Reptile Care... Don't believe everything you see/read/hear.

The internet, and the vast amount of information it provides to our fingertips, is a great tool for getting the knowledge you need for just about anything.  However, because there are no real regulatory agencies "vetting" websites, blogs, and video posts, it means that anyone can post their opinion on any subject at any time whether it is true or not.  What does this mean for reptile care?  It means that if you are looking for advice on reptile care, although the internet is a decent tool, you MUST take everything you see with a grain of salt.  Some advice given on the internet is good, but much of it is misleading and possibly dangerous to your animal.  Another dangerous source of information, possibly even more dangerous than the internet where you can find hundreds of opinions and make an educated hypothesis from the sum of all information presented to you, is at your local pet store.  These people are almost NEVER experts, and simply want to sell you things, so their advice often leaves out important facts and details that you really need to know in order to keep a healthy reptile.

If you are looking for real advice, your best source of information is a certified herpetological veterenarian, and/or SEASONED breeders.  I say "seasoned" because anyone can buy a male and female reptile and breed them, which does not an expert make.  If the breeder has been breeding for years, however, and has had great success with some minor failures (previous failures are necessary in becoming an expert because it's not good enough to just know what works, you also need to have learned through experience what does not work), he is a good source of information as well.

Also, take into consideration that contradictory information doesn't necessarily mean that one opinion is correct and the other is not.  Reptiles are animals, after all, and they live in nature.  Nature is often unpredictible, and therefore there is no real "exact" mathematically correct way to raise a reptile with all other methods failing.  For example, there is great debate in the desert reptile world about the use of sand.  Some people will tell you that sand is dangerous and increases the possibility of reptile impaction.  This is a true statement as sand can cause impaction, however when a breeder tells you that sand is okay to use, he is also correct for the simple reason that impaction caused by sand is not really that common.  I myself have been breeding leos for a few years, using sand the entire time with never a single impacted animal amongst the hundreds that have come and gone through my menagerie.  Another debate I have heard a lot of varying opinions about is whether or not leos require a "wet box".  The answer to this question is simply... No.  They do not require a wet box for their general survival, but a wet box does provide them with a humid spot to go to when they feel they need one (such as when they are shedding their skin), and does not cause any harm to them.  A wet box is cheap and easy to make and adds "quality" to your leos life, so why not have one?  Sure, it's not necessary, but it wont do any harm either.

The bottom line is, what works for one reptile owner may not necessarily work for another.  A reptile owner may be actually harming their lizard without even knowing it, and believe the whole time that they are doing everything correctly.  Do not just take advice from someone who happens to have a lizard.  Take advice from someone who has OLD lizards, ones that have lived a long life (an indicator that they have been kept healthy and happy), from seasoned breeders and actual certified herp-vets.  Unfortunately everyone online thinks they're experts (including me! ha ha), so read and research a LOT before you decide to adopt an exotic animal of any kind.

~J

The Dragon and the Mouse

**EDIT** since I posted this blog several months ago I have been informed by a seasoned bearded dragon breeder that mice, even pinkies, are not a good idea to feed to beardies as they can cause liver problems.  I have stopped given darwin mice and he is back on a diet of insects and salad.  If you do wish to feed your dragon pinkies, I don't personally think that one every now and then is such a bad thing.  Just avoid making this your dragons primary source of protein.
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I also forgot to mention that Darwin's been eating hoppers lately (baby mice).  Normally he's quite happy to gobble down the delightful little morsels, but this one little mouse must have been special because Darwin didn't eat him... In fact, Darwin sheltered him for a little nap!  Days went by and I kept offering the hopper to Darwin, and Darwin just kept letting the little bugger crawl all over him.  After a while the mouse just died from improper housing (I try to feed them and whatnot but I really don't have a proper set-up).  The next hopper I put in the tank was gobbled down without reservation.  Hmmmmm....

