And I Thought There Were No More Firsts...

Someday I'll start updating this place regularly...

I'm very excited about this new development. Recently while visiting the local reptile shop for some live feeders I was admiring their tarantula section. The guy who breeds them/cages them/cares for them happened to be there that day, and was nearby while I showed my significant other the Venezuelan Suntiger adult they have on display (NFS). The tarantula guy overheard us admiring the spider and commented that he had a few for sale. There was much "It's so pretty! But I just don't know" before my boyfriend finally convinced me to go for it. 

So I come home with a tarantula, and only a foggy idea of how to take care of it. The man at the store was very nice, said to keep one side slightly wet (misted) most of the time so the little spiderling has somewhere to drink, and maybe toss a cricket or two in every week. While I know that in comparison to herps tarantulas are much easier to care for, I got the itch to do more research and figure out more about this little creature hiding below a piece of corkbark in a mist like hole of web. In contrast to my usual habits (google, skim results, start picking through various message boards) I went out and bought a book. I gotta say, even if you only have a mild interest in tarantulas:

GET THIS BOOK!

It is absolutely filled to the brim with fantastic information, very educational, and really helps you gain a perspective on tarantulas that washes away the silly thrill/fear that we are raised with through popular media and old wives' tales. 

And while I found out there really isn't much more I need to do for the P. irminia (now know that it is ok to clean up after) I am much more prepared for any issues that arise, and a better idea of what to expect. Also thanks to this book, I have a list of tarantulas on my  "wish list" that rivals my reptile one. I'll post more information with pictures of the eight legged black lightning bolt, and I strongly suspect that I'll be getting another eight legged addition as a birthday present to myself in the next week. Stay tuned!

Updates!

I promised myself that I wouldn't buy any more ball pythons (especially morphs) until I had my first clutch from Ember hatch out, whether that's next season as I'm planning or the season afterward, or the one after that. The idea was to make sure I've got this breeding thing down and that I'm committed to it before I go buying 10 snakes for breeding purposes and then losing interest some odd time later.

Point is, I couldn't do it. After my job situation stabilized and I was able to reliably make payments of a decent amount, I was able to justify to the little voice inside me that it wouldn't kill me to get another female. There was no other really good reason for buying another snake, other than I wanted her. Couldn't be happier though, I have one more female to add to the stable and I get a size comparison after having my original pair for a year! Without further ado, Nova the fire female:

I can't tell you how excited I am to watch this girl grow! Most ball python morphs darken as they age ("brown out" is the common term) but some do the opposite and their scales grow lighter as they shed. Fires combinations, hypos, and a select few others are in the mix. I'm excited to have a fire in the collection simply for the fact it's a co-dominant mutation, of which the super form is a white snake with black eyes (Black Eyed Leucistic or BEL is usually what they are called). Next year I'm planning on adding an axanthic and honeybee to the picture, and someday shooting for a firefly axanthic mojave makes me insanely excited. Insert your own mental image of a cackling genetic scientist here.

Speaking of future plans, I'm looking into adding a non-ball snake to the collection (or a few). At the moment I'm pretty set of getting a pair of  CBB Mandarin rat snakes. I'm not one who's crazy about colubrids, but I've loved those things since I saw a picture of them on the Pro-Exotics website when I was still in high school. The thought of getting some of my own completely left my mind when I started looking into getting my own snakes last year, seeing as the last time I'd looked (best guess is about 4 years ago now) they had been 2K a pair. The going rate now seems to be more $350-$300 now, which is more than affordable. What I'm fighting more is the fact I don't need any more snakes, I'm limited by resources and self control now.

What I want to avoid is a situation where I overload on pets and don't have time/motivation to actually spend time with them as pets. Burnout happens to the best of us, and the accusation of hoarding is something I have to consider as well. When I hear animal hoarding I think "compulsively acquiring more animals when you do not have the means to care for them", but it seems the rest of the world defines it as "you've got a f@#$ton of animals and it's not normal, who cares if you take good care of them". Irritating, definitely. Something I can change? Not at the moment. When I have the room to have my animals in racks/proper cages I'll be more comfortable getting more of the herps on my wishlist. As is, I've got two snakes in the bedroom, one on a kitchen dry goods shelf, one next to the office desk, two geckos on top of the piano, and some goldfish that happily live as a high maintenance decoration in the living room.

