Tonight while feeding (and checking lay boxes like I do nightly) I was *thrilled* to find 2 beautiful, perfectly calcified eggs in Panic and Liebchen's laybox. Since Liebchen laid a dud less than two weeks ago, these are finally some more from Panic! :D I'm very excited, her first clutch of the season only had one fertile egg - but these two both have beautiful cheerios!
I candled the other eggs I've got incubating to see what's going on and it's a good thing I had started out with my happy two brand-new fertile eggs, because otherwise it was not good news. The remaining egg from Liebchen's first clutch of the season is not good either. It's hardly developed at all. I will continue to incubate for awhile longer it but I have no hope for it. And then I candled her next set, and sadly they did not look good either. :( Both appeared to have developed to a point (I could see where there are eyes), but have since stopped developing.
This happened to me last year with a virgin female - I ended up cutting the eggs open since they never molded and I found partially developed embryos that had simply stopped developing for some reason or another. I'm guessing it will be the same situation this year unfortunately. And since for her last clutch Liebchen laid only 1 egg, and an infertile one at that, I put her in for another successful copulation with Inigo tonight, just to see if we can get some babies at all for the year. The female last year produced 6 fertile eggs - 4 hatched healthy babies and 2 I cut open and found embryos. The second clutch from Liebchen developed further than the first, so I'm crossing my fingers that third time is a charm!
I was a little concerned that perhaps it was a problem with Inigo since there was 0% success with Liebchen so far. However, that concern vanished - Panic seems to be having more success since I saw the baby in her egg move tonight. :) There was a very obvious little curled tail and it moved around quite a bit. So I was thrilled to see that! Hopefully the two tonight will develop just as well. Inigo is such a beautiful gecko (as are the ladies) and I really want to produce some of his offspring! Though I gotta mention, he's so weird when breeding... he never lets go on his own so when I finally got them separated tonight he ended up popping out both hemipenes. I'm hoping he get's them all tucked away safely. It was certainly strange looking, I haven't seen that before.
Also tried for Pongo and Perdi again, unsuccessfully. He's just such a lover, not a fighter, and she's the opposite. He immediately starts chirping and licking but as soon as he starts touching her she bites like crazy at his face. A few rounds of that and he won't even try anymore (not that I can blame him)! I am dying for some of his kids so I'm going to keep trying with them - who knows, maybe we'll catch her on a good day. She *has* been digging in her laybox again so maybe there's still hope without another copulation, but we'll see. If worst comes to worst I may breed her to Wesley - he cannot be deterred, and he always produces spotty kids. I haven't been disappointed with any of his offspring and it might be interesting to see what that cross would produce.
Cross your fingers for eggs! Lots of healthy, fertile eggs! :D A happy stable temperature is definitely making a difference, everybody is even eating more. That's a huge weight off my shoulders.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Monday, August 1, 2011
A Sad Tail
I apologize for not updating the blog in such a long time. Life for me has been changing, and to be honest, the geckos were the ones stagnating! The girls are not laying - I was getting quite frustrated.
I think a lot of the problem is a result of the conditions caused by the apartment I live in. It is an older building and lacks insulation along with having single pane windows. The gecko room's back wall has full southern exposure with no shade, and any day that it's sunny it heats that room up like an oven. That is not to mention the literally history-making heat wave we have been having for months now. It doesn't matter how low I put the AC (and I've closed all the vents except the one to that room), how many fans I have blowing with cold, wet towels and on bottles of ice.... keeping that room's temperature at a safe level has been a constant challenge and major stresser. What stresses me out the most is knowing that the geckos are experiencing a temperature swing every day, which is not good for them. It's not a huge difference, but enough to make me nervous.
With all that said, I don't find it too surprising that the girls are having a bizarre season (also that they're all virgin females and like I've said before, you can't predict them at all). In fact, a few nights ago Liebchen laid me a dud. One egg in the clutch, and infertile. What in the world!? And Perdi, Panic, and Pate (apparently I like P's) have not laid at all (besides the one egg I did get from Panic several months ago). The first set of eggs of Liebchen's were fertile but as I candled them along the way they were not developing normally and I was losing hope for them. Also a few days ago, one of those eggs went moldy. I candled the other and expect it to do the same. Thankfully the few remaining eggs look good.
So today I moved all the geckos to my parent's basement, to the closet of the bedroom I will soon be living in as well. It stays much much cooler there in the summer, and I'm able to control the temperature well with a space heater in the winter. Once everyone settles in I expect them to be better off and for behavior to normalize a bit. I may rebreed everyone, though I have to weigh that with how late in the season it is. It may work out for the best even, since in the winter it's actually warmer with the space heater in that closet than it is in the summer (and warmer temps are a cue for breeding/egg-laying behavior).
However, the sad part of this "tale", is a tail. Obviously all precautions were taken to minimize stress on the geckos during the move, but you can only do so much. Inigo was freaking out when I put him in a car and I actually expected his tail to be the one to pop off. Wesley also freaks out when traveling, and I've thought he was going to lose his a few times. However, tonight when I put everyone to bed I got a look at everyone but Perdi (she sleeps under her paper towels) and tails were all intact except one. I found that my crown jewel, my gorgeous, outstanding, perfect Pongo lost his tail in the move. It may not seem like a big deal to some, but it is to me. I've never had any of my geckos lose a tail in my care, though I do realize it was bound to happen sometime. Thing is - Pongo is a super dalmation, but a huge amount of spots were on his tail. He easily had well over a hundred spots on it alone. I'm just glad I have photos of him "before". *sigh* I'm sorry you were so stressed Pongo, I was doing this to try and make your life better.
So right now my life is being turned upside down, and I hope that something that stabilizes is the geckos. I know they will take some time to settle in (they took weeks when I first moved them to this apartment), but I have high hopes that their lives will improve dramatically with steady temperatures, etc.
And that is how things stand right now! Crazy, basically! The geckos have been moved, and next to go will be me and the cat. We're both suffering from the heat, since to keep the gecko room cool the rest of the apartment was getting no AC. I'm moving due to financial issues and also because of problems like I mentioned with the temperature (not to mention I cannot make it through another winter here - just to watch tv I was in layers, covered with a blanket, half in a down sleeping bag, and in front of a space heater). Wish us all luck, it's going to be an interesting next few weeks.
I think a lot of the problem is a result of the conditions caused by the apartment I live in. It is an older building and lacks insulation along with having single pane windows. The gecko room's back wall has full southern exposure with no shade, and any day that it's sunny it heats that room up like an oven. That is not to mention the literally history-making heat wave we have been having for months now. It doesn't matter how low I put the AC (and I've closed all the vents except the one to that room), how many fans I have blowing with cold, wet towels and on bottles of ice.... keeping that room's temperature at a safe level has been a constant challenge and major stresser. What stresses me out the most is knowing that the geckos are experiencing a temperature swing every day, which is not good for them. It's not a huge difference, but enough to make me nervous.
With all that said, I don't find it too surprising that the girls are having a bizarre season (also that they're all virgin females and like I've said before, you can't predict them at all). In fact, a few nights ago Liebchen laid me a dud. One egg in the clutch, and infertile. What in the world!? And Perdi, Panic, and Pate (apparently I like P's) have not laid at all (besides the one egg I did get from Panic several months ago). The first set of eggs of Liebchen's were fertile but as I candled them along the way they were not developing normally and I was losing hope for them. Also a few days ago, one of those eggs went moldy. I candled the other and expect it to do the same. Thankfully the few remaining eggs look good.
So today I moved all the geckos to my parent's basement, to the closet of the bedroom I will soon be living in as well. It stays much much cooler there in the summer, and I'm able to control the temperature well with a space heater in the winter. Once everyone settles in I expect them to be better off and for behavior to normalize a bit. I may rebreed everyone, though I have to weigh that with how late in the season it is. It may work out for the best even, since in the winter it's actually warmer with the space heater in that closet than it is in the summer (and warmer temps are a cue for breeding/egg-laying behavior).
However, the sad part of this "tale", is a tail. Obviously all precautions were taken to minimize stress on the geckos during the move, but you can only do so much. Inigo was freaking out when I put him in a car and I actually expected his tail to be the one to pop off. Wesley also freaks out when traveling, and I've thought he was going to lose his a few times. However, tonight when I put everyone to bed I got a look at everyone but Perdi (she sleeps under her paper towels) and tails were all intact except one. I found that my crown jewel, my gorgeous, outstanding, perfect Pongo lost his tail in the move. It may not seem like a big deal to some, but it is to me. I've never had any of my geckos lose a tail in my care, though I do realize it was bound to happen sometime. Thing is - Pongo is a super dalmation, but a huge amount of spots were on his tail. He easily had well over a hundred spots on it alone. I'm just glad I have photos of him "before". *sigh* I'm sorry you were so stressed Pongo, I was doing this to try and make your life better.
So right now my life is being turned upside down, and I hope that something that stabilizes is the geckos. I know they will take some time to settle in (they took weeks when I first moved them to this apartment), but I have high hopes that their lives will improve dramatically with steady temperatures, etc.
And that is how things stand right now! Crazy, basically! The geckos have been moved, and next to go will be me and the cat. We're both suffering from the heat, since to keep the gecko room cool the rest of the apartment was getting no AC. I'm moving due to financial issues and also because of problems like I mentioned with the temperature (not to mention I cannot make it through another winter here - just to watch tv I was in layers, covered with a blanket, half in a down sleeping bag, and in front of a space heater). Wish us all luck, it's going to be an interesting next few weeks.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
"Perdi" Frustrating!
Perdi is officially driving me nuts. Seriously. I know she's a total newbie to all of this egg business since she's never laid, but COME ON! Animals lay/give birth to their first offspring every day! In fact, I was just with a close friend when had her first baby - she'd never had one before, never seen one born, but she knew what to do! Sheesh.
For the past 3 or 4 days (I've lost track) Perdi has not left the nest box area. She's either in it or on it. When this first began a few nights ago, when I was misting I saw her with just her back feet and tail sticking out of the box, and the next day she was laying on the top of the box. I thought maybe she was guarding her newly-laid eggs. Not to be! She was back in the box later that night. Tonight she's completely buried except for just her head (which is still in the box, just not under any moss). I'm really hoping she's laying as we speak. She hasn't touched her food the last two feedings which is definitely unusual for her.
Because she's taking so long, I worry a bit about egg-binding or her having trouble laying for some other reason, I'll see how things look tomorrow. Pray for two beautiful eggs and this will all seem to have been a very frustrating dream! :) I don't want to have to find a reptile vet who can actually help me out around here. My area, despite being the largest city in Kansas, is severely lacking in herp vets who are even remotely worth their salt. I've been to two, and one of them had never even seen a crested gecko! Um HELLO this is probably THE most popular lizard in the hobby, only perhaps a close second to the leopard gecko. Sheesh.
Pray, cross your fingers, send positive thoughts, do what you do for Perdi please! I'm getting concerned, and beyond impatient. But at this point her health is what's most important to me and I just want her to get those eggs out, even if they're ugly slugs.
You can do it Perdi! Just PUSH! (Hehe... I was saying to my friend just recently!) Maybe Perdi needs an epidural too... ;)
For the past 3 or 4 days (I've lost track) Perdi has not left the nest box area. She's either in it or on it. When this first began a few nights ago, when I was misting I saw her with just her back feet and tail sticking out of the box, and the next day she was laying on the top of the box. I thought maybe she was guarding her newly-laid eggs. Not to be! She was back in the box later that night. Tonight she's completely buried except for just her head (which is still in the box, just not under any moss). I'm really hoping she's laying as we speak. She hasn't touched her food the last two feedings which is definitely unusual for her.
