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cgbraincell · 3 years

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this is such a long post

Although the SD card in my phone continues to fill with a great deal of pictures of geckos, the past couple weeks have been wholly exhausting and I have not had much in the way of shareable thought. My Visiting Friend gave me some pointers and encouragement about fixing up my space, and I started making some progress there. It is relieving in a way to not see my past life’s work staring me down, a continuous reminder of what I still owe. The freedom may allow me to move forward sooner rather than later and take care of my debts from another source of income, which is what I suppose I need at this point. My Oft Mentioned Friend has proclaimed the September Garage Sale, Yard Sard if you will, is on, so in addition to cleaning, reorganizing, tossing stuff, etc, I have had a renewed energy to continue to find things to put into that. Am making some good progress there.

Much of my focus had a clear starting point as well, as I have purchased a new metal wire shelving unit to replace my bookshelf with and get some better enclosures set up for my overstock of cresties (although Saturn has a pending home for October - he is now Chaos as his pending owner will be receiving him and a leo named Charisma...ironically “Chaos” is the less chaotic of the two). In a sort of bittersweet event, my knocking over and breaking of my tv has given me a little extra space to work with for the time being. I still feel very bad about that as it ended up being a birthday present from Dad. I’d be mad at myself if I wasted my own money but...just feel bad since it was his. I have not been using it much during the summer since I would primarily use it for gaming and the room gets too warm to justify turning on a console, but still. Some critter updates: Alduin is indeed approaching all others with the “Make Love, Not War” approach. So I have my gay gecko and pansexual gecko-who-thinks-he-is-a-dragon. He also decided earlier that “Pillow Mountain” was inadequate, and climbed up the blanket hung on the wall up to the ceiling, where he could observe what he believes to be his land. The fool. This is Eddie’s domain, her Queendom. He is merely a knight in her land.

“Buddy” is female. I am very quickly running out of time in naming her before “Buddy” becomes her actual name. Not that it’s bad, just doesn’t fit in with “I named these animals after something game-related or celestial.” But then with her spine does she fit in anywhere? She came in extremely shaky though, and that has alleviated with some supplementation (both included in her food and exposure to UVB). Buddy also thinks Pangea is the bees knees and acts as though it is a treat. She is completely disinterested in bugs. I enjoy her enthusiasm for healthier foods and nutrition! but I must save up to get a scan of her organs as I fear her absurd degree of spinal deformation - and resulting ribcage deformation - may be squeezing organs weirdly. Granted I also have pectus excavatum and I’m fine so maybe she is also. Would just be good to know.

Ripley has exceeded all growth expectations and is the clear standout in the babies. I weighed her the other night and she was 8.7 grams, when only 24 days prior she was 5.2g. I think I can see her grow if I stare at her long enough. Her clutchmate, Art, weighed in at a mere 6.1g in comparison. Both of these numbers exceed Pele, my first foray into a slow grower, and every gram increase feels like a milestone after having lost Ox, Vo, and Nah. Mars does not have a pending home unlike Saturn/Chaos, which is fine because we absolutely need to find a more experienced keeper for him. He is extremely uncomfortable with handling or even being seen, with the exception of wanting to be seen because I DARE not to feed him continuously. He hangs around where his food cup goes and just...stares. Stares so much. Reminds me of Sinistar’s “I hunger!” And what a fitting name that would be!

Kamata’s character is coming out a bit more, he has gotten more comfortable with hands and his inherent need to smell all the things and all the others reminds me a bit of Alduin...who he cannot be around, because there is aggression from Kamata and desire to mate from Alduin. Realistically I need to stop putting my animals near each other to see how they react, although neutral space usually keeps things clean. Even Io and Thel were fine, and for a while Io was pretty aggressive even just seeing another crestie. But there was some “hunting” from Kamata and he lunged at Alduin (who seemed blind to the fact that Kamata was there), only for my hand to Inexplicably be in the way (I always put up the barrier of me, Alduin bites me a lot when he’s trying to woo literally everyone else).

Grahm, whom I have not talked much of, has been more comfortable with life generally and is eating and putting weight on again. For a while he had gotten thinner as he grew longer and didn’t eat to keep up with it.