~J

Updates in the Lizard Household

Darwin got his first experience going outside in the grass and sunshine this month:

Startled by people walking nearby, he ducks into the grass:

And in the gecko world, the colony has aquired a new toy... A "canopy", or hammock, that they've all taken great interest in:

In other gecko news, our momma Buddy is laying eggs again, along with her two eldest daughters, Alpha and Godzilla.  All three have each laid one clutch of two so far, with many more on the way.  Last year Buddy had nine successful hatchlings, so we could be looking in the ball park of 25 to 30 babies by the end of this season.  Uh... If you know anyone who wants to buy some pretty leos, let me know! 

~J

Rex LIVES!

Well, four months almost to the day since Rex first escaped his tank and went missing somewhere in our apartment, the little effer is alive and home!  John found him yesterday while grabbing some video games for the kids to bring to their grandparents place... Rex was just chillin' on top of the games and took off like a shot when he was discovered.  It took John twenty minutes to pull the whole entertainment unit apart chasing Rex, who finally hid himself in the back amongst the jungle-like tangle of wires and cables... But he didn't hide well enough and John caught him. 

Now, unfortunately we don't have a tank set up specifically for Rex and since his disappearance things have changed.  We can't put him back in the tank that he was in when he went missing because that tank now houses Buddy (Rex's mate), and 7 of Rex's daughters who are now reaching sexual maturity.  Yes, you can mate offspring with their parents in the lizard world, but the idea creeps me out and we are not going to let it happen.  The only other tank that we currently have set up is Delta's tank, so poor little half-blind Delta now has to share her wee little space with her daddy.  She's quite dwarfed and we're pretty sure that Rex wouldn't try to mate with her and even if he did she likely wont be capable of getting pregnant.  I'm hoping that within a week or two we'll be able to set up our last tank which currently sits empty so we can give little Delta back her space.  It just needs a heat lamp and some furniture and it's good to go.  We shall see.  Maybe we'll even set it up as a little love nest for Buddy and Rex and start another round of breeding!  Of course, we have to fatten him up first because he's lost a lot of weight in the four months that he was missing.  I'm pretty sure Buddy would just kick his ass if he came a knockin' right now!

~J

Darwin's Growth Chart

So, I was looking through some photos we took of Darwin back in October and November and realized.... He's gotten really big since then!  I mean, I knew he was growing, but seeing these old pics makes me appreciate just how little he actually was. 

at 7 months old:

Now, at 11 months old:

See the difference?  No?  Well maybe the next two will help!

Then, at 7 months old:

Now, at 11 months old:

Yup... He sure is getting to be a big boy!  The scariest part is, it takes them about two years to reach their full size and he's not quite even one year old yet!  Wow!

~J

Highlights of January

Darwin got a hammock this month and now sleeps in it every night.  No more than 10 minutes after the lights go out, he crawls up into his hammock and calls it a night.  He also seems to like to spend a fair amount of time basking during the day in it as well!

In gecko news:  We are down to having only three babies left in the nursery tank!  Hilo and Igor were born in late December and will graduate, along with Delta who is still living in the nursery due to her tiny size (she is about a month older than Hilo and Igor, and they have already outpaced her in size), up to the big tank in the next week or two.

Here in this fuzzy pic (sorry), Hilo and Igor take great interest in the worm dish, while Delta sits in the background... She appears to be looking on, but we're not sure how much vision she actually has now that her deformed eyelids have actually started to open revealing that she actually does have eyes afterall.  Still, her eyelids cannot open all the way, and one eye seems somewhat laborious for the little gecko to keep open.

And meanwhile in the big tank the newest arrivals, Echo, Foxtrot, and Gamma seem to be sticking together like glue:

J

Mamma's Boy

Usually Darwin is a pretty independent little dragon.  When we let him out of his tank he runs all over the apartment, exploring every nook and cranny.  He's easy to allow freedom to because he never stays away for very long, always coming back to the basking spot we set up for him in the living room to warm up and then run off to explore again.

