Hammocks!

My friend Mary has been sewing hammocks for me to sell in my Etsy shop and they are SO soft. Today I added two more hammocks to my tanks-- one for Smaug and one for Neville. Dash & Noel have their hammocks already.

 Smaug on his chevron print:

Neville on his brown hammock:

Dash hardly moves out of his. He's been very happy to lounge on his all day & all night.

I think I'm going to try giving one to Max and Tiger too. They are super soft and machine washable. It's one of the best things in my shop.

Click HERE for more info.

Reptile Roll Call for January 5, 2017

Here's most of my reptile zoo (minus the 3 ball pythons who didn't want to leave their hides to have their pictures taken; I have Lucy, Sunny, & Bones). Also, Gumby, the MBD leopard gecko didn't want to come out either.

First the Torts. I only have FOUR! That amazes me. 

Georgie, my female Leopard tortoise 

Hermy, my hibernating Desert tortoise

Leo, the happy little Russian tort

Otis, our house tort

And now my beardies-- 

Baby Sawyer, with a little pudgy food belly

Dash, my old man who is shedding

Flame, who is also shedding 

Gen, my big girl who is sorta bruminating

Max, my big boy who is 6 years old

Neville, the latest addition 

Noel, who is looking sickly this morning

Smaug, my big boy who is looking for a home as the ONLY beardie

Tiger, who has been wheezing again :( 

Ziggy, who has pretty much trashed his tank in the last few days 

 And last, but not least, Lady Squinty Dink the Dainty Skink of bluTonguesville!

Couldn't get the lighting right for a good pic 

We also have two dogs (Belle & Teddy) and a hedgehog (Pixie).

Update on the latest Rescues

Sunny had surgery on Thursday and had a rough weekend. The 3rd day always seems to be the worst day. She's more active today. 

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Leo the Russian tortoise is doing GREAT!! He eats and drinks everyday and looks & acts so much better. He loved the raspberries I gave him today: 

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The unnamed chameleon is putting on weight and still hates my guts. She should be ready to be adopted out soon. 

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Drake is doing terribly. :( He's going to the vet again tomorrow. His eyes used to seal shut every few days, but now it's almost twice a day. He acts like he can't breathe either. I'm not sure what else we can do for him. He hates me cleaning his eyes and the stress of it makes him struggle to breathe. 

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Dash has been eating like a pig!! He will be able get back up to normal weight easily. He loved the raspberries today. I had to flick them with my finger to catch his interest. 

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Curly will be headed to his new foster home tomorrow. He is active and loves eating. I had him wrapped in a blankie the other night and he loved it! 

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3 of the 6 snakes are going home tomorrow. Phew! That will leave me with 3 snakes, 1 tegu, 1 chameleon, 6 tortoises, and 9 bearded dragons. Only 20 reptiles! That's sorta low for me. :) 

Dash, rescue 162

Dash is a 9 year old Beardie! NINE!! 

He's an old gentleman. I am so surprised that someone could let him go after that many years! Poor guy! 

He learned to drink immediately! I loved it! 

He is loving the heat lamp in his tank. He spends most of his day flattened out underneath it. His caretaker said he didn't eat greens, but he ate some for me. He needs some good food in him to help him put on weight. He's a bit too skinny. 

Beardies usually live (normally) between 8 and 13 years. I've heard of a 15 year old Beardie and that's a record. Sadly most are poorly cared for and live less than 8.  Dash will be needing a forever home- somewhere he won't be bounced again. I'll let ya'all know when he's ready to go. 

Taking in New Rescues

Today I took in two beardies and took pics of what I do when I take in a new Beardie. 

When a Beardie comes in with supplies, it usually looks like this in my front room-- like someone threw up supplies! 

These two tanks had walnut shell in them! Yuck!! 

That had to be the first thing to go-- after I picked out the crickets that weren't being eaten. 

I use a small dustpan and scoop the nasty stuff in the trash. I found old poop, cricket parts, weird things I couldn't recognize, pieces of shed, etc. As I breathed it in, I wondered how a Beardie could survive when inhaling all the dust while digging in the walnut shell. 

Once it's clean, I wipe the whole tank down with a lemon antibacterial wipe. I want to kill any and all germs or parasites that bred in the walnut shell. I let the antibacterial wipe dry on its own. Then I wipe the whole thing down a couple times with a clean, wet washcloth. 

I had pieces of linoleum already cut to a 40 gallon tank so I put that in the bottom of the tank. 

When I pulled the first Beardie out, I cut his nails. Oh! They were long!! 

He did not like it! 

Once his nails were trimmed, I let him run around the room while I cleaned. Teddy and Kreature watched. 

I washed off all the logs and branches in the sink to wash off all the dust. Then I repeated the process with the second tank and Beardie. The whole cleaning process took just over an hour. 

Once the two tanks were set up, I moved them farther away from Kreature's tank. He was a little too interested in them. 

Luckily I had just ordered extra UVB bulbs and had brand new ones to put on their tanks. 

Using two zip ties looped around the light fixture and each other, I hang the UVB lights on the back of the tank with two plant hooks. 

I didn't quite get the lights hung because I had to run to the vet to pick up Sunny, but they are at least on top. 

Both beardies had coil UVB lights. The long tubes hanging inside the tank (not being filtered by a screen) are the best way of getting UVB to a Beardie. 

Thankfully, both beardies came with names! :) It's always a relief when I don't have to pick more names. I'll post about them tomorrow. 

PS. I keep my tanks pretty empty. When you have 15 tanks to care for, it's much easier if you keep them plain. These two will probably get a hammock added in and a few more dishes. I just used what they had so there was familiar objects for them.