Shin is incredibly impatient with me as we wait on this presumed gal/dollar sale for Labor Day. I give him some good exercise but I know that isn’t adequate. He needs dirt, he needs a lot of roaming space.

Otherwise I have been fighting the Fruit Fly and Gnat Infestation of 2021. Eradication of the fruit flies ended up being just as quick as they made this area their home, but my goal was to do so swiftly after they flew up my nose. Gnats have been a bit more persistent, but are easier to catch in apple cider vinegar traps, and fly ribbon, and just smoosh by hand. Also their larvae do not pop the way the fruit fly ones do, which is...a blessing. Seriously gross.

My shelving was updated to potentially arrive to the store on the 3rd, so I am doing my best to make sure integration of that is as swift and effective as possible. Then I have enclosures to clean and set up. Labor Day. My SO’s birthday. The yale sale. Halloween preparation, Halloween... Then the cold. Bring the cold. I wish to be so cold.

#rambling

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cgbraincell · 3 years

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Closure of the Alduin Sexing Company

Due to events tonight resulting in the removal of an employee’s hand via gecko teeth, the Alduin Sexing Company must close. Alduin’s approach to all others has been marked as “Make Love, Not War,” although far more crudely, causing the Incident in question.

All previous claims of potential sexing done by Alduin are reverted to an unknown status.

#he tried to mate with literally every one of my fingers #calm down my guy #I'm okay #this is partially a joke

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cgbraincell · 3 years

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In talks with my friend last night about the rescues, there were some concerns about crypto, especially with regards to the leos she took on. While there aren’t a great amount of reports of cresteds having crypto, it’s not unheard of. Unfortunately, I have been handling somewhat irresponsibly - not keeping these guys in a totally different room and not scrubbing in after handling - so if this is the case I’ve screwed up severely (I have doubts that they have it).

Part of the concern landed solidly with me when it comes to Saturn. He had actually lost weight (dipping under 30g, he’s 32 today), however this isn’t necessarily an indication that he’s full of parasites, but the stress of moving and the fruit fly infestation leaving their nasty little larvae wriggling in his food cup would both be deterrents from eating (arguably larvae would be a source of protein, but he hasn’t shown interest in bugs and, you know, maybe the larvae taste awful). I have hopefully handled the fly infestation (side note: sticky traps with no poison, when you accidentally touch them because you will, use coconut or olive oil to remove the adhesive from you), and he’s eaten a fair amount the past couple feedings, but I am still worried.

As for Mars, pictured above, I saw that he was shedding earlier today so I left him alone for a bit then just checked all his toes to see how he was doing. His colors are very vibrant! Then I stuffed him into a cup so I could put it on the gram scale to see where he’s at...very rude of me, and no one likes being in the cup...except Mars? He’s 29.1g though! Considering he came in at 23g, this is an enormous increase. I personally can see it in his arms, legs, and tail, not to mention some of the other bonier areas are smoothing out a bit.

I really do not think any of these fellas have crypto, and we know for a fact they weren’t getting fed much, but seeing this weight increase just makes me feel that much more confident. Something is up with Saturn, of course, but I think a simpler reason is probably the right one. I was pretty grossed out by the larvae too.

#crested gecko #reptiblr #reptile #lizard #rescue #follow for progress

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cgbraincell · 3 years

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Stopped at a Petsmart that isn’t nearest to me while looking at Halloween stuff today. Saw a sign about how there were two geckos in the one enclosure and the one was “Grown” and had lost his tail and was discounted. Asked to see him.

He’s very small, young. Has absolutely horrible MBD. Left the store with him, obviously. Not that I didn’t give them money for him, but he was practically free.

Also he may be she but we’ll see.

His spine is a full W, indented under his head then following the w down. He’s shaky, indicating the MBD is still in full swing so we need to get him on the right diet, get him under some UVB, and throw a little calcium into his foodstuffs. Spine will stay this way but we can at least alleviate anything else that is just waiting to crop up. No messed up wrists, ankles, and his jaw seems okay.

