![leopard_gecko_01_by_lydiardwildlife-d4wiphd[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/ViTLm9J.jpg "leopard_gecko_01_by_lydiardwildlife-d4wiphd[1].jpg")
Time once again for a new thread.
Old thread: >>1975945
http://www.reptilesmagazine.com/this-prehistoric-turtle-had-a-nose-only-a-mother-could-love-trending/
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-26/police-searching-for-reptile-thieves-after-snakes-and-lizards-t/6885092
http://www.foxnews.com/science/2015/10/22/new-species-tortoise-found-on-galapagos-island.html
>>1985179
I just keep mine in a sterlite tub with a ton of leaves, dirt, cork bark, and sticks. They loooove leaf litter as well as things like carrot peels. I have a UTH stuck to the bottom of the tub and I use a Grow Pro Digital LED Thermostat to regulate it so it doesn't get too hot and melt the tub. They seem to be thriving. I also toss in springtails/isopods to eat dead roaches and their waste.
Anyone on here keep tarantulas? I'm a reptile keeper but am becoming more interested in these creatures. Any tips tricks advice ?
>>1985562
He's quoting the OP link
>>1985562
I know we all hate him, but at least be smart about it
>>1985565
no he's not
>>1985421
>http://www.foxnews.com/science/2015/10/22/new-species-tortoise-found-on-galapagos-island.html
>those comments
good god man
>>1985582
Are you stupid or blind?
Snake behavior question
So every so often, I'll check in on my ball python at night and find her hanging off the thermostat cable. Not sure if she's doing just to get some elevation, or she's trying to get warmer
>>1985604
>http://www.foxnews.com/science/2015/10/22/new-species-tortoise-found-on-galapagos-island.html
Holy fuck.
This is what happens when people can only identify things by religion or politics. Fuck me.
>>1985695
despite being ground pythons sometimes they just like to climb
>>1985179
>>1985179
Get a plastic tub, poke holes on the lid, keep a heat pad underneath. Feed them cricket food, water crystals, and oranges. The oranges makes them super horny. Also, make sure that it is humid so they can shed shells. After a year they were pumping out more than my bearded Dragon could eat. Then, he just stopped eating them altogether and I just sold them. Overall, super easy and definitely worth it to do so.
Does anyone have any gifs or webms or whatever of a snake pancaking out when you set it down? I don't mean being squashed, I mean how it turns from a tube-shaped thing in the air, to a flattened-tube-shaped-thing on the ground.
a friend is trying to tell me snakes aren't soft but I know that's bullshit
![1322798589001[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/hmIdNHe.jpg "1322798589001[1].jpg")
>>1985604
Would you recommend a northern blue tongue or a bearded dragon? I've done research on my own but want to hear more from owners. Im in the USA btw.
>>1986471
Either is good, but the skink has more personality from my experience. I've never owned one, but I've babysat one for a couple of weeks at work before and he was awesome.
>>1986471
I'd tell you to get a skink just because beardies are a dime a dozen
I GOT MY ANOLE TO EAT DUBIAS
NO MORE BUYING FUCKING CRICKETS EVER AGAIN
FUCK YES
>>1986471
Blue-tongues are more expensive and harder to find. Unless you live in a backwater, you'll probably be able to find a bearded dragon. You probably won't be able to find a skink. You can always ship overnight (which is pretty safe), but that's an extra $40 a pop on a reptile that will probably be $100-200 already.
I find my skink more comfortable to hold and pick up than a bearded dragon but he can also slip out easier.
>>1986270
The guy taking the video is a cunt, but would this suffice?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhMqMRUZYIQ
Im getting really worried and don't know what to do
My Leo hasnt pooped in 6 or 7 days now, he's eating just fine so that's not the issue.
This morning I found urate but no poop so I don't know what to do
I saw these guys at a pet store a few days ago. Have any of you owned one? What are they like?
>>1986855
warm soak and check temps. Pretty sure the poop and urate come from the same place so he should be fine if urate is coming. The food is probably being stored as fat.
>>1986863
I've heard they're assholes and shit everywhere
And need a very large enclosure with lots of water
>>1986863
You might as well just get a basilisk. About the same size and not so pleb tier
>>1985604
>people are only identifying new species of tortoise
>"It must mean the global warming is a hoax guise xD"
I can't
My little retard I've had for about a year now.
Still haven't come up with a name for him yet so my friend insist on calling him Sir Lawrence Olivier
>>1987013
>Sir Lawrence Olivier
Good name for a bearded dragon.
![green_boa_constrictor-wallpaper-1280x800[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/71scmt5.jpg "green_boa_constrictor-wallpaper-1280x800[1].jpg")
>>1986726
wow that guy is a cunt
I was looking for something that shows a snake being more squishy, but I just showed him some videos of boa constrictors being picked up and he got the picture.
>>1985421
I'm looking to get something to regulate the temperature of my heat mat. I want a thermometer right?
>>1987235
A thermostat actually.
>>1987242
Would a dimmer switch on the outlet be the same thing?
Why have I never seen heat mats with dimmer built in?
>>1987252
Thermostat is automatic. Dimmer is manual and unsafe.
>>1987252
Yes that's called a rheostat or whatever you will need a separate thermometer to measure the heat of the bedding /glass with a surface Temp thermometer then . this temp wont adjust automatically like when using a thermostat so that's the drawback you must adjust the temp with the dimmer frequently .
>>1987254
I wish to add to my post, I mistakenly thought you were referring to a light dimmer, which is unsafe. Just thought I would clear that up.
>>1987252
No. Dimmers put the source to a certain setting. Any dimmer of any kind is unsafe and not adequate for heat control. If you use a dimmer it's best to only be used for lights to lower the light output, you should always use a thermostat as the main source of heat control. I wouldn't even use a dimmer as a temporary control unless it was for a few days to a week while a thermostat was coming in.
And you don't see them built in because the pads that do have dimmers built in they are extremely unreliable and break quick;y. Not that the heat pads themselves are reliable.
Tell me about trans Pecos rats !! Anyone keep these cute sneks. Also morphs?
Forgot pic
Well my new girl arrived Tuesday, she's a Picasso stripe BRB, around 3 months old. She was born July 30. I'm hoping she'll have settled in enough to eat something tomorrow or the next day. I don't have any mouse fuzzies on hand, so I'll be trying her with some of my smallest hopper mice. She is a bit bigger than my other BRB was when he arrived, but she's nearly a month older than he was when I got him, weighing in at 49 grams; he was 40 grams when I got him.
These photos don't show her crazier patterns, but once she eats I'll take a few more pictures of the other side where she's got some of that striping going on.
I want to get a Bearded Dragon, but I'm not sure what kind. Do they only come in brown/red? I'd like to get a black or white one if that exists.
>>1987923
most you find will be brown
Some come in pretty nice shades of red/orange/yellow
I've even seem some that are greenish
Melanistic and leusictic beardies almost certainly exist, but I don't think anyone's got the right gene combination down for it yet. So they'd be really really expensive if you did find one.
>>1987934
I guess I'll go for regular sandy brown color then. How do I say I want it to be rough and have scales? Most of the dragons I see are the lame leathery kind.
>>1987956
forgot the pic
I keep corn snakes and I'm about to get a cockatiel, is there any chance that a corn could kill it if they escaped? The oldest corn I have right now is around 120 grams.
I'm worried about it because there's been a couple of times where they've escaped for maybe around 30 minutes, either because they crawled out of their feed bin while I wasn't looking, or because someone forgot to close their bins.