Because she's taking so long, I worry a bit about egg-binding or her having trouble laying for some other reason, I'll see how things look tomorrow. Pray for two beautiful eggs and this will all seem to have been a very frustrating dream! :) I don't want to have to find a reptile vet who can actually help me out around here. My area, despite being the largest city in Kansas, is severely lacking in herp vets who are even remotely worth their salt. I've been to two, and one of them had never even seen a crested gecko! Um HELLO this is probably THE most popular lizard in the hobby, only perhaps a close second to the leopard gecko. Sheesh.
Pray, cross your fingers, send positive thoughts, do what you do for Perdi please! I'm getting concerned, and beyond impatient. But at this point her health is what's most important to me and I just want her to get those eggs out, even if they're ugly slugs.
You can do it Perdi! Just PUSH! (Hehe... I was saying to my friend just recently!) Maybe Perdi needs an epidural too... ;)
Monday, June 27, 2011
Girl Interrupted, Part II
Let me just start by saying YAY! :) Liebchen ended up laying me a lovely set of eggs, both looking beautifully calcified and definitely fertile. I am glad I did not upset her enough to cause any problems last night.
Perdi was digging in her laybox tonight when I was misting... fingers crossed STILL! All I could see was her back legs and tail, the rest of her was buried. :)
And Pâté should be laying here in the next week or two, I realized. She last laid on the 29th of May and then was with Frank on the 3rd. Going by others' experiences and mine with Sausage (the gargoyle female who I bred last year) I don't expect eggs to be laid as soon or often as the cresteds (so we're probably looking more at the 2 week range). Last year I kept track of the number of days between clutches for all my laying females, and found that generally my crestie girls had somewhere in the 30's (days) between clutches, whereas my gargoyle laid clutches with the time between being in the mid to late 40's. I can't wait for gargoyle eggs! They are so much fun to hatch out - the babies are always little fatties (and sometimes extremely sassy, I'll have to explain Weenie's name sometime as an example) - they make the crestie babies look incredibly fragile and delicate.
I just can't wait for babies in general this year! All new pairings and geckos who haven't produced offspring yet, so it's always a fun roll of the dice. However, I've learned to have patience. I put the incubators where I don't see them often until I'm expected hatching to occur. Otherwise it's just too easy to check check check, when really it's best to leave your eggs alone! :)
Perdi was digging in her laybox tonight when I was misting... fingers crossed STILL! All I could see was her back legs and tail, the rest of her was buried. :)
And Pâté should be laying here in the next week or two, I realized. She last laid on the 29th of May and then was with Frank on the 3rd. Going by others' experiences and mine with Sausage (the gargoyle female who I bred last year) I don't expect eggs to be laid as soon or often as the cresteds (so we're probably looking more at the 2 week range). Last year I kept track of the number of days between clutches for all my laying females, and found that generally my crestie girls had somewhere in the 30's (days) between clutches, whereas my gargoyle laid clutches with the time between being in the mid to late 40's. I can't wait for gargoyle eggs! They are so much fun to hatch out - the babies are always little fatties (and sometimes extremely sassy, I'll have to explain Weenie's name sometime as an example) - they make the crestie babies look incredibly fragile and delicate.
I just can't wait for babies in general this year! All new pairings and geckos who haven't produced offspring yet, so it's always a fun roll of the dice. However, I've learned to have patience. I put the incubators where I don't see them often until I'm expected hatching to occur. Otherwise it's just too easy to check check check, when really it's best to leave your eggs alone! :)
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Lesson Learned: Take Inventory.
Tonight I was doing the rounds misting everyone and checking layboxes, etc... pulled out the one in Liebchen's cage and saw the end of a beauty (eggs feel almost like pearls or something to me when I find them)! Got so excited, set the laybox aside to do when I was done, and finished misting. Then I got everything set up to candle and mark the eggs, and brought the laybox and incubator into the bathroom to do so. Peeked at the bottom of the box (it's clear) to see where I'd seen the egg was, and started carefully digging into the moss (I use long-stranded sphagnum).
Uhh...... saw egg.... saw leg of moving gecko. CRAP. Liebchen was still in there and not finished. :( I felt horrible. I didn't see another egg (though I wasn't looking I was too busy trying to get her covered back where she was)... so she may have still been in the process of laying. That or she was just resting a bit before burying them. That really should have been my first hint - cresties bury the eggs very well and the fact that I was not seeing two eggs side by side clearly in the bottom of the laybox should have tipped me off. But I let my excitement get ahold of me.
So lesson learned? Always inventory your girls before going in for eggs! There are a ton of hiding spots in Liebchen's tub and I don't always see her, so I just thought it nothing out of the norm. But once I saw that egg I should have popped open hiding places to make sure she was out of the box.
Now we wait, and cross our fingers AND toes for two eggs. I will be horrified if I disturbed her so badly that she holds onto the other egg and binds up or something. But really I just uncovered her butt (frogbutt) and a foot, so hopefully she didn't think too much of it. She didn't come out of the box at least, and I didn't hear or feel her moving when I was taking the laybox back to her tub.
Will update tomorrow when she's out of there! Lesson learned, sorry Liebchen.
Uhh...... saw egg.... saw leg of moving gecko. CRAP. Liebchen was still in there and not finished. :( I felt horrible. I didn't see another egg (though I wasn't looking I was too busy trying to get her covered back where she was)... so she may have still been in the process of laying. That or she was just resting a bit before burying them. That really should have been my first hint - cresties bury the eggs very well and the fact that I was not seeing two eggs side by side clearly in the bottom of the laybox should have tipped me off. But I let my excitement get ahold of me.
So lesson learned? Always inventory your girls before going in for eggs! There are a ton of hiding spots in Liebchen's tub and I don't always see her, so I just thought it nothing out of the norm. But once I saw that egg I should have popped open hiding places to make sure she was out of the box.
Now we wait, and cross our fingers AND toes for two eggs. I will be horrified if I disturbed her so badly that she holds onto the other egg and binds up or something. But really I just uncovered her butt (frogbutt) and a foot, so hopefully she didn't think too much of it. She didn't come out of the box at least, and I didn't hear or feel her moving when I was taking the laybox back to her tub.
Will update tomorrow when she's out of there! Lesson learned, sorry Liebchen.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Absolutely Adorable.
I think all baby animals are adorable (maybe some more than others... pelican chicks are not exactly attractive), but little tortoises sleeping are near the top of my list. I completely admit my bias, since it was my own little tort (Artemis - an Ibera Greek) in this case, but I love seeing pics of other folks' torties sleeping too! But seriously, look at this, try to tell me it's not absolutely adorable:
He was not exactly thrilled with my flash in his face, but he only woke up a little to try glare at me. He was fairly unsucessful in my opinion, he's still unbearably cute. :-P
Yes, I know... now you're wondering what the heck his "double shell" of silver is. It's easiest to answer with a photo:
Yeaaaaaah, that's one of his hides. On nights that he doesn't feel like burrowing, he often does this. As for why he sticks his head out, beats me!! Though I feel I should mention that after I disturbed him SO much (sense the sarcasm? 3 pictures, please) he did burrow into his aspen and cannot be seen anymore. Apparently he should have a "NO paparazzi!!" sign on his shell!
Artemis is going to have his first birthday a week after mine, on the 26th! <3 He has grown so much. I wish I'd taken regular shots of him next to something like a quarter to show his growth, but I fail in that department. I'll poke through the pics of when I got him sometime soon and see if there is anything that gives some scale. I've really loved having him, he's just hilarious. He has a very distinct personality and believe you me, he let's me have it when I am late with his lunch!!
In other news, Perdi still hasn't laid, the little punk. Maybe she's holding out for Father's Day/my birthday (Sunday, the 19th). That would be fine, but so would sooner! I also candled the eggs again tonight - I was right about the iffy egg of Panic's, it was indeed infertile and went moldy. The other egg looks absolutely perfect though and has a beautiful cheerio! I candled Liebchen's set again just out of curiosity (I don't usually handle my eggs this much but this is already a weird year and I'm carefully keeping an eye on things), and one is coming along nicely, though the other looks to be developing incorrectly. So I'm gonna guess only one of those ends up hatching. Who knows! With virgin females, it's always a roll of the dice. But there are still many months left in the breeding season and I'm not concerned. :)
He was not exactly thrilled with my flash in his face, but he only woke up a little to try glare at me. He was fairly unsucessful in my opinion, he's still unbearably cute. :-P
Yes, I know... now you're wondering what the heck his "double shell" of silver is. It's easiest to answer with a photo:
Yeaaaaaah, that's one of his hides. On nights that he doesn't feel like burrowing, he often does this. As for why he sticks his head out, beats me!! Though I feel I should mention that after I disturbed him SO much (sense the sarcasm? 3 pictures, please) he did burrow into his aspen and cannot be seen anymore. Apparently he should have a "NO paparazzi!!" sign on his shell!
Artemis is going to have his first birthday a week after mine, on the 26th! <3 He has grown so much. I wish I'd taken regular shots of him next to something like a quarter to show his growth, but I fail in that department. I'll poke through the pics of when I got him sometime soon and see if there is anything that gives some scale. I've really loved having him, he's just hilarious. He has a very distinct personality and believe you me, he let's me have it when I am late with his lunch!!
In other news, Perdi still hasn't laid, the little punk. Maybe she's holding out for Father's Day/my birthday (Sunday, the 19th). That would be fine, but so would sooner! I also candled the eggs again tonight - I was right about the iffy egg of Panic's, it was indeed infertile and went moldy. The other egg looks absolutely perfect though and has a beautiful cheerio! I candled Liebchen's set again just out of curiosity (I don't usually handle my eggs this much but this is already a weird year and I'm carefully keeping an eye on things), and one is coming along nicely, though the other looks to be developing incorrectly. So I'm gonna guess only one of those ends up hatching. Who knows! With virgin females, it's always a roll of the dice. But there are still many months left in the breeding season and I'm not concerned. :)
Friday, June 10, 2011
Panic! EGG!
No don't panic, the eggs are ok! BUT, Panic the gecko DID finally lay a set of eggs. :D It seems like I've been waiting forever for her to drop them, though really it's only been slightly over two weeks since she was with Inigo. So I was not surprised to find that one looks to be a dud. Or should I say feels - as soon as I touched it I was pretty sure it was infertile. Infertile eggs are not very solid, they're often dented, and sometimes strangely calcified. This one was very "squishy" (as in not holding it's "egg shape"), and it was somewhat difficult to clean off, even though all I use is long stranded sphagnum moss in my lay boxes. I also candled it and only saw yellow (no cheerio) - I've put it in the "weird egg" incubator just in case but I highly doubt it will do anything but mold over soon.
HOWEVER, the other egg had a definite cheerio, is nicely calcified, and I have high hopes for it. :) It looks to be a fertile myrtle, and I would imagine her eggs from now on will be. I'm just super excited to have an egg from this pair, even if it is the only one I get!
Perdi should lay any day now... she is digging in her box every night and she's not eating (which is often the case with gravid females about to lay). I wish she'd just get it over with, I *really* want to have some dalmation babies this year. It's been almost a month since she was with Pongo so I'm expecting them any day. Then again, she's never laid before so she may hold out on me yet. I feel she'd do it just to spite me - she has that kind of personality. :-P
The other eggs from Liebchen are developing nicely! I've been a bit worried about them because the temperatures here are record-breaking hot, and my gecko room gets all southern exposure. It can get very hot, but I am certainly doing all I can to prevent that including cold wet towels over fans, etc. When I try to look at it objectively I realize that several degrees in temperature shouldn't affect them too much - I figure they go through similar changes in the wild. Fingers crossed in any case, I'm slightly paranoid - especially since some of these babies are already spoken for!
