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Avicularia might need a note that they are arboreal, and can jump and throw poop at your face.
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Jan 18, 2012 16:59
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Corridor posted:This is kind of dumb but I'm not quite sure where else to ask: Are baby snakes poisonous? An animal is only poisonous if you have to touch, bite or eat it to be affected (like wild dart frogs). If it delivers through bite or sting, it is venomous.  Nitpicking aside, baby venomous snakes are indeed born venomous. Not only for hunting and self-defense, but also even digestion AFAIK. If you live in an area with venomous snakes (Australia  ) and still let your cat outside, you really need to learn to ID a species on sight. Or at least take pics. It could mean the difference between life and death.
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Jan 19, 2012 17:50
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With these posts about calcium and D3 we should probably include a note about phosphorus. Too much phosphorus essentially negates all that delicious calcium you're giving them, which can lead to weird things like that time somebody's properly vitamin-fed gecko came down with MBD anyway. You can buy reptile supplements that specifically have no phosphorus. Mealworms especially are a high-phosphorus food to begin with, and if you have a vegetarian lizard you really need to research the different components of their diet.
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Jan 19, 2012 23:52
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Corridor posted:I called my dad, who has lived with snakes for ages, and he said baby snakes aren't There are a lot of "facts" about snakes floating around. I've had someone tell me in all seriousness that rattlesnakes mate for life and if you kill one its mate will plot revenge on you, which is wrong on so many levels. Saving snakes from your cat is definitely a good thing, even if they're harmless. Cats can be pretty bad for native ecosystems.  Maybe you could keep a broom by the patio door to safely encourage any visitors to go on their way. I wouldn't actually touch the snake with the broom, that's more likely to terrify them and make them fight it instead. (If a snake is being a stubborn rear end in a top hat you might have to, though.) Snakes will usually run if they have advance notice that something big is coming, so you would want to scare them from enough of a distance that they don't feel they have to immediately defend themselves. Snake eyesight is usually not very good, but they are excellent at sensing vibrations like footsteps, so thumping the broom on the patio would be more effective than waving it. If you are SURE that it is nonvenomous, you can safely sweep it into a bucket or something and release it a considerable distance from your house. Trying to mess with a venomous snake like that is just begging to get bitten though. There are professionals who can capture such snakes for you if need be. Putting fine-meshed screen up (and under the patio if there are spaces between the boards) might help you pre-emptively. Snakes can climb, but if you make the patio a pain in the rear end to get to it will be much less attractive to them. mushroom_spore fucked around with this message at 17:28 on Jan 20, 2012 |
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Jan 20, 2012 17:26
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Superconsndar posted:If it's not too cost prohibitive/difficult/stupid/cruel to keep him, I'd kind of like to, but if The thing To Do is to just quit feeding him and keep sticking him back outside, I will. WHAT DO I DO GOONS. HE IS MY BOYFRIEND NOW. This story is so cute.  Pet store anoles are extremely cheap compared to the setup they need (a decent-sized tank and UV lighting), which is the main reason I think they aren't considered "good" pets. But since you basically have one anyway and already keep lizards, if you want to get him a setup there's no harm in it. It does sound like something is wrong with him and he can't cut it in the wild anymore anyway. Shy Retirer posted:Is there anything to stop me from just using lots of big flat stones? Do you mean like the bottom of a fish tank? Nothing, I guess, except big flat pieces of tile cut to fit your tank are much easier to clean than a pile of rocks with lots of crevices for poo to get in.
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Jan 21, 2012 22:08
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OneTwentySix posted:I'd absolutely love to have free-range lizards in my house. It's cool in theory, but free-roaming reptiles are also pretty unsanitary.
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Jan 22, 2012 10:06
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big dig posted:I find with the ball python, he wont have as strong a feeding response in his cage, but once in the dark blue death box he goes right into strike position. Mine too. As I recall their natural behavior is to crawl into burrows and eat the inhabitants, so I guess it makes sense.
