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.
****************************************************************************

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

Pic of the Week

Alpha's always trying to get at Darwin when he's out and about the living room.  I guess she's jealous of his freedom... Then again, last time Darwin walked up to the glass to have a look at this little creature that tries to dig through the glass to get at him, Alpha actually leaped at him, startling him to leap back.  Thank goodenss there was glass in between.  She's either really brave, or really stupid... My vote's for stupid, LOL.  She's her daddy's girl, and as much as I love Rex (and still miss him as he's not been found yet), he was always a little light in the brains category.

Alpha!  Point to remember:  Darwin could eat you!  Silly lizard.

~J

The Dragon and the Christmas Tree

Darwin seems to have a little bit of a facsination with our Christmas tree.  It's pretty cute, actually :)

Now for an update on Rex:  We still haven't found him.  Nine days missing, but there is hope... My friend's gecko went missing for six months in a small apartment and was still alive when they finally found him.  I'm crossing my fingers for Rexxor.

~J

All I Want For Christmas...

Is to have my baby boy home safe.  One week has gone by and we have not seen hide nor poop of rex.  When he first went missing, we found three poops behind his tank.  We assume that at least one of them may be from the first time he got out.  Anyway, in our search we've been looking for poop hoping that it could give us some indication of the general area Rexxie may be hiding in.  Unfortunately, we've turned up nothing.  We've moved all the furniture and turned everything upside down.  I can't imagine how he could get out of the apartment... There are no vents or open doors.  My mind has jumped to a million and one horrible conclusions, and two nights ago I broke down and sobbed for a good hour while I did dishes.

I just can't bear the thought that he might be trapped or injured somewhere, and dying a slow death waiting for someone to find him and rescue him.  Not knowing where he is or what has become of him is eating me away inside and now my mind wanders to the most horrible scenarios, like, what if he got into the garbage and accidentally got thrown out?  Oh god... I can't think about throwing him out... It's just so horrible and unjust for an innocent creature who had no other option but to trust it's well-being in your hands.

My heart is broken.  I want Rex back so badly I don't know what to do.

This one is Rex sleeping in his water dish with his arms and legs hanging over the sides.  It was taken with a cell phone so it's not great quality, but it was a damn cute moment :)

I'm still holding out hope for you, honey.  I "accidentally" let a cricket or two escape every so often... Come home baby boy.

~J

Oh Rexxor, Where Art Thou?

We've had to change the configuration of our living room in order to better accomodate our tanks, but it comes a day too late.

You see, the way the tanks were before, the one on the bottom shelf couldn't have a screen on top.  Initially that was Darwin's tank, but after he escaped once we decided that maybe it would be a better idea to put Darwin on top where he could have a screen because he's bigger, a better climber and a better leaper and the geckos never leap or climb very high. 

Then came the day that Rex escaped and Darwin found him.  That made us realize that both tanks were going to have to have screens, which meant we were going to have to move some things around.  The plan was to move it all when I got home from work last night... which we did, but unfortunately Rex had already disappeared again sometime yesterday before we got a chance to do our thing. 

We have turned our apartment upside down looking for him, and we can't find him anywhere.  I'm so worried about the little guy and so afraid that he's going to get hurt or get into something where he's going to accidentally get crushed.  We are going to continue looking, and going over all the same places we've already gone over, so hopefully at some point he's going to show up somewhere.  I just hope we find him while he's still alive...

Poor Rex :'(  Come home, sweetie pie.

~J

Darwin Chillin with Daddy

Just a couple pics of Darwin chillin with John :)

~J

News of the Nursery

Well, since the hatching of our little blind Delta and her twin sister, Echo, we've had two more babies hatch.  Welcome to the family, Foxtrot and Gamma!  We now have the two adults, two juveniles, and five infants with only two eggs to go for this season.  So far we've lost about four eggs, which is sad, but all in all I'd say it's still been a pretty successful run.

Also, since we decided to change from paper towel to sand in the nursery the babies seem to have stopped eating as regularely.  We're not sure if it's the sand, or the fact that we chose black sand (which we later found out can throw them off a little), so we've decided to change their bedding again.  This time they've got reptile carpet.  Not as easy to maintain as sand or paper towel, but healthier than sand and cheaper than paper towel in the long run.  It's also the most often recommended substrate so it seemed like a decent choice.

