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Ok Comboomer posted:I just picked up one of these not-exoterra 12 x 12 x 18 vertical paludarium style enclosures for $35 at Goodwill I've kept single crested geckos in 12x12x18s for years. You need to have plenty of climbing and hiding options, vertically filling the whole thing, and deep soft bedding for when they miss a jump or slide off wet glass and fall to the bottom. I would consider this size the bare minimum for an adult crestie or similar-sized gecko, and too small for a larger gecko like a leachie. I have also kept smaller species of dart frogs in these. They work well for a planted vivarium with a cork wall back and a sprayer/mister with an inch of standing water in a bottom layer filled with those little ceramic balls, covered with a fine plastic mesh and an inch of leaf litter, to keep things moist. Keep in mind that fruit flies can easily escape these types of enclosures, though. The size of crickets I feed adult cresties mostly don't get out, but pinheads for a baby gecko easily escape as well. For that reason some people prefer a tighter-sealing vivarium for animals being fed small live food. I do not think this footprint is ideal for aquatic animals like firebelied toads, newts, etc - you can make the vertical space look pretty but the animal is going to be confined to the horizontal space, and one square foot isn't much. I'd rather use a tank with more of a horizontal profile, and do so for my fire-bellied toads. Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 18:19 on Nov 9, 2022 |
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Nov 9, 2022 18:17
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| # ¿ May 11, 2024 08:55 |
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lol you shoulda let him get a rabbit at least they don't live 20-30 years
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Nov 9, 2022 18:59
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Ask your friend if he's located the nearest exotic pet veterinarian yet. You may want to help him brace for what even a single visit to the vet will likely cost (hundreds) and his long-term medical costs could easily run into $1k+. Unless he's willing to let the poor thing just die if it gets sick or has any apparent medical problems ever. My veiled chameleon cost me about $750, in 2011, to fail to survive some kind of weird partial paralysis that our very well-regarded exotic animal vet could not diagnose.
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Nov 10, 2022 18:24
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OK so, if it is a veiled, just be aware they're quite different to house than most other chameleons. They live in the desert, and lick dew and also get moisture from leafy greens. Most chameleons want high humidity environments; veiled do not. They do require a hot sun basking spot with UV. I housed mine in a large screened enclosure with big branches & leaves, a live plant, and he ate mostly live crickets and lettuce. I did coax him to eat waxworms occasionally. Juveniles are voraciously hungry, mine would easily house a dozen small crickets every day. Also I would bet dollars to donuts there's exotic vets in Saudi Arabia: the question would be if they are open to the public, or just serve the needs of wealthy people with exotic pets who have connections, and, how far away they are from where your friend lives. For example, this was the second hit on a google search: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nourfatayerji/?originalSubdomain=sa A good way to find one is to call a local traditional vet (cats dogs) and ask for one that does reptiles. They usually know who is who in the area. Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 19:56 on Nov 10, 2022 |
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Nov 10, 2022 19:52
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I have heard the same thing, and my doofuses fall a lot. I have an inch or two of sphagnum moss, which has the added benefits of being antimicrobial and holding moisture (so after you mist, it helps keep humidity up for a while). It's not very expensive either, I order compressed bricks of it online and one brick lasts like a year, it's about $25 (you do not need to buy it from a pet store, the stuff used for horticulture is the same thing). Just rip a few handfulls off, soak in water for a few seconds to get it moist, shove some in there and spread it around. They like to sleep under it too. I put a layer of paper towel down under the moss just to make it easier to peel up and throw away dirty moss that can otherwise kinda stick to the glass bottom but that's not really necessary. If you don't want to do that and just want to use paper, I think you should put a layer of something soft underneath. This is the sort of thing I mean, although I haven't bought this brand before. https://www.amazon.com/Kapecute-Sphagnum-Propagation-Maintain-Humidity/dp/B09W9632S9/ They say they don't add anything, it's just pure dry moss, that's what you're looking for. This seems like a good price too https://www.amazon.com/Exo-Terra-Forest-Quarts-2-Pack/dp/B001B5DKN2/r although I didn't do the math, since it's being sold in quarts rather than grams  and also it doesn't say it's specifically sphagnum moss, it's "forest moss" so that's why I haven't bought it. It's probably fine though.
Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 03:57 on Dec 1, 2022 |
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Dec 1, 2022 03:52
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Hmm, I didn't know Sphagnum was environmentally unfriendly. That's good to know. Coco coir is also fine, although yeah it kind of gets everywhere. Crested geckos are arboreal. They instinctively want to climb, so they should have a lot of branches and stuff to climb on no matter what. Mine definitely like the glass a lot too, but if you give them a tangle of branches of finger-width or so thick they'll spend a lot of time in them. A backdrop also works. Can you actually see them in their bins? I'm always a little weirded out by herp people who just seem to store their "collections" in a way that they can't see the animals and watch their behavior and stuff. For me, they're pets, and I want to watch them geck around whenever. But yeah totes are not going to harm them and I bet if you roughed up the plastic that'd help them get a grip, although remove all the microplastic you create so they don't ingest it.
