Updates, Construction, and a swordfish.

Ok, so the swordfish thing first. Apparently someone hacked the admin password for the blog, and locked me out of it. They didn't change anything, so I assume it was a bot or a virus. I fixed the issue, and now we can move on.

Oh, the swordfish thing? If you've seen the movie Swordfish, you'll get the joke, but the bot or whatever changed the password to 'swordfish'.

Moving on. We've had some lineup changes recently, the most notable being that Aiden, my brother's tegu and the other half of the pair we bought, is living with us until he can get a cage with locking doors. Also, we lost 2 water dragons, one due to MBD caused by a genetic deformity, and another to mishandling of the previous owner .He/she was a rescue, and we did all we could, but the damage was already done.

We now have 2 hatchling brown basilisks. I believe them to be both males. Also, we now have a female Jackson's chameleon. This changes our current count to:

1.1 Extreme Giant Tegus (Varnyard confirmed)
4.2 Bearded Dragons
2.0 Thai Water Dragons
2.0 Brown/Striped Basilisks
0.1 Jackson's Chameleon
0.0.2 Savannah Monitors
0.0.1 Frilled Dragon (Breeding project pending)
0.0.1 Neon Tree Dragon


Also, in other other news, I will be posting a growth chart of all the lizards so we can get a good sampling of growth rates. Our samples are taken on the 15th of every month, and the graph will be posted on a separate page.

Long time no see

I almost posted this without reading the previous post, and I would have looked very silly. The post was titled "It's Tegu Time", and talked about our new female Argentine Extreme Giant Tegu, of which both gender and breeder have been confirmed. Her name is Lacuna, she's 28 inches long, and she's 1 year and (probably) 5 months old, putting her in the last august clutch. Her name comes from the italian word lacuna, meaning 'blank spot or empty area', and refers to her head, which is all white on the top and therefore 'blank' of any black markings. (Note: It can also mean 'gap'. If you want to go that route, it refers to the gap on her head where there is no pattern. So ha.)
Also, here's a picture:

Or three. On to the stuff I was GOING to post before I noticed that this hadn't been posted:

The title of this post serves two purposes: 

1) is that it has been a while since I was able to post, as another security issue locked me out of the blog.

2) is that Matches has escaped into the apartment, and I haven't need him for about a week now. We'll find him, so no worries. I leave food out for him.

Lacuna has been an absolute angel, although she did bite me today. Admittedly, that's my fault for sticking my fingers near her mouth before washing the food smell off of them. She's been able to get in and out of her cage, and she always goes back in, so there's really no problem there. Everyone is eating well, even Winston. He's actually decided he likes green things, even after vehemently denying it for weeks now. 

In other news, Winston bites. Alot. Enough to warrant an 'I Bite' sign on his cage.

In OTHER other news, everyone's doing pretty good. I'm trying to organize some reptile awareness stuff  in my area, but my resources are limited in terms of numbers and manpower. 

I'd like to end this post with a joke, but I couldn't think of one.

Hey everyone, I know it's been a while, so here's a bunch of updates. As you know, we own a Savanna Monitor (I have been recently informed that there is no 'h' at the end of Savanna). His/her name is Matches, and s/he looks like this:

We were also lucky enough to come across a Frilled dragon, which we have decided to call Marble. Here he is in his temporary container, and again in my hand for size comparisons. He's been doing pretty good, although keeping his humidity up is a bit difficult at times. He's been eating pretty good, although he does alot of it when he thinks we aren't looking. (note: We aren't sure if Marble is a girl or a boy.)

Now this is a picture of his temporary enclosure, until he gets a bit bigger and is moved to his full-size enclosure, which will probably be about the size of a phone booth. This picture shows a UV 10.0 bulb and basking lamp, but the UV lamp was causing him to squint and be lethargic, so we turned it off. He's got his appetite and color back, and now we're trying to keep him hydrated. He drinks quite a bit, and has a habit of knocking the cypress mulch into the water dish, causing it to absorb all the water. Then, when he goes to get water, all he finds are soggy wood chips, and then he gives me dirty looks until we give him water.








I'm not quite sure how to wrap up this incredibly long post, so here's a picture of my cat sitting in a 65 gallon fishtank.