HOWEVER, the other egg had a definite cheerio, is nicely calcified, and I have high hopes for it. :) It looks to be a fertile myrtle, and I would imagine her eggs from now on will be. I'm just super excited to have an egg from this pair, even if it is the only one I get!
Perdi should lay any day now... she is digging in her box every night and she's not eating (which is often the case with gravid females about to lay). I wish she'd just get it over with, I *really* want to have some dalmation babies this year. It's been almost a month since she was with Pongo so I'm expecting them any day. Then again, she's never laid before so she may hold out on me yet. I feel she'd do it just to spite me - she has that kind of personality. :-P
The other eggs from Liebchen are developing nicely! I've been a bit worried about them because the temperatures here are record-breaking hot, and my gecko room gets all southern exposure. It can get very hot, but I am certainly doing all I can to prevent that including cold wet towels over fans, etc. When I try to look at it objectively I realize that several degrees in temperature shouldn't affect them too much - I figure they go through similar changes in the wild. Fingers crossed in any case, I'm slightly paranoid - especially since some of these babies are already spoken for!
Friday, June 3, 2011
Love Hurts.
My gecko Wesley and I (he is the gecko featured in the header of all the pages of my site, Familiar Exotics) have a unique relationship. I realize that he is a strange, somewhat confused and very entertaining GECKO. However, he thinks that my HANDS are wonderful, beautiful, most amazingly smelling female geckos. They are not. They are human hands. However, I do not think Wesley will ever realize his unfortunate mix-up.
Whenever I'm in his cage, whether to clean, mist, or feed, he tries to get to my hands so that he can subdue them with bites and chirp chirp chirp to his heart's content. Usually it's not much of a bother because crestie bites don't really hurt - they have such small teeth that I'd never had a painful bite (gargoyles are a different story).
Tonight... was different.
"Dum de dum, I'm not doing anything. I'm just sitting here lookin' cute!"
"What?! I'm completely innocent! Look at this face! See, I'm even smiling!"
Let me just respond to that with a "yeah right!" Retard. Check this out:
Yeah, believe it or not, that's a crested gecko bite. Little punk. He grabbed me like usual, but I wasn't expecting it and he got the entire end of my pinky in his mouth, up to right below the nail. And this bite HURT! I had to distract him with the other hand to finally get him off, and then he climbed up to the top of his cage to follow me for the pictures you see of him above.
So yeah, it bled quite a bit! I was surprised, the actual bite isn't very big (this is after I washed it out):
But it still hurts, dang it. Just a bad place for a bite. It's all puffy and you can even see a line on my nail where the some more of his teeth were.
So in any case, watch out for those crestie bites! Haha, just kidding. This was just one of those random freak events. I have been bit worse by one of my gargs - cresties are at the bottom of the totem pole as far as bite pain/damage goes.
Cresties < Gargoyles < Tokays (And this is why I do not have a Tokay!)
Edited to add: I just witnessed the necessary activity for Frank x Pâté babies! So super excited. Frank's never worked so fast in his life (was like 5-10 minutes) - guess since she wasn't squawking at him he decided to take his chance!
Whenever I'm in his cage, whether to clean, mist, or feed, he tries to get to my hands so that he can subdue them with bites and chirp chirp chirp to his heart's content. Usually it's not much of a bother because crestie bites don't really hurt - they have such small teeth that I'd never had a painful bite (gargoyles are a different story).
Tonight... was different.
"Dum de dum, I'm not doing anything. I'm just sitting here lookin' cute!"
"What?! I'm completely innocent! Look at this face! See, I'm even smiling!"
Let me just respond to that with a "yeah right!" Retard. Check this out:
Yeah, believe it or not, that's a crested gecko bite. Little punk. He grabbed me like usual, but I wasn't expecting it and he got the entire end of my pinky in his mouth, up to right below the nail. And this bite HURT! I had to distract him with the other hand to finally get him off, and then he climbed up to the top of his cage to follow me for the pictures you see of him above.
So yeah, it bled quite a bit! I was surprised, the actual bite isn't very big (this is after I washed it out):
But it still hurts, dang it. Just a bad place for a bite. It's all puffy and you can even see a line on my nail where the some more of his teeth were.
So in any case, watch out for those crestie bites! Haha, just kidding. This was just one of those random freak events. I have been bit worse by one of my gargs - cresties are at the bottom of the totem pole as far as bite pain/damage goes.
Cresties < Gargoyles < Tokays (And this is why I do not have a Tokay!)
Edited to add: I just witnessed the necessary activity for Frank x Pâté babies! So super excited. Frank's never worked so fast in his life (was like 5-10 minutes) - guess since she wasn't squawking at him he decided to take his chance!
Monday, May 30, 2011
My Devil Child...
Who in the world would ever believe that this face would cause extreme havoc, peril, and destruction (as he currently chews on my computer cord)?
"Impossible!", you say! But I assure you, last night it all went to pieces. This precious cuddly beast, aka Pippin, is also a born "attempted-killer". I have an animal room in my apartment that houses all the geckos, my tortoise, and many of my fish. They have their own room so I can control the temperature, etc, but also because of the BEAST who lives in this house (and I'm not talking about myself when I have just woken up)!
I've been having to leave the door open for the past few months as the room heats up to dangerous levels without my careful monitoring - it has the sun on the main wall and window and the insulsation in this apartment is AWFUL. So in any case, my mom and I had to put our heads together to figure out a way to block the doorway from Pippin but yet still allow me to leave the door open for airflow. We ended up with a garmet rack covered in plastic. It's ugly, but it wedges in the doorway and he can't get around it or jump over it and it's been working wonderfully. HOWEVER....
Fuzzy, squishy, adorable Pippin finally (I'm convinced he's been mentally working this out for months) discovered a way to enter the gecko room. Naturally it was last night around 4:30 am when I was taking a friend to the airport for an early flight. Pip *always* meets me at the door when I get home so that was my first hint when he wasn't there... I dropped everything and went looking immediately. He was innocently sitting on the OTHER side of the barrier, "mew?" Nooooo sir. You get OUT! So I got him out, obviously, made sure everything looked ok... and then re-rigged the door and went into the kitchen for a few minutes. Come back, and where is he? BACK IN THERE! EVIL DEVIL CHILD!
And this time he was up on the gecko shelves, trying to get at them through the mesh - he jumped down and absolutely terrified two girls who live in a 20 long sitting on its end on the floor. Thankfully both were tailless or I'm sure I'd have had at least one drop. And naturally Pippin did not want to leave despite my yelling at him (usually works) and he had the advantage - I could not see - the gecko room was dark and I was not even taking the time to try and feel for the switch/fan pull. Finally got him out, but by then I was wondering how the heck was he magically teleporting through my amazing barrier!
Sooooo I went and mixed up some fresh wet food for him, and then went into the gecko room, set up the barrier, and called him to come to get his breakfast. He was hungry, and come he did. He's a freak of nature acrobat, I can hardly explain without showing a photo of the barrier, which I do not have. But I'll try - basically he was pushing up the plastic from the floor and going underneath, over the two bars at the bottom, and then under the plastic on the other side. *growl* I think I have re-rigged it so he can't do the same thing, but I've been putting a towel at the base while I'm gone just in case. Oh - edited to add - I JUST watched him trying to get back in the same way and he was unsucessful. Huzzah! I threw some foreign change (it's all I had handy at the time, ok?) at him after awhile since he wasn't giving up but he's given up for now at least and I feel more comfortable that the barrier has been reinforced succesfully.
*shakes head* You just never know with cats. Think they're sweet and then bam. Natural born killer... if he'd had the chance.
Oh and just fyi, to prove how impressive his acrobatic feats actually were, considering he had EXTREMELY scant inches to work with:
That's a 29 gallon tank, for reference. (LxWxH = about 30"x12"x18") Yes, he's huge. I own a lion, disguised in pretty boy clothes.
"Impossible!", you say! But I assure you, last night it all went to pieces. This precious cuddly beast, aka Pippin, is also a born "attempted-killer". I have an animal room in my apartment that houses all the geckos, my tortoise, and many of my fish. They have their own room so I can control the temperature, etc, but also because of the BEAST who lives in this house (and I'm not talking about myself when I have just woken up)!
I've been having to leave the door open for the past few months as the room heats up to dangerous levels without my careful monitoring - it has the sun on the main wall and window and the insulsation in this apartment is AWFUL. So in any case, my mom and I had to put our heads together to figure out a way to block the doorway from Pippin but yet still allow me to leave the door open for airflow. We ended up with a garmet rack covered in plastic. It's ugly, but it wedges in the doorway and he can't get around it or jump over it and it's been working wonderfully. HOWEVER....
Fuzzy, squishy, adorable Pippin finally (I'm convinced he's been mentally working this out for months) discovered a way to enter the gecko room. Naturally it was last night around 4:30 am when I was taking a friend to the airport for an early flight. Pip *always* meets me at the door when I get home so that was my first hint when he wasn't there... I dropped everything and went looking immediately. He was innocently sitting on the OTHER side of the barrier, "mew?" Nooooo sir. You get OUT! So I got him out, obviously, made sure everything looked ok... and then re-rigged the door and went into the kitchen for a few minutes. Come back, and where is he? BACK IN THERE! EVIL DEVIL CHILD!
And this time he was up on the gecko shelves, trying to get at them through the mesh - he jumped down and absolutely terrified two girls who live in a 20 long sitting on its end on the floor. Thankfully both were tailless or I'm sure I'd have had at least one drop. And naturally Pippin did not want to leave despite my yelling at him (usually works) and he had the advantage - I could not see - the gecko room was dark and I was not even taking the time to try and feel for the switch/fan pull. Finally got him out, but by then I was wondering how the heck was he magically teleporting through my amazing barrier!
Sooooo I went and mixed up some fresh wet food for him, and then went into the gecko room, set up the barrier, and called him to come to get his breakfast. He was hungry, and come he did. He's a freak of nature acrobat, I can hardly explain without showing a photo of the barrier, which I do not have. But I'll try - basically he was pushing up the plastic from the floor and going underneath, over the two bars at the bottom, and then under the plastic on the other side. *growl* I think I have re-rigged it so he can't do the same thing, but I've been putting a towel at the base while I'm gone just in case. Oh - edited to add - I JUST watched him trying to get back in the same way and he was unsucessful. Huzzah! I threw some foreign change (it's all I had handy at the time, ok?) at him after awhile since he wasn't giving up but he's given up for now at least and I feel more comfortable that the barrier has been reinforced succesfully.
*shakes head* You just never know with cats. Think they're sweet and then bam. Natural born killer... if he'd had the chance.
Oh and just fyi, to prove how impressive his acrobatic feats actually were, considering he had EXTREMELY scant inches to work with:
That's a 29 gallon tank, for reference. (LxWxH = about 30"x12"x18") Yes, he's huge. I own a lion, disguised in pretty boy clothes.
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Eggsellent!
I have tried a few times recently to breed a pair of gargoyles - Frank and Pâté. Frank was the father to last year's gargoyle hatchings and he's a really nice (not to mention very handsome) gecko. He is gentle with the ladies and was great with Sausage last year. But this year everytime I've introduced him to Pâté she has repeatedly done the gargoyle version of "Heck no! I have a headache!" They do a pretty loud squawk and shake their tail - very obvious "back off" signs. She'd do it whenever he touched her, even if it was just his tongue as he smelled her. I gave it up for a bit because... as I expected...