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Jan 26, 2012 19:13
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Fluffy Bunnies posted:Are you comfortable with dealing with a 2.5 meter long snake? Some get bigger than that, too. You're going to need a big cage, too, at adult size. And once snakes are past a certain length/weight it is no longer safe to open the cage without at least a second person present. Snakes are very strong for their size and large ones can kill you. They can pretty much *accidentally* kill you, even. Snakes aren't terribly bright.  I still remember the last news story that made the rounds. Some woman had a large constrictor of some sort that was ill, and decided she was going to take this sick animal out of its cage and medicate it without anyone else home. The snake, being sick and defensive, promptly killed her. It's not something you can really ever be careless with and think "oh, my pet would never." mushroom_spore fucked around with this message at 20:32 on Jan 28, 2012 |
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Jan 28, 2012 20:29
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I used to have the absolute cutest picture of a baby corn snake viciously trying to crush and swallow a grown man's thumb. It was not very effective.
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Feb 1, 2012 22:00
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I Am Hydrogen posted:Question one being this: I did some googling and the answers seem mixed - is it okay to have two in a cage of that size? I would love to get 2 if I could. Housing reptiles together is always for your benefit, not theirs. At best they will tolerate one another. At worst...well, at worst, a lot of things can go wrong. I Am Hydrogen posted:Also, will PI hate me if I get them from PetCo? I'm afraid the shelters around me only have dogs, cats and other furry critters. Craigslist has nothing and freecycle only has chairs and bookshelves. PetCo and Craigslist are both excellent ways to end up with a sickly animal that has a shitton of parasites and a respiratory infection. Especially if you are a newbie, you can't always be sure what you're looking at. And internal parasites are invisible until the problem gets serious. Yes, occasional individual chain pet stores and Craigslist sellers are good, but the odds are really not in your favor. Go online and browse reviews of hobbyist breeders and dealers. The cost of having a sanely-priced reptile shipped overnight to your door is rarely more than the cost of picking one up at PetCo. My ball python was actually cheaper than the wheezing skeletal baby BPs PetCo had.
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Feb 18, 2012 00:39
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I Am Hydrogen posted:Unfortunately, he did not come with a UV light. Like I mentioned earlier, the previous owners really seemed kind of iffy. He did come with a basking light though. I'm going to head to PetCo (I wish there was something other than a PetCo within a reasonable distance from me...) and pick all this stuff up. There's nothing wrong with buying supplies from a chain pet store, if the prices are good. It's just the animals (and any feeder animals, whether live bugs or frozen rodents) you have to watch out for. Except for That One Employee who will smugly and confidently tell you that you can't keep your pet alive without buying lots of calcium sand and hot rocks. I've seen a lot of new owners basically get bullied by these people, whether for a reptile or a tarantula ("They can't drink water! Here, buy this water gel we use for crickets! ") or anything else. Do watch out for that guy, and don't hesitate to say "I already have a list of what I need, thanks."
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Feb 19, 2012 21:46
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Canned crickets may not be gut-loaded, which would be the biggest problem. I would also worry about preservatives or other possible junk, but mainly the lack of loaded guts. It'd be like eating cardboard, nutritionally.
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Feb 20, 2012 06:02
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Anhedonia posted:I'm not really sure what to expect to be honest, at the store he was really playful and crawling all over me but now that I brought him home (in a really nice 2 foot by 4 foot terrarium with tons of plants for him to climb on) he's nervous and reserved. You've got it pretty backwards there. Reptiles don't...do playful, that's a mammal/bird thing. In the store he was stressed out and roaming around, terrified and upset. Now that he's home where it's quiet, he's engaging in normal chameleon behavior. They're territorial loners, not social mammals. Anhedonia posted:I know I'm jumping the gun because I only got him yesterday but I really want him to like me! 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.