He is very sweet and seems comfortable with handling, some of my prodding, and even trying some Pangea (Growth and Breeding + Fig and Insects) for me. I’ll leave him a dish in his keeper but I have some confirmation of his approval already. Seemed to enjoy exploring the temporary space for a bit too.

The one employee stopped me at the register to clarify that as he’d just recently lost his tail, he was a bit odd about balance. I appreciate that, but I had also just shown her Kamata - I said he was afraid of hands and she said “Well he doesn’t have one,” ha! All the employees said goodbye to this little guy too, which was sweet. I’m glad they cared that much, but still sad to see the condition he’s in. We’ll see what I can pull off here.

I have to acknowledge that I am over capacity in terms of how many geckos I have, but...I just...didn’t want to leave him. Plus with Saturn having a potential home in October, the plans for rehoming Mars after he gets rehabbed, and moving at least 3 of Eddie’s babies into different homes, things will be okay here. A majority of my geckos are established well enough that I don’t need to check on them daily, although some do get regular out-of-enclosure exercise. But like Alduin, Eddie, Thel, Io, Chally, Grahm, and the babies all don’t need any extra care. Shin’s not quite made it to that list yet since he’s still waiting on that 20 high (Labor Day is coming up, dollar per gal sale if I cannot find a used one prior to that point), but he’s pretty close. That really just leaves the three rescues and this guy.

I digress.

Fingers and toes crossed.

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cgbraincell · 3 years

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My oft mentioned friend alerted me to this Big Yellow Boy at a pet store a few towns away from her. In fact, it was where she got Chally, alongside a gargoyle gecko. We went there a couple days after confirmation that this guy was still there. He was hiding behind his too-small plant against the wall of his store enclosure, avoiding life. I bent over - not too much as I am rather short myself - to get a better look and spoke to him. He looked at me, then came out of his hiding space, crawling partially up on his hide to show me his whole self. I called him handsome, and he stretched out.

Yellow is a color I tend not to like, so I hadn’t really set my sights on obtaining a yellow gecko on any point prior. The bananas grew on me though, so when I heard about him...well... Immediately, however, it became clear there were some issues with this poor guy. His hips were off, he had layers of stuck shed hanging off each claw, and some of the ways he held himself seemed odd. An employee handed this yellow fellow to me, and having a closer look at his issues didn’t really impact me in that moment as I’d simply fallen in love immediately. He had a good personality, was soft, was a pretty banana, and good Mothman his tail was the strongest thing I think I’ve ever felt from these geckos.

He is one of my four purchases. The employee patted his head and wished him luck, and my friend and I retired to her house, where I pulled my new yellow fellow out of the silly little takeout box. He held his hands oddly, which was at the time amusing, but I was taking note of all of his other problems. When I got him home I looked him over and started working on some of the shed, only to see...just how bad it all was.

One side of his mouth was decorated with a scar, the other side had a small wave in it, his wrists and ankles were swollen, his hands were...really messed up, he’s missing some nails but has some growing sideways, with gunk and shed stuck between the nail and skin.

I had no name for him for a while. Merlin? Something Sun based? Banana? But seeing him a little bit more, realizing he has a kind of goofy face, strong back legs, a very strong tail, weird arms...kinda yellow... reminded me of someone, so he became Shin.

Over the next couple days it was a matter of us figuring out his issues. Shin obviously had suffered from MBD and was at that point still suffering from it. His first poop was nothing but cricket fibers and synthetic fibers from his (godawful) reptile carpet - whether he was eating it or the crickets were and it came out through his digestion of them I do not know, but the boy needed to be put on something far better for him immediately.

He took a couple weeks to warm up to his new home, even try his food (he loves Pangea now and doesn’t seem to prefer any flavor), and for a while he hated my hands. After all, I was handling him too soon and harassing this poor man’s little feet continuously to clear up the shed and gunk. But Shin has since perked up marvelously and is a good character. He needs far more space than he has currently and he has let me know this, so he comes out for fairly regular exercise, and is responding very well to training to have him jump from hand to hand as a safe space.