Everything's all set up

Well, we finally got everything pretty much the way we like it. I bought some garage shelving, and we arranged the cages on it. Pics to come.
     If you're a regular reader, then you know we went to Repticon this year in Charlotte, NC. Well, we brought home 2 friends: A Frilled Dragon, and a Savannah Monitor. The frillie is doing pretty good, although we have had some issues regarding the UV bulb that resulted in us turning it off. The monitor is doing quite well, but can be aggressive. Their names are Marble (frillie), and Matches (sav). Look for them in upcoming posts, and look for me in the emergency room.

update on my little no-name

So my little yellow female beardie is doing alot better. She isnt doing that funny walk or squinting her eyes anymore. She is basking and eating normally too. Before i left Ace's she had a peice of shed in her mouth, it looks like it came off her foot, so the whole thing may have been a shed that wouldnt come off. Ace said he had bathed her yesterday and the day before so i guess that helped lift up the shed. Yay :)

An injury

So we came back from skiing and my itty bitty was acting funny. Lifting her leg up and looking at it, walking low to the ground, squinty eyes. So we picked her up immediately and checked her over.
It seems she was bitten in the crook of her back foot. Because its the crook we doubt her tank mates did it (Black Beard is still being separated), it sounds more likely that a cricket bit her. It looks like it too, tiny little red spot that doesn't look like 'Nugget' bit her (Ace's itty bitty is lovingly referred as a chicken nugget because of how round she is).
We got her eating, since it seemed like she was having trouble getting to the crickets before 'Nugget' does. She looks like she is in pain though, only food or sudden movements really get her to open her eyes completely. I hope she'll feel better and doesn't contract an infection. Ace says she is doing ok and the bite doesn't look worse.

But everyone else is doing ok, Winston is doing good with eating. He will have his beardi belly back. Tai is not eating again, not sure why again.... hopefully he's just bored. Apparently water dragons can get bored with their food. Charizards still fat and happy, and an attention whore. Ivan's colors, OMG he has them. We will post pictures soon, or rather Ace will.

First Beard

So Charizard had his first black beard yesterday. We had Winston out and the old man decided he wanted to walk around a bit. He hopped off the couch onto the floor next to Charizards tank is (unfortunately we dont have any stands or enough tables to put a 29L on or a 20L). Charizard looked over sat him and puffed up like a balloon, and his beard turned jet black. We laughed a minute before Charizard started head bobbing at a dragon twice his size, then retrieved Winston. Charizard settled down a bit later, his beard stayed black for a while. Hes good now, we had them both out later and neither one made a move towards dominating one another. Charizard was probably saying that this was his turf.

Water Dragon Wackyness

Ok, I have to be honest. I'm not sure if I spelled Wackyness correctly. Part of me wants to put an 'i' where the 'y' is, and then a part of me thinks that the first part of me is stupid for even trying that.

Moving On! So, we got another water dragon for Tai, and we moved them into a 55g tank. They love it. They're already eating, and it's overall a great environment for them. The water below contains feeder fish, as well as 2 of my pet fish that should be fine in the tank. Here's a video:

They're eating now, so that's a good thing. Their lack of appetite was caused by tank stress. Anyways, yeah, it's an awesome tank. Also, we bought Charizard a rock. He hasn't used it yet.

Winston is being an ass, as usual, but he's eating now, so that's good. 

EDIT: Turns out, it's actually spelled 'wackiness'. Looks like that part of me isn't so dumb after all.

Rescue

So forever ago when we picked up Ivan from the mount holly pet store we saw an adult beardie. Well i visited them a few days ago and he was still there, in worse condition than when we last saw him. So we picked him up today. He is now called Winston and is warming up in a temporary 20L.

His condition is much poorer than we previously though, besides being filthy he is very under weight. The only fat on him his his tail and thunder thighs. The fat pads in his head are depleted and he has no beardie belly. The pet shop usually took ok care of the animals they had, but snakes dont need food every day like a bearded dragon does. He may not have been eating though, either way we hope to get some weight back on him.

Every one else is doing good, fat and happy. Tai may or may not be burmating. We thought he was and now were not so sure. We will be getting a 20 gal from a friend<?> or ex of Ace's. Ashe had borrowed a tank and she cant keep it anymore so we'll be picking it up. I think the 2 un-named itty bittys will go in that so Black Beard can have the 10 gal to himself till he gets bigger. So far nobodys missing toes or any  nips of any sort. My itty bitty has also stopped arm waving :)

Wow... Long Time No See

Yeah, it's been a while. We've been very busy, but we're back on schedule and should be posting daily, if not more often. We will have pictures, as soon as my phone completes its charging cycle and I can get them on. We've got alot of good ones, and they'll get posted. Also, for those readers who enjoyed the video feed, unfortunately there is something wrong with it. The video feed will not be up until I finish building our server desktop computer.

     In other news: We're working on getting new shelving put up for the tanks, as well as a few other additions to the family. Just to bring you up to speed, we adopted two tiny bearded dragons from Petsmart, and then a third a couple weeks ago. Everyone's eating, drinking, shedding, and defecating properly, so everything looks pretty good.

     We're going to Repticon on January 8th and 9th in Charlotte, North Carolina! Come see us!

Old news should have been posted a while ago....