I'm just happy everyone is healthy, no emergencies or complications, and I'm able to have optimal environments for everyone even without a nice organized rack

Emerald City Reptile Expo 2011!

Gotta say, if I ever had money (or if I ever receive it in the future) I will be flat broke every time one of these things comes around. So many animals, and not just reptiles! Had the chance to pet a horned owl, and there were amphibians abound for those more inclined for pretty terrarium animals. I was floored by how many people simply had animals out, from balls to boas to monitors to the owl. Best thing of all? Got to see most of the animals that I have on my wishlist and had a chance to handle/ask about/examine them in person. LOVED the Brazilian rainbow boas, the iridescence was insane and pictures just don't do those little buggers justice.

I broke my rules and picked up an animal while I was there. Bubble Puff the Emperor scorpion! I'll post something about them (with pictures of his bada** self) at some point in the future.

Pictures!

Meller's Chameleon (INSANE green, thought he was plastic)

Panther Chameleon (Didn't manage to get pics of him displaying, had some beautiful red on him)

Colubrids (king snakes, milk snakes, corns)

Redtail Boa on the left, baby Brazilian Rainbow Boas on the right

Sulcata Tortoises

Bearded Dragons

Reptile Show in the Works!

So on March 5th and 6th we have the Emerald City Reptile Expo coming up! I plan to only attend and not actually pick up any animals this time, unless these side jobs work out better than I planned and I get some extra money for heat and husbandry supplies on top of the cost of an animal. I'd LOVE to get a Mexican black king snake, or a blue tongue skink. The skink is less likely for now due to the fact that I don't have money (or a job) to support feeding it, whereas I have a years worth of frozen rodents in my freezer for snakes.

Anyway, here is a picture with info, hope I'll meet lots of people there! Will do my best to snap a few pictures

Cages

This isn't a reptile specific topic, but it definitely applies! As a kid my mother let us have all sorts of pets in the form of dogs, cats, rabbits, and horses. However, with every trip to the pet store or after a visit to the zoo I would ask earnestly about getting a pet bird or other small animal. She absolutely would not allow it, and when I asked her why she'd always say "I don't want to have something in a cage that should be free"

After a conversation with a friend of mine the other day it occurred to me that I don't really consider my current pets "caged." With reptiles in particular, the goal of the enclosure is as much about replicating their natural environment so they can be healthy as it is about keeping the reptile in one place. Especially with the geckos, space is a very serious consideration, but these aren't animals that will go miles every day romping to and fro. From what I've read, the crested geckos are fairly still creatures that come out at dusk/night to find food, mate, and do their best not to get eaten. Providing them with a 30 gallon space of plants, optimal temperatures, and endless food, I don't think that they feel the wistful desire of freedom from their terrible prison. 

When people have larger, more active reptiles like iguanas, or animals like birds, I consider it a basic husbandry issue to make sure you have enough room! People often buy tortoises and various turtles thinking they can keep them in 20 gallon aquariums, when in reality these animals often need a pen type of enclosure with as much square footage as possible. Winged creatures are another issue altogether due to the fact that you have to consider how much air space that animal needs. These problems are too fixable for me to be against cages in general though. With enough research I am confident I can make a home for my animal that is more than comfortable and healthy for them.

Not really a burning issue with everyone, and I suppose it's an ethical question for some people. I was telling my friend about how I'd probably end up giving the normal balls I won't keep to friends who wanted them, and I offered to keep in touch with him if he was interested. He simply said he didn't want to keep anything that would have to stay in a cage. Fantastic guy, and he wasn't judgmental of the fact that I already had animals that were in cages (and planned to get more), but it was an interesting objection to getting reptiles that I hadn't come across yet now that I am a keeper. 

My Pets!

I figure I should put up a few pictures of the ball pythons so people can be familiar with them when I use names. Sadly, the most recent pictures I have of them are both from attempts to come up with a good facebook profile photo, so I look like an absolute narcissist by being in both of them (I just wanted to clarify before this post looks too much like a mini gallery of myspace bathroom photo wonders :P)

Ember and I (Female '10 Pastel)

Baby photos of Ember

Monty and I (Male '10 Mojave)

Snake kisses!!