There are three babies chillin in that little cave, getting used to their new carpet and recovering after the somewhat stressful experience of being moved from the tank to a bucket and back again.

We've started feeding Delta on a regimine of water with diluted vitamin powder from an eye-dropper, as well as organic mixed vegetable baby food.  Here she is licking some baby food off the tip of John's finger.  She's such a sweet little thing, and her twin sister is already twice her size (she may be a dwarf and not ever grow to full size)... As a result she has fast become my favourite of the baby geckos.  Aint it always the way?

~J

Darwin Rescues Rex

Okay, in all honesty Darwin didn't really rescue Rex, and in fact if he'd been given the opportunity I'm sure he probably would have fought that little leopard gecko to the death.  But the fact remains that if Darwin hadn't been roaming around the living room, Rex might be dead.

Most evenings I let Darwin out to run around a little bit, to get some exercise and at the same time give me some amusement.  Well, the other night I had Darwin out and was sitting on the floor about to go pick him up when I noticed he was looking very intently towards the couch.  I followed his gaze to see Rex creeping out from under the couch, slowly coming forward to see who or what Darwin was!  Of course my reaction scared both lizards, "WHAT THE HELL?!  REX IS OUT!!", and Rex went running back under the couch.  I grabbed Darwin and put him back in his tank, then we had to lift the couch to get Rex back.  We have no idea how long Rex had been out, but the balcony door was open so it was very cold on the floor.  We might not have noticed him missing until the next day... or even the day after... at which point he may well have been dead.

Perhaps we should re-name Rex 'Houdini'. 

~J

Second Guessing the "Carpet"

I'm finding myself wondering if I should actually have sand in Darwin's tank.  I know that Cameron, our lizard guy, said that sand was appropriate, but I wonder if he wasn't just trying to make the sale knowing that I didn't have the budget to go crazy on substrate.  Don't get me wrong, I don't think Cameron would do or suggest anything that he felt was dangerous for a lizard, as he loves the little buggers way too much.  It's just that all over the internet all the other people I see with beardies have them in much larger tanks, with virtually no sand.  They've got astro-turf, lizard carpet, flat rocks, logs and plants... but no sand.

I worry because when Darwin drags his salad around the tank, the moist leaves pick up clumps of sand, and then he eats them.  Sand can cause impaction and it's really not a good idea to let your dragon eat it.

The white powder on his salad is calcium.  My crickets all died in an unfortunate cricket-incident, so I fed him some of John's crickets this morning.  John's crickets aren't dusted, so I dusted Darwin's salad instead.

I would like to, one day, get Darwin a bigger tank.  Before then, however, I do think I need to change his carpet from sand to something a little more beardie-appropriate.  I'd also like to put some plant life in is tank, as I see a lot of that in other people's beardie tanks and their beardies are all big and healthy looking with big fat tails.  I don't think I quite need to get the bigger tank yet, which is good cuz I can't afford one right now, but when he gets closer to full-grown I definately think my 40 gal wont be suitable...  Which is really making me doubt Cameron's credibility.  He said that a 40 gal is more than appropriate for one or even two dragons.  He said sand was fine.  He told me that Darwin's a boy, but the longer I have him and witness his body language, the more I suspect he's actually a she.  Now I wonder if the age Cameron gave me is correct, and question everything else he's told me about proper dragon husbandry.  Oh yeah, he also told me that Darwin only needs about 6 crickets a day, when everywhere else I've looked has said more like 20-30 for a dragon his age.  I'm so confused.

Anyway, he's steadily growing and seems healthy, happy and active.  I guess I'm doing it right so far... Fingers crossed.

~J

Check your UVB light!

So, I've been concerned about Darwin's health because I'm a paranoid momma and take every little thing as a possible sign of illness.  Certain behaviours that have had me concerned are his tendency to "flex" his fingers upward while his palm is resting on the ground, and the fact that his hands often twitch while doing this.  I still haven't found anything to tell me this is normal, but have learned that it's possible he's either not getting enough calcium or he's not getting enough UVB light which is essential to digesting calcium.