I have been on the hunt for a 20 gallon high aquarium for him, left in its natural orientation. There will be some open space within it, but a lot of the decor is going to be angled in a way that he can grip and climb up it. The height itself is not as important as the overall space for him to occupy, especially considering the fact that his hands are totally wrecked.

Shin just let me plop him down and pull his arm over the side of the laptop specifically so I could take this picture. He’s very nice for that.

I wanted to draw a diagram of the skeletal structure of their arms vs what his looks like, but haven’t done a great job at it. Essentially though, his MBD has permanently altered how his wrists sit, so that his hands are always hanging just slightly below his arm. It gives him a sort of floppy hand appearance, which is worsened by the fact that his phalanges have lost a great deal of their mobility. While they can extend backward as normal for a gecko trying to release their setae from a surface, they cannot bend inward at anything except for the knuckle. He cannot stick to a flat wall and has a great deal of trouble gripping things generally for climbing. Hence the desired tank mentioned above, he does like crawling up to higher places but it doesn’t need to be two or three feet tall and I don’t need him falling and smacking his gorgeous, big head against everything on the way down.

It appears that the particular bout of MBD that wrecked his wrists happened long enough before I got him that he worked hard to compensate for it. I cannot get a good photo of it at all but his thighs are the most muscular thighs for a crestie ever. Similarly, this has resulted in his tail being incredibly muscular and strong, and he uses it very well to hold onto things.

I will certainly write another post later on about his enclosure. I do have some idea of what he likes, so I am very excited about setting something up that caters to his desires and his disabilities.

In the meantime, Shin is a good boy who sometimes likes to be naughty when I get him out - flying all over the place and tucking into corners that require me to disassemble my room to find him. I have promised him a little city to play Shin Godzilla in so that is also a thing I have to do in the future.

#crested gecko #reptiblr #reptile #shin godzilla

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cgbraincell · 3 years

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Love

Bit off the cuff for this one. May bounce around a bit.

I bring up Alduin a lot, but have yet to post exclusively about him or share many images of him. I think a lot of it has to do with how I don’t think I can put it all in one post. It’s like how I haven’t gone on about who Eddie is rather than just her history, although there are a lot fewer details I really can share about Eddie.

Alduin’s just...something though. I don’t want to anthropomorphize him, because a lot of what I feel and a lot of what he feels simply have to be different due to the dissimilarity in our brain structure. So reptiles don’t feel ‘love’ the way we do, but then...like...a lot of the basis of what we call love has roots that you can find even in the lizard brain. So no, he doesn’t get the whole-heart “I would serve my arm up on a platter to save this person” feeling I do. But it’s so very, very clear that he gets a sense of comfort, familiarity, protection, trust...

I’ve explored some more of the house with him. He sticks to me, because I am the comfortable thing he recognizes in these experiences. I have handed him over to my dad before and he’s been okay, but...I mean, tell me the house doesn’t smell like us. Maybe Dad’s just a gecko whisperer, but more likely it is a smell and familiarity of said smell. I brought Alduin out to the living room to take a look at the fish and while he did see the one that was out and about, he didn’t even want to be in my hands - a place I’ve trained him is safe and a good way to alleviate energy/stress via jumping - but he wanted to be on my upper chest, which is ultimately a familiar place, familiar smell, and most importantly a safe body.

A friend is visiting currently whom I haven’t seen in 8 years. I brought Alduin out because, well, duh, Alduin is my Big Boy. He’s 9.5″ long, he’s on the upper end of the general crested gecko size. He’s My Buddy. He must be shown off. Alduin would not leave my hands, exploring my friend from the safety of them via smell and observation.

I have earned this trust from Alduin, and it was a lot of work. As much as he is capable of the extremely basic elements of what we call love, he has that for me, because I worked for it. Worth every second.

But I noticed that even with some of my rescue boys...Kamata, I took him out too. Kamata came to me with this intense discomfort with hands, and he still isn’t great about being in mine. He’s more comfortable on my arm and that’s perfectly fine, but he has to interact with my hands and he’s getting more familiar with them. Didn’t want a thing to do with my friend’s much larger, warmer hands. And...I dunno, I guess it’s just something to realize that that comfort and familiarity is really a thing. I’m not going to pretend that that’s “love,” but damn will I take it and be flattered about it. Being trusted is just huge, especially when it comes to new smells, new places, new information coming in.

