Reptilian fascination

Being a reptile keeper, it seems like expenses always come up. Light bulbs pop, food has to be ordered, or that species you can never find is finally up for sale. Bottom line is we can all use a little help saving and even better, finding easy ways to get a few extra bucks. So I will tell you three ways that actually worked for me and that I personally used. I will also list a couple of things I tried that were a total waste of time to save you the trouble. 1. Qapital I love this app. Essentially it rounds up your purchases on your debit card and stores away your change in an FDIC account. You set goals you are saving up for and you can withdraw your money back into your primary account whenever you need. There are no fees for this service and it has worked very well for helping me put away a little extra money. When you use the link below, both you and I will get 5$ once you make a deposit. Qapital Savings App 2. Ebates By installing this chrome add on, you get a percentage of

I began keeping herps around 35 years ago when we had turtles, a ribbon snake, some locally collected lizards, and a few western newts (not sure which species as we didn't keep any photos). Most of the prey items were captured in the woods behind the house, but we could get small fish, crickets, and mealworms in the bait and pet shops. Of those, I noticed the nearest zoo preferred to use crickets to feed their insect eating herps. Therefore, I began to use more crickets and less mealworms. At some point I got out of reptile keeping and re-emerged later as various roaches were becoming more popular. The only species I really felt comfortable using in my home, the dubia roach, I found actually had a lot of drawbacks. It takes a long time to start a colony whereas I can hatch out hundreds or thousands of crickets in less than a month. The dubia roaches often hide or hold still when encountered, whereas crickets hop around most of the time and catch the attention of my animals better

The beautiful flat rock lizards from Africa are a group of lizards I've wanted for years. I am still very much a newcomer to these lizards. Thus far, I've kept either a mature male and female (or possibly an immature male?) for approximately 6 months. These are very active and fast lizards that thus far seem quite hardy in captivity. There are several species and sub-species and I am unsure which I actually have. Basically, in the USA, the larger species ( Platysaurus imperator)  is sold as the emperor flat rock lizard and anything else simply as a flat rock lizard. I prefer the smaller variety that I have simply because they use a little less space. Being that I am relatively new to these lizards, my setup may or may not be ideal for them. However, I will tell you how I've been keeping them so far. I have seen them basking at 93F so I believe they should be housed in an enclosure large enough to generate a fairly hot basking spot, yet cool enough for them to

In my opinion, it will be extremely difficult to become a successful breeder of rare snakes without securing a steady supply of live mice. It is just the case that many snakes start off feeding on live prey and generally transition to frozen thawed after a few meals. There are many different methods of breeding mice depending on the quantities you need. If you have a reliable rodent breeder nearby with reasonable prices, that is also an avenue well worth considering. Supply List: Lab cages Water Bottles Pine bedding Rodent Chow or Doggy Bag Dog Food If you search out any information, you will find stories of missing baby mice. Sadly, I have found this is a very real threat. If you cannot identify the offender, you must put down the most likely suspects. As an alternative, I have had good results keeping mice in pairs. Kept in pairs, I have found this is relatively rare. Keeping the mice well fed and hydrated will also help, I use lab cages for raising mice. As I only feed pin

A couple of years ago I had the chance to go out to Oregon and do some field herping. Richard Hoyer was kind enough to show me around.  I also took a morning to go visit the attractive coastline. Along the highway, you can see there are a lot of trees but also grassy areas where snakes and lizards can be found. We found many nice looking garter snakes Along the roadside gravel where many sharptail snakes A few attractive fence lizards were found The most common reptiles we found where alligator lizards and rubber boas, but we did find a few ringneck snakes and gopher snakes, too. It was strange that Oregon was listing the rubber boa at this time as a species of special concern yet it was the most numerous snake species we found and we found them in many different areas, basically anywhere that there was an exposed area for them to bask under objects they could be found. So there you have it. Oregon may not be a world famous herping d

I have been keeping and breeding Oreocryptophis porphyraceus coxi for several years now. It is often listed as the Thai red mountain ratsnake or the Thai Bamboo ratsnake. This is one of the easiest species of snake to keep and breed provided you have an air conditioned house. They have great colors and are very hardy snakes but they really are heat sensitive and probably shouldn't be kept by people looking for a shoulder pet. I keep mine in 28 quart tubs in a rack without any supplemental heat. The colubrid room they stay in is between 75-78F year round. At these temperatures they will digest food without any additional heat. If you have an especially cold house, you may want to use some backheat to create a small spot in the upper 70s. Although I've never kept them warm enough to find out, it is reported that they may die if the temperature bumps into the 80s. I can confidently say they will do fine in the 70s. I use cypress as a substrate and keep the back half of the

It's very important to run a clean reptile room, and I'll provide some insight to things I've learned over the years that have helped me and I believe may help you, too. 1. Gloves and Hand Washing While gloves are not a cure all for preventing the spread of disease, they do help tip the odds in your favor. Gloves are relatively inexpensive, disposable, and you can store a lot of them without taking up too much space. Make sure there is a trash receptacle in the room where they are used for disposal and that it is emptied often. The proper technique of removing gloves must also be used for them to be effective. First, ensure you open the glove box using the perforated area and carefully pull out the gloves so as not to contaminate the entire box. Secondly, when removing the gloves, you will have to remove the second glove with your ungloved hand. Be sure to place your bare fingers inside the second glove when peeling it off so that your bare fingers never touch the outsi