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Feb 24, 2012 07:36
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ZarathustraFollower posted:the whole leaving the body in the cage for so long is more of what worried me. I don't know about regular spiders, but tarantulas do have the unexplained tendency to occasionally play dead for unknown reasons. Years ago I thought my little G. pulchripes was gone, as he wouldn't respond to anything for the better part of an hour. Then he suddenly revived and was perfectly fine.  When my adult GBB passed I left her in the tank a few extra days with some water just to be sure. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice oh god don't bite me you crazy blue bitch She didn't curl or anything, so it was hard to tell.I don't know Dr's situation, and months is pretty excessive. But I think leaving the corpse alone until you're sure it's a corpse isn't in itself a bad thing with inverts.
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Feb 24, 2012 22:06
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peanutbutterunicorn posted:Tell me I am dumb or whatever, but moldy old broccoli is NOT supposed to be left in the tank, right? Are herps susceptible to mold like us wimpy humans? Er, yes, they are. Most animals (humans are animals, you see) will be unhappy having mold spores colonize their lungs. Unless you're raising cockroaches, pets should not be fed rotting filth.
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Feb 28, 2012 00:49
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Joonami posted:Can I attribute this instance to her being in eating mode and me giving off a bunch of heat? Yes. Basically, snakes are stupid. If they can simultaneously smell rat and see heat/movement then clearly all these triggers belong to the same object, which means your limb is a rodent and they should try to eat it.
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Mar 9, 2012 00:07
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souplix posted:We were under the impression, from reading care sheets from petco Information given to you by large chain pet stores and/or their employees is 90% of the time full of poo poo and possibly detrimental (or fatal) to any pet you may own. A lot of employees are good at sounding like they know what they're talking about (and bullying new owners into buying unnecessary or dangerous equipment), but you should feel free to tell those people to back off. Exotic animal hobbyists are the way to go. You did the right thing doing other research before making any purchases.
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Mar 11, 2012 05:50
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Celery Face posted:stuff One thing to keep in mind is that snakes and many other reptiles (except anoles) can live a LONG time. If you're still living at home, they can become a problem if/when you move out or go to college. Many apartment complexes and most college dorms won't allow them, and keeping a pet you're not allowed to have can turn out disastrous for you and the animal. From the sound of it, your family won't want to take care of a snake for you. So what will happen to it then? I waited until halfway through college, when I already lived in an apartment that allowed pets, and it saved me a lot of the pet problems my friends had to deal with. I really recommend waiting at least that long, even if it sucks. I still have my ball python and tarantulas today, and they were totally worth the wait.
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Mar 13, 2012 12:39
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I don't know anything about the species, but the one with the fish is hilarious. Silly snake, that is surely too big for you!
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Mar 14, 2012 05:23
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My mother was convinced my ball python would eat our cats.
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Mar 19, 2012 16:21
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PooBoots posted:edit: Oh, god. I just did some reading on them, and I don't think it's really a good fit for me. I can't keep it in the pond if it will eat my pond fish, and I don't have the space for something that's going to grow so large. Wild-caught reptiles don't make very good pets anyway. They tend to have a really high parasite load and other problems, and the stress of adjusting to captivity (which is bad enough on its own, I'm not talking "gee, what a hard day at the office" level stress) can make that spiral out of control. An outdoor pond where they're basically still wild is a different story, but yes it would kill the hell out of your fish.
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Mar 20, 2012 01:55
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Shachi posted:Not to be a downer but did you ever figure out who is going to take care of it when you go away to college? Seems like you were trying to work out the logistics of keeping a snake before. I mean I'm not an expert but you've gone from something that needs to be fed every few days/weeks to a beardie...who needs fresh meals nearly every day. Seconding this. Beardies are a lot more work and expense than snakes.
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Mar 29, 2012 18:03
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It almost looks like some type of mole cricket, except it doesn't really have the little shovel hands that I can see.
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Apr 2, 2012 23:47
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Malalol posted:...or don't have to treat but I can't imagine anyone wanting to buy -those- mice. Nasty infected mice as feeders? Yeah that's not gonna fly.Stick with the freezer.