Anyway I love this lizard with my whole frickin heart. And...he was a craigslist rehome? for $20? that my often mentioned friend sent me to go get him! and he HATED me when I got him home. Like, fuck. I can manhandle this gecko and he’s just okay with it now! The body pillow that smells like my damn face is His Mountain. TBH so is my actual face but like...I dunno. Sorry. Just love this guy, and I can’t get over how comfortable he just IS with me.

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cgbraincell · 3 years

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Izar...the March egg, the final baby from Eddie’s run. The one who, after 7 other hatchlings who dealt with their entrance into the world without rage and anger, was the one with all the piss and vinegar. She wants me to burn. She wants to eat my flesh. She wants me dead.

While too young to have a full behavior/personality book written about her, she does have some interesting behaviors. Avoidance of me whenever I show up, fine. But with the recent fruit fly infestation, she needed to come out of her enclosure. I wiped off her decor and assembled it so she could hide in it while I worked on her keeper, then when I started putting it back in, she got mealworms to keep busy.

I’m really big on trying to figure out the mental capacity of these critters. No thoughts, head empty and singular braincell are popular when it comes to describing them and I get that, but I think we think of them as less intelligent than they are capable of. I’ve trained a couple to do small tasks, and training them to target my hands to jump into and work off their energy is surprisingly easy.

BUT IZAR OH IZAR

Has two tiny mealworms for her tiny body, decides she wants more, sees something approximately the same shape out of the corner of her eye and turns around slowly...slowly...before attacking her own foot. Absolute goof.

I’m seeing some interesting color developments in her back pattern too though, so that’s exciting!

#crested gecko #reptiblr #seriously does she even have one braincell

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cgbraincell · 3 years

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Eddie on My Shoulder

In general we’re not supposed to hand-feed because, I dunno, geckos get used to it and won’t eat otherwise or something (except that a healthy animal won’t starve itself so...), but I’ve definitely acclimated Eddie to coming out and eating some of her food while sitting on my knee. Works for her, she can drape over at the right amount to eat the food then lean back and let gravity get it into her stomach, and it works for me because I get to stare at this truly gorgeous critter for a bit.

Cresties don’t get enough credit for their mental capabilities. Empty Head, No Thoughts, Single Braincell, etc.

Eddie and I have trained each other. She’ll tolerate handling, do a little walk if she has some energy to burn, then situates herself comfortably on my knee for the foods. When she is done she lets me know, and will give me any of a number of indications that she would like to Go Home. Sometimes I’ll ask “Would you like to go home?” and hold my hand out and she walks into it and waits. Sometimes she just stares at me with those giant eyes (her first means of communication to Put That Thing Back Where it Came From or So Help Me). Sometimes she will walk into my hand then crawl up to my shoulder as the most comfortable place to be transported. She’s whistled at me before too, but doesn’t really do that anymore. Just now she jumped to my shoulder instead and waited, watching her enclosure as we approached, then crawling down to my elbow after I knelt and stuck it into her enclosure toward her cork round, where she jumped off and found herself back in a cozy place.

Mothman I just love her so much.

#ambling

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cgbraincell · 3 years

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Never did think to get good pictures of Ripley’s sides, at least not this one. The other has so many waves on it... Interesting to somewhat see development though. Little bits of white popping up, but the main shapes just growing with her.

Ripley has grown a lot lately and is ravenous to boot. She’ll eat all her Pangea and then still want more, and all the bugs, and my hand, and the house. She was 3.9g a few weeks ago and (full of bugs) tonight she was 6.2g. Curious to see if her crests end up being as grand as mom or dad, they seem the smallest of the siblings so far, but maybe she’s putting that growing energy into other things. Like becoming Godzilla.

#crested gecko #reptiblr #growth

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cgbraincell · 3 years

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#crested gecko #reptiblr #silly photo

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cgbraincell · 3 years

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Pele! Not mine at all.

