It's About to get Crazy!!

In all seriousness, it's about to get crazy around here. Since I'm up late and it's now Sunday, I'm going to be spending much my day with the husband cutting, disinfecting, and screening new tubs. Then the early part of my week will be spent decorating said tubs for new arrivals. This week may very well be my last days that are appropriate temps for shipping without a heat pack (and I always try to avoid using one if possible). That means... everybody and their sister (ok nobody's really related) is going to have to get shipped in before cold weather really hits! Probably the same day. I'm going to be absolutely inundated with boxes and new geckos! Fun, but always stressful when there is geckos in the mail, especially when the weather is a little less than ideal.

I'll be shipping one out too - I'm trading away the gorgeous striped black and white gargoyle Rainier to a friend who will keep him as "living art" (which he rightfully deserves, I have never seen a black/white gargoyle that holds a candle to him). I will miss him a lot, I've always admired him so much for his uniqueness and special place in the gargoyle world. Unfortunately, I just don't think he will be used here much for breeding as I'm focusing so much on color with my gargoyles now. I'm just happy he is going to a home where I know he will be happy, healthy, and loved. :) I couldn't ask for anything more regarding homes for my geckos (and as a bonus, I know the communication line is always open - I'll get updates or can email to check up on him anytime).

Random tangent - us breeders LOVE updates on animals we've sold you. I have one gal who emails me periodically with update photos of a baby I sold her (that I bred). He is blossoming into an absolutely jaw-dropping adult, and I am so thankful that I get to be a part of watching it happen! (Though if I'd know he'd be that great I might have kept him, haha!) It's wonderful to see how our babies mature, not only for the "feel good" part, but because it also helps us get a better idea of what kind of animals those particular pairings of parents can/will produce. So if you're reading this, think about sending a breeder or two of some of your animals an update. I promise you they will appreciate it a ton! :)

Back on topic - gecko arrival! I will be receiving packages from goReptiles, Moonrise Geckos, New Caledonia Northwest, SV Geckos, Sticky Side Up Geckos, and Red Sky Geckos. Hoi that's a lot of boxes, especially considering most will have multiples inside. At least a couple of them aren't adults, less space I need to make room for lol! Keep your fingers crossed for me that everyone arrives safe and sound! I know that I'm overdue for a photoshoot for the geckos and have been for ages, keep being patient with me - getting new arrivals situated is more important to me than getting shots of them fully fired when they get here. I'd rather do it a few weeks after they've had some time to settle in. Maybe in the meantime I'll be motivated/have a chance to get updated pics of those for sale (I really need to do that)!

And omg, we're not finished. My new friend from St. Louis, Crystal Rolfe of Tailspinz Geckos (check her out on Facebook, she has a lovely collection), is doing me a HGUE favor and bringing me back some geckos from the Tinley Park NARBC show that was this weekend in Chicago. It allowed me to purchase geckos I otherwise could not have afforded due to shipping. I can't wait to get them! I'll probably meet up with her in another week or two to get those kids. Good thing they're not coming this week too! I snagged some really great deals thanks to my "gecko courier's" services.

I can't wait until next year, I am going to have so many fabulous pairings and I am already chomping at the bit to see what they produce for me! If nothing else, you all are going to have a lot to choose from. ;) I was just working on my list for next year's pairings and it's going to be complete, awesome mayhem when babies start hatching. I hope once I get pics up of all the animals I have acquired (and those I just haven't photographed yet), you all will be as excited as I am for babies. If there is enough interest, I will start wait-listing. First come, first serve. I run wait-lists as follows: if you request to be on one for a certain pairing I will make a note of it, and if someone else inquires, they're "next in line", so to speak. If I decide to let go of a baby from the pairing I will contact the first person on the list before making the baby available to the public, and if they decline, on down the list I go! Feel free to email me if you see somebody(s) you love and would like offspring from - juliethegr8t@hotmail.com. But please, only request to be wait-listed if you're quite serious about buying, as it is quite frustrating to spent the time going through an entire wait-list and getting all "no's", when you could have had your animal listed for sale elsewhere that entire time.

I'll post an update once the first round of geckos are here with their formal introductions! Keep an eye out.