>>1987946
you just want a normal bearded dragon
leatherbacks are the smooth ones and silkbacks are even smoother
>>1987968
at 120grams? probably not right now, but it could potentially become an issue later.
If you want both the best thing to do is to make sure your tiel is kept in a separate room, and to keep watch on your snakes at all time when they aren't in their cage.
I'd recommend you just not feed them out of cage at all, if they occasionally get away from you
>>1987973
They've only ever gotten out of the feed bin once, and I've never let them out of sight after the one time.
I don't like to feed in the cage because it makes one of the snakes aggressive when being picked up, even though I handle them almost daily.
>>1987975
I use a sterlite tub with lid as a feed bin. If you secure the lid you don't really have to watch them while they eat. I usually place mine in the bin with the frozen thawed prey for 45 minutes, close the lid, turn out the lights, and leave them alone. Seems to work the best.
>>1987956
>>1987959
>>1987971
Thanks, I'll probably go for the regular brown one, since the other might break my bank.
One last question, I'm planning on getting a juevnile, and I know its diet should be 70% meat 30% vegetable/fruit, but I don't know how many crickets per day that will be, like 15 or 20?
>>1987984
The general rule of thumb I believe is to feed them as many crickets as they can eat in a 5 minute period
or maybe it was 15 minutes
you should double check that
So a friend told me it's bad that I have a feeding bucket for my leopard gecko.
It's an plastic easter bucket like pic related, but a bit taller. I dump the crickets or dubia roaches into it and then remove the gecko from her tank and put her in there with them.
At first, I did this because she was too clumsy to hunt them in her tank, so I wanted to make it easier on her, but it became a habit over time, and I like watching her eat both for entertainment and to be sure of her intake. She usually eats everything within 10-15 minutes and then I put back in her tank.
Is my friend full of shit, or should I stop doing this?
>>1987992
Alright, thanks for everything.
>>1987975
Most likely that isn't the issue, feeding in the enclosure doesn't make snakes aggressive. They aren't aggressive, they're defensive. If feeding in the enclosure would cause anything, it would be mistaking your hand for food, not making them defensive. Which it doesn't do that either, a snake is going to mistake your hand for food no matter where you feed it, it's just what they do.
How do you reach in to get your snakes? How big are the enclosures and how big are the snakes? What are your temps like? How do you feed them? Have you tried handling them less? Every day is a bit excessive, most snakes will not put up with that amount of handling. Some will, some won't, but this defensiveness you're describing shows some sign of stress. Are they ok once you have them out? It's really common and normal for snakes to be a bit defensive or flighty in the cage and then calm once you have them out. After all, to them you're a predator swooping into their safe space to eat them in that moment.
>>1987993
It doesn't really hurt anything. If you enjoy it, keep doing it.
I've had this guy for about two and a half months. He is my first reptile. His name is Gyoza and I fucking love him. I've had all manner of mammals for pets but I have never loved something so dearly as this stupid gecko.
It's not just that he's the cutest shit I've ever seen. I also love getting into the husbandry aspect. It feels good just cleaning everything and making sure he's eating properly and stuff.
I only started to consider a reptile after a post on /an/ so thanks friends.
>>1988001
qt. Glad you're enjoying him. Warning! They're addictive. Once upon a time I had one gecko. Now i have six.
>>1987997
Yeah I guess it's not really aggressive, but more like the snake thinks my finger is a mouse. It's only one of the snakes that acts like that, and yeah he's flighty when I take him out of his cage, after he comes out he's perfectly calm. He also likes to strike right after feeding, again because he thinks my finger is food. I keep my hands clean while feeding because I use long chopsticks, so I chalk it up to him being slightly retarded.
I keep them in 15 qt bins with a temp gradient of about 72 on the cool side and 85 on the hot side. I'm feeding them on the lighter end of the Munson plan. When I say I handle them almost every day, it's mostly just me checking in on them, tidying up, and holding them up for a couple of minutes. I generally handle them for long periods of time maybe once a week.
>>1985421
>1985421
URGENT
RGENT
GENT
ENT
NT
T
My snek keeps gagging a bit and throwing a bunch of thin black stuff right after he poops. How much should I be worried on a scale from 'comfy' to 'dead snake'?
>>1988081
I have no idea what you're describing but any odd behavior in reptiles should warrant a vet visit. I would say you should definitely be concerned.
>>1988081
Vet right now/10
Hopefully whatever it is is treatable.
![5562197+_1d7cf132bfa1d80777106b0b89321609[1].png](https://i.imgur.com/veLcKU6.png "5562197+_1d7cf132bfa1d80777106b0b89321609[1].png")
>>1988081
>Snake
>throwing black stuff
>Snake
>Throwing
What?
>>1988022
are you still feeding them hairless baby mice? because fingers look an awful lot like pinky mice
>>1988225
Yeah, the one that likes striking is currently on double pinks and will soon move to fuzzies.
>>1988225
That's not how it works. I have snakes that do the exact same thing and they've never eaten a hairless rodent in their entire lives.
>>1988257
And I had a snake that stopped hunting my fingers after I bumped her food up in size
what's your point?
>>1988022
Am I the only one who thinks that this snake is just an agressive feeder, no matter what the prey is or what size or amount of hair it has?
If it was a 7m retic it wouldn't go for your fingers but for you, but not because of what you look like.
>>1988476
Nope, I'm thinking the same thing. Some snakes are just like that.
Here is one of my many snakes (though the snake I am most found of) my only Brazilian out of 5 pythons, 4 garters, and assorted lizards.
Recently I decided to leave the place I was living at (which was my step dads home). I couldn't take my reptiles on the first night because it was a long drive, and I wasn't equipped to take them all. (I decided to move as a last minute decision, getting fucked over, the house being infested with rodents and sewer back up). Someone (who I believe is my man-child brother) decided to let my BRB out of it's enclosure into the house. I was super worried about the cats and gave up hope looking for her. Luckily I found her under a drawer pull some days later. She had scale rot though, presumably I believe she took refuge to the sewage for moisture (which is under the hot water tank for heat). It's been a health of a month, but I nipped it in time. Once I move in January I am getting her a mate and selling off a few of my other animals. She's only 9 months old. She's a beefy one.
>>1987917
Nice BRB.
I seen you post this to the BRB group too haha.
>>1988515
Yeah I can see her beefiness, unless that's a meal where she's going over the bowl? haha
And thanks for the compliment! She's one of my favorites in the looks department of my 8 snakes, the other being my sunglow boa.
It looks like my snakes are beginning their next round of shedding. So far the retic and the older BRB are in shed, so I guess I wait and see how long it takes the other 6 to shed. I don't think the new girl will shed this time, though, as she shed 2-3 weeks ago according to the breeder. But the last 2 times I had all 7 snakes shed at the same time.
>>1988521
Nope, she's due for a meal tomorrow. Pooped last night.
Yeah, I browsed your photos actually and saw you're red tails and sunglow. I wish they weren't illegal where I am. Even Brazilians are.
And nice. My snakes aren't in sync at all. My ball pythons are all different. Most are 5+ and only shed every few months. My garters are sync because they're cohabited together. My geckos are all different too.
I've googled this but couldn't find any answers so I'll ask here.
My leo walks on the tops of his hands, why is that? Like, when he walks the bottoms of hands are facing up towards him.
I've also noticed he tends to shed about once every 3 weeks, is that normal for a 2 year old leo?
>>1988547
like with his wrists bent?
>>1988552
Yeah, his wrists are bent inwards towards his body.