Pâté was gravid! :) Found a pair of beautiful, perfectly calcified eggs tonight. They're most likely infertile "duds", but I know her previous owner had her with a male at ont point, so I will incubate the eggs until they either go bad or hatch! Female cresteds and gargoyles can store sperm for a very long time, I've even heard of situations where it was over a year! I don't throw eggs away unless I'm positive they're bad. I didn't see a "cheerio" in either one of these eggs, but they did have some veining visible. I do think they're infertile, however. But in any case, I'm pleased she laid (first time she has with me) and she should be more accepting to Frank when I try again in a few days. Sausage did the exact same behaviors last year when I tried breeding her to Frank, so I was definitely curious if the same situation was ocurring - and it was! Patience is definitely a virtue with my gang this year. Especially since Frank is not exactly quick about his business, he'll probably need a whole night - he likes to romance the ladies. ;)
I took a photo of the newly laid gargoyle eggs next to the fertile crestie eggs I have that are a week old, just to show some scale for folks who may not have both (or either!) species. Gargoyle eggs always seem so huge to me! And they *are* certainly much bigger than crested eggs, both in length and circumference. I mark the eggs with the spot I think is "up", the date laid, and a letter identifying the female who laid it. The brown spots on the crestie egg (on the right) are due to staining from the substrate in the laybox, in the less-calcified areas of the egg (though it is still in good condition).
I also finally got a picture of the magic "cheerio", for those who may not have seen one and had no idea what I was talking about all this time. ;) This egg is one of Liebchen's, and so is a week old. Can't really miss the red circle on the left, but that's what you're looking for in fertile eggs. That's the beginning of a crestie baby! The other spots on the eggs you see are the brown ones you saw in the previous photo, they're not internal. This picture was taken with a miniature flashlight behind the egg (which is how I candle all my eggs).
So there you go! I'm pleased with the progress on the crestie eggs (the cheerios have definitely gotten larger and thicker), and I think I will have additional clutches to add to the incubator from Perdi and Panic anytime now. :) Hopefully I can also get a successful breeding out of Frank and Pâté soon, I think they will make some lovely red babies.
And as a final note - Hida, the gargoyle gecko who went through the ordeal in the mail the other day, is doing great! She cleaned her food dish the first night she was here, so she's not too stressed. I really like her already, she's pretty and has an interesting personality.
Pâté was gravid! :) Found a pair of beautiful, perfectly calcified eggs tonight. They're most likely infertile "duds", but I know her previous owner had her with a male at ont point, so I will incubate the eggs until they either go bad or hatch! Female cresteds and gargoyles can store sperm for a very long time, I've even heard of situations where it was over a year! I don't throw eggs away unless I'm positive they're bad. I didn't see a "cheerio" in either one of these eggs, but they did have some veining visible. I do think they're infertile, however. But in any case, I'm pleased she laid (first time she has with me) and she should be more accepting to Frank when I try again in a few days. Sausage did the exact same behaviors last year when I tried breeding her to Frank, so I was definitely curious if the same situation was ocurring - and it was! Patience is definitely a virtue with my gang this year. Especially since Frank is not exactly quick about his business, he'll probably need a whole night - he likes to romance the ladies. ;)
I took a photo of the newly laid gargoyle eggs next to the fertile crestie eggs I have that are a week old, just to show some scale for folks who may not have both (or either!) species. Gargoyle eggs always seem so huge to me! And they *are* certainly much bigger than crested eggs, both in length and circumference. I mark the eggs with the spot I think is "up", the date laid, and a letter identifying the female who laid it. The brown spots on the crestie egg (on the right) are due to staining from the substrate in the laybox, in the less-calcified areas of the egg (though it is still in good condition).
I also finally got a picture of the magic "cheerio", for those who may not have seen one and had no idea what I was talking about all this time. ;) This egg is one of Liebchen's, and so is a week old. Can't really miss the red circle on the left, but that's what you're looking for in fertile eggs. That's the beginning of a crestie baby! The other spots on the eggs you see are the brown ones you saw in the previous photo, they're not internal. This picture was taken with a miniature flashlight behind the egg (which is how I candle all my eggs).
So there you go! I'm pleased with the progress on the crestie eggs (the cheerios have definitely gotten larger and thicker), and I think I will have additional clutches to add to the incubator from Perdi and Panic anytime now. :) Hopefully I can also get a successful breeding out of Frank and Pâté soon, I think they will make some lovely red babies.
And as a final note - Hida, the gargoyle gecko who went through the ordeal in the mail the other day, is doing great! She cleaned her food dish the first night she was here, so she's not too stressed. I really like her already, she's pretty and has an interesting personality.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Gecko Chasing
Wow, today turned out to be one heck of a day as far as the arriving gecko went. She was sent USPS Express, guaranteed to arrive by noon. I had her sent to my parent's house as the mailman here at my apartment is less than efficient, etc... and because theirs is not, plus they would be home all morning (I would be sleeping, ideally, I've been very sick with a cold). I had a doctor's appointment at 2:20, and my mom called me about 1:30 to tell me that no gecko had arrived, and the mail had.
I immediately looked up the tracking number on the USPS website to see what the deal was, and it said it had been deemed "undeliverable" (turns out my friend accidently wrote the wrong address on the box) and would be returned to the sender. MAJOR PROBLEM! My friend who sent the gecko was in the hospital having surgery today... if the gecko was returned, there was nobody to receive her, and she would most certainly have died. So I started calling... all the while trying to get ready to run out the door for my appointment. I finally tracked down which post office she was at, and my mom (who had come to pick me up) said she knew where it was so we planned to head down there after the doctor.
Sooooo we did. Aaaaand wrong post office, my lovely "cold voice" is hard to understand at times and my mom misunderstood me when I said which PO, so I spent probably a good 45 minutes or more there while they looked all over their facility, called 2 other POs, etc. Part of the problem was that I'd forgotten to bring the tracking number along in my rush out the door. In any case, they finally told me that the box had been at the post office I was originally told, but now was being trucked over to their facility. So I waited... and waited... and waited some more, and then find out - IT ISN'T ON THE STUPID TRUCK. More phone calls... and they still have it at the freaking original facility, which is naturally on the complete opposite side of town.
Then we had to hurry through traffic and construction to make it to that post office in time, where they FINALLY found the box. Holy friggin' crap I was stressed, tired, and upset after spending my entire afternoon chasing her down (not to mention I hadn't taken any cold medicine because I expected to be home much sooner - about passed out a few times I was feeling so bad). After we got the box and were back in the car, I made my mom whip out the tiny scissors that she keeps in her purse and ripped into the box to see if Hida was alive (and she was, thank God). It was just a good thing this happened today and not another day, because we were in the low 70's today and yesterday it was almost 90.
So that is the saga of Hida. She is finally here, and doesn't seem any worse for wear. She was very fired up when I first peeked at her - deep red base like her parents! She's got some orange blotching too, such a pretty girl. Seemed very sweet too, just calmly walked out of her cup onto my hand and then into her temporary cage (for quarantine). I'll get some pictures of her once she's had some time to settle in.
Lesson from this for my readers? Always, ALWAYS make sure to get the tracking number from your shipper. Personally, when I ship geckos I sign up for email updates that include the tracking number and related information (such as a link to follow tracking updates), and I also ask the buyer to provide an email that they'd like the same info sent to. That way everyone is informed and can be on top of any problems that may occur. I also exchange phone numbers with customers when shipping for the same reason, but that wasn't possible in this situation obviously. I'm just happy that I've got my gecko, and that she's healthy.
I immediately looked up the tracking number on the USPS website to see what the deal was, and it said it had been deemed "undeliverable" (turns out my friend accidently wrote the wrong address on the box) and would be returned to the sender. MAJOR PROBLEM! My friend who sent the gecko was in the hospital having surgery today... if the gecko was returned, there was nobody to receive her, and she would most certainly have died. So I started calling... all the while trying to get ready to run out the door for my appointment. I finally tracked down which post office she was at, and my mom (who had come to pick me up) said she knew where it was so we planned to head down there after the doctor.
Sooooo we did. Aaaaand wrong post office, my lovely "cold voice" is hard to understand at times and my mom misunderstood me when I said which PO, so I spent probably a good 45 minutes or more there while they looked all over their facility, called 2 other POs, etc. Part of the problem was that I'd forgotten to bring the tracking number along in my rush out the door. In any case, they finally told me that the box had been at the post office I was originally told, but now was being trucked over to their facility. So I waited... and waited... and waited some more, and then find out - IT ISN'T ON THE STUPID TRUCK. More phone calls... and they still have it at the freaking original facility, which is naturally on the complete opposite side of town.
Then we had to hurry through traffic and construction to make it to that post office in time, where they FINALLY found the box. Holy friggin' crap I was stressed, tired, and upset after spending my entire afternoon chasing her down (not to mention I hadn't taken any cold medicine because I expected to be home much sooner - about passed out a few times I was feeling so bad). After we got the box and were back in the car, I made my mom whip out the tiny scissors that she keeps in her purse and ripped into the box to see if Hida was alive (and she was, thank God). It was just a good thing this happened today and not another day, because we were in the low 70's today and yesterday it was almost 90.
So that is the saga of Hida. She is finally here, and doesn't seem any worse for wear. She was very fired up when I first peeked at her - deep red base like her parents! She's got some orange blotching too, such a pretty girl. Seemed very sweet too, just calmly walked out of her cup onto my hand and then into her temporary cage (for quarantine). I'll get some pictures of her once she's had some time to settle in.
Lesson from this for my readers? Always, ALWAYS make sure to get the tracking number from your shipper. Personally, when I ship geckos I sign up for email updates that include the tracking number and related information (such as a link to follow tracking updates), and I also ask the buyer to provide an email that they'd like the same info sent to. That way everyone is informed and can be on top of any problems that may occur. I also exchange phone numbers with customers when shipping for the same reason, but that wasn't possible in this situation obviously. I'm just happy that I've got my gecko, and that she's healthy.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Finally! More Success!!!
Finally got Inigo and Panic to do their thing! I took the log out two days ago and tried them last night with no luck. He's such a stinkin' sensitive gecko he gets freaked out if I put my hand in there, but then again, I have to put the female directly in front of him to get him interested. So it's kind of a catch 22 and I have to be careful. Tonight the stars aligned or something, because they finally did the deed. Pretty excited, I was getting concerned that I wasn't going to get babies from this pair for the year. And now I don't have to mess with Inigo in the middle of the night anymore, even better! He is so violent afterwards too, he grabbed her back leg when I was taking her out of his cage and he would not let go for anything. She was biting me out of desperation, so I started flicking him on the head and he finally let go. Big bully!
I peeked at Perdi since I just stuck a laybox in her cage two nights ago... and she was half in it! So she's getting close to laying, and hopefully those will be fertile.
I also candled Liebchen's eggs again and saw something I'd never seen before. I always mark the eggs where the "cheerio" is and put that line up in the incubator. Tonight when I candled them the cheerios had moved! Both of em, probably 1/4 inch to one side. I'm still going to leave them line up and I bet they realign at some point, because I've heard of breeders who have tried putting their eggs in the incubator with the cheerio at the bottom (on purpose, as an experiment) and it always moved to the top. I just thought it was interesting, as I've never seen the cheerio move after being marked. Who knows though, they're still very very early in the development process and like I said in an earlier post, they are from a virgin female and may be a little "funky". I will see if I can get some pics or video of the magical golden "cheerio" in the next few days to show some folks who may not know what it looks like. :)
And in final news, there is a new gecko coming tomorrow, yay! A friend of mine bred her and has kept her for me for a long time, so I'm excited to finally meet her. She's a female gargoyle gecko who I named Hida (I was having a "HIDA scan", a gallbladder scan, the day I decided to get her). I haven't seen recent pictures of her in awhile, so I look forward to seeing what she looks like nowadays. She also is a survivor of a bizarre, unexplained "burn" incident - I'll post more about it with photos after she's here. Praying for a safe trip for my new girl!!
I peeked at Perdi since I just stuck a laybox in her cage two nights ago... and she was half in it! So she's getting close to laying, and hopefully those will be fertile.