P.S. The terrapins are doing awesome, I absolutely adore them. They are super cute and very entertaining. I have tried to get some photos of them but it's incredibly difficult as now they associate me with food and try to frantically swim through the glass every time they see me. I try to catch them basking, but I also hate to disturb them when they are (though sleeping turtles are SO CUTE with their eyes all scrunched shut)!! I may just have to post some blurry photos, gasp. They're simply too cute not to share, and they have already made their distinct personalities clear. One likes to spend time in the "sun" and the other plays "Kraken" and sinks the already sunken pirate ship in their tank. I've give you a guess who is who. ;)

Recovery and Renewal

Hi anyone reading this - long time no post, on my part. It's been a long haul since I last posted, I can't believe that was almost a year and a half ago. So this one is going to be a novel of a catch-up post, you've been warned! Sad to say that my spirit broke a bit when I lost my first baby (previous post), but then I lost another, Bazarak. Same type of symptoms, though I tried even harder to save Rokha's clutchmate. I was determined not to lose another one due to this mysterious "something". I took my little kid into the only vet within a 3 hour radius who saw reptiles, even though I knew I wasn't going to be getting answers or help - I just wanted to get some Baytril (an antibiotic) in case this was some sort of infection. I got what I expected, the vet had no clue what was going on and was willing to take my suggestion. I got my Baytril. I carefully administered it orally to Bazarak as instructed, and he hated it (it tastes awful to them). He just kept going downhill as I tried everything within my power to save his life. When he finally passed, in my hand, my heart broke. I couldn't stand losing my babies like this!

Unfortunately, Bazarak was not the only death to come. Not long after he passed, my husband and I made the move to Missouri from Kansas. It was quite the series of trips as we had all the geckos to move (I may do a gecko moving tutorial with all my photos from that trip - nobody even lost a tail, it went well), my fish who I had owned for many years, my cat, 2 still fairly new-to-us kittens, two dogs, and two horses! Oh and don't forget the plants, including the philodendron with ten plus feet of vines... Thankfully we all safely made it to our beautiful new home which is now our wonderful farm (we fenced and cross-fenced our ~6 acres and added 3 horses and 10 chickens).

It was awhile after moving that anything went wrong - I don't blame any of it on that. First was Páyos, my rubber boa and first and only snake. She was originally wild caught and not knowing her history, she may have simply died from old age. It was an unexpected loss and I did take it hard, as I do with any of my animals. Then I started hatching out my first agricolae babies, which was exciting! I had 4. Now I have 2, and both of them are deformed from MBD (Metabolic Bone Disease). The two babies that died were sudden and again, unexpected. They were eating and behaving normally one day and dead the next. With the problems that the two survivors began to exhibit - trouble shedding and signs of MBD, I figured that the food I had switched my collection over to (more on this later) might just not have enough calcium in it for this species, and/or the food their mother was fed when she laid their eggs (Repashy) caused a problem. It was the sole food for my hatchlings as they were uninterested in bugs. So I started giving calcium glubionate orally to the two survivors and putting them in front of a UVA/UVB light. It worked, they made it. Both have permanent deformities and look a bit strange, but are now healthy and doing well on yet a different commercial diet (one I'm happy with and sticking with). However, *dun dun dun*, at the same time I was losing babies, I also lost Cobble, my adult female agricolae and mother to the babies. I was devastated - she was not only expensive, but from an uncommon lineage and valuable to the gene pool. I chose not to have her necropsied, but from what I could tell she was not egg bound and there were not external signs of trauma. My only guess is that she may have died from the diet they were on at the time, or more likely from the Repashy previously as that's what she was eating for a long time before I switched the collection over to a new food.

So what's all this talk about food? Well, take what I say with a grain of salt. This is just my personal experience and opinions and I am well aware that many believe differently. However, with that said, I no longer feed Repashy CGD, what used to be the gold standard for feeding geckos such as cresteds and gargoyles. Repashy came out with a "Version 3.0" and that was when my problems started. It was not at all well-received by my collection as a whole and they ate VERY little of it. I had one female, Perdi, go on a starvation diet, no matter what I did for her. She was a healthy adult female and then whittled away to 17 grams - she was literally skin over bones. I could see all the bones in her skull (I was sure she was doing to die so didn't get one, but now I wish I had a "before" picture to compare to her these days). After several months of my collection not eating much, the deaths began - first with Rohka. Then Bazarak, who I chose to have necropsied to see if I could get any answers at all. No answers, nothing came up abnormal, even on pathology I had sent out.