I know Darwin gets enough calcium and nutrition.  I give him greens, gutload his crickets and give him supplements by the book... so I thought, maybe it's the light?  His UVB light is balanced across one corner of his tank because he doesn't have a screen for it to rest on.  I was sure this set-up was still adequate, but decided to have a look and see if there was a way I could optimize it.  This is when I realized that there was a glass slide-in lense in his light fixture!  Glass filters out UVB rays, so it looks like he really wasn't getting enough UVB rays... None at all, actually!

I hope that now that I've taken this slide out of his light fixture he'll be okay.  Going to a vet is not an option right now so all I can do is keep an eye on him and keep my fingers crossed.

He's still quite energetic and has a decent appetite, so I think he'll be fine.  Mind you, yesterday and today he hasn't seemed that interested in his crickets... but he's also actively shedding so maybe that's why.  It sucks that he's not eating his crickets today, because that means that I'm gonna have to go in there and hunt them down and get them out of his tank before bed-time tonight.  Booo.

~J

An Experiment in Substrate

Through our various experiences with baby leos, we've decided to try letting them live on sand substrate from birth rather than starting them out on paper towel.  I don't recommend this for anyone who wants to breed leos, as there is a chance of the little ones ingesting sand and becoming impacted and dying, but we've decided that the chances are low enough to risk it.  Frankly, sand is easier to clean because you can just sift out the poop rather than having to disturb the whole tank by having to take all the paper towel out and replace it.  Besides, we've had babies living on sand before because we ran out of paper towel briefly, and they were just fine.  Really, the paper towel is just procautionary.

This is Charlie and Echo exploring their new sandy home.  Delta is in the wet-box and is difficult to get pics of, but she's Echo's twin (only with much prettier patterning).

I'm very worried about Delta right now.  Baby leos tend to be born with big bulgy eyes and although I don't think they are blind at birth, they certainly look blind.  The thing is, Echo and Delta were hatched just under a week ago (Delta is one day older than Echo), and Echo's eyes were only buggy for about a day or two.  Delta's eyes haven't normalized yet, and actually look as though there might be something wrong with them.  Her bottom lids look swollen, and you can't even see her irises... her eyes are just dark grey.  I guess it's just a waiting game, now.  We'll see how she looks in a couple of days.  I hope she's okay, I'd be so heartbroken if one of my babies suffered and/or died.

On an upnote, Darwin got a new log to climb on today and seems to be enjoying it:

~J

The Elusive Alpha

Finally have another couple pics of the elusive Alpha.  She hides a lot and is a lot more skiddish than the others, so she's tough to get pics of.  Here she is.

She looks like she's pretty close to shedding.  Maybe one day I'll snag a pic of her while her colours are at their brightest.

~J

This Week in the Lizard Household

We've had two more leo eggs hatch, yay! Delta hatched on the 10th and Echo on the 11th, and they're now happily sharing the nursery tank with Charlie. I don't have any pics of the new ones yet because the tank needs to be cleaned tomorrow, so I'll take pics after that.


Alpha and Beta have now moved in with their mommy in the big tank, and the side that was originally portioned off for them now houses Rex because we don't want him to continue getting Buddy pregnant, and he seemed miserable on the other side of the nursery tank. Besides, with all the eggs we've got on the go we needed all the space in the nursery for new hatchlings.

Although geckos aren't supposed to have any maternal instinct or famillial recognition, Buddy has behaved nothing but protective of Alpha and Beta since they moved in. Buddy will even get in the way between us and them if we're reaching in to take one of them out... Explain that one!

Here are a couple pics of Buddy holding vigil over Beta as she takes a nap in the sand:

And to finish things off I'll leave you with my favourite pic of Darwin this week, being all majestic :)

later bitches

~J

PS... I almost forgot the absolute lizardy highlight of my week!  Tonight I took Darwin out of his tank just before his bedtime, and he snuggled down into the crook of my elbow in the folds of my big comfy sweatshirt, and snoozed off.  Aaaaawwwwww.... My wittle baby <3  lol