I also candled Liebchen's eggs again and saw something I'd never seen before. I always mark the eggs where the "cheerio" is and put that line up in the incubator. Tonight when I candled them the cheerios had moved! Both of em, probably 1/4 inch to one side. I'm still going to leave them line up and I bet they realign at some point, because I've heard of breeders who have tried putting their eggs in the incubator with the cheerio at the bottom (on purpose, as an experiment) and it always moved to the top. I just thought it was interesting, as I've never seen the cheerio move after being marked. Who knows though, they're still very very early in the development process and like I said in an earlier post, they are from a virgin female and may be a little "funky". I will see if I can get some pics or video of the magical golden "cheerio" in the next few days to show some folks who may not know what it looks like. :)
And in final news, there is a new gecko coming tomorrow, yay! A friend of mine bred her and has kept her for me for a long time, so I'm excited to finally meet her. She's a female gargoyle gecko who I named Hida (I was having a "HIDA scan", a gallbladder scan, the day I decided to get her). I haven't seen recent pictures of her in awhile, so I look forward to seeing what she looks like nowadays. She also is a survivor of a bizarre, unexplained "burn" incident - I'll post more about it with photos after she's here. Praying for a safe trip for my new girl!!
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Woo!! First Fertile Eggs For This Year!
Found my first fertile eggs of the season while taking care of everybody tonight. :D Super excited, they're from Inigo x Liebchen. It's only been a week and a half since I bred them! When I candled them the "cheerios" were pretty small, so they may have been *just* laid, or they might be a bit funky since this is her first breeding ever. Last year with a first year female I didn't get as many babies as I typically do with an experienced gal, so I wouldn't be surprised if there are some funky eggs this year - I'm going to have several first timers!
But in any case, they're nicely calcified and I'll candle them again in a few days to see if the "cheerio" has grown and looks a little more normal. I'm just happy they're fertile, this means I should be getting at least some good eggs out of her this season now. Next to try is Panic! Well, actually we've tried twice with no luck. There's this fake hollow log in Inigo's cage that I need to remove the day before (I always forget and then if I remove it at night he freaks out - such a sensitive soul)... and they always seem to get stuck up inside at the solid end of it, where breeding is impossible. So, note to self, better planning!
Totally ending on the happy note though. Fertile eggs! YAY!!! Now the waiting begins. I have to put the incubator somewhere I don't look very often or I get obsessed, even though they're a good two and a half months away from hatching, give or take. Can't wait for my first (hopefully) creamy lavender babies. :D
I also got two more geckos to their new owner, and I am happy about that. I know they'll be well-cared for and loved at their new home, and that is always a great thing! I've sold quite a few now, I'll need to play tank tetris soon to make sure everybody is in the best digs possible!
But in any case, they're nicely calcified and I'll candle them again in a few days to see if the "cheerio" has grown and looks a little more normal. I'm just happy they're fertile, this means I should be getting at least some good eggs out of her this season now. Next to try is Panic! Well, actually we've tried twice with no luck. There's this fake hollow log in Inigo's cage that I need to remove the day before (I always forget and then if I remove it at night he freaks out - such a sensitive soul)... and they always seem to get stuck up inside at the solid end of it, where breeding is impossible. So, note to self, better planning!
Totally ending on the happy note though. Fertile eggs! YAY!!! Now the waiting begins. I have to put the incubator somewhere I don't look very often or I get obsessed, even though they're a good two and a half months away from hatching, give or take. Can't wait for my first (hopefully) creamy lavender babies. :D
I also got two more geckos to their new owner, and I am happy about that. I know they'll be well-cared for and loved at their new home, and that is always a great thing! I've sold quite a few now, I'll need to play tank tetris soon to make sure everybody is in the best digs possible!
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Meet Breeze!
I realize that not everyone who is reading this blog knows much about my horses. So if you're interested, read on! I have two - a '95 Arabian mare D'Artaneya (aka "D"), and her son, an '09 Quarab gelding D'lightful Breeze. I thought carefully for a lot of years about breeding my mare, and finally decided to when I found a local Quarter Horse stallion who I thought was a nice match for my mare. I decided aganist breeding to an Arabian because I was aiming to add some substance and additional atheltic ability (of a different kind than my mare has). Breeze was born May 21st and so will be 2 this coming Saturday. He is everything I had hoped he would be. You'd wouldn't know he was half Quarter Horse most of the time with his floating trot and flagged tail, until he does a sliding stop, perfect 180 degree rollback, and gallops off in the opposite direction! :D
Prepare yourself for LOTS of pictures! I'd like to describe and show him and his "story" so far, both to introduce him to you all and for my own memories.
My mare was on a webcam and a good month overdue by the time she decided to foal. She'd been acting funny all day, but mares can actually put off labor if disturbed in the early stages so we just left her to her own devices, and she started to really get to serious around 7 pm. I was about 35 minutes away and watching her on cam, but did not leave soon enough. Once she got serious she pushed him out fast! So though I drove like a (mostly safe) maniac, I missed the birth. Thankfully it was recorded by the owner of the barn and I got to view it later.
The craziest part? My mare had him *standing up*! This is extremely unusual for horses, and dangerous because they're certainly not giraffes and are not designed to land on their heads! Thankfully he was fine. If you'd like to see the video of the birth you can bring it up in Windows Media Player. Click File in the menu (you have to have "Show Classic Menus" checked to see the File, View, Play, etc options showing - let me know if you don't know how to do that), and "Open URL" and then paste in the following: http://www.horsesnsuch.com/LadyD-birth-5-21-09.WMV
It's a long recording of about a half hour - mostly labor, and the actual foaling occurs at about 23:00. The woman rushing in is the owner of the barn, and she of course went in to make sure he was ok after his unusual delivery, pull the afterbirth off his head, clean out his nose, etc.
I showed up probably 10 minutes later, and found this:
D was being a great mom and was very interested in him - licking and sniffing him all over. You can see some of that in the end of the video, it's just precious. However, the little guy did have a hard time standing (not for lack of trying!) and so after about an hour he was all tuckered out from trying. It was clear he was not going to be able to get up on his own so we helped him stand. Once he got his "sea legs" he did great.
However, here is where some problems began. D, being a maiden (first time) mom, was very nervous about letting Breeze nurse. Her udder was so full that it hurt, and she didn't understand that if she let him nurse she'd actually feel better. She just associated any touching in that area with pain. We ended up having to tie up one of her front legs (she was beginning to kick at Breeze and we didn't want him hurt) and put a lip chain on her (neither hurt her - they just restrained and distracted her enough to let him nurse). Even then, Breeze was very slow at figuring nursing out, as many colts are. D relaxed quickly after she realized him nursing was actually a relief, and restraints (other than a hand on her halter) were not even needed by the second or third time he got up to nurse.
Problems didn't end there, unfortunately! D had yet to pass her placenta after several hours. At one point earlier in the night she'd kicked at it and tore off a large chunk, so it was no longer heavy (gravity is a major contributing factor in passing the placenta). We called the vet after quite a few hours and she recommended tying something to it to add weight but I knew that wasn't an option, as D would have freaked out. So we ended up having to pick up a shot of oxytocin to cause her to have contractions again. We were also advised to provide gentle traction if necessary. I felt so bad for D - the shot made her very crampy and uncomfortable and she didn't make much progress on her own - I ended up doing most of the pulling on the placenta in the end to get it out. Thankfully it all came out (pieces left behind can cause infection).
From then on, pretty much everything was a "breeze" (hehe excuse the terrible pun). Breeze was a scrawny little foal even though he cooked for a long time, but he filled out quickly. Here he is just a few days later:
Meeting my (at the time) 98 year-old grandmother. I imprinted him from birth and he was very easy to handle:
He did, and still does, love to sniff all over my face:
First trim... he's a big boy now!
He must be growing up, shedding that baby fuzz:
Learning to be ponied and led alongside mom:
And first time tied by himself:
Wait, what the heck is this??
That's Breeze's first winter coat! He thought dark bay was the way to go, the weirdo. He didn't even look like the same horse!
Then he was weaned, and alllll alone (though it really went very well for both mom and baby):
Aaaaand back to his summer coat, of his 1 year old year (same color as mom again!):
Finally, here he was a few months ago, in his second winter:
He looks more like his mom every day (and has obviously inherited her hair)!
Now that you've been thoroughly pic-spammed I will just fill you in on his current status. :) He was gelded the first of March and is an absolute gem. I recently moved both horses to a new farm and he was very easy to load into the trailer. He leads, loads, ties, he stands for trims, grooming, and baths, lunges, and generally everything else I think a horse his age should know how to do! He's extremely intelligent and he loves to run and play. I'm not planning to start riding him for *at least* another year, and I will do a separate post on my reasoning sometime in the future.
Finally, I will leave you with his two most popular videos:
This video will give you the best feel for his personality. He is an absolute riot!!
And that, is Breeze in a (somewhat large) nutshell. I'm very proud of my boy and feel very blessed to have him.
Prepare yourself for LOTS of pictures! I'd like to describe and show him and his "story" so far, both to introduce him to you all and for my own memories.
My mare was on a webcam and a good month overdue by the time she decided to foal. She'd been acting funny all day, but mares can actually put off labor if disturbed in the early stages so we just left her to her own devices, and she started to really get to serious around 7 pm. I was about 35 minutes away and watching her on cam, but did not leave soon enough. Once she got serious she pushed him out fast! So though I drove like a (mostly safe) maniac, I missed the birth. Thankfully it was recorded by the owner of the barn and I got to view it later.
The craziest part? My mare had him *standing up*! This is extremely unusual for horses, and dangerous because they're certainly not giraffes and are not designed to land on their heads! Thankfully he was fine. If you'd like to see the video of the birth you can bring it up in Windows Media Player. Click File in the menu (you have to have "Show Classic Menus" checked to see the File, View, Play, etc options showing - let me know if you don't know how to do that), and "Open URL" and then paste in the following: http://www.horsesnsuch.com/LadyD-birth-5-21-09.WMV
It's a long recording of about a half hour - mostly labor, and the actual foaling occurs at about 23:00. The woman rushing in is the owner of the barn, and she of course went in to make sure he was ok after his unusual delivery, pull the afterbirth off his head, clean out his nose, etc.
I showed up probably 10 minutes later, and found this:
D was being a great mom and was very interested in him - licking and sniffing him all over. You can see some of that in the end of the video, it's just precious. However, the little guy did have a hard time standing (not for lack of trying!) and so after about an hour he was all tuckered out from trying. It was clear he was not going to be able to get up on his own so we helped him stand. Once he got his "sea legs" he did great.
However, here is where some problems began. D, being a maiden (first time) mom, was very nervous about letting Breeze nurse. Her udder was so full that it hurt, and she didn't understand that if she let him nurse she'd actually feel better. She just associated any touching in that area with pain. We ended up having to tie up one of her front legs (she was beginning to kick at Breeze and we didn't want him hurt) and put a lip chain on her (neither hurt her - they just restrained and distracted her enough to let him nurse). Even then, Breeze was very slow at figuring nursing out, as many colts are. D relaxed quickly after she realized him nursing was actually a relief, and restraints (other than a hand on her halter) were not even needed by the second or third time he got up to nurse.
Problems didn't end there, unfortunately! D had yet to pass her placenta after several hours. At one point earlier in the night she'd kicked at it and tore off a large chunk, so it was no longer heavy (gravity is a major contributing factor in passing the placenta). We called the vet after quite a few hours and she recommended tying something to it to add weight but I knew that wasn't an option, as D would have freaked out. So we ended up having to pick up a shot of oxytocin to cause her to have contractions again. We were also advised to provide gentle traction if necessary. I felt so bad for D - the shot made her very crampy and uncomfortable and she didn't make much progress on her own - I ended up doing most of the pulling on the placenta in the end to get it out. Thankfully it all came out (pieces left behind can cause infection).