I'd never lost babies like this before, so what had changed? The food! That's it. Absolutely nothing else had changed pertaining to my husbandry. I reached out to the gecko community and found I was not the only one having problems. Breeders (even some "big names") were having poor egg production, bad egg shell formation, dead hatchlings in the egg, failure to thrive hatchlings, and overall a poor feeding response. Not everyone was experiencing this but there were enough in the same boat as me that I decided to try a new diet on the market that was also touted as "complete", "Big Fat Gecko Smoothie Mix", or BFG. My collection immediately started to eat better, even the first night I fed it I noticed a drastic change. My husband and I charted the percent eaten for awhile and proved to ourselves that they were progressively eating more. I also tried Clark's gecko diet, but had a less enthusiastic feeding response, so it was back-shelved. Then the problems with the agricolae happened. I didn't know what to do, I thought I was stuck having to supplement extra calcium and watching everyone like a hawk. Thankfully, Matt Parks at Pangea Reptile had been hard at work on a diet of his own, and he soon offered it to the public. Feeding responses were reported to be great, eggs were good, and people were reporting faster growing hatchlings. I had to try it! Worked like a magic charm and I won't go back. I'm thrilled with it, my gang loves it and many of them completely lick their dishes clean. I haven't gone through a breeding season with it yet - that will be next year - but I'm not worried. I have heard nothing but good things from breeders feeding this food. I wouldn't hesitate to say this diet is the new standard for gecko food. I'd recommend Pangea Fruit Mix Complete Gecko Diet to anyone, and I will never recommend Repashy again (in fact, I'll do the opposite). I had mixed results with the BFG, but in my opinion I'd say it can be a decent diet if regularly supplemented with properly gut-loaded and calcium dusted insects (good with any diet, IMO more important with some than others such as this one).

My mental/emotional recovery from all of this has been slow, and for awhile it was hard to be around the geckos at all. Then, a few months after we moved, in October of 2013, I took a fall jumping my horse and fractured a vertebrate in my back. That made it literally impossible to care for the geckos and my husband can never be thanked enough for all the times he has sprayed and fed them for me as I recovered. Apparently a broken back wasn't enough either, so in July of this year I had surgery for excision of endometriosis. That recovery was very long, painful, and slow as my tolerance for narcotics is very low and I literally recovered on Tylenol (NOT recommended)! I'm finally starting to get some of my energy and motivation back and part of that has been with the geckos. I have renewed my focus and narrowed down my goals/projects. I have purchased some outstanding new animals to help me achieve those goals, and I will soon be parting with those that no longer fall within the projects I want to work with. It's already is very difficult trying to decide who I have to say goodbye to and sell, but I'm working on it. (Keep your eyes peeled for my sale, and all the new animals being added - I'm slowly updating the website!) I look forward to breeding in 2015, I have missed having little baby cresties and gargs around! I have some stellar animals these days (who really need photos so you all can appreciate them too, I'm long overdue for a gecko photoshoot and I know it) and I am confident they'll produce great offspring.

Here's to a mental, emotional, physical recovery.... and most of all to a fresh start!

P.S. I also lost all the fish I brought with me from Kansas due to a late-appearing disease on a fish from a local fish store, and due to the sadness and stress of fighting for and ultimately losing fish I'd had for 6+ years (with the potential to live much longer), my largest (and only currently running) fish tank is being revamped into a turtle tank! In fact, tomorrow my new baby Northern Diamondback Terrapins arrive. Make sure to check out their page in the collection!

RIP Sweet Baby Rokha

You came into the world the day before this crazy year's first snow storm... you must have been smarter than your clutchmate who showed up during it. You first came out of your sleeping bag at lunch time, with not just your head out but your entire torso. You were a fighter from the start, but you were also pooped after all that effort and needed a nap. I took some pictures of you with your crests plastered to your head and left you alone for a few hours until you decided to show me the rest of you.

You were such a unique looking baby, I knew you would be such a cool looking animal as you matured (and you did get prettier and prettier for the few months I had you). When you were one of the ones I decided I had to sell, I hoped you would go to a great home where I could get updates, because I wanted to see how you turned out. And you were still such a fiesty little kid. You always wanted to get out of your cage, you were always one I was pushing back in and trying to get out of the way of the lid so I could close it. But you'd shoot out again and start climbing up my leg, and then bite me when I smushed you back into your plant. You were never mean, you were just a little adventurer.