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Apr 4, 2012 16:23
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Big Centipede posted:Yesterday morning I saw 2 Eastern box turtles mating in my neighbor's yard. That poo poo's hilarious in person. It can't be funnier than those giant Galapagos tortoises. It seems like every time I go to a zoo or petting zoo or whatever, any place that has them, they're getting it on right there. And they're loud as hell.
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Apr 28, 2012 00:44
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Psychobabble! posted:or him not having oxygen. What kind of blanket are you using that it forms an airtight seal?  Psychobabble! posted:Somewhat related, but what times are good for having the "day" lights turn on and off? Seconding that they don't need lights. They're nocturnal, mine hates lights and will almost always hide unless I have the tank covered about halfway down from the top to keep it evening-lit in there. (I leave a nice wide uncovered gap on the cool end of the tank just so there's good air circulation and the humid air doesn't mildew or something.) As long as you have the tank properly heated with a UTH, just scrap the lights. They will kill your humidity anyway. EDIT: And yes, putting blankets on top of hot lights is a great way to set your house on fire. mushroom_spore fucked around with this message at 22:14 on Apr 28, 2012 |
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Apr 28, 2012 22:12
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Joonami posted:For some reason I imagined it as more like dogs or cats, where she'd only get randy if there was a mate around or something, which is probably incredibly stupid thinking. AFAIK they need seasonal cues to trigger their sex drive no matter how many mates are around. Otherwise any other snake present is competition, food or just plain uninteresting. So yeah, the actual presence of other snakes plays no part in setting off breeding season. It's all weather and changing daylight hours and whatever else they can pick up on. Agreeing with Centipede, I don't know corn snakes but yours is acting a lot like my male ball python does for a good chunk of spring months every year.
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May 8, 2012 13:03
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Cthulhuite posted:Do I just start with one and hope it doesn't get lonely, then perhaps introduce a friend Joining the chorus: reptiles do not get lonely and they do not have friends. At best they ignore one another or mate, at worst they stress out, compete with, or maim/kill/eat each other. Think of them like aliens (because they kind of are) rather than tiny humans.
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May 29, 2012 17:42
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cstine posted:for scale.  I got the stupidest smile on my face when I scrolled down the photo and saw the cat touching the snake with his/her nose.
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Jun 6, 2012 23:07
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Dr 14 INCH DICK Md posted:he completely ignored it even after being left in a box with it in the dark for an hour Try overnight. I just put the shoebox back in the tank and lock it up, then check in the morning. Obviously at that point if the rodent's not eaten it needs to be thrown out, but I almost never have uneaten rats after an overnight stay.
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Jun 16, 2012 00:58
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Help me, crested gecko goons! I've got a friend who is looking after her brother's geckos, I think another relative was caring for them until very recently so she's basically had a gecko in need of help suddenly dumped into her lap. He recently lost his tail, which I understand is normal, but it also happened around the same time as a bad shed and he wasn't doing too well. I had her put him in a cup with some wet paper towels for a while and she says he perked up a lot and pulled some more skin off. There are still some chunks stuck on there, as you can see below. How often do you think he should be put into the humid box? Should we go for the q-tips and mineral oil? She's not positive when his bad shed started, so I can't give a timeline. She's also concerned about whether he's underweight. If you need a different angle to answer that I'll ask for another photo.   He has one tankmate, gender unknown as it's pretty skittish. It's definitely bigger. They have an extra enclosure and she's open to separating them if needed, but at the moment it's not clear if they've been harassing each other at all. They have been eating applesauce, though she's looking at weaning them onto something like repashy with applesauce as a mixed-in treat (and to have something familiar in there, in case they're picky). We are also working on options to help with humidity. The geckos are in a glass tank with screen lid turned on its side. I've suggested giving them some kind of substrate to hold moisture, I think currently they just have some sort of potted plant. Suggestions? She's asked about including a drainage layer of rocks under the soil, which I think would be good. Also we need any tips for blocking off the lower portion of the screen lid so the dirt won't come gushing out through the screen. Plexiglass? Is there a way to permanently fix it on there, is superglue gecko-safe after it dries? I think that's everything, I'm typing this up on very little sleep.  Let me know if I should ask anything else.EDIT: Additionally, they are in an area with lots of earthquakes. She wants to know if the geckos will be very unhappy if the glass tank is no longer up on its side, as she worries it will fall. (They have an old mesh vertical tank, but it needs repair work.) mushroom_spore fucked around with this message at 06:44 on Jun 23, 2012 |