From then on, pretty much everything was a "breeze" (hehe excuse the terrible pun). Breeze was a scrawny little foal even though he cooked for a long time, but he filled out quickly. Here he is just a few days later:
Meeting my (at the time) 98 year-old grandmother. I imprinted him from birth and he was very easy to handle:
He did, and still does, love to sniff all over my face:
First trim... he's a big boy now!
He must be growing up, shedding that baby fuzz:
Learning to be ponied and led alongside mom:
And first time tied by himself:
Wait, what the heck is this??
That's Breeze's first winter coat! He thought dark bay was the way to go, the weirdo. He didn't even look like the same horse!
Then he was weaned, and alllll alone (though it really went very well for both mom and baby):
Aaaaand back to his summer coat, of his 1 year old year (same color as mom again!):
Finally, here he was a few months ago, in his second winter:
He looks more like his mom every day (and has obviously inherited her hair)!
Now that you've been thoroughly pic-spammed I will just fill you in on his current status. :) He was gelded the first of March and is an absolute gem. I recently moved both horses to a new farm and he was very easy to load into the trailer. He leads, loads, ties, he stands for trims, grooming, and baths, lunges, and generally everything else I think a horse his age should know how to do! He's extremely intelligent and he loves to run and play. I'm not planning to start riding him for *at least* another year, and I will do a separate post on my reasoning sometime in the future.
Finally, I will leave you with his two most popular videos:
This video will give you the best feel for his personality. He is an absolute riot!!
And that, is Breeze in a (somewhat large) nutshell. I'm very proud of my boy and feel very blessed to have him.
Thursday, May 12, 2011
I Take It Back! Success!
Apparently, complaining works on non-breeding geckos! I decided to try something new - introducing the female to the male's cage (usually I do it the other way around) and doing it in the dark, after they've been awake several hours (the lights had been off about 2 1/2 hours).
First, I grabbed Perdi and stuck her in Pongo's cage. He got literally one sniff and he went nuts - biting his vine, my hand (twice - ouch!) and finally Perdi, when I got her situated in front of him (thankfully he was in an easily accessible place). Probably took all of five minutes and it was over. He's already got his hemipenes back where they belong and nobody is worse for the wear. Poor Perdi had to be bred with her leg in his mouth instead of her neck, but hey he's new at this and it worked! She has yet to lay any eggs for me since I've owned her, so we'll see what happens now.
Then I got Liebchen and put her in front of Inigo in his cage. He grabbed her neck immediately and they started wandering around like that. Of course I'm trying to carefully remove the log the caused the problem yesterday while this is going on, without disturbing them. But I was successful and so were they! Inigo is a very long, big gecko, and Liebchen is petite and tailless, so it was a challenge for him to get situated right. After they were done and I removed her from the cage, Inigo got very aggressive and was lunging and gaping at me as I misted him... weirdo! Maybe he was mad he didn't get to cuddle afterwards. ;) He still hasn't retracted his hemipenes, so I'm keeping an eye on that at the moment. He's not even licking it yet, he seems to be in a weird trance. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, he's got a strange disposition to begin with! But he better take care of things, there aren't good herp vets around here.
I'll breed Panic to Inigo in a week or so, hopefully I can keep track of who is laying what that way (they live together and both have been laying duds). I also weighed them so if I find eggs and don't know who laid, I can weigh them and hopefully give it my best guess based on weight loss!
Anyway, I'm a little worried about Inigo, but otherwise super excited! Hopefully dalmation babies are now in my future, and creamy lavenders! :D
And now that I've finished writing this, I just went and checked and Inigo's got everything neatly tucked back where it belongs. Huzzah! Two easy, successful breedings in 10 minutes! There's got to be some benefits to being a night owl... this is one of them I guess!
First, I grabbed Perdi and stuck her in Pongo's cage. He got literally one sniff and he went nuts - biting his vine, my hand (twice - ouch!) and finally Perdi, when I got her situated in front of him (thankfully he was in an easily accessible place). Probably took all of five minutes and it was over. He's already got his hemipenes back where they belong and nobody is worse for the wear. Poor Perdi had to be bred with her leg in his mouth instead of her neck, but hey he's new at this and it worked! She has yet to lay any eggs for me since I've owned her, so we'll see what happens now.
Then I got Liebchen and put her in front of Inigo in his cage. He grabbed her neck immediately and they started wandering around like that. Of course I'm trying to carefully remove the log the caused the problem yesterday while this is going on, without disturbing them. But I was successful and so were they! Inigo is a very long, big gecko, and Liebchen is petite and tailless, so it was a challenge for him to get situated right. After they were done and I removed her from the cage, Inigo got very aggressive and was lunging and gaping at me as I misted him... weirdo! Maybe he was mad he didn't get to cuddle afterwards. ;) He still hasn't retracted his hemipenes, so I'm keeping an eye on that at the moment. He's not even licking it yet, he seems to be in a weird trance. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, he's got a strange disposition to begin with! But he better take care of things, there aren't good herp vets around here.
I'll breed Panic to Inigo in a week or so, hopefully I can keep track of who is laying what that way (they live together and both have been laying duds). I also weighed them so if I find eggs and don't know who laid, I can weigh them and hopefully give it my best guess based on weight loss!
Anyway, I'm a little worried about Inigo, but otherwise super excited! Hopefully dalmation babies are now in my future, and creamy lavenders! :D
And now that I've finished writing this, I just went and checked and Inigo's got everything neatly tucked back where it belongs. Huzzah! Two easy, successful breedings in 10 minutes! There's got to be some benefits to being a night owl... this is one of them I guess!
Ahh... My Virgin Boys....
Last night I gave two of my virgin crested gecko boys a crack at breeding (Pongo and Inigo). Neither one got the deed even close to done!! Pongo pretty much slept and wasn't remotely even interested in his date (Perdi), and though Inigo was slightly more successful, still nothin'. He got the girl (Liebchen) by the neck as necessary, but then got a little too excited and caused them to fall to the bottom of the cage... whereupon she ran and hid up in the top of a hollow plastic log where he couldn't get to her. *sigh* After that he just wasn't interested.
I'm afraid this year will be like last year - I gave them both an opportunity last year and neither was successful then either. Inigo even had a nice experienced, tolerant girl to practice on, but he just never lined up and did the actual deed. I don't know what I'm going to do with these boys!! I'll keep trying but they're certainly frustrating me. I've got these two males who can't be bothered to make babies, and then the other two who regularly try to make them with my hand!! Pongo and Inigo don't have to go that far, but for goodness sakes gentlemen, make an effort.
I'll give them more opportunities soon because I was really hoping for babies from both this year (I'm breeding later than most breeders on purpose, but I do hope they "do things" sooner rather than later, especially as several babies from Liebchen and Panic are already spoken for in a deal with their previous owner). So please everybody, send the baby-gecko-making vibes to my house, they are sorely needed. Maybe I'll start piping some Barry White into the gecko room...
I'm afraid this year will be like last year - I gave them both an opportunity last year and neither was successful then either. Inigo even had a nice experienced, tolerant girl to practice on, but he just never lined up and did the actual deed. I don't know what I'm going to do with these boys!! I'll keep trying but they're certainly frustrating me. I've got these two males who can't be bothered to make babies, and then the other two who regularly try to make them with my hand!! Pongo and Inigo don't have to go that far, but for goodness sakes gentlemen, make an effort.
I'll give them more opportunities soon because I was really hoping for babies from both this year (I'm breeding later than most breeders on purpose, but I do hope they "do things" sooner rather than later, especially as several babies from Liebchen and Panic are already spoken for in a deal with their previous owner). So please everybody, send the baby-gecko-making vibes to my house, they are sorely needed. Maybe I'll start piping some Barry White into the gecko room...
Friday, May 6, 2011
More Wildlife Encounters!
Well, last night I went and watched some red fox pups play. They are so comical, not to mention cute! Unfortunately mom chose a den in the bank of a drainage ditch - but it's right next to a busy road. The pups tend to stay off the road, but I wouldn't be surprised if some are hit by cars in the following months. :( They're just not really afraid of the cars, they aren't even fazed as they fly by, unless it's an especially noisy motorcycle or big truck (and then they'll run to the den).
Another problem is that these foxes are becoming very used to humans. Some idiot (and yes I do consider them an idiot for not considering the ramifications before publishing) put an article in our local paper about them. As a result, people are flocking to the area - while I was there probably about 10-20 people rotated through. I actually asked a few to move back, they were so close. The more used to people these foxes become, the more dangerous it is for them AND us. I'm estimating their age to be almost two months old since this species is usually born around March, they're just starting to grow the shiny guard hairs in that you see on adults (happens at 8 weeks), and because typically at 10 weeks (and I'm really crossing my fingers for this) they become more wary of humans.
So I took some pics and video and made one of my usual compliations. Enjoy - I know I did!
And here are a couple photos - they're the same ones from the video but they're some of my favorites and I thought some of you might like a longer look. ;)
All six:
His lil tongue is sticking out! lol!:
And my personal favorite:
Now for the obligatory "fox facts" (try saying that 10 times fast)! The Red Fox, Vulpes vulpes, is the largest species of the true foxes, and is the most geographically spread of any terrestrial member of the entire order Carnivora (which includes over 260 species). They have a HUGE range and can survive and thrive in a variety of habitats. You can find them in the majority of the northern hemisphere - all the way from the Artic Circle to Central America! They're also found in central Asia, northern Africa, the northern regions of India and Vietnam, and have been introduced to Australia.
One of the things I find most interesting about this species is the large list of subspecies (which can differ significantly in color, pattern, and shape). In 2005 there were an astounding 45 subspecies listed, and yet another was discovered last year (article about that here). I would not normally use Wikipedia as a source, but there is a pretty good list there including photos, descriptions, and ranges, if you'd like to see some of the differences in subspecies - Red Fox Subspecies. Also, impressively, none of these subpsecies are listed as endangered (unlike many other foxes). This testifies to the fact that this is truly an adaptable animal, though as such it has also just (#99) made the list of the "100 of the World's Worst Invasive Alien Species" (and this list even includes plants and insects)!
The foxes I saw will be with their mother at the den site until fall unless she moves them (though I would have thought she'd have done that already if she was going to, with all the human disturbances). Then they will either stay with her to help raise next year's litter, or venture out on their own. I certainly hope they end up venturing somewhere far from busy roads and angry farmers with missing chickens!
Another problem is that these foxes are becoming very used to humans. Some idiot (and yes I do consider them an idiot for not considering the ramifications before publishing) put an article in our local paper about them. As a result, people are flocking to the area - while I was there probably about 10-20 people rotated through. I actually asked a few to move back, they were so close. The more used to people these foxes become, the more dangerous it is for them AND us. I'm estimating their age to be almost two months old since this species is usually born around March, they're just starting to grow the shiny guard hairs in that you see on adults (happens at 8 weeks), and because typically at 10 weeks (and I'm really crossing my fingers for this) they become more wary of humans.
So I took some pics and video and made one of my usual compliations. Enjoy - I know I did!
And here are a couple photos - they're the same ones from the video but they're some of my favorites and I thought some of you might like a longer look. ;)
All six:
His lil tongue is sticking out! lol!:
And my personal favorite:
Now for the obligatory "fox facts" (try saying that 10 times fast)! The Red Fox, Vulpes vulpes, is the largest species of the true foxes, and is the most geographically spread of any terrestrial member of the entire order Carnivora (which includes over 260 species). They have a HUGE range and can survive and thrive in a variety of habitats. You can find them in the majority of the northern hemisphere - all the way from the Artic Circle to Central America! They're also found in central Asia, northern Africa, the northern regions of India and Vietnam, and have been introduced to Australia.