The night before you died you were fine, you were just like usual - trying to play jail break with your Bazarak, your clutchmate. I didn't suspect anything. Then the next night when I found you, I didn't even think you were dead at first. I thought it was weird that you weren't trying to escape and seemed to be sleeping on the bottom, but not dead. Then I poked you so I could put in your food, and you didn't move. You never moved again. I don't know why you died, I hope it isn't something I could have prevented. I buried you in the flowers out front, you have a really pretty view if you just look up... I think of you and cry every time I see them. To others you were just a little lizard. To me, you were my special little Rokha who I loved and tried to do my best by. Rest in peace, and although I don't believe in a rainbow bridge, I do believe in heaven, and I know God knows how much I cared for you... so I hope he let's me see you again there someday.

Goodbye sweet Rokha, and I'm sorry but it's going to take me awhile to get over you. There's a little gecko-shaped hole in my heart and you're the only one that fits it.

Cut Egg - Results for the Curious/Scientifically Interested (Warning: Deceased)

Well I cut an egg tonight, and every time I do so I document the results with pictures and details for at least my personal files. I thought this one was interesting to share with you all because I believe we can learn from these experiences. Don't get me wrong, I approach this from as a scientific point of view as much as possible, but I cried over this baby (and he/she is now buried in the backyard). I care for every one of my little ones, even when they weren't meant to be with me in this world.

So warning now... photos of a dead hatchling to come. None are overly graphic and none bloody, but I know some people are uncomfortable seeing photos of dead animals so you have been forewarned!

I had a clutch due to hatch around the end of October, baby #1 arrived on November 1st after 78 days of incubation. I had thought there was something wrong with the second egg since about a month in (from candling), so I wasn't terribly surprised when it didn't hatch on time. I didn't expect it to hatch at all but I'm always hopeful so I left the egg be, until tonight when it deflated and was leaking. Just in case there was a hatchling needing assistance I cut the egg, though I expected to find an only partially formed embryo. Unfortunately the baby was much further developed than I expected, which I think is part of the reason I felt such a loss. However, it was still undeveloped in some significant ways and so not meant to survive outside the egg, so I'm glad it did not hatch. Here are my observations and photos, for what they are worth.

Here is the little kiddo when I popped it out of the egg and let it dry a little (though it's just crumpled because it was squeezed in that deflated egg). Perfect mini 10 fingers and toes, not so perfect other things. As you can see in this photo, the skull and skin over it did not completely close, so there is a small hole on the top of the head. You can see the head/face are not shaped correctly either (you can see that better in the second photo however), though the eyes were fully formed.

Here is a side shot of the head/face, showing an overly short snout, a misshapen jaw, and the dip in the head where there was the hole.

Here is the underside - you can see that the belly is not completely closed (though it was covered in a thin, transparent layer of skin) where babies attach to their eggs. I have had babies with small open umbillical areas here when hatched that closed within a day or two, but never been able to see inside the abdominal cavity like this.

Final shot, showing the belly again and also the misshapen back legs that reminded me of frog legs with the bulbous upper portion.

The good news? I have a healthy, gorgeous clutchmate who weighed in at a healthy 2.1 grams today at 2 1/2 weeks old. This is the first crowned hatchling I've hatched and I believe it will be red or dark extreme harley with a lot of cream, considering what it's showing already! (Parents are Miracle Max and Athena for those who would be interested.) I was extremely surprised when such a gem popped out of that egg, and am thankful I have it to dote over in the wake of the passing of its clutchmate. Here are some unplanned photos from tonight, so he/she is unfired and the quality isn't great, but you can get an idea!

Hope you got something out of my little attempt at a scientific-y post, I figure the more we can learn about these under-developed kiddos the better, especially if they do hatch. In this case I don't think it's genetic as I had all healthy hatchlings from this pairing last year, it was just one of those fluke things. Not meant to survive outside the egg so it developed as far as it was going to, and then probably perished after that point. RIP little one.

Rescue Rehab Success!

The last post that I made back in June was about three rescue geckos that I took in, suffering severe MBD (with resulting deformities) and malnutrition. I am extremely pleased to say that they are now doing very well and will be going to new homes soon. The larger female and male are doing exceptional, they are eating loads of CGD and have recovered their calcium stores so that their MBD is no longer progressing. They've gained weight and both are being adopted by a wonderful gal who plans to give them a forever home where they won't be bred and their health will be carefully monitored. Here are some updated photos of the two (now) chunkies.