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Jun 23, 2012 03:45
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Yeah, she is pretty stressed and upset about his condition, and wishes now that she'd taken a closer look at the situation before he became her responsibility. She works all the time, basically. They live in a really remote part of Alaska, so an exotics vet is unfortunately out of the question. There is *a* vet, and she's going to see if she can find calcium supplements locally ASAP. The new gecko food, etc. is having to be mailed up there, but she placed the order earlier today. Are there any other things she can feed the little guys until the package gets there? I don't know what other fruits or whatever would be good, that's past the limits of my crestie knowledge. Would the calcium injections be something a regular vet might have on hand for other animals? Or that they could get from a hospital? She has a job related to the local emergency room, so she is willing to ask around if it comes to that.
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Jun 23, 2012 05:18
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Her current plan is to get them as fixed-up as she can and then rehome them, as she is leaving Alaska in the next few months and does not trust her home situation to continue caring for them properly even with instructions. (It's not my place to give details, save that it's lovely and she doesn't plan to leave them there anymore.) She says the jaw doesn't seem to impede him in any way, he eats and yawns and licks his face and stuff just fine. So if we can halt the problem here it'll hopefully work out. 
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Jun 23, 2012 05:42
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I'd post a million posts for you, Snaff.  I think you're on the right track with the new food coming in, and the cage changes and stuff. How soon can you set up the second tank? Did you get the chance to try the other fruit yet?
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Jun 23, 2012 06:46
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Oh yeah, I forgot the other cage was the damaged one. Maybe you can pick up some mesh squares and a little wire when you go shopping and patch it up? It'll look ugly, but it'll keep the gecko in. I think. I'm assuming cresties aren't rear end in a top hat escape artists who seek out weakness like my python does. Maybe put some applesauce mixed in with the cherries? I know my dumb cat believes that food has TRANSFORMED if you mix a little bit of something else into it.
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Jun 23, 2012 07:07
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I'll take responsibility for the human calcium powder idea.  Knowing what the shipping situation was, I googled around and did find a few people who were getting pure calcium from the health food store to use for reptile purposes. Not long-term, maybe, but for however long it takes for Snaffoo's mail to get there.Do we have any goons who can confirm/deny whether it's definitely a bad idea? Barring that it's basically down to just stuffing them with as much high-calcium fruit as possible until the mail arrives. On that note, I'm so glad he ate his cherries! You can do it, little dude!
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Jun 23, 2012 22:44
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Snaffoo posted:Poor little sick one crawled up my arm and sat in the crook of my elbow for a long time after I gave him one more q-tip facewash. See? He forgives you for all that pesky hygiene you're making him endure.  And mailing reptiles is definitely a thing. Like I said, I got my snake in the mail, and cresties won't even give a poo poo about cool temps. It sounds like mailing is trickier up there, admittedly.
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Jun 24, 2012 01:00
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I have never adblocked any images that quickly before.
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Jun 26, 2012 16:49
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Joonami posted:Am I missing anything? If you can, I would block them off from direct sunlight (like if they're in the back seat you could hang a shirt over both back door windows). Especially with heat packs in there already, you probably don't want the sun coming down on the box too. Maybe a slightly damp paper towel wadded up in a corner, for the ones that need humidity?
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Jul 6, 2012 20:48
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I've said it before and I'll say it again: Pet Island is the best island.  Good luck, little sticky lizards!
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Jul 7, 2012 02:11
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