As usual, I'm daydreaming about what I might want to pick up this summer at the reptile shows. Ever since I've been playing with the insect/reptile zoo idea, my head just spins with different animals at all times. Breeding ideas, housing and husbandry, feeding, presentation, and it feels like I'm on turbo!
My actual "plan" (if you want to call it that) is to build my breeding experience slowly. I'll start with the ball pythons, see how that goes, and move on to another species. Live bearing animals are something I want to try my hand at as well, and I know I want to produce blue tongue skinks someday, so I think I'll probably go the route of Northern blue tongues next breeding-wise. They're medium sized, friendly, and there's always a market for them.
However, before I pick up ANYTHING I need to get my snake setup in order. We finally have a whole walk in closet dedicated to animal space, and with the ball pythons being nocturnal I don't have to worry about lighting as much (in their current set ups they've been doing fine). I'm gathering supplies to get an actual rack set up for them, and it's exciting to have it all come together.We also need to build Bruce the iguana a new cage, he's been growing like a freaking weed! New UVB lights for him as well. I'd like to get the cresteds into a planted tank, but in order for that to happen I need to start collecting plants and keeping them pesticide/fertilizer free for a couple months before I'd trust them with the animals.
As far as non-breeding animals go I've been browsing around as well. O (significant other) has shown interest in getting a Sumatran short tailed python (black blood) and a pacman frog. Russian rat snakes have been getting my attention as well for the personality factor. My interest has really turned from cool color morphs to animals that just make great pets period, mostly persona wise. Of course, they're all individuals and you're going to get a sour apple once in a while, but you can general trust the docility reputation of CB species known for being great handlers.
And of course, I get stuck in a wheel of possibilities. Woma pythons are cool looking and easy keepers/great pet personalities. Red tailed indigos are my DREAM snake, and don't have the permit complications of eastern indigos. Mussuranas have that awesome co-dom pied morph (SUPER PIED!) and are gentle snakes with very little feeding issues. Angolan pythons have always been on the wishlist, and have that awesome cobblestone type of scale pattern/texture. Macklotts and Savus are always running around on my back burner, those eyes are just to die for! Viper boas and sunbeam snakes don't have a stable CB population yet, and don't seem to be very demanding snakes, so that could be a cool project too. All the colorful old world rat snakes have an incredible variety, and they're small, so it'd be easy to set up a little collection. And then I still want to pick up a 100% citrus bearded dragon from Fire and Ice Dragons as a pet, just for kicks.
Really, it doesn't stop, that's just a fraction of the brain feed. Here soon I hope to get involved in beetle breeding/keeping, along with other inverts, and that will be a whole 'nother world of insane in the brain Erica time. Thankfully they're very cheap to maintain, and often MUCH cheaper than any reptiles to acquire, so it should be a good side project to work on. Not to mention the timelines are much shorter than tarantula or reptile breeding times.
But first: Tubs, rack build, Bruce build, Bruce lights, gecko tank, and incubator (I nearly have to chant this in my head when I get extra cash for the hobby lying around). Silly priorities
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