The female, who is a sweetheart:

And the male:

The younger female met with some setbacks - she laid two clutches of eggs (infertile fortunately) and lost a lot of weight as a result, as well as adding additional kinks to her tail. However, thankfully because I was supplementing her with calcium and other vitamins, she did not calcium crash. She is now eating better than ever before and working on regaining the weight she has lost, and I have successfully stopped her laying. She still has a little way to go and will need to be watched closely, but I have found her a home with a local friend who I know will do a great job caring for her. The friend is actually the one who originally discovered these cresties being kept in such poor conditions, and she picked them up and delivered them to me. It all has come full circle!!

I'm quite happy with the homes I've found for these rescues, and even more pleased with the recoveries they made. Now they're moving out, and I've got lots of new kids moving in. ;) More on that soon!

Rescue 911, Gecko-Style

The story behind the rescue of these geckos is a bit long, so here's the short version - All 3 were up on my local craigslist for sale but due to their horrible conditions, upset members of a forum I am apart of sent enough angry emails to apparently convince the guy to give them up for free. I hadn't seen the ad or the forum thread until the day they were picked up by another member who I sold her first crestie to. She went and got them and we were in contact the whole time. She's fairly new to the Rhac world and was feeling overwhelmed by their medical state so I offered to take them and they were in my possession later that night. They were all 3 (1.2) kept in one big barren Exo and from what we can deduce, being fed a diet of mainly unsupplemented or gut-loaded crickets. As I'm sure you can guess, we have some severe MBD (Metabolic Bone Disease) and deformities as a result, as well as other issues. More on that later. Onto the photos!

First up is the male, who seems to be in the most pain. He was also the most underweight but he has been chowing down on his CGD and already looks healthier in that regard. :D However, he's absolutely PSYCHOTIC to handle (I think due to the pain), just moving him to get a photo and then into his new tub was a zoo. He tried to bite me multiple times, gaped, ran and jumped as suicidally as possible... even got into the vacuum at one point. ](*,) So for now, I am mostly leaving him alone to just get more weight on him and some extra vitamins and calcium in through his CGD. Here he is (I'm considering calling him Straightjacket but I thought that might put off future adopters, maybe I'll call him Zen):

He has a very hard, wavy tail and hips twisted to the right. He was very underweight when he arrived but has already gained several grams (though this is uncomfirmed because I'm sure at this point a date with the scale = I'd be missing a finger and he'd be hiding somewhere in the basement). He also has a back deformity most likely due to the MBD.

This is what he has to say about being handled! Though he did give me a very nice view of his non-existent calcium sacs.

Though seriously he didn't have as much to complain about as he was - this is his superdedupercustommadeforhim tub. It's a lower/shallower tub so if he does happen to fall he won't hurt himself, with low things to climb on and plenty of hiding spots (he loves paper towel/toilet paper tubes). He's been all over the place exploring.

This is the big girl of the group, mature and I'm fairly certain gravid. She's also got the hip twist and a wavy tail, though it has actually already improved a little bit. It's not as hard as the other two and I have hope with supplementation/UVB she might get it even straighter. She's pretty sweet too, not used to being handled but fairly even-tempered despite that.

She has a sweet face. <3 She is the only one whose jaws look slightly affected by the MBD (which would make sense if she's been laying), but it isn't very significant thankfully.

Exploring her tub, checking out the laybox (which I cross my fingers and pray she can use successfully... incubator ready and waiting just in case.)

Her tub. And I realized I had not yet put food and water into the tubs yet when I took these pics - don't worry, they're in there now!

Little girl, a beautiful butter yellow! Her hips are not as rotated as they look in the photo, it's just the way she's sitting (though they are twisted to the left somewhat). Her tail is very hard and the worst affected. She's underweight too and I hope that changes now that she is by herself.

She just looks scared of life! I feel so bad for her. She's very flighty to handle. I really hope she is not gravid, she's much too small and malnourished.

And finally, her tub. Lots of climbing things, she's the most active climber of the three. Added a laybox for her just in case and she's already played around in the moss.

So... my plan of action is this: I'm first going to start supplementing their CGD weekly with Herptivite (a multivitamin powder), and when they're eating well on that I plan to treat them all with Flagyl (a medication used to treat protozoan infections such as Entameoba invadens). I'm fairly certain of parasites in all three due to their appearances, lethargy (in spite of the crazy moments), and consistency/smell of their poop. When they get settled in a little more I'll be dosing them all with Super-Cal (a high dose calcium supplement). I'm also putting one tub under UVB a day, so they get it every third day (didn't want to run the risk of any eye problems). I've placed all their tubs in an area which gets a good dose of sunlight for much of the day too. Hopefully this will do the trick as far as nursing them back to health and they can be adopted out to good homes after awhile. And I do mean hopefully, I may need to sell a kidney to recoup what I have spent on them!