>>1988521
She is so pretty she looks fake.
>>1986951
Still hasnt pooped since I posted that.
I soaked him yesterday and gave him a couple drops of olive oil I'm gonna do more soaking tonight.
He still has a full appetite and is just as active if not more. Should I stop worrying as much or should I still worry? It's been 10 or so days since actual poop
>>1988524
All my snakes are different ages. But even my 9 year old ball python and 4 year old BCI have gone from shedding every 3-4 months to matching their sheds to the babies' and subadults' schedules of 1-3 months. Once I got my 4th or 5th snake they started to all line up, it's so weird.
>>1988584
It may be the lighting, unless that's just a compliment. She's definitely very pretty! I think this is my favorite picture of her colors, it's so close to how she looks when she's at her brightest.
>>1988624
It's a really bright retic. Is it a 100% nominal?
I still don't understand people that spends thousands and thousands of dollars in retuc morphs when you can have that for a 100$,
>>1988644
That's what they sold her to me as, a normal 66% poss het purple. She did have at least one sunfire sibling iirc, and is poss het purple, though I don't think she herself is a sunfire. As far as I know, she's only a visual normal. I didn't ask for her parents genetics though because I didn't plan on breeding her.
She was priced a bit higher because of her genetics, too, you can get non-het retics for under $100.
>>1988553
that is really strange
are you sure he walks on the backs of his hands or is he just super pigeon-toed?
Have been putting together an enclosure for a beardie these last few weeks. Tank I got used from Craigslist for free (48 x 13 x 18). The floor is ceramic tile from home depot, the rocks are just smashed up flagstones from home depot. The wood is a grapevine branch from my local herp shop. The big lamp is a 125W UVB/Heat light, and the IR light is a 75W night time bulb. I may make or buy a hammock... but besides that and a food dish I think I may be done.
Aside from all that I have a colony of super worms (I don't keep crickets around in big numbers in my home since they stink and they're loud, I usually just buy a handful and feed my gecko a few once every other week). I've also started planting some carrots to grow carrot tops since I hear beardies like the greens.
Would an under tank heater do anything for a beardie? Like would it work well under the areas where the flagstone hides are?
>>1988816
This looks pretty nice. I see you're using one of those Exo Terra lamp holders, just going to warn you that you'll need to re-glue it after about a year.
>>1988816
Nope, no benefit of under tank heating for beardies. If you are finding your night time temperatures are getting too low, use a ceramic heat emitter.
Dug out my male and nearly got bit twice for the trouble. Realized he's WAY too far in blue to actually handle, but here's a picture.
>>1988763
I don't know how things are in America, but here in Europe is harder everyday to find a nominal one. Everything is a het for something with the obvious higher price.
I've seen het pieds for 200€ the pair, but anyways, quite frustrating for all of us who have no interest in morphs. A few years ago you could find a non-het for just 50€.
Does the type of tile I use for my leo matter?
I wasthinking about using sandstone, but they are extremely heavy (would be 15 kg for 3 30cm round stones, they are 5 cm in height...). Can I use normal floor tiles? Or do you have any idea where I can get small-ish (20 by 20), very thin slate tiles?
>>1989092
You can use the regular ceramic floor tiles, yeah.
I picked up my beardie today. I named it Dirty Randy. He's getting settled in his new enclosure. Whenever he's by the UV he sits like a complete goober with his mouth wide open. I'll offer it some mealworms over the day, but he hasn't taken any. I'm guessing the move into his new tank may be stressing him out. Tomorrow I'll go pick up some greens and squash.
>>1989181
I'm not accustomed to bearded dragons but isnt mouth gaping a sign of overheating?
>>1989196
>The most common reason for an open mouth is that your bearded dragon is regulating his/her temperature. Unlike people, bearded dragons cannot sweat, therefore to control their body temperature they will open their mouth whenever they reach their ideal body temperature and don't want to get any hotter. Normally the bearded dragons will do this when they are basking under the heat lamp.
I was concerned about this as well. I guess it's what they do when they're at their sweet spot? It sat like that for a good while then it moved away and started exploring.
>>1989181
Cool! It is unlikely he will eat for a couple days yet. They take a few days to settle in and feel comfortable enough to take food. You can continue to put veg and mealies in until he starts eating. No crickets until he has eaten a couple times.
I have 6 outside box turtles that have just entered hibernation a few weeks ago. They have enough space to burrow, with about 3 feet of a leaf-mulch combo, and they seem to be doing well from what I can tell.
However, once in a while there will be a warm day (Great Lakes region btw) and anywhere from 1-3 of them will be out and about. I fed them one big meal before they went under, and from what I understand, they need one big, nutritious meal before hibernation and then no more food, because they need to shit before they sleep or else the food left in their stomach all winter will lead to infection.
I guess my question is, should I have food out for the few that will wake up every once in a while? Or should I not bother so I don't mess them up for hibernation?
>>1989320
>I guess my question is, should I have food out for the few that will wake up every once in a while? Or should I not bother so I don't mess them up for hibernation?
You won't mess them up, but water will be much more important than food. I had box turtles for 2 decades, and they did this every winter.
So I'm about to do a complete overhaul on my 18x18x24 exo-terra and I'm trying to find something cool to put in there. Any ideas?
Why is my crested gecko small? I've had hom for a year and he's only 6" long including tail. I change his food daily or every other day. Can cold stunt growth? My mother insists on setting the thermostat to 65 and it gets a bit colder than that where my gecko is kept. If temp is the problem, how can I heat the enclosure? Will a heating pad work?
So my gecko seems to be brumating, he's 3 years old. He's not eating normally, he's has one superworm about a week and a half ago, which isn't too bad. He's maintaining his weight and such, temps are fine 96F on Warm Side 73 on cool side.
The weird thing is, he's been ready to shed for the past two days. By ready to shed I mean the skin was broken around his arms. Then he was rubbing against his environment last night like he was going to get to work, but he just gave up without doing anything.
Anyone have any ideas or should I just go to the vet?
65 is too cold. You will need additional heat. Get a 60w (or 40w if you cam find one) ceramic heat emitter and wire clamp fixture. A thermostat for this device is mandatory. The hydrofarm one on Amazon will be adequate.
Secure the temperature probe directly under the screen top with zip tie. Set thermostat to 77. This will give you a heat gradient if about 70 at the substrate and 77 at the top.
Be very careful with this. Crestie redline max temp is 80.
Give him a soak in shallow water, no more than 1/4 - 1/2 inch deep. Water should feel just barely warm. Like room temperature water. Tepid.
Vet check would be a good idea. Lethargic behaviour like that is not good and not normal.
>>1989356
Yeah I'm going to soak him in a bit. I'll be temping the water for low 80s. He brumated last year, but that was in december. Went for a month only eating two mealworms. Went right back to normal after that.
I'm going to try to go to the vet on monday.
I need some advice on shipping guys
My boyfriend, who lives in Cali, has a friend that no longer wants his leo. I want to take her, but I live in Texas.
Ive been looking at ship your reptiles, but because Ive never shipped a reptile before Im really torn on if I should do this or not. I would have to give the BF instructions on how to do it properly.
Should I just not bother or will it be okay as long as I follow SYR guideline?
>>1989839
It'll be fine as long as you follow the guidelines. I have gotten smaller and much more delicate reptiles via the mail without issue. It's now my preferred way of acquiring new herps.
>>1989850
Its making me so nervous though
Do you have any advice?
>>1989856
And do I need to indicate anywhere on the box its a leo or is live harmless reptile fine?