Happened on the 18th guys

Hokay, so we went to petsmart yesterday. Were out of crickets and until Ace got paid today we needed some to tide everyone over till we order more. But we got our crickets and looked at their reptiles, cooing over them at how adorable baby beardies are. But upon closer observation one little guy was in shed, no big deal right? Yea, well this guy was having serious trouble with his shedding, it looked as if he had a rubber-band around his belly where his shedded skin was constricting him.

I found an assosiate and mentioned to him that the little guy needs a luke warm bath and he'll probably be ok. Now according to him he couldnt do anything about it since he's not the reptile expert, apparently that guy comes in this morning. Honestly the little beardie shouldnt have had to wait that long to receive attention. Especially since he really just needed a warm soak to loosen the shedded skin. I'll be going back after class to see if he did tell the morning people that that beardie needed attention. If not i'm taking all 3 of them, there on sale as well.

Now i know Ace and i already have a menagerie of animals but i dont feel comfortable leaving those 3 in their care, along with the shedding there were crickets roaming the cage as they basked. And if i recall they were on sand? I know the little leopard gecko was, he was very thin. I was told he had just come in, but why the fuck would you put a obviously ill animal on the floor. It makes you look bad. It is only relocation stress i'm sure, but nobody wants to see a stressed gecko in a brightly lit tank.

Hopefully a deal can be struck, otherwise we may leave 1 there. But i'd rather have all 3, because if something that little was ignored then the healthier looking guys aren't far behind in being neglected in a similar fashion. Update again when we have this resolved.

EDIT PART 2

So we went between my class and work to check up on the beardies. I didnt see the sheddy guy so i asked a supervisor if he had been seen to. To my relief he had received a warm bath that morning, made me feel so much better.

We then picked up the 2 pretty ones we liked and rescued them as well, one has red side bars and the other was yellow with black tiger stripes with a bit of red speckling. I had to leave for work soon after setting them up.

Unfortunately the little tiger striped one started going downhill, as i feared because Petsmart doesnt take the best care of them. Ace took him back and he was seen by a vet. They gave us a replacement beardie, one from the back. I havent seen him yet but apparently he looks similar to Charizard. Hopefully the tiger striped guy will be ok, its to early for him to go up to beardie heaven.

EDIT PART 3

Everyone's good, the itty bittys are shedding. After listening to Ace's diagnosis on the one tiger stripe that went back it looked like he had internal bleeding. So it is unlikely he survived :(. At least he's in a better place, hopefully. If hes still alive and at petsmart then thats not good, i need to check that petsmart to see if he did make it or not. Might just whine at them to let me have him back if he lived :p

Oh btw

Ace is back BTW, dunno why he hasnt updated. Aparently i missed something during D&D planning with Charizard. Hopefully he'll remember he can post here too :p.

But i've discovered something, according to the bearded dragon forums the UVB we have isnt good enough and will hurt Charizards eyes and make him lethargic. Charizard is fine, pooping and eating properly. Tai however is the one bothered by his UVB, he was lethargic and wouldn't open his eyes much. So we turned his UVB off and he perked up almost instantly, and decided to eat more than 5 mealies in one sitting. Now we just need a new UVB for him and to watch Charizard carefully in case it happens to him too.

Day 1 of pet sitting

So everyone's good at Ace's apt. Ivan got out though..... thankfully he was on the kitchen counter. Putting him back in his tank however was not an easy task, nails in a open blender is an accurate description of him when he's cranky. 

 

Everyone's been fed today, though Charizard wasn't happy about getting more veggies than crickets this morning. He however got more crickets in the afternoon, and i was surprised that he ate his veggies. (I think Ace hasn't been leaving them in long enough) 

 

But so far so good, almost out of mealies though :/. I'll pick some up tomorrow.

Pet sitting?

So Ace is out of town for 1-2 days this weekend. His grandfather's taking him down somewhere in Florida, possibly the everglades or something. His grandfather has his own plane so it is easy for them to do this willy-nilly.

But i'll be watching all the critters at the appt. I'm not sure if you can consider it pet sitting if i see them on a nearly daily basis, either way its cool.

Also, apparently i'll be getting a present from Florida. Probably a lizard of some sort, honestly i don't care. I'm happy either way, though a leopard gecko would be cool. We already have a tank for one :p, just need a bigger one for Charizard and he can have it :)

:D

Tai ate his first cricket!

We've been offering them along with mealies, he likes the mealies. He hasn't ever shown interest in the crickets though, until now! He ate one, like went after it and ate it. We were so proud of him :)

Also, Charizard's still a fatass and Ivan is doin pretty ok. He's pretty lazy but alert most of the time, and eating so we assume hes doing a lot better than he has been.

Back with good news and bad news

We got back last night, with a wonderful surprise :)

The Friend Ace had watching everyone cleaned the appt. It was ok until we got back to finish up but she vacuumed and straightened up stuff. But now we gotta keep it nice and clean, and do laundry. But no laundry until the washer\dryer is hooked up and we need an adapter to do that.