I plan to keep the blog updated with their progress so keep your eyes peeled for rescue posts! :-)

What was Lost is Found

Tonight as I was misting and removing dishes for soaking, I noticed one gecko hadn't touched his food. He always does, so I went looking for him to check on him (he's always hidden in the evenings). Couldn't find him in his cage and I knew I wasn't missing him. Crap. Lost gecko. Lost in a walk-in closet full of clothes, shoes, boxes, and more. Double crap. I've lost geckos before but never with this much stuff in there (I'm staying at this house temporarily while my husband is deployed).

I was not feeling well tonight so was not up to a full-scale pull-everything-apart gecko search. He couldn't have been out of his cage more than 2 days so I decided to do a once over, and then turn out the lights, wait a bit, and look again. Then tomorrow I'd do everything I could to find him. So I finished misting everybody and did my once over. Just as I was about to leave and turn out the lights I simply looked up from bending over, and right at on a shelf at eye level - bam:


Yup, that's right, he decided to go ahead and make his grand escape into... a jar. Granted it was completely on the other side of the room and he had to make quite the trek, but still, really?! Every other escapee I've found has been quite hidden, curled up somewhere dark and secluded. Apparently this guy isn't worried about such trivial things when choosing his hiding place.

In any case, I kind of got a kick out of it after seeing that he was ok. Defintely very thirsty, but he will be just fine. What a weird gecko. Good thing he's pretty. ;-)

New Projects Decided

Well, I've decided what I'm going to do for the upcoming year. I'm excited for some new projects!! I talked with a good friend of mine and fellow gecko/reptile breeder and enthusiast, A.F. Parker (aka Styx), and we came up with some great ideas. The first idea (that I'm thrilled is now possible) requires a bit of back story.

In the spring of 2010 my friend had a horrific and completely unexpected occurance happen to several of her baby geckos. She fed several of her animals (4 baby cresties, 2 baby gargoyles, and 2 sub-adult cresties) butterworms one day. She noticed that as the geckos bit into the worms the worms arched and released a clear fluid onto the faces of the geckos. There are other details, but in a nutshell, after those geckos shed it became clear that they had caustic burns (scales missing and all), 2 severely. The reason never became fully clear though thankfully the geckos did recover. Read through Styx's forum thread, "A Warning: Use Caution With Butterworms", to get all the details, hypotheses, vet information, and more. I especially recommend reading it if you feed butterworms to any Rhac species (they seem especially vulnerable with their small scales and delicate, thin skin.

Before this incident occured, I had already decided to purchase a baby gargoyle from Styx because it was from a beautiful red base pairing and I loved both parents. Unfortunately my little baby, "Hida" was one of the gargoyles to be burned, and one of the 2 most severely burned geckos. Here are some photos of her post-burn - she has salve on her, hence her "goopy" appearance (all photos in this post are by Styx):




She was truly a sorry sight for quite some time. I told Styx I was still going to take her anyway, no matter how she turned out, and give her a loving forever home. Hida did heal up and I got her last year. Before she came to me she was a very stunted, slow-growing baby who Styx didn't think would ever reach normal size, so Styx requested I not breed her because of her history. However, the amazing part is that she is now a huge, healthy female who has even had to go on a diet! She is by far the largest-bodied and heaviest animal in my collection. Hearing this, Styx gave me the go ahead to breed her this year! Whoo hoo! She is a red based, orange blotched reticulated. Simply gorgeous (I'll be getting photos of her soon). I can't wait to breed her to Frank, those are going to be some stunners of babies. Red bases all around, if I had to guess! So as for the gargoyles, this year I will be breeding Frank to Hida and trying again with Pâté as well. I really hope to be successful, I just love gargoyle hatchlings. They're so chubby and adorable.