One of the things I find most interesting about this species is the large list of subspecies (which can differ significantly in color, pattern, and shape). In 2005 there were an astounding 45 subspecies listed, and yet another was discovered last year (article about that here). I would not normally use Wikipedia as a source, but there is a pretty good list there including photos, descriptions, and ranges, if you'd like to see some of the differences in subspecies - Red Fox Subspecies. Also, impressively, none of these subpsecies are listed as endangered (unlike many other foxes). This testifies to the fact that this is truly an adaptable animal, though as such it has also just (#99) made the list of the "100 of the World's Worst Invasive Alien Species" (and this list even includes plants and insects)!
The foxes I saw will be with their mother at the den site until fall unless she moves them (though I would have thought she'd have done that already if she was going to, with all the human disturbances). Then they will either stay with her to help raise next year's litter, or venture out on their own. I certainly hope they end up venturing somewhere far from busy roads and angry farmers with missing chickens!
Monday, May 2, 2011
An Update - With Videos!
I have been very stressed about the situation over at Brandon's with Oz and the other larger fish in the tank. For a few days there both he and I were worried about it working out in the long run, as Oz had taken over the entire tank and was bullying the oscar and pacu. I had no idea what I was going to do if I had to take him back as I'd exhausted all avenues for finding him an appropriate home and I simply could not let him continue to live a miserable existance, self-harming, in my 55 gallon.
However, it's looking at this point that I don't have to worry about it anymore. *huge cheer* Today's texts with Brandon went like this:
Him: "Do you have any idea what your pH level is? I just checked mine and it was lower than normal. It's usually around 7.0-7.2 but it was 6.0 when I checked it."
Me: "It's the added ammonia from Oz. Bump up your water changes a LOT while the bacteria increase enough to handle the new load. It will stabilize back then. How are thing going for them? I've been really worried."
Him: "Not too bad. It's clear Oz doesn't want any friends. :) At least any big friends."
Me: "But he's not beating up on them too much is he? I'm just trying to figure out if I need to start looking for other options for him."
Him: "The kids love playing with him. He adds so much character to the tank. I can't imagine not having him as a part of the fish community." then "He's not beating them up aymore. It's clear that he is established as the alpha."
Me: "Omg you don't know what a relief that is to hear. I am so glad. So does he leave them alone now?"
Him: "Yes. He stays on his half of the tank. He has moved over to the white rocks now. He is working on a hole to china under the flat rock! He's been working on it for 3 days now."
Note that all important word in the last text - the very first one - "Yes". He is LEAVING THEM ALONE!!! I don't know if I thought it was possible. But I'm beyond thrilled.
Then he took two videos for me and sent them to me in an email called "The Land of Oz and His Hole to China! lol!!
So here I present Oz in his awesome new tank, where he is displaying his talents as a interior designer. He's removed all the gravel from behind the white rock and is piling it in the middle. Brandon filmed these, I just uploaded them.
However, it's looking at this point that I don't have to worry about it anymore. *huge cheer* Today's texts with Brandon went like this:
Him: "Do you have any idea what your pH level is? I just checked mine and it was lower than normal. It's usually around 7.0-7.2 but it was 6.0 when I checked it."
Me: "It's the added ammonia from Oz. Bump up your water changes a LOT while the bacteria increase enough to handle the new load. It will stabilize back then. How are thing going for them? I've been really worried."
Him: "Not too bad. It's clear Oz doesn't want any friends. :) At least any big friends."
Me: "But he's not beating up on them too much is he? I'm just trying to figure out if I need to start looking for other options for him."
Him: "The kids love playing with him. He adds so much character to the tank. I can't imagine not having him as a part of the fish community." then "He's not beating them up aymore. It's clear that he is established as the alpha."
Me: "Omg you don't know what a relief that is to hear. I am so glad. So does he leave them alone now?"
Him: "Yes. He stays on his half of the tank. He has moved over to the white rocks now. He is working on a hole to china under the flat rock! He's been working on it for 3 days now."
Note that all important word in the last text - the very first one - "Yes". He is LEAVING THEM ALONE!!! I don't know if I thought it was possible. But I'm beyond thrilled.
Then he took two videos for me and sent them to me in an email called "The Land of Oz and His Hole to China! lol!!
So here I present Oz in his awesome new tank, where he is displaying his talents as a interior designer. He's removed all the gravel from behind the white rock and is piling it in the middle. Brandon filmed these, I just uploaded them.
And another - what cracks me up in this one (and Brandon too obviously - you can hear him chuckle) is that at the end you can see the pacu and oscar at the opposite end of the tank. I think the appropriate word for their apparent attitude is "cowed". Oz = The Big Boss
Also, I'd like to take this as an opportunity to give a little more information about what first started the texting, the pH issue. pH drops when ammonia increases. The addition of Oz and the ammonia he adds to the tank (fish excrete it through their gills and also the additional food being used for him and er... its result). Essentially, the tank is going through a "mini-cycle" with the addition of another fish. The amount of beneficial (and necessary) bacteria is not yet enough to handle the bioload that is now in the tank, so until it is, Brandon will need to perform frequent water changes to help keep his water parameters stable and as little ammonia as possible in the water (it's toxic to fish at certain pH levels).
If you are unfamiliar with the nitrogen cycle that occurs in all aquariums, read through these few pages to learn the basic idea. It's an absolutely VITAL part of maintaining aquariums and anyone who is interested in starting one (or even if you have one and have aren't informed on this topic) should understand the ins and outs of cycling before even filling up a tank. For a more interactive environment where you can ask your own questions and get answers from very knowledgeable fishkeepers, visit Ultimate Bettas, which is a fantastic forum (and talks about all animals - not just bettas!) :) I am a moderator there, and my username is JulieTheGr8t. Feel free to visit us anytime! Or post questions in your comments, I would be happy to answer them. I personally am the current owner of multiple aquariums. One less now though... *tiny sad sigh*
Now maybe I'll get together the funds for a blue tongue skink! o_0
Friday, April 29, 2011
Saying Some Goodbyes
Yesterday I sent off a gecko to Tennessee, and I'm a bit sad about it. I need the money and I desperately need to downsize, hence the sale I'm having... but it's always hard to sell a baby you've raised. This was a special little guy - he looked just like his daddy who is my favorite gecko. He went to a very nice home though where I know he will be loved and cared for, and made it there safely thank God.
However, I also parted with another member of my animal "family", one who I have had for over 6 years. This loss was much harder. His name is Oz, and he's a Midas cichlid. When I first bought him he was nearly dead as a result of bullying from larger tankmates at Petsmart, and he was barely an inch long. As time passed, he upgraded from a 10 gallon to a 29, to a 55. I even moved him from Washington state to Kansas! Currently he is at least 11 inches long, about 7 inches "tall", and about 2-3 inches wide. In other words, he had long outgrown his 55 gallon.
I moved to my own place in November, and didn't bring him with me - it would have just been too much of a huge hassle to move him + the tank. He stayed in my parent's basement. I have no room here for a tank larger than a 55, and my parents were unwilling to let me upgrade at their house either. Oz was also extremely bored - I used to have my bedroom in the basement so he had interaction with me all the time, but my parents hardly ever go down there. So he was self-harming out of boredom, and I knew something had to be done.
The problem was that Oz is extremely aggressive towards other fish - he killed the only two tankmates I've ever tried with him and cleaning his tank was always like a shark diving adventure. So he needed a very special home and owner. I started posting ads on craiglist early in the year and never found anyone who had a setup that would be appropriate. Then several days ago I was contacted by a guy, Brandon, who offered to add him into his 150 gallon tank. The tank did have other fish such as an 11" pacu and 8" oscar, plus some varied African cichids. I was a bit concerned about the other fish, so we just decided to try it on a trial basis.
Last evening I brought Oz over and we introduced him to the tank. Oz was pretty stressed from the trip so we weren't able to get a good feel for how he was going to be. He hid behind the rocks the Africans live in (on the left side of the tank), and apparently slept there all night. This morning Brandon texted me to update me - he said that Oz was exploring the whole tank and being trailed by several of the smaller fish without minding at all. He even fed alongside them without problems, which surprised me (but I was also glad to hear he was willing to eat already, he must be settling in quickly). When he encountered the pacu he took a bite at him and the pacu fled to the right side of the tank where it usually hangs out. The oscar and Oz then had a 20 second mouth fight which naturally Oz won, and the oscar wandered back over the right as well.
I'm really hoping Oz doesn't start bullying the larger fish. He seems to have decided that the left side of the tank is his territory, which is good since the pacu and oscar already hang out on the right. I'm hoping that this becomes permanent and that territory squabbles are few and far between. However, I may be hoping for too much because Oz may decide the whole tank is his and start bullying that oscar like crazy. Fingers crossed? I still have his 55 up and running and will for another week or two, just in case... but I hope and pray this works out. It would just be an ideal situation for him. In fact, in an email today from Brandon, he said:
"The kids are having fun playing follow the leader with Oz. Our 22-month-old son belly laughs when Oz swims up close to see him. He is quite the character! :)"
I was so glad to hear that. Oz and I always used to play a game where I'd run from one side of the tank to the other and back and he'd swim alongside, trying to beat me. Brandon has 3 children under the age of 5 and I was hoping they'd play the same game - sounds like they are already! He's certainly going to get a lot of interaction at this house, which is wonderful. (Brandon also said I could come visit him whenever I wanted which I really appreciated, and I probably will at some point once he's settled in.)
I know a lot of you may be thinking I'm nuts for being emotionally attached to a fish, but he wasn't "just a fish". Hopefully from what I've said you can get some of an idea of how much personality he has. He is the most dog-like fish I've ever met, and I'll miss him a lot. I watched him grow and change his coloration and shape into a most impressive, beautiful fish. I wish I'd taken more recent pics, but here are some from a few years back, when he still fit in his 55:
Angry boy! Look at that flare!
And his 55, at its peak before he started "redecorating":
Cross your fingers for me that this new home works out for him. I don't know what I'll do if it doesn't. Goodbye Oz, and be good please!! I already miss you but you'll be happier there.
I may potentially have a 55 open now. (tiny cheer?) I'm thinking Diamondback Terrapin... Blue Tongue Skink... or upgrading my 29 community to the 55. No idea yet. Just some ideas rolling around in my head in case this works out.
However, I also parted with another member of my animal "family", one who I have had for over 6 years. This loss was much harder. His name is Oz, and he's a Midas cichlid. When I first bought him he was nearly dead as a result of bullying from larger tankmates at Petsmart, and he was barely an inch long. As time passed, he upgraded from a 10 gallon to a 29, to a 55. I even moved him from Washington state to Kansas! Currently he is at least 11 inches long, about 7 inches "tall", and about 2-3 inches wide. In other words, he had long outgrown his 55 gallon.
I moved to my own place in November, and didn't bring him with me - it would have just been too much of a huge hassle to move him + the tank. He stayed in my parent's basement. I have no room here for a tank larger than a 55, and my parents were unwilling to let me upgrade at their house either. Oz was also extremely bored - I used to have my bedroom in the basement so he had interaction with me all the time, but my parents hardly ever go down there. So he was self-harming out of boredom, and I knew something had to be done.
The problem was that Oz is extremely aggressive towards other fish - he killed the only two tankmates I've ever tried with him and cleaning his tank was always like a shark diving adventure. So he needed a very special home and owner. I started posting ads on craiglist early in the year and never found anyone who had a setup that would be appropriate. Then several days ago I was contacted by a guy, Brandon, who offered to add him into his 150 gallon tank. The tank did have other fish such as an 11" pacu and 8" oscar, plus some varied African cichids. I was a bit concerned about the other fish, so we just decided to try it on a trial basis.