Today I was off from work and decided to spend the day in my PJs, chillin' with my lizards and was going to let Darwin out early so he could get some exercise while I did a few chores.  I was in the process of taking Darwin out of his tank and setting up his basking spot, but was trying to do too much at once, taking the tank somewhat apart so that I could clean it while he was running about.  Unfortunately, before I took Darwin out of the tank I accidentally let a light fixture slip and it crashed down into the tank, narrowly missing the little guy.  I'm sure it would have broken bones had it hit him, so thank GOD it didn't.  Darwin freaked out when the light came crashing down, which is totally understandable, and when I took him out of his tank to inspect him for wounds (still unsure at this point whether the light had actually hit him or not) he wriggled free and ran across the apartment faster than I've ever seen him go.

I caught up to him and picked him up and placed him on my chest, where he laid his head breathing fast and heavy for about half an hour.  When I noticed his breathing had finally calmed down I started manipulating his arms, legs, fingers and toes looking for signs of pain or swelling.  He didn't flinch at any point, which I took to be a good sign.  I then figured it had been long enough that I could set him down on the floor and get back to cleaning his tank and whatever other housework I was going to do, but Darwin had different ideas.  I picked him off my tshirt but he struggled and reached back out for me.  I tried to put him down but he grabbed my tshirt and scurried up to my shoulder where he buried his face in my bedraggled hair and stayed there for another hour.  My poor little baby was trauatized.

He's okay, now.  It's been about three hours since the incident and he's back in his tank eating salad and chasing crickets.  Thank goodness that was just a close call and nothing more...  But it leads me to think I have to do something about how precarious that one fixture is when I'm trying to clean the tank. 

**Note to self** Take the dragon out of the tank first, then play with the lights and everything else.

~J

*Edit*  Ive had Darwin out since writing this post and although he seems normal:  running around, chasing crickets, eating greens...  He has a limp.  He is favouring his left arm, but so far there is no swelling and when I move his arms his range of motion doesnt appear to be affected.  Hes just climbed up his log into his hammock, so he climbing is not an issue for him.  Ill just have to keep an eye on him and watch for swelling or anything else weird.

Sand Colour Matters

Over the holidays I was a very busy lady with very little time to snap pictures of our reptilian children, so you'll just have to take my word for it when I tell you that sand colour impacts a baby lizards skin colours.  Over the holidays our set-up for the leos was 3 tanks:  A nursery tank with orange/red lizard carpet for the hatchlings, a junior tank with black sand for the babies that were too big for the nursery tank but still too small for the adult tank, and the adult tank with orange/red sand.  At the beginning of December sometime we moved two of the babies, Charlie and Foxtrot, into the junior tank with the black sand, and within a week their colours had darkened considerably.  After a few weeks, they were both dark grey with black spots and very little distinguishable orange like they'd had while they were in the nursery tank. 

Then we decided that we'd just throw caution to the wind and put them in the adult tank, as they were growing fast at this point and weren't much smaller than the others had been when they were transitioned to the big tank.  Within a day of moving them to the big tank their colours brightened considerably to the point where Foxtrot now has some of the most vivid markings out of all the geckos. 

I only have an "after" picture of Foxtrot, but imagine that not two days before this picture was taken she was dark grey and black with really no other colour at all:

And speaking of colours coming out, Darwin's colours are beginning to brighten quite a bit too.  He's around 9 or 10 months old now and he's turning from his beiges and browns into his adult colours which are going to be bright oranges and reds.

Anyway, he's brumating right now so he's a little boring lately.  He just lays around like a couch-potato with little to no interest in crickets or anything else.  Lazy little bugger, ha ha.  I triggered his brumation when I changed power-bars to his light supply and the timer didn't work properly, so he ended up with way more dark time than normal.  I'm going to give him some time to do his thing, all the while decreasing his daylight a little more every day, and then I'm going to experiment with the idea that maybe I can trigger him to come out of brumation by slowly increasing his daylight every day.  Maybe... I need to do some more reading and whatnot before I try it.

Well, that's it for now.

Still no sign of Rex.

~J