On the crested gecko front, Styx helped me out there too! Ok she probably coerced me, but I'm perfectly happy with the result. :) I had been looking for a mate for my extreme harlequin male "Vizzini", so asked her if she had any adult females for sale. She named a few off and I fell head over heels for "Nova", a tri-color extreme harlequin female she was considering selling. She's a beautiful girl and I've been told she's even better in person. Check out her awesome sauce:


Then Styx played dirty, showing me an ad she had just posted for an outstanding young male lavender extreme harlequin with markings that I *love*. Besides his base color, he looks a ton like his dad, the now-famous Inazuma:


I can trace back my little guy's lineage 2 generations, with photos of all grandparents. He is without a doubt a cornerstone male worth building a project around, and I plan to! I will be breeding him to "Nova" (I may change her name) when he's old/big enough. He's only about 10 grams right now. But he's outstanding, and will only get better! I'm going to have to come up with the perfect name for such an incredible animal. Here are some photos of him:




Isn't he just the most handsome little devil? I'm thrilled with him and can't wait for both of them join me (it'll be a few more months or so for weather purposes). I may still breed Nova to Vizzini (if she's not still gravid by one of Styx's males) to see what he produces, but as of now he's for sale. I am male-heavy and I just don't really have any females that would compliment his unique pattern/color, and can't find any either.

Lots of changes, but I am happy with where this is going. I have a feeling lavender and creams are going to stay in my future for awhile, what with this new boy and also I'll probably be keeping my 100% lavender pinstripe male to breed into my current lavender/cream lines. And I can't wait to start with the gargoyles again, I want to see what Frank can produce with another red based female (or two)! ;)

Kiddos leaving the nest...

I always am a bit sad when shipping geckos off, or passing them off to their new owners. My little ones have always had a lot of time put into them and were definitely not cared for as just "one more" in my collection. Each gecko I own is special to me. But these two are going to wonderful homes where I know I will receive updates, so that makes the "hand-off" much easier!

First went a juvenile gargoyle, currently unnamed. She went to the home who bought my leachie a few weeks ago. I wasn't suprised when their wonderful family came back - the mother fell in love with Frank (the kiddo's father) when she came to get Gherkin and both her and her son were very interested in the gargoyles. If you haven't heard - Rhacs are like potato chips, you can't just have one! (I'm living proof. It all started with one here too.) Enjoy your new home, little one! Here she is fully fired, though this is an older photo:


The second little one to leave the nest was a holdback of mine, but I'm trying to thin out my holdbacks because I have outstanding ones from last year and recent hatchlings from my lavender project that I think will be equally amazing. It was a true orange brindle with reverse pinning (seems like you don't see that color so much, it's either red or yellow, not a true orange...)/end muse. This is going to be this person's first gecko and she is so excited. :) She did her research and asked a lot of questions, I felt quite comfortable about sending the little one home with her and I know it'll be spoiled rotten! Again, an older photo but still a good representation:


Weighing my options for spring breeding! Leaning towards adding to Frank's harem at the moment, I really do love raising gargoyle babies. They're so chunky when they hatch and seem much less fragile than cresties. Heck, they weigh twice as much or more at hatch! I don't have any stripes in the mix so that cold be a fun addition. I'll keep you all in the loop.

Lavender Development

I apologize for the delay in posting, I've been ill. However, I did follow through and got some photos to show you how the hatchling lavenders show their color right after their first shed! Here is The Flash, all adorably curled and sleeping in some egg carton, less than 48 hours old:




See how the base color has already gone to a light greyish color with an almost purple tint? Just like mom and pop when they're unfired! Most hatchlings have a red base for at minimum a few weeks, but not these kids. I think it's pretty neat.

I also got a photo of some older kids, these are Liebchen's but also sired but Inigo. They were awake and climbing around, so I can't say these are their "sleepy" colors - they're definitely lavender fired down. Meet Surprising Lee (hatched 12-8-11) and Normal Lee (hatched 12-11-11 and the one on top):


You may have noticed that these older kids seem a lot creamier. Don't worry, Match and The Flash will follow suit! That's another change these particular lavenders go through really quickly - the orange color of their markings turns into lovely cream. Here's more proof for interest sake! This is Normal Lee hatching:


In other news, I sold my Nuu Ana leachie (Rhacodactylus leachianus), Gherkin, a few weekends back. I admit that it was a very difficult decision, but I decided that with my health problems I can not afford to keep around many animals as pets. Leachies are so notorious for compatability issues that buying him an appropriate mate had the potential of being difficult and much too expensive. He turned into a gorgeous animal and deserved to be bred. He is now in a wonderful home where I know he will not only be loved as a pet but they also plan to try and breed him in the future. So I'm going to stay focused on my two current species for now, though I'd really love to get into R. sarasinorum or E. agricolae. We'll see! I may just add to the red-base garg project, or get one or two nice crestie females for my groups.