Body shot of Monty

Explanation of a Reptile Geek

It isn't a huge wonder that the majority of people don't like snakes. A legless scaly animal with unblinking eyes and a forked tongue probably isn't what you'd think to get when you look between that and the kittens in the next section of the pet store. My biggest challenge in keeping these animals and loving them as my pets is trying to explain to people exactly why I like them so much, and I've yet to really come up with a clear, straightforward answer.

To clarify, I don't just like snakes exclusively. My love for snakes (and reptiles in general) is a facet of my love for animals of all kinds. As a kid going to the zoo was better than any candy store, and was a close first in front of going to video game stores. Reptiles caught my interest late in high school after I met a friend of a friend who had ball pythons. Snakes weren't creatures that had crossed my mind as pets, but holding this scaly thing that wrapped itself around my arms and was satisfied to sit and watch the world go by as I marveled over it was amazing! The woman mentioned that after lots of research she had decided to get them, so as soon as I got home I hit the internet and started reading. Lo and behold, I was sucked into a world full of colors, information, and very varied people!

Reptile care comes down to a few basic elements: a thermal gradient, figuring out lighting, having a properly sized/equipped enclosure, keeping it clean, and working out a diet. What makes animals more or less difficult is how hard it is to replicate the conditions from it's natural habitat, and how forgiving a species is in how far off you are from that. I'd love to have an iguana someday, but the large enclosure along with the light requirements, varied daily diet, messiness, and again, LARGE ENCLOSURE makes it so that I know I wouldn't be able to handle it now. Sadly, lots of these more complicated species are sold in chain pet stores with little or no information, and it causes the death of many animals and many people give up thinking that reptiles aren't a possibility for them. 

As a college student, the ball pythons and crested geckos I have are just awesome! The most complicated thing about them is checking the ball pythons' temperatures once in a while to make sure that they're in the accepted range. The geckos are fantastic because they don't need any special heating or lighting as long as they're at room temperature (I keep a red lamp on one side of their cages in my case due to the room avg being around 60 degrees F). The only things I need to do aside from that are feed the snakes once a week, change the gecko food three times a week, and spot clean if I see any feces. All their cages get washed out and disinfected once a month, but considering they all live in plastic storage boxes it's a relatively easy chore (certainly easier than cleaning out a fish tank!). Did I mention that they don't make any noise? 

Having had furry critters, I know that the fact reptiles aren't terribly "personable" turns a lot of people off of them, but that doesn't mean you can't have a pet you can take out and handle! You can often find me with one of the pythons wrapped around my shoulders, in my lap, or hanging out somewhere nearby while I'm doing homework or watching a movie, and as soon as it gets warmer around here I'll probably take them with me when I go to draw out in the yard or nearby park. The geckos are less travel friendly, but I still get them out while I'm home to watch them run up and down my arms and torso. They're also fun to simply watch while they explore their homes and hunt down the odd bug or two I'll drop in. It is most definitely different from having a rat, ferret, bird, or other small animals with a strong sense of "bonding," but I almost prefer it in this time of my life where I don't have a lot of extra hours to dedicate to training and enrichment. Someday when I do have the time I have the world's largest list of animals I want to have as pets. For now, I'm happy that my scaly friends are comfortable in my company while also being comfortable for weeks at a time during real grinds at college or work. 

I still don't have a straightforward answer to why I like reptiles, but the ease of care and general docility are definitely the two largest reasons. Not all reptiles are easy, but with a little research you can steer clear of critters that would give you a hard time. And when you're ready for them, they also make fantastic pets! I'm trying to step it up and get myself a carpet python (a snake that gets a bit larger than a ball python) or a bearded dragon (a leap into the world of lizards! I've been avoiding them myself because I don't have the money for the mounds of insects they devour). Everyone has their own starting places and preferences, and there is more than enough information and willing people out there to help out. I'll go into the specifics of issues in later posts (venomous reptiles, large constrictors, legal issues, misinformation, media, specific animal care, etc.) but for now I think this is a good start

Happy herping everyone!