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Dec 1, 2022 05:21
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Yeah new caledonian crested geckos are from a temperate forest and are crepuscular, they do not bask and should be kept at normal human "room temperature" ranges of maybe 65 or so at the low end to 80 at the absolute top end. They should have cyclic humidity, not steady high humidity, and airflow is important. My biggest concern with a plastic tub would be adequate airflow, but that can certainly be managed with a reasonable amount of holes and screens and so on if you're handy with a box cutter. I don't like tubs because I find them ugly, mostly, I don't have an issue with a big clear tub being used for a crestie as long as the appropriate environmental conditions are met. I do agree that these arboreal animals can be stressed if they feel too exposed - I fill my vivs with plenty of hides, I have (plastic/fake so they don't constantly have to be pruned) plants, cork, etc. and I much prefer front access vs. top access for feeding, because I find it easier to prevent escapes. e. I think learnincurve is coming from a place of concern about herp keeping in general with an overabundance of "collectors" cramming lots of animals into small tubs and insisting that is OK and I agree with them that it's really not OK generally. It's just, yes, at least some kinds of plastic as a material for an enclosure are OK, all else being equal. Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 18:08 on Dec 6, 2022 |
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Dec 6, 2022 18:03
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Ok Comboomer posted:I saw a Youtuber use a ketchup/mustard/mayo squeeze bottle to dispense pre-made crested gecko diet to his (many) animals, and it got me thinking This Zoo Med I use  is good for at least a week, pre-mized with filtered water, kept in a squeezy ketchup bottle with a lid, stored in the fridge. I make it up for our house sitter when I go and she just used a supply for the last 10 days successfully and what's left is still fine. I've pulled a forgotten bottle after like three weeks and spotted some mold and threw that out, IRL these geckos basically eat rotting fruit so even moldy might not be bad but who knows, not all mold is the same so obviously don't do that. But yeah a week is fine. If you want to be very sure, email the manufacturer, they usually are happy to answer questions like that. e. There are three different (safe) preservatives in the above product, which probably helps give it a longer shelf life but also helps it stay fresh after mixing. Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 06:11 on Jul 24, 2023 |
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Jul 24, 2023 06:07
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-Zydeco- posted:Is there a good resources for mixing different desert lizards and plants in a bioactive enclosure? Mixing species is always fraught. In the real world, most animals can escape a locale where it's overcrowded, whether due to actual risk of death or lack of food, or just the perceived risk. Real ecosystems are rarely the size of a tank you can put in your home. That said, there are lots of tiny biosphere type arrangements people have made, I like looking at them on youtube. "life in jars?" is one youtube channel. These almost always focus on just a variety of plants and invertebrates, though, because those can reach some kind of equalibrium and also it seems less gross to watch tons of them die off as they swing wildly towards that equilibrium. All of the above notwithstanding, there are some species of herps that "do well" with each other, by which we mean they mostly ignore one another. I've seen enclosures with a few frogs and a few anoles, for example. If you stick to obligate herbivore/insectivores at least they probably won't try to kill and eat each other, but you can still have very stressed animals. IMO if you have never kept herps or amphibians before, start with baby steps and keep one species in a live vivarium first, for a good long while. Get the hang of all the stuff you have to control for, feeding live food, etc. There are live plants that can hold up fine in a viv with a smaller animal - for example my frogs thrive with a variety of plants including the bromiliads they prefer to lay in. Small lizards like anoles are not too destructive. If you want a bearded dragon, I don't think your succulents will survive the high activity. e. just saw your post. A leopard gecko is small and spends most of its time hiding under a rock. A bearded dragon is twenty times bigger and will spaz around your tank regularly, they're far bigger and more active. Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 20:07 on Sep 19, 2023 |
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Sep 19, 2023 20:04
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Yeah so another thing with small animals vs. bigger ones is the poops. You can plant a live vivarium with small animals because the poops can kinda wash down and turn into part of the mulch at the bottom. Larger animals, like especially a bearded dragon, you need bedding you can remove and change regularly, not soil with live plants planted in it. Epiphytic plants are especially nice for enclosures you want to be able to change the substrate in, because you can just wire them to a cork background or a log or whatever and they'll be fine, and then you can remove stuff to dig up the poopy substrate and replace it whenever you want. Very small lizards are escape artists, keep that in mind too. Like nothing gets out of an enclosure better than a really small animal that can climb anything and is exploratory and curious and once it gets out it'll be hard as hell to find and capture. Just... be cognizant of that when choosing your enclosure.
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Sep 19, 2023 22:29
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I want to replace the UVB light fixture I use for my frogs. My old one is a flourescent tube, do they make decent LED ones yet? It's kind of hard to tell just googling around whether these are appropriate jungle (not desert) UVB light sources.
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Jan 8, 2024 19:42
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| # ¿ May 11, 2024 08:55 |
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I would like to see your reptile photos, and it's not like this thread is normally chock full of fresh content.
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Apr 20, 2024 06:48
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