Gut Feelings and Guilt

My cheek is doing much better. I've got one Steri-strip holding the two worst cuts closed and when I go out, I cover it with a ladybug bandage. :) Here's me with Teddy on Sunday. 

I had many people offer to take Midnight from me, but none of them felt right in my gut. Since I started rescuing, I've always tried to "go with my gut feeling" and it's never lead me wrong. I couldn't seem to get a peaceful feeling with any of the offers. 

Finally, a friend of mine emailed me back and that's when I *finally* had peace. I'm taking Midnight to him tomorrow morning. My heart aches. I don't quit easily. If I start something, I do it full force until it's done. Quitting is so hard to do.

Midnight has been stuck in his cage since he attacked me Friday night. It feels me with such guilt and sorrow. I cannot let him out though; I can't even get close to the cage without him freaking out. :( His mouth is all torn up from him rubbing it against the bars. Breaks my heart. 

I'm sorry, Midnight, that your life so far has been so crappy. I'm glad that I loved you when I could. I know you'll find love and happiness to come. 

When it gets BAD

Midnight launched himself at me tonight. He ripped my cheek open with his teeth and scratched my glasses pretty good. 

The cut on the top of my cheek is deep enough to need stitches, but, thanks to my years of reptile rescuing, I'm super good at using Steri-strips and butterfly bandages to close up wounds. I've avoided quite a few visits to Instacare with these skills. 

My husband has the patient of a saint. He eats dinner while tortoises are waxing the floor with their parts and steps over poop to get to the bathroom and sleeps with at least 4 lizards in our room. 

He is a very very good guy. 

But when it comes to me bleeding, he puts his foot down and pushes me to make the hard decision. 

Midnight has to go. 

My heart is heavy. How can I adopt out such a demon? And when he's sweet, he's really sweet. I've made my family work around him and suffer through him for almost 3 months. They all are terrified of him. I have drug my feet, hoping it will improve. It hasn't. 

Sometimes being a rescuer stinks. And not just the poop that stinks. 

:( 

A Girlfriend for Midnight?

I thought maybe Midnight would prefer a stuffed Iggy to a pillow. So I introduced them tonight. 

Midnight was very shy at first. 

I even had the "girlfriend" bob her head a few times. 

He walked closer and closer and then licked her a few times. 

Nope. He wasn't interested. 

He kept crawling forward, bobbing his head, and stalking his prey--- me. 

Sigh. 

I watched Teddy the dog who watched Midnight who watched me. 

Iggy Hormones

Tonight Midnight climbed behind me on the couch, and, before I could move, he chomped my pony tail and wouldn't let go. 

Classic mating behavior. 

Since I was unwilling to let him mate with my hair, I pulled him off and put him back on his cage. 

Five minutes later, he climbed back again. This time I put a pillow as a blockade.

That appealed to him and he wouldn't let go. 

I moved him, still locked on, and the pillow to his cage where he proceeded to mate with it. 

The pillow even fell off the cage and he still didn't let go. I put it back on the cage and he kept at it. 

I have, many times, told people that during mating season, male iguanas can benefit from an "Iguana Love Sock." 

Guess what I'll be Googling tomorrow? 

ay yi yi

Welcome to the Zoo! 

PS. Can you see (again) why iguanas do NOT make good pets? 

Otis says "If I fits, I sits!"

Otis is my 4 year old red foot tortoise. I love this boy! He's my most friendly and most fun tortoise. 

Now that it's colder at night, I put him in my tortoise box with Georgie and Baby Foot. All three of them love hiding in boxes and all three of them destroy boxes quickly by scratching, peeing, and pooping in them. 

I had three boxes in their box this week- one for each of them in just the right size. 

Large for Otis, medium for Georgie, and small for Baby Foot. 

This is, of course, why I found Otis in the smallest box and Baby Foot in the biggest box. 

Tonight I found Otis here: 

He was determined to be in that box with Georgie. 

My red foot tortoises are very social and do better with friends. Georgie, a leopard tortoise, endures her two pesky red foot brothers but doesn't care much if they are there or not. 