Do I need any extra paperwork?
>>1989857
Ship your reptiles has a whole step-by-step guide for this. Yes, label the box 'live harmless reptiles'. There shouldn't be any additional paperwork beyond what SYR wants.
This shipping method is safe so long as you package correctly and ship during suitable temperatures (both at point of departure and arrival). The most dangerous thing to do is put in heat packs when they are not needed for the temperatures.
>>1989871
I am reading their shipping standards right now
Im just nervous, never done this before and I dont want anything to go wrong
>>1989871
>>1989850
It says on their shipping guidelines
According to the Lacey Act, you are required to mark the outside of the package as "wildlife" and have itemized paperwork* easily available inside the top flap with detailed species and quantity information
*Sales receipt, as well as the species (scientific names) and quantities of live harmless reptiles contained in the package
Since this isnt a purchase, there are no receipts. Are there any official documents I need or is a piece of paper that says 1 Eublepharis macularius adequate?
>>1989345
White's tree frog aka dumpy tree frog
>>1989266
Update on Dirty Randy: day 2 I went out and got him some cactus pads (Live in SoCal so readily availible since Mexicans love them), cut them up finely, threw in some live mealworms, threw in a pinch of calcium powder, mixed it up, and it gobbled it up.
>>1989888
No official documents needed. A sheet of paper noting species and quantity is fine. You might as well also write on the same sheet that it is not a sale.
>>1989935
Thank you so much, this was really my biggest concern, I diddnt want anything to happen to her because I neglected to get the right documents. I also sent an email to them asking the same question to double check. Idk why I diddnt think to do that first, its kind of an impulse rescue thing and my anxiety is going through the roof >.>
>>1989960
Just make sure you have a proper setup for him ready before he gets to you. Leo's don't have any ridiculous requirements or anything, but you do want to make sure things are comfortable for him.
>>1989926
Nice, you sound like a good owner. Here is a pic of Oliver falling asleep on his way into his cave
>>1988515
I saw your post in the BRB group as well! I was the one suggesting bioactive keeping. Have you changed out the paper towels for eco earth or similar yet?
>>1986536
Trying to achieve the same with my leo....
>>1988620
How is he doing? I'm, already worried after like 4 days....
May I hear your opinion about my leo tank?
The heatlamp was included, works fine so far, but I have an UTH ready.
I minimized the use of sand, I'm still working on breaking my other tiles so that there is hardly any, currently there is ca 10-15 cm of sand in the back.
Pic 1: View of the whole thing, pic 2&3 inc in the next posts
>>1990224
Warm spot, front hide is humid with moss inside, the one at the back is dry.
>>1990224
>>1990226
Sorry, the first pic was her cold hide, pic rel is the whole thing.
Also, don't mind the apple, it was from the crickets.
And don't mid the cables, I wanna check the temps for at least the next week.
>>1990226
Also, the tile in pic rel seems to be shiny, but it was wet when I took the pic as I was washing it with hot water before putting it inside.
>>1990224
>>1990226
>>1990227
pic rel is her.
Went to local reptile store and saw they sold dubias. Can I gutload dubias on crested gecko diet and feed it to my crestie?
What do I need to feed my crickets?
I see all this gutloading stuff and all these different colored things but I don't know if I need anything besides those.
I've just been giving them the gel water and crushed up cat/dog food
>>1990492
Cut the dog/cat food. It's too high in protein and can lead to gout.
Get chicken food/beardie pellets instead.
>>1989181
If he has his mouth open he's trying to release heat, you should lower his temps a little bit.
Just moving the heat lamps further away from his enclosure is a good way
>>1990494
I've seen people giving them just regular cookies. Would that be enough?
>>1990514
no, I think you don't understand what gutloading is
gutloading is feeding your feeder insects food filled with vitamins and other nutrients to make them healthier for your herp.
as far as insects are concerned they are what they eat
>>1990529
Are there not "vitamins and other nutrients" in cookies? Isn't cocoa from a plant or something?
>>1990533
I give my crickets/roaches/mealies a piece of apple/carrot/whatever fruit is left from cooking every few days. I hope that this does the job....
>>1990428
Yup that's perfect. I use old crested gecko leftovers
>>1990498
It voluntarily climbs up to the top most branch of the piece of grape vine and gets as close as possible to the light and sits there for a while, and opens its mouth. It seems to be doing that on its own and on purpose. If it gets too hot it just moves down onto another branch. My IR thermometer rates that top most branch as 105 +/- 2F
>>1990238
d'aww. Looking good.
>>1990533
No cookies. I agree with chicken feed or beardie pellets. Crested gecko cgd (left in powder form) is a great gutload and the crickets happily nom upon it. Also some veg or water crystals should be made available as a source of moisture. You can also use tropical fish flakes but only in very small quantities. The crickets, at least in my experience, seem to die at an alarmingly high rate when given access to a full bottle cap of flakes.
what is this? it's new today
>>1990744
Looks like it could be the start of scale rot or some other sort of scale damage. What's your set up like?
Is the bedding often soaking wet, or is it always kept dry? What is the overall humidity you offer, how do you maintain humidity, and how do you measure your humidity? Do you use belly heat or overhead heat. What is it set at, and how are you monitoring heat?
>>1990794
Kept dry, humidity maintained by occasional misting (65 to 72 percent) 90 degree hot spot with belly and overhead heat, 82 degree ambient, electronic hygrometer/thermometer for ambients, hydrofarm thermostat for hot spot.
>>1986863
They are the better version of a bearded dragon, usually very sociable and easy to car for. A 5x7x3 enclosure would work with a few females and a male. You may have to separate the male at maturity.
>>1990797
What type of bedding is it? And as far as the heat monitors, where are they placed for each type of heating?
Husbandry seems spot on but those scales are definitely a little worrisome, so looking to see if the monitoring systems are set up right.
It's hard to tell whether the scales are wrinkled or if the tips of the scales are bent in. If the scales are bent, it's possible they accidentally bent them like we sometimes bend fingernails, but they're difficult to flip the tips out when that happens. They also tend to sit there, twitching muscles to try to right them.
If it's wrinkled, it's possible the bedding is sucking humidity out of its skin (such as with aspen or carefresh-type beddings, or high humidity beddings such as EcoEarth/cypress mulch if they're allowed to stay bone dry).
Scale rot is a low possibility, but it is possible if there's scale damage, although less likely if the bedding is kept dry and water spillages are cleaned up quickly.
>>1990744
could be a snake
>>1990833
it's cypress mulch, and i try to keep it a little damp but it does dry out if I'm gone for a large chunk of the day.
>>1990978
It kinda looks like wet damage, but I'm not sure.
Try completely replacing the snake's bedding with paper towels. Keep them dry, offer a big water dish, and spray only occasionally. See if it goes away in the next few weeks or after the snake's next shed, and if it doesn't clear up after a shed or two, or it gets worse, I'd take it to the vet.
The paper towels will offer a sterile environment free from dryness/wetness/anything else that could be causing this so it's important to do this. Then hopefully, depending on how this progresses or gets better, maybe you'll be able to figure out what's going on and whether or not you need to change something in your usual set up.
>>1985695
I specifically bought a peice of root wood at the last reptile expo that my BP could climb on. It's been a week and she is all over it every night. In the day she is back in her hides.
Does anyone here keep cuban knight anoles or monkey anoles? I've been looking into picking up a pair of anoles, but I don't want brown or greens.
Can someone identify this badass thing? I pulled this picture from social media and no one gave me a legitimate answer.