Last evening I brought Oz over and we introduced him to the tank. Oz was pretty stressed from the trip so we weren't able to get a good feel for how he was going to be. He hid behind the rocks the Africans live in (on the left side of the tank), and apparently slept there all night. This morning Brandon texted me to update me - he said that Oz was exploring the whole tank and being trailed by several of the smaller fish without minding at all. He even fed alongside them without problems, which surprised me (but I was also glad to hear he was willing to eat already, he must be settling in quickly). When he encountered the pacu he took a bite at him and the pacu fled to the right side of the tank where it usually hangs out. The oscar and Oz then had a 20 second mouth fight which naturally Oz won, and the oscar wandered back over the right as well.
I'm really hoping Oz doesn't start bullying the larger fish. He seems to have decided that the left side of the tank is his territory, which is good since the pacu and oscar already hang out on the right. I'm hoping that this becomes permanent and that territory squabbles are few and far between. However, I may be hoping for too much because Oz may decide the whole tank is his and start bullying that oscar like crazy. Fingers crossed? I still have his 55 up and running and will for another week or two, just in case... but I hope and pray this works out. It would just be an ideal situation for him. In fact, in an email today from Brandon, he said:
"The kids are having fun playing follow the leader with Oz. Our 22-month-old son belly laughs when Oz swims up close to see him. He is quite the character! :)"
I was so glad to hear that. Oz and I always used to play a game where I'd run from one side of the tank to the other and back and he'd swim alongside, trying to beat me. Brandon has 3 children under the age of 5 and I was hoping they'd play the same game - sounds like they are already! He's certainly going to get a lot of interaction at this house, which is wonderful. (Brandon also said I could come visit him whenever I wanted which I really appreciated, and I probably will at some point once he's settled in.)
I know a lot of you may be thinking I'm nuts for being emotionally attached to a fish, but he wasn't "just a fish". Hopefully from what I've said you can get some of an idea of how much personality he has. He is the most dog-like fish I've ever met, and I'll miss him a lot. I watched him grow and change his coloration and shape into a most impressive, beautiful fish. I wish I'd taken more recent pics, but here are some from a few years back, when he still fit in his 55:
Angry boy! Look at that flare!
And his 55, at its peak before he started "redecorating":
Cross your fingers for me that this new home works out for him. I don't know what I'll do if it doesn't. Goodbye Oz, and be good please!! I already miss you but you'll be happier there.
I may potentially have a 55 open now. (tiny cheer?) I'm thinking Diamondback Terrapin... Blue Tongue Skink... or upgrading my 29 community to the 55. No idea yet. Just some ideas rolling around in my head in case this works out.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Bat Woman?
Tonight turned into one of those nights where you never know what's gonna happen (as is my life regarding wildlife, usually). My parents and I were playing cards and they got a call from someone at our church - there was a bat in the building! We've had bat sightings for several months now and I've been worried about the poor thing (assuming it was the same one) as it wouldn't be able to hibernate properly with the fluctuating temps. In any case, we got called because I had mentioned wanting to catch and release it if it was ever in a "catch-able" place. So we finished our game, I gathered some gear, and it was off for the great bat hunt!
We arrived to the following:
So I put on some leather gloves and grabbed a towel - the bat was sleepy and weak so I considered this as the best and least stressful approach (I'd brought a bucket and a pillowcase as well). I also wanted to be able to handle him in order to release him onto a tree later as it would have been very difficult, if not impossible, for this bat to take off from the ground. Climbed a stepladder, and here's me preparing for the capture:
I easily caught him and safely and properly restrained him in the towel. There just happened to be an entire troop of Boy Scouts finishing their meeting at the same time, so of course I was mobbed and we had a few minutes of "Show and Tell". They had a lot of questions but I was happy to answer them because I think bats are wonderful. Of course some were a bit wary but I explained that this species is awesome because of how many bugs they eat (including the bugs that annoy humans like mosquitos)! Here's a photo of me doing a little explaining (note the Scout over my shoulder shooting a video on his phone - cell phones were out everywhere it was hilarious), excuse the goofy expression on my face, I was talking:
And here is the very unhappy bat himself. He didn't try to bite (woulda if he coulda, however - I didn't give him the chance) but he was emitting distress calls and I tried to limit his time restrained to only a few minutes.
I then released him outside - he had a hard time of it, but after several tries I got him latched onto a big tree which he climbed, so I am hopeful that he will make it.
After several hours of research I was able to finally identify the bat as a Big Brown Bat, Eptesicus fuscus. The problem was that the photos my mom took were not quite clear enough and I couldn't remember what the tragus (part of the ear) looked like well enough to ID that way - this species is extremely similar to the Little Brown Bat, also known as the Little Brown Myotis (Myotis lucifugus). I'm proud of myself, as I finally identified it by dentition. :D Found some photos of skulls of both species, did comparisons, and the bottom teeth in that last photo are in sharp enough focus that I was able to make a for-sure ID.
We arrived to the following:
So I put on some leather gloves and grabbed a towel - the bat was sleepy and weak so I considered this as the best and least stressful approach (I'd brought a bucket and a pillowcase as well). I also wanted to be able to handle him in order to release him onto a tree later as it would have been very difficult, if not impossible, for this bat to take off from the ground. Climbed a stepladder, and here's me preparing for the capture:
I easily caught him and safely and properly restrained him in the towel. There just happened to be an entire troop of Boy Scouts finishing their meeting at the same time, so of course I was mobbed and we had a few minutes of "Show and Tell". They had a lot of questions but I was happy to answer them because I think bats are wonderful. Of course some were a bit wary but I explained that this species is awesome because of how many bugs they eat (including the bugs that annoy humans like mosquitos)! Here's a photo of me doing a little explaining (note the Scout over my shoulder shooting a video on his phone - cell phones were out everywhere it was hilarious), excuse the goofy expression on my face, I was talking:
And here is the very unhappy bat himself. He didn't try to bite (woulda if he coulda, however - I didn't give him the chance) but he was emitting distress calls and I tried to limit his time restrained to only a few minutes.
I then released him outside - he had a hard time of it, but after several tries I got him latched onto a big tree which he climbed, so I am hopeful that he will make it.
After several hours of research I was able to finally identify the bat as a Big Brown Bat, Eptesicus fuscus. The problem was that the photos my mom took were not quite clear enough and I couldn't remember what the tragus (part of the ear) looked like well enough to ID that way - this species is extremely similar to the Little Brown Bat, also known as the Little Brown Myotis (Myotis lucifugus). I'm proud of myself, as I finally identified it by dentition. :D Found some photos of skulls of both species, did comparisons, and the bottom teeth in that last photo are in sharp enough focus that I was able to make a for-sure ID.
In my research I came across some interesting information about this particular species. For example - "Males usually live alone; females gather in maternity colonies in the spring and summer to give birth and raise their young. A maternity colony may include 20 - 75 adults and their offspring. Females in the eastern United States usually give birth to twins; those in the West usually have a single pup each year. Females may return to the same colony year after year." (Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History) What especially interests me is the difference in offspring number regarding geographic location. What's up with that? Increased predation/other dangers for young bats in the east? WNS? (Keep reading for info on that - it's moving west slowly but surely). Who knows!
And for those who don't know much about bats, I must bring up the subject of White-nose Syndrome, something that is killing our bats and we know little to nothing about. It is wiping out entire colonies and we don't even know for sure how it is spread, much less have any idea how to treat it. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has a good page on it with current news and make sure to click on "Learn more about white-nose syndrome". A sobering statistic from that page says that since this was first discovered in February of 2006, "More than a million hibernating bats have died since then, making WNS the worst wildlife health crisis in memory." It's something to be aware of, as bats are a very important part of our ecosystem and without them... well... I don't even want to go there! There's enough mosquitos in Kansas already.
Signing off for now!
~ Bat Woman
Thursday, April 21, 2011
An Important Lesson Learned...
Last night my main email acccount was hacked. I was actively using it and emailing while on my laptop and visiting my parents.... several hours later after I was back at home I fired the laptop back up and viola, I am magically signed out. This was the first sign of something wrong, since I have my email set to save my username and password, and am always signed in when I click on it. Next sign? My password was "incorrect". And the answer to my secret question was also "incorrect". I did not have a different working email (hadn't updated this in years) to send a password reset request to. I tried too many times to sign in with my "incorrect" password and was locked out of the account (which usually lasts 24 hours, in which much damage could have been done).
*CUE TOTAL FREAKOUT*
I had to submit a ticket to the company, explaining in as much detail as possible what my email account contained - recent emails, folder names, contact details, etc. Thankfully I was able to remember enough that my ownership of the account was validated by the next afternoon and I was sent a password reset link to a different email address. Now everything is back to normal, and it looks like no harm has been done. I've changed my account settings (in all accounts I could think of) so that they are *MUCH* more secure (changed security questions, added my phone number and alternate emails for password resets)... but I've gone even further than that.
A friend on a forum mentioned a program called KeePass, a program you can download (or even just put it on a USB stick to use portably without installing). To quote the website, "KeePass is a free open source password manager, which helps you to manage your passwords in a secure way. You can put all your passwords in one database, which is locked with one master key or a key file. So you only have to remember one single master password or select the key file to unlock the whole database. The databases are encrypted using the best and most secure encryption algorithms currently known."
Basically, you only have to remember one master password to get into the program, and then the program allows you to generate random, extremely strong passwords (we're talking symbols, numbers, caps/lowercase, 20 character length, etc - all which can be altered to your preferences) for anything you need a password for. I decided to install the program on my laptop and spend several hours this evening using it to change all my passwords - emails, blogs, my website, paypal, bank account, even games I play. I realized how often I use the same or very similar passwords (and don't we all?) and how easy it would be to get into multiple accounts if someone were to just figure out one of those passwords.
I could have been in for a catastrophe if I had not got my account back - I would have lost all my contacts, multiple important emails including correspondence regarding gecko sales - and no one would have known why I dropped off the planet! My email address may have even been used to generate malicious spam. And if they'd gained access to my financial accounts, well, we all know how devastating it could have gotten then. I learned my lesson! And I'm posting this entry so that you can learn from my mistakes instead of your own (even one that could lead to full-on identity theft). At the very least go and change your passwords often, and try to make them unrelated and include both letters and numbers. But I *strongly* encourage checking out KeePass for yourself. The website has a list of its features and I think you'll be impressed. Even when installed on your computer, the program leaves no registry keys or other evidence and if, God forbid, someone stole your computer, they still wouldn't have your passwords without that master password.
Bottom line: Protect your websites, your financial accounts, your email, and as a result - yourself!
Saturday, April 9, 2011
OMG, I'm launching the site...
Believe it or not, after months and months of work, I think I've finally got the site close enough to finished for the official launch! I'll probably never be fully satisfied, so I might as well go for it. If I don't quit now, my eyes are going to permanently cross from staring at walls of codes for hours on end! (Yes, I built/typed the entire thing myself, from scratch... ugh. We'll see if I ever convince myself to do that again!)
I've still got a few photos to add of geckos who wouldn't fire for me during the photo shoots, etc, but most everybody is there. I can't believe how many geckos I'm selling though, that will be hard. I'm selling something like 14 geckos which is about half my collection. But for those of you who don't know, I have some severe health problems that limit me significantly and in recent months I've come to the conclusion that I simply must cut back. I'm only holding onto the geckos I plan to breed, some holdbacks, and a couple special ones. :)
I hope and pray my geckos go to wonderful homes, and I will be very picky about where some of them go. They have been very special animals and I want them to be spoiled rotten! Thanks to all who are supporting the launch of the site, and if you're in the market, I hope you find an animal you like.
Julie
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