I will admit that this is one of two areas where I am directly going against my vet's advice. I cohabitate these three even though they are not all the same tortoise species. It is a risk, but these three have been together all year and are okay with each other. 

In case you were curious-- The other area is that I use baby food to feed critically ill reptiles before using Critical Care food from his office and he disagrees with that. :) That's okay. I've saved more beardies through baby food. 

Iguana Hormones

Iguana hormones turn iguanas (especially the males) into demons. Iguanas also can smell human hormones and that turns them into demons too. 

Midnight is hormonal currently. He's a terror to my family. This is yesterday's "Love Scratches." 

My teen daughter told me the demon iguana was out to get her, but I honestly thought she was being melodramatic. 

Today I watched him around her. Nope. He's being a demon to her. 

When she sits on the couch, he crawls over to her and chases her off. When she's on the floor, he launches himself at the ottoman to get to her. When she's on the rocking chair, he leaps onto the back. The second she leaves, he crawls back onto his cage under his light. 

Tonight I sat down in one rocking chair and she sat down in the rocking chair next to me. Midnight looked like this: 

He stood on the edge of his cage and stared at her. Because I was here, he didn't jump, but he did stare. Total creeper. 

Dr Folland told me of a couple who raised their iguana from a baby but when the wife got pregnant, the Iggy started to attack her. He would race across the room and launch himself at her face. :( 

When the iguana gets really demon-ish, my rescue brother sends links to websites for cooking iguana. Ay yi yi!! 

PS. Junie isn't normally afflicted with hormones until November and December and has actually been very sweet lately. If we had two hormonal iguanas, I would lose my mind! 

Sweet Mango

Lil Mango pooped normally once this afternoon and then passed a very large (considering his body weight) a blood clot. He died shortly after that. 

Obviously something very bad went wrong internally. Poor baby. 

He was warm & toasty & at peace when he died. 

Mid-Afternoon Mango

Mango's color improved after the trauma of being held and poked with a shot. 

That's the good news. 

The bad news is that I found him laying on his side. :( 

If he makes it through until the morning, I'll give him food, a baby food slurry with some vitamins. 

There's still some hope that he'll pull through since he's still alive, but it's going to take a miracle for the lil guy. 

The Second Saline Shot

The second saline injection really took its toll on Mango. He looks dreadful again. :( 

It's such a roller coaster of ups and downs. 

Rescue is not for the faint of heart. 

Mango made it through the Night

Mango made it through the night. I'm making a warm steam tent for him for a bit to bring up the humidity. 

His colors look better too. 

Peaceful Mango

I found Lil Mango limply hanging onto the towel in his cage earlier and I thought he was gone. 

But when I picked him up, he still responded to me. 

Now he's sleeping peacefully on his side and looking like he's already died. 

But when I touched him lightly, he still responded. He is less dehydrated looking which is good, but his colors are still bad and his eyes are super sunk in. 

I'm not sure if he'll still be alive when I wake up in the morning, but I'm very grateful he's in a warm, cozy, and soft place. He is peaceful and I am happy for that. 

Mango

Today I was asked to help try to save the life of this poor little baby. Mango is a jackson's chameleon. 

Yes, he's in very bad shape. I gave him a saline injection and have him in a special 10 gallon sick tank. It's just going to be a waiting game now to see if he has enough fight left to make it through. 

Mango is severely dehydrated and malnourished. It could be a genetic problem or it could be from being in a bad environment. At this point, it's hard to say. 

Sometimes reptiles fight for so long to survive that when they don't have to fight their bodies just quit. Sometimes their bodies react poorly to nutrition and hydration and they die. It's all a waiting game to see. 

Update on Drake

Drake has decided his new life goal is to look dead while sleeping. 

I am NOT a fan of this goal. :( 

Everyday I gently poke him to make sure he is alive. 

It is not fun. 

Today I pulled him out. I cleaned his eyes good and gave him some warm Critical Care. Then I put him on his hammock in his basking spot. 

At least for awhile he looked alive. And "for awhile" I mean 8 minutes and then he found a cool spot on the opposite side of the tank and sprawled out into his "sleeping death" position. 