>>1991199
It's one of the first amphibians that lived on earth. That is just a model that was made some time ago, it's been exctincted for a few hundreds of milions of years, but I cant remember its name.
>>1991199
a photoshop which is trying to make some random salamander look like a diplocaulus
>>1991206
It isn't a photoshop, it is a actual plastic model of the thing. It looks nice.
If someone reverse search the image it should pop up.
>>1991199
A brown regoose.
Fuck, /an/, I fucked up. I had the stupid exo terra elevated cave in with my geckos, and they seemed to love it. My female in particular was always in it. I noticed the adhesive came off partially the other day, so for safety's sake I removed it and tossed it in my roach bin, which has double duty as the bin feed my snakes in. Today was feeding time, and when my boa finished he curled up in the cave hide, which I then moved to the boa enclosure so he could crawl out at his leisure. After he did so, I removed the cave only to notice 2 pea sized eggs sitting inside.
FUCK. So these eggs have been exposed to temps as low as about 72F and have been moved about a good bit and may have been sat on by a snake. I put them back in with the geckos inside some cork bark, is there any chance at all that they'll hatch or did I fuck them up completely? They were almost perfectly round but each had a small indent on the bottom, if that helps tell you their fates at all.
This is what I get for being a cheapskate and not springing 5 extra dollars for the magnaturals cave hide. I am feeling seriously bummed out. If these guys don't make it, hopefully the next group will have a better fate.
>>1991529
Just read that the dimpling can be caused by being too dry, which is likely because the cave was way up by the heat lamp and didn't have any moss or anything in it, so it was pretty dry in there. They're at a more moist point now so the indent should go away IF they are still somehow alive.
>>1991530
since they dont sound like they are visibly damaged, I'd say only time will tell
I've been feeding pic related two crickets every other day as the feeding schedule goes. Every other feeding, I dust one of the crickets in calcium powder and the other in a reptile vitamin supplement, both Fluker's. Is this feeding plan acceptable, or is there something I should change (more crickets, less crickets, etc.)? Just curious, the frog isn't acting wierd or anything.
>>1991992
If you can, you might want to try for a bigger variety of insects.
>>1992006
This makes me feel very relieved. The eggs are very early on, 4-5 days at most. Fingers crossed that they hatch out alright. Thank you, anon.
>>1991994
Should I just feed those alongside the crickets or should they replace the crickets for that meal? Thinking mealworms and/or waxworms. Do pet stores usually carry dubia roaches?
>>1992025
Pet stores carry dubs, but they're not in the best condition unless they're a smaller store. You can also easily order them online.
Mealworms, crickets, roaches are all acceptable.
>>1985421
I'm pretty happy with her size.
Got her as a rescue when she was little, 99% sure she was wild caught.
Anybody else keep any less common gecko species?
>>1985695
Balls like to climb sometimes. Mine likes to rest his head and neck on things. I went through a dozen store-bought hides that he would refuse to go in, but he loved putting his head on top of them!
In general, the great thing about balls is that if their tummy looks good, they arnt breathing funny, and they're eating there's a 99% probability that anything else weird behaviorally is just silly snek nonsense.
>>1987993
Nothing wrong with it as long as you don't leave it in there for more than 20 mins with crickets. The crickets can bite.
I took my leopard gecko to the vet yesterday to check a minor prolapse he had developed in the weekend and to see whenever he was suffering from an impaction. Turns out that the prolapse was caused by a swollen hemipenis and that it had more or less retreated by the time at the checkup, and whatever issue that had caused his earlier impaction must have been resolved as his digestion system was clear. That in particular was a relief because for most of his life he had not only been housed with bad heating but also with sand as substrate. To summarize: he was just fine.
However to reach these conclusions the vet did some nasty things to him (they used some kind probing devise up his bowels to look for an impaction, among other things) and he have been clearly distressed ever since. Most obviously is that his mouth is agape whenever I look, he's even resting now and still gaping, the poor guy. I can only hope that he's only doing that when people are around because its been more than 24 hours since the vet visit.
He's never been like this before, and it was his first vet visit, so I don't know what to gather from this behavior. Is there something wrong, or is it normal for a gecko to react this way? If it is, how long can I expect it to prolong? Can I help him to calm down somehow?
Same person as >>1979812 and >>1980468
Day 5 update: Dirty Randy is doing fine. He's still skittish whenever I handle him, so I try not to. I got him some dubia roaches and he ate them just fine. I've seen a shit or two in his enclosure and have cleaned it up. I went to the grocery store and picked up some squash and collard greens because he hasn't touched any of the prickly pears I've left him and is only eating roaches now.
>>1992025
Doesn't really matter either way, I'd think. I get my roaches from Cape Cod Roaches and they're in good shape and pretty cheap. You can keep them in a rubbermaid tub with some dirt and fallen leaves and toss in carrot/potato peels and they do great.
>>1992554
I tried interacting with him to see how he would react and it made me even more worried. He's not only constantly gaping but hyperventilating as well, yet he don't exibit any hysteric behavior and greeted me like he usually does. Then I tried feeding him and he showed an appetite, but he couldn't eat anything because he was literally incapable to close his jaws shut. The closest he gets is what you see in the pic. He also appears to be shaky and his tail looks noticeably thinner. What the fuck did they do to my pet /an/?
Why does my dragons shit look like this? Is it normal? Been like this for a week or so sometimes it's not as runny. Still acts normal and all alert, eats all the food I offer etc
I just bought this UVB Globe for my Beardie and I got some questions.
Can you rent a UVB Measure/Meter? Are these Ebay chink ones any good at all?
Why do people buy the fluro tubes if a basking light is where the animal hangs out most of the time?
Does the beardie actually need UVB coverage in the whole viv at all times? My Viv is quite small (2 ft x 2, height and depth, so im stuck right now until I get something bigger.
I did buy a Solar Glo MVB (by mistake), and will design the next viv accordingly. Smarter to have it all in one.
>>1992944
Also that red looking color was More of a brownish orange just so its not mistaken for red
>>1992942
This sounds pretty serious. I would see if you could get him to another vet ASAP.
>>1989352
Just thought I'd update this. He shed and has been hanging out on the warm side and is very active. He's still not eating, but he never wants to eat for days after shedding. So that's normal. Still maintaining weight.
My snake escaped last night (i may have forgotten to secure his door I can't remember), as far as I can tell there isn't any way for him to have left the house and it's been raining since he escaped so I doubt he we leave the warm house for the cold wet outside weather. The snake is almost 50cm in length and approx. 2-2.5 at his widest. My house is 2 stories and his enclosure is on the top floor there's no door to the room he was in. When I woke up this morning I thoroughly searched upstairs to no avail but decide not to conduct such a maticulous search downstairs as (im lazy) there is just too much look through. Unable to find any trace of him I thought it would be good to search Google for help. I decided to leave many bottle traps throughout my house, although I doubt he's wouldn't be able to escape them. (all the mice were frozen not live)Some contained fresh mice, where positioned in warm places and some near dishes of water. I'm leaving his enclosure open with water and a mouse as well as all heat sources on. Turned of rest of the houses heating in hope of luring him back to this area. I also thought it might be a good idea to place lines of flour in door ways and vacinity of the traps. There are crawl spaces along the walls upstairs which I believe can access the roof the top floors floor and walls. I know for a fact there are a couple rodents in my roof atm that I believe are rats. I also have kittens in a secured room.
I know it may seem stupid but I quite liked this snake he has a great temperament, personality and I was content with just him.
