter with probable teensy invertebrates to sustain him until then.

# ¿ May 24, 2012 20:49

Cassiope: Jul 7, 2010; Man, the living creature, the creating individual, is always more important than any established style or system.
Except for cats.

Tiny salamander ate a tiny mealworm last night! Hurray! I dug through the mealworm substrate until I found one of the tiniest, newly hatched little threadlike worms and put it in front of him. I was worried it was probably a little too big but he gobbled it up and is fine today as well! I'm so excited, he has so much personality in such a tiny little body and I'm very glad he's eating and active

I've started to set up the tiny salamander tank. I've got a couple of inches of water, a Whisper 10i internal filter (with pantyhose covering the intake), a basking platform coming up out of the water, and two thermometers (one in and one out of the water). I've got to let it sit for a couple of days so the water will dechlorinate and I'm going to get some rocks to put in the bottom and larger ones to pile up/let the water from the filter run down. I was also thinking of covering the "land" area of larger rocks with moss.

Tomorrow we're collecting pond water for the tadpoles in a research project. I thought I would scoop through some pond water with a brine shrimp net and try to collect some teensy invertebrates to put in the tank and grow. Bad idea?

I'll post a picture as soon as my phone is charged enough to take one.

# ¿ May 28, 2012 00:41

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 20:05

Cassiope: Jul 7, 2010; Man, the living creature, the creating individual, is always more important than any established style or system.
Except for cats.

Okay, right now I have just bare glass bottom. I was thinking I would get river rocks/larger size pebbles for the substrate but if the larger isopods and things will breed in smaller gravel I can get that instead.
Thanks again for your advice!

# ¿ May 28, 2012 02:00

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Pet Island > The Reptile and Amphibian Thread vol.2: how to deal with the cricket stink