He's not one that I will let bruminate fully and since he's intent on doing that, I think I will wake him up every few days and give him a good dose of Critical Care or baby food. 

Careful there, Pal!

The other day I was working at my computer when I heard things crashing around in the sink. I immediately assumed it was my youngest who had just gotten home from school. 

"Careful there, Pal! Don't dump your plates in the sink!"

When there was no reply, I turned around to see no one at the sink. Upon a closer look, I found my fox statue in the sink and a juvenile iguana sliding off the window ledge. 

Ah ha. 

Instead of blaming messes on someone else, my kids can now point their finger at Midnight. He's like a demon toddler bent on exploring and destroying! ;) 

Two New Deluxe Etsy Costumes

Fire Dragon Wings

Genie Costume

Etsy Craziness!

My Etsy orders have tripled since last year (which is great because so has my credit card!!) and I've been running around trying to get orders filled and sent. I get at least 30 emails a day just from Etsy. It can be overwhelming!!!

Today I got an email and looked at it quickly before I left the parking lot of a store I had just run in to. 

H.O.L.Y.  C.O.W!!!!!

I have been invited to be a seller on Zulily. 

<Jaw Dropping> 

I'm still a bit speechless. I've gotten a few wholesale orders and an invite to be part of a new monthly subscription for Reptibox, but this is the biggest thing ever. 

I'll be chatting with their rep next week and seeing what the next step is. 

I'll keep you posted. 

(My Blogger app on my phone doesn't let me post links so when I get home, I'll add a link above. Or you can just go to 

www.zulily.com

Bruminating Beardies

When the seasons change and the days grow shorter and colder, most beardies start to bruminate. Bruminating is a light version of hibernating. For a week to several months, adult beardies will sleep constantly. Some will open their eyes and raise their heads; some will not move at all.

Don't panic. This is normal-- BUT only for beardies over a year. Juvenile beardies who appear to bruminate are actually sick and need bet attention immediately. 

So what about food? I always keep pellet food and water in their tanks. I cut way back on the greens, offering them greens only every couple days and only when I see they are alert and moving around. Most of my boys will pop right up if they see the roach container in my hand still.

Ziggy hasn't moved for 4 days.

For the most part, just let your beardies be. Lights go on and lights go off at normal times. Just let them sleep. It's pretty boring for us, but necessary for them. If you want, you can make them a cozy little box to hide in or a blankie to sleep on. My guys tend to just plop down and nap. The older they get, the longer they bruminate too.

I've been a bit more assertive with Drake as he's starting to bruminate because he's been sickly. So I'll let him sleep, but I'll also check him daily to make sure he's alive and responsive. :) He hates it, but it makes me feel better.

If you notice sunk in eyes or no response at all when you touch them, this could be a problem. Wake them up and give them some water to drink to keep them hydrated.

Read more information HERE about bruminating from a past blog post.

Snake Drama

Somehow this morning between my morning check and coming back to clean her cage, baby Star wrapped herself around the temperature gauge in her tank, pulled it off, and got herself stuck to the adhesive.

Thank goodness for a Facebook post a few weeks ago that taught me to use coconut oil to remove snakes from sticky rat traps. 

I used Shed Aid with no success and then coconut oil which was successful. I had olive oil in reserve just in case. It took a few minutes to work her skin free and, though it was stretched out, it did not rip.  

Phew! Thank you Facebook! 

Drake needs a Good Home

Drake is about a year and a half home and needs someone to love him forever. :)

He has weepy eyes that need wiped with a damp cloth or swab every few days, but it's not a fixable problem. He just looks like he's weeping some days. 

His scales are stained a nasty orange color because he was stuck on sand. He has already started shedding it off and is a gorgeous yellow color. 

Because his eyes are often weepy, he has a harder time targeting his food. I have to help him eat insects by keeping them contained in front of him. I put the superworms in a cup and flip the roaches on their backs. He wasn't eating enough before and became very skinny. He's already put on weight. 

He's used to being held by kids and loves being held in his soft blankies. He hasn't even minded his vet visits. 

I'm willing to ship him overnight within the US to the right home. Message me for info.