Any advice at all would be great if you need any more info just ask.
Cheers
>>1993144
spread flour across rooms and doorways
if he's still moving around you can track him.
other than that I'm not sure what to tell you other than keep checking warm/dark places
My chameleon just suddenly died this morning, had it for six months which is also pretty much how long it lived. In its last days it wouldn't eat its crickets, just seemed like it wanted to sleep. When I took it out of its cage yesterday and put it back, it seemed to move around from spot to spot.
>>1993303
congrats, you're a shit owner
>>1993303
Post pics of its setup and maybe we can tell you why it died so early.
>>1992554
>>1992942
>>1993092
Took an emergency visit to the vet today. There were no herp-specialist to give a proper diagnose but we did find out that despite the gecko's inability to bite there is nothing physiologically hindering his jaws to close. Their current guess is that he had some latent respiratory illness that got triggered during our last visit. He is now dwelling in his shredding-chamber, I have the windows in the room slightly open to let in more oxygen, installed a heat-lamp to provide plenty of warmth tomorrow. Visit to herp-specialist is due in monday.
>>1994056
Well that's a relief. Your previous post looked and sounded pretty grim. Let us know the diagnosis when you find out. I'm curious. This particular set of symptoms is unusual. The only time I have seen a gecko refuse to close its mouth -even with a respiratory infection- was a crested gecko who turned out to have a fractured jaw.
So I looked at my ball a bit closer and see seems to have this odd line on her back (kinda hard get a clear shot of it) the scales seems to a bit lighter shade along it and like something abrasive hit them. Think it's anything to worry about?
[spoiler]its not scale rot is it?[/spoiler]
>>1994126
Everything looks normal from what I can tell. The photo is a bit blurry though. Doesn't look like scale rot.
>>1994126
its blushing anon
they're just patched of lighter scales.
its often bred for and is a desirable trait to some.
My girl has tons of blushing, its on her head, on her back, on her sides
>>1994126
It super out of focused but looks like slightly dry scales. When they get dry, they lose color and get kinda rough like you descried. Scale rot generally doesn't start on top of the snake, it's usually the belly because their bellies are in the wet/dirty bedding. Wet and/or disgusting conditions causes scale rot.
This is my Leppard Gecko
She's like 9 years old
>>1994174
So would that mean I need to mist down the cage more regularly, or is this normal?
There's been a couple of times where I was handling my corn snake and I noticed that there seemed to be a small red something sticking out of his(?) cloaca, or some kind of white/pink fluid.
The first time, he made a tiny bit of white liquid, which rubbed off, am I correct in assuming this is semen? The second time, I saw after he pooped that there was a tiny red spot that was sticking out of the cloaca, but upon closer inspection it was gone, so I don't know if it was a piece of something that got retracted back in, of it it was fluid that got wiped off onto his bedding.
Should I be worried?
>>1994235
Misting doesn't provide humidity. If you want to increase humidity, you'll need a bedding that holds onto bedding and releases moisture slowly, and reduce ventilation. Pour water into bedding like EcoEarth or cypress mulch and mix it up, but make sure you don't pour too much, you don't want them to live in a swamp. No water should strain out.
I haven't dealt with cypress mulch, so it may be better to actually soak it in a bucket of water and drain the water out now that I think about it. But I use EcoEarth, and it does well with my pouring water into and mixing it up. The top dries out, and the rest slowly releases moisture over a period of a few weeks. I can easily keep my BCI's humidity at a comfortable 70% like this.
Misting just provides wetness, and even if you were to sit there and spray the bedding for hours spraying won't be good enough to raise humidity if the humidity isn't already nearly where it needs to be.
>>1994366
I'm currently using aspen bedding so I'm assuming the wetting process for cypress bedding would be interchangeable
>>1992948
Just want to bump my request for this, thanks
>>1994362
something like that?
>>1992948
That bulb isn't going to get hot enough to serve double duty as a basking light. You want a mercury vapor bulb if you wish to go that route.
No need for uvb meter, just use the chart on the package.
Place uvb bulb near basking bulb as beardie will spend majority of time there. 12 hours on during the day, 12 hours off at night.
The reason people use separate lights for uv and basking is cost. Mercury vapor bulbs are stupid expensive and dont last long. For basking you can use a cheap incandescent of sufficient wattage for whatever temp you need.
>>1994426
Not for aspen, no. Aspen is extremely prone to molding and actually sucks humidity from the air, you would want to completely change beddings.
>>1994548
Yep. Aspen is really best used for snakes with low humidity requirements for this reason.
Stupid question
Ive been using bottled water for my reptiles. I wanna start using water form my tap but I have a question about water treatments. Do I have to get a reptile specific tap water conditioner like the one zoo med makes or will ones used for aquarium water like sea chem prime or api be fine?
>>1994438
Yeah. Are those hemipenes or something?
>>1994604
I just use straight up tap water for all my pets except aquatic ones. I mean, if I can drink it, I'm sure the snakes can too.
Im getting ready for my first snake but I have one problem. How much ventilation does ballpython in 120x40x40 aquarium need?
Im making the lid myself.
>>1994604
Yes tap water is fine. I add a dechlorinator to mine but that's not strictly necessary. It'll be in the fish supplies aisle. Get the kind that removes both chlorine and chloramine. Costs a couple dollars for a small bottle (you need very little for this application).
>>1994696
Cypress mulch. Coco husk doesn't work very well for snake substrate.
>>1994660
Yes hemipenes. Nothing to worry about.
>>1994682
This depends on the humidity where you live. If it's really dry you want to limit the amount of airflow to the tank to keep humidity inside the tank in the happy ball python range. If it's humid where you live, more air is better. The short answer to your question is, not very much. Snakes don't need huge amounts of ventilation like chameleons or something.
>>1994700
Also, get the aquarium one. It'll be cheaper.
>>1994702
Thanks, gotta build the lid and run some tests on it so its nice for my new companion. Probably going to use little ventilation because finland
>>1994696
I very much prefer coco coir (ZooMed's EcoEarth is the best brand), haven't used coco husk but don't like the look of it. I don't like chip-shaped beddings. I used to use ReptiBark and my bp would constantly get splinters. EcoEarth is the absolute best bedding imo, been using it for 4 years and I'm in love, I won't use anything else if I can help it.
None of my snakes ever get vertical lines, their skin is as soft as a baby snake's, out of the world iridescence, perfect sheds every time, low maintenance, what more could I ask for?
>>1994702
Well, decided to do more research on the humidity issue and found that the biggest issue that can arise is respiratory infection.
Remembering that one of the big symptoms is a popping or clicking noise when they breath. So just in case, I stuck her up close and listened.
Faint popping noise
This weekend is just getting worse and worse. I checked her mouth and couldn't find any visible mucus build up (there's was some red but I think it was just blood vessels) but I'm gonna play it safe and set up a vet visit this week.
>>1993144
How's the hunt for the snake?
>>1994830
I wouldn't take it to the vet yet. Vets have a really bad habit of giving snakes precautionary antibiotics with Baytril, which just helps the bacteria become immune to it.
It there's no mucus and you don't believe the mouth tissue is inflamed, chances are it doesn't have an RI. If you're worried, bump temps. If your snake is dry enough the scales are becoming damaged, there's probably no need to lower humidity.
Generally, humidity that is so high that there's always condensation on glass/plastic, the bedding is a swamp, there's mold growing, etc. are the kind of conditions that facilitate a flare in the population of the bacteria in snake's bodies, causing RIs, paired with stress that suppresses the immune system. If your snake is healthy, their environment is properly maintained, and not overly-stressed, it shouldn't fall ill.