In any case, I took some shots of Gherkin for his now-owner before she got him, and I would like to share them. I got Gherkin as a 6 gram unassuming-looking hatchling. But I saw potential! Here he is the day after he came home:


You won't believe how he developed. His pattern became absolutely beautiful, he got a ton of "snowflakes" (the light spots), and he is now well on his way to being a "New Caledonian Giant Gecko". Check it out (and yes that is my totally awesome fish/cat/dog-chewed-on Smokey the Bear ruler):


You read that right, 8 inches nose to tail, and he's not even straight! He weighs just under 60 grams. He's going to be a very impressive gecko when he completely fills out and reaches his full-grown size. Some more shots (I love the snowflake patch on his head!!):




Goodbye beautiful boy. I will certainly miss you. Enjoy your new home and be good for them!

Major Updates - Life and Geckos!

I can't believe how long it's been since I've posted, but the months since then have been a whirlwind! I went and did the unthinkable, and got married. ;) My husband is in the Air Force and left for a 6 month deployment to Afghanistan the 8th of this month. Obviously we were not together long - only about a month total since our marriage on November 12th due to his training - so I miss him a lot. I decided to get off my butt and restart the blog to not only keep myself busy, but since I've actually got things happening now (gecko-wise) and other goings-on as well with the horses, etc.

Biggest news is... *drumroll please*... we've got hatchlings, folks! 8 of them, in fact. All are sired by Inigo and out of either Panic or Liebchen. Both moms have 4 each. :) And they're all outstanding - it's obvious literally after their first hatchling shed that they are going to be lavenders like their parents. They fire up a purplish color and fire down very light grey with creamy markings - just what I hoped for with this project! The first 4 hatchlings will be going to the person I received Panic and Liebchen from (when they're old enough and the weather is good), and I'm keeping the rest for a bit to see who I want to keep for myself.

I don't have the lightbox set up and I've been really bad about taking pictures (but I have a good excuse as you now know!) so don't have photos of the older hatchlings yet. I will try to get some soon. I do, however, have photos of the last two just after hatching - "Match" on the 16th and "The Flash" on the 18th. Though bear in mind that because these are "just hatched" photos so you don't get a true feeling for their coloration. If you've seen a lot of hatchlings you may notice that they don't have the quite the same reddish tint typical of crested hatchlings (it's more purple/dark), which I have learned is the first sign the baby will be lavender. And any reddish color at all is gone after the first shed. If I remember I'll try to get a picture of these two tomorrow to show you what I mean.

So, meet some Inigo x Panic kids, fresh from their eggs! First is Match:


And his clutchmate, who hatched tonight - The Flash:


The Flash... has a story. He hatched in a way I had never had one of my babies do before. I was feeding the geckos and almost done, so checked on the egg, expecting it to hatch anytime. No pip (hole), no nothin. Literally moments later I turn around and there is a fresh gooopy hatchling sitting in the incubator!! I realized he was the bumping around I'd heard behind me because he had left yolk splattered everywhere and dripping from the top of the incubator! Proof:


He even had almost completely buried his egg in perlite. My best guess? He pipped his egg and shot out of it immediately after... upwards! No reason for it, other than he's The Flash. And gosh he has some attitude, little bugger was gaping at me when I was getting off some perlite a few minutes later. Look at this sassy face, he knows he's hot stuff with all that cream!


I also got a pretty good shot of The Flash's egg teeth, so I thought I'd share for those who haven't seen or got a good look at them before. They use these specialized scales to slit their egg open, and then they are lost with the first shed. See the two little bumps at the end of his snout? Those are them! (And excuse his ridiculously goopy head, he hadn't had time to dry off at all after all The Mad Egg Escape.)


If you want to see any more photos of these kids I've got some more "just hatched" pictures on my iHerp account.

Nothing makes for a better first post of a new year than babies! I am very excited about them, all of the hatchlings from my lavender/cream project are turning out incredible. Obviously there was no success with the dalmations or gargs, but now I've just got more to try for this year! :) Before I talk your ear off, I'll end this post here. But I've got lots of things to post about soon... I've got more gecko news, interesting wildlife sitings, horse talk, lots of photos, etc. Stay tuned. ;)

Egg Updates

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.

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.

"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... ;)

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! :)

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.

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. :)