But enough about us.

Charizard, Tai and Ivan are good. Charizard's appetite is back in full swing, he has been eating a bit less lately. Probably due to shedding. But he's good. Tai seems to be eating better, though I'm not over enough to know, Ivan as well.

Unfortunatly we do have bad news, Ace's Stingray whom had not received a name passed away today. The Ornate Bichir that was in with him continuously took nips out of his disk. We moved the Ornate as soon as we were sure it was him, since he was taking nips out of the Long Fin Senegal Bichir too. However this didn't help much.  The Stingray probably developed an infection from the bites, having had so many. Part of his tail had been nipped as well. We just got to him too late, and he sadly passed. He will be missed, hopefully he'll have a better life somewhere else away from Ornate Bichir.

Out of town

Updating from Ace's account, this is LaPrice.

Yea were gonna be out of town this weekend. Got a friend to watch the lizards and fish, so there covered. Will explain when we return.

Crickets

So apparently when Ace was fixing the cricket box's lid or something his cat got curious. She supposedly tipped the egg carton hider things and they stood up over the duct tape lining. The crickets apparently walked out. Half walked out. Its so loud, so glad I'm not sleeping there. But we've been picking them up off the floor whenever we can, and tossing them back into the box. It seems to me that mostly the little ones got out, which Charizard eats, the ones with wings are way to big for him. Even the mediums can push it in size sometimes.

Thats it for today, updates tomorrow i guess :p

Basic day today, well yesterday rather

Not much happened to my knowledge, i didn't get to see Ace or the rest of the boys much yesterday. I do know that Charizard and Ivan had fun at Petsmart when we went to get food for Tai. Tai is picky or he honestly cant eat crickets. We aren't sure but we picked up either mealies or wax worms for him. He likes those better, but i don't know how much better they are for him because of the mealies shells. He eats his greens fine, but he cant just eat those.

Charizard has a new little bowl of water in his tank, not necessarily for him to drink out of, he can if he wants. Its to bring up the humidity to at least 20 in his tank, the new light is hot and its perfect for basking but it takes almost all the moisture out of his house. It shouldn't be high, but it needs to be about 20-30 so he doesn't dehydrate quickly.

Ivan also came to my house for the first time, he wasn't welcomed nearly as much as he is in Petsmart. Though he wasn't told to leave XD. His lip is getting better, though it did start to bleed, i think he spazzed and smacked it on my laptop. It wasn't bleeding bad, but it was a concern. We need to take Ivan to the vet regardless though, out of all 3 of our reptilian army he needs a checkup more. Tai and Charizard will be going soon enough, but they aren't showing signs of deteriorating health and parasites. Ivan seems to be doing better, but I'd like to make sure. Only thing is neither me or Ace have much money at the time being, though i have found the vet that Charizard's mother's mom recommended. They aren't far away, but i dunno how costly it is.

In memoriam

The title of this post is misleading. No one died.

The real point behind it is to thank a bunch of people:
Ms. Dr. Kneidel: For sparking my interest in insects and reptiles at a young age.
Mr. Dr. Kneidel: For tolerating my constant annoyance and urging my interests in insects and reptiles.
Also thanks to the entire Kneidel family for my trip to Costa Rica, what little I remember...
Dr. Menhenick of UNCC: For helping me remember why I got into studying bugs.
Don Seriff: For showing me that my passion for animals has practical applications.
And most of all, to Laura Price, for helping me regain the drive and passion I had lost, and reviving my childhood dream of working with reptiles and insects.

I hope to go somewhere with this, to go into teaching or research, or anything I can do. I had forgotten what I loved, what I studied, what I devoted my life to. I started studying bugs and reptiles at around 3 years of age, and I only stopped after I left Warren Wilson College, because I couldn't find a practical application for what I wanted to study. That was a stupid mistake. I should never have abandoned my childhood ambitions. So thank you to everyone who supported me, everyone who helped me, and most importantly, to all the childhood bullies. The ones that called me freak, and weird, and crazy. The ones who used to steal my books, laugh at my drawings, and call me stupid. I wouldn't be who I am today without all the support, whether negative or positive. So, to all the people who supported me, thank you. To all the people who laughed at me, I'm dedicating my lunch hour to blowing raspberries at all of you.



Wow... That was long. Sorry about that. Back to business, then. Fixed the light timers in all the cages, changed out water, fed and petted the lizards, managed to avoid getting bitten by Ivan, sprayed Charizard with water, and almost walked out the door with Tai asleep on my head.

Before I forget, I need to measure all the animals tonight. The Setup page is missing that information. (Also, Tai is still listed as nameless, but by the time anyone reads this, I will have updated it.