>>1994907
That's a bit of a relief. Since the last post I had two other individuals listen to her and all of us couldn't consistently hear it (we'd hear one or two faint pops or click, then it'd stop).
Still, I'll get the beddings swapped out and keep a close eye on her for any other symptoms like drooling.
Even though I had the wrong bedding, I tried to keep the thing well maintained with regular spot cleanings and the monthly cage breakdown. She's always been active and never refused an offered meal so I guess I got things at least half right
I guess I panicked and overreacted when I found out I messed up the other half, this snake means a lot to me. Thanks for the info and the calm down
>>1994911
Don't worry, a lot of us have. I had an RI scare 2-3 year ago, but it turns out they were sneezing because my father is an idiot and smokes inside the house. Neither of them make sneezing sounds in their enclosures anymore, it's limited to physical exertion like normal.
It's easy to jump to conclusions of illness when you're not familiar with it. Sometimes it's good t o jump to conclusions, but I think it's pretty easy to tell when a snake has an RI. If it's acting normally and not showing the symptoms, I think you (and your snake) are safe.
Hey,
I'm going to get my first ever reptile soon. Been doing all my research for the past month etc to make sure I get everything right and I'm pretty confident I want to start with a leo like most people (definitely not snakes, I have a massive phobia. Lizards etc are alright though).
I'm just wondering where you guys think the best place to buy the leo is, online or in an actual pet shop?
There's a guy online near me selling baby mack snow leo's he hatched two months ago. On the other hand there's some older ones in a shop down the road.
is a baby leo too much to take on as a first reptile? He'll of been handling them since birth so they should be used to human contact, but in the shop I don't know how much human contact they have etc or what there history is like. Which do you think will be best for me?
>>1994855
>>1993263
Woke up today around 1ish
>Jesus chist it's hot
Go to close the curtains and the little shits just sitting there in the sun. Just pick him up put him back in his enclosure and feed him a few hours later. Didn't seem to touch any of the flour or bottles.
And that put an end to the liberation of Bruce the python.
>>1994201
God I love geckos, they're just so goddamn cute. Got any more?
>>1994989
Just my 2c, don't have heaps of experience with lizards
I prefer getting animals when theyre juviniles or close to new borns just so I can bond with them as they grow
Also reptiles stores and private dealers both more often than not have good intentions and neither would really want to ruin their rep to sell one animal. just go with who you feel is more trustworthy or recommended in the area.
Also I'd suggest meeting with the dealer or going in to the pet shop and asking for advice on them regard husbandry etc as well as get them to show you how to handle whatever you choose to go w
ith.
Also pet store sometimes keep their juveniles and hatchlings off the showroom floor and in the back.
Admire my cute af baby
Also why does she do this? Is she drying out her inner parts, stetching, or warming her legs? I think it's adorable but it can't be any cause for conern, can it?
My ball just pooped for the second time in like 3 days? Is that something I should be worried about?
I fed her on Friday after I knew she had pooped because I though she was empty, did she already digest the rat? i did bump up her ambient temps recently because its starting to get colder here.
>>1995044
It's normal behavior.Turtles and tortoises look stupid when basking.
>>1995063
>did she already digest the rat?
Yes I'd say the increase in temp just sped the process along a bit. Nothing to be worried about imo
>>1995063
My corns sometimes poop twice per feed, I felt cheated when I first saw this happen because I'd always thought that it would be a 1 meal, 1 poop thing.
>>1994931
Update
Got the cypress mulch swapped in along with a humidity gauge. Levels are hovering just under 60%. Hopefully this will keep those few pops from turning into something serious.
Now besides the occasional misting and water dish size, is there any other special treatment the bedding may need to regulate the humidity?
>>1995024
Ha! Nice.
>>1994989
I'd go with your local breeder guy. Pet stores are a stressful place for reptiles to be even if they are in good health and genetically sound. With breeder they would be living in a quiet rack room.
Baby leos are not difficult. Just keep in small sterilite tub for maybe a year until leo gets to juvi size (30 grams or so) then move in to 20g long tank. Google hatchling leo care. They need to eat daily for the first few months.
>>1995063
My bp usually poops several times per meal. Then again, he holds onto 3-4 meals before he poops. Both my bp and my adult BCI poop twice in quick succession in fact, and they don't get huge meals by any means. Only the bp holds onto multiple meals, though. None of my babies under 2 years old do this. My garters are a whole other story, they poop like 4 times a day, it's ridiculous. And my retic pees like twice a week it seems, poops once each feeding.
>>1995108
I discussed it in an earlier post. Disregard misting altogether and either pour water into it or soak it in a bucket of water and drain. Should provide all the humidity you need, without having to spray every day. You may also have to either cover the top with foil/cling wrap or something, or modify the tank. Tanks suck, really bad. They're not good ball python homes, they can take a lot of work to make them sufficient.
>>1994989
Local breeders are always a good choice. The animals are usually healthier because the breeder's entire job is to take care of one (or a few) herp species. Pet shops aren't specialized, which inevitably leads to poor husbandry. In many cases the pet store animals are healthy, but there's more of a risk.
Buying from a local breeder also gives you access to an expert. If something goes wrong, or if you have questions in the future, you can go to the breeder and get good advice because the breeder makes a living taking care of the same reptile you have. Pet store employees usually just skimmed over a few care sheets.
>>1995117
Also, pet stores have habit of doing some pretty flagrant no no husbandry practices because they don't give a damn. For instance, i bought two female pictus geckos from a local non-chain pet store earlier this year. Both quite young. Bring them home, holy shit they're both gravid. Geckos that young should never be housed together with the other sex as laying eggs so early is very hard on their bodies. Anyway, i kept them. They each layed two eggs once per week four fucking five months, all fertilized (i candled to check). I froze the eggs. I could have raised the babies but would not have been able to sell them easily; pictus not being a popular or in demand species.
The pictus girls are doing just fine now. No more eggs thank fucking christ.
Got a bigger viv for my snek and ended up turning it into a jungle gym to make use of the extra vertical space. Which she hasn't really used yet. Oh well.
The wire on the bulb guard is temporary, I've already replaced it with a taller one.
>>1995276
>>1995278
mwah~
>>1995276
One time, middle of the night, when you least expect it, you will find snek climbing up on those ropes. Guaranteed.
>>1995301
I guarantee his snake does it every night while he's asleep
I know mine does
>>1995116
Now when you say pour water in, about how much? Are we talking "opening a water bottle and pouring it out", or something more?
I never hear about anybody owning any anoles here. I see them for sale all the time at the pet shop when I go to buy crickets, but it seems like everybody here has beardies/geckos/iguanas and a few other things.
I was just curious because I may want one some day
>>1995338
I kind of avoid them because they're so small
but then again I was at the local pet store the other day and they had some knight anoles
they're huge
>>1995362
most lizards require some kind of basking set up
so I dont know how well that would go over with a tub
>>1995322
I disagree with the anon who suggested that. Wetting the substrate directly in that way should be done sparingly and only if it's getting dry at the bottom as well as the top. Get a plant sprayer from garden store and mist with that. Pic related.
>>1995362
Snakes. Geckos do fine in those tubs as well.
>>1995338
Pet trade trends mostly. Ever since crested geckos were found again on New Caledonia in the 90's and some were brought back to the States for breeding, they have sort of filled the spot anoles had as the go-to easy arboreal reptile for beginner keepers. Crested gecko meal replacement powder was a big factor in that, in addition to cresties being cute as all fuck and easier to handle than anoles too.
>>1995389
Would that work for a crested gecko?
Any enclosure pics?
>>1995395
Ball pythons took over the top spot corn snakes used to have in a similar way.
>>1995399
Certainly. Crestie breeders use them all the time. Just make sure the tub is a minimum of 18 inches in height.
>>1995322
Depends on how big of an enclosure you have it in and how deep the bedding is. The amount of water completely depends on how much bedding there is.
I usually fill up a bucket or large pot with hot water (I find it helps keep the enclosure warm, and may disinfect bedding, not that there's much need for it). In my big 6' enclosure, I probably pour a good 10 gallons at least into it, and my ball python's 110-115 qt tub probably gets 1-2 gallons in it. I just pour the whole bucket/pot full into the water directly, and mix it up.
I've been doing it so long I can pretty much eyeball how much water I'll need, but you'll want to start out slow, and pour it in a bit at a time until you figure out what's needed to get the bedding to the correct dampness. No water should squeeze out when you're done.
I've found spraying the enclosure gives me 30 minutes of humidity, max. I don't have time to mist the enclosure 20 times a day.
I let the bedding go through cycles, and I let it dry out before I wet it again. Which means I'm pouring water into the bedding usually once every 2 weeks. Been doing this 4 years and have had no cons from it beyond the time it takes to wet the bedding, which can take an hour for my big enclosure. No scale rot, no RI. I've gotten baby soft skin, perfect sheds, and perfect hydration. None of my snakes get those vertical lines snakes tend to get when they curl up. When the humidity is allowed to fall, then they do.
>>1995388
I'm the anon that suggested it, and yes, the entirety of the bedding will dry out given time.
The only bad thing is, this method will not work if belly heat is used. UTHs and heat tape simply does not heat the bedding well enough to make it release its humidity fast enough.
So pouring water directly into the bedding will only work if you use some sort of overhead heat. I had major mold issues in the heat tape set ups, which is why I'm forced to use paper towels and sphagnum moss in those tubs.
>>1995419
How much time? I had a flood due to my ineptitude (decided to try increasing the misting, overcalculated how many times i'd need to mist per day) several months ago that required me to manually drain the entire 3 inch drainage layer and the substrate is still somewhat damp. Humidity has finally dropped down to 77%, but it took almost 3 months to get to that point and the actual soil layer didn't even get super wet, just the entire drainage layer had filled. I assume the hydro balls there absorbed a ton of water and let it out over time which is why i'm seeing elevated humidity for so long after this happened.
>>1995338
anoles are all over the place where I live. As a kid I used to catch some and keep them for a few weeks then let them go, shit was cash
>>1995424
In my 6' enclosure that I heat with a RHP and CHE, it takes about 1-2 weeks to dry out completely. In my bp's tub, where I use a red IR bulb on a screen cut into the tub's lid, it lasts a little less than a week.
But, my bedding isn't sopping wet, either. It's damp but not damp enough for there to be a pool of water and no water comes out when you squeeze it. Still, the CHE/RHP/heat bulb probably would heat well enough if that were to happen it would dry out enough to allow the humidity to drop in 5-6 weeks if I had to guess. Then a few weeks more for the bedding to become dry.
>>1995425
When I began using EcoEarth, I started out trying to mist it like everyone else. That...didn't work so well. I'd sit there for half an hour, spraying as much as I could into the bedding. I'm not joking, I'd sit there until the spray bottle was empty, refill it, and go through another bottle. All this resulted in was the top 2 millimeters becoming sopping wet and half an hour later being bone dry again.
So I started mixing it up and spraying it in the same way. Not much better. So I decided to skip the tedious spraying altogether and just poured water into it directly. Works wonders, and I've been doing it since. I'm actually quite surprised more people don't do it, they insist on spraying it multiple times a day or using a misting system.
Letting the bedding release humidity works better than misting or misting systems, because there's a huge floor area constantly releasing humidity that fills the entire enclosure. And instead of room-temp water being sprayed into the air every so often, the water is heated by the heating systems, so there's no drop in temperature, which by default allows the air to hold more humidity. Then of course you don't have to worry about a machine failing you like with a misting system.
Maybe disinfecting isn't the correct word then.
>>1995436
Yeah the usual way to go about it if humidity drops too fast is to block off a large portion of the ventilation. That's with under tank heating, however. It also depends on species. If you have arboreal lizards, part of the purpose of misting is to make water droplets on the decor which the lizards are more enthusiastic about drinking than standing water in a bowl. Temperature is another factor.
What do you have in your big 6 foot tank? Boa?
>>1995436
Mine's not sopping wet, but it is slightly damp to the touch. If it'd been muddy like that, I would have had to just dig up the plants and replace the substrate entirely. It's probably just longer because of retained water in the drainage layer. I got out as much as I could by siphoning, but there was at least 1/2 an inch visible and more probably in the balls.
Though I will say, misting works fine if you don't have a lot of ventilation. My other enclosure for my geckos holds humidity well enough. I spray the whole enclosure, mostly concentrating on the top where the geckos sit so they can drink off the glass. They need misting anyway since they won't drink still water. Humidity gets to about 90% after a minute of manual misting and drops down to 70 about 8 hours later, and I mist once more before bed. Not really much hassle. If you have a top vent, though, you might as well just dump water into the substrate cause it certainly won't hold otherwise.
>>1995438
Yeah, a 6.5' male BCI. I have another one, too, which my retic will go in for a time until she outgrows it. It was originally for my ball python, but she'll need it more than him. He'll be getting a 4'x2' PVC enclosure.
In my belly heat set ups with paper towels, I don't bother with trying to maintain humidity, I've found the water bowls are enough to do the job. In the BRB's tubs, I wouldn't risk it and I use sphagnum moss, which I soak in a tub of water, strain it out as much as possible, and dump back into the tubs. I've found spraying makes little to no difference even in the tubs, so I only spray to flatten the paper towels against the bottom when I change them out.
>>1995440
Yeah in that case, the spraying is more for the animals to drink than it is to maintain humidity. I guess maybe it depends on where you live, but even spraying in my tubs it doesn't raise the humidity by much, maybe 1-2% and only for a very short amount of time. I'd rather dump water into the bedding and forget about it for a week or two than spray it, even if I only have to spray twice a week.
If I had an animal that would rather drink droplets off of stuff, that would be one thing, I'd give them a little spray twice a day without attempting to bring up the general humidity.
>>1995452
Twice a day, not a week.
>>1995452
They still benefit from the rise in humidity, I'm told.
Humidity in my apartment right now is 47%, and 70% in both enclosures. Would be higher in the enclosures but I had the fan on and the window open since I burned something on the stove.
>>1995465
Yes, I'd still maintain humidity the same way I do now, just also give them a spray to drink. Unless you mean it's better for them to have regularly rising/falling humidity?
>>1995440
Anon with the ball that sparked all this
I had noticed the problem when I attempted to mist. With a glass cage, coupled with a mesh top, it just evaporated within the hour. I've got half of it plastic wrapped and just gonna resort to the periodic water dumps. The UTH and Day/Night bulbs should keep it regulated enough to prevent mold from happening, right?
>>1995476
Yeah, the latter. They do best with the humidity reaching a peak 2x a day then dropping down as low as 50%.
>>1995529
People obsess over the humidity too much.
As long as you give it extra moisture when it's about to or in the process of shedding it will be fine.