My Unnamed but Oft Mentioned Friend and I went in for the AE Black Friday sale together, combining shipping and having her chosen gecko sent in the box with mine to me. I ended up taking care of Pele for a fair few months, and although I was happy she went to her home, it hit me harder than I thought possible to hand her over. I love her dearly.

She was listed at 4.5g on the site, and came in nearing 5″ (12.7cm) long.

She was skinny, and a super slow grower, which scared the actual hell out of me a number of times (especially after having only dealt with adults prior to the three juvies showing up at my door). Her tail was stick thin for a long while, but she did eat and poop like a total monster. Sometimes they really do just grow slow.

Over time she continued to grow in size, but stayed relatively skinny. One of the last photos I have of her in my care on my phone was...actually focused on a little bead of water reacting to her hydrophobic skin, but you can see her tail having reached a healthier thickness, although her legs were still stick-ish.

I have seen her intermittently during visits, but not all of them as there are often other things to do, like...take in 20 rescue animals and set up for them.

The other really fun thing about her is that the moment I handed her over there were signs of her actually being he, so for a while we bounced around on what to call her. Most recently we’d settled on they.

Today I was a mean, mean human and took her out from under the leaf she found refuge and was pleasantly surprised! She’s gotten big, her tail is thick, her head, which has always been ‘big’ for her size, has filled out very handsomely and her body has finally matched up with it.

I asked first if I could break up the mystery on her sex and when given the go-ahead I had a look and feel. Like Chally, she does sport some of the overlapping scales and intermittent femoral pores, but not a whole line of them, no wax, and when I put my finger on her bulge and gently rolled from side to side, I felt no penises.

I am not in any way surprised that my friend has gotten Pele to such a healthy weight, and I am not surprised that Pele is as goofy as ever, but I’m just SO PROUD of her growth. Even though she stayed fired down (and why wouldn’t she, I am no stranger to her), I found her absolutely gorgeous as always. She really is turning into such a beautiful goddess of fire and volcanoes!

I am sorry I did not get a better photo of her while there. I tried, but my tremors are just so awful that even balancing my phone on my chest did not combat the shake of the hand she was in enough to get a good picture. Just know again that a slow grower is not necessarily any indication of something you’re doing wrong, and they do eventually catch up to their full size! This one I expect to get a bit bigger still since she’s only a year old, but still.

#crested gecko #reptiblr

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cgbraincell · 3 years

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When the road opened up before them they ran to the end of it, finding themselves at the treacherous elbow turn. Would one decide to turn and follow the upper arm? no, they would decide to stop in the same place, stacking as they observe the realm before them, the empty space leading down, down, down, to the floor. Sheogorath on top, Herma-Mora on bottom.

#crested gecko #reptiblr #silly photo

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cgbraincell · 3 years

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Candy corn crests and the Eye of Sauron make for a very good, and yet very evil, boy.

This is Io, one of four purchased geckos in my care; like Thel, he came from the Altitude Exotics Black Friday sale of 2020. In fact, Io was the single boy I’d decided I absolutely needed, whereas Thel was a lucky grab while the site struggled over the first hour to handle the massive amount of traffic.

Io has the most luxurious lashes ever, making all of the folks jealous. As he has grown, his crests have shaped further and further upward, giving him a cartoon-mad-scientist appearance: this composes most of the ‘evil’ aspect of him, the other smaller bit being that he’s a very smelly fellow. His enclosure smells like a barn, and he cannot resist the opportunity to drench the world in his projectile urine or wipe his waxy pores onto every horizontal surface. The space is his, and you must know of it.

Even fresh out of the deli cup, Io was a very Good Boy, dealing with handling well - well enough that he is not bothered at all if one dares to touch his candy corn crests, or if the boops must be applied to the soft pad at the tip of his tail-nub. He did start showing insecurity in his space though, staring down other cresties with those burning eyes, full of hate as those other heathens dare to exist in a space which is, decidedly, his. This led to his “Wipe the Pores on All the Things” project, with his aggression waning.

The top of my chair has been so dominated by Io’s means of smelling up the place that it is absolutely his.

Currently I have him on the arm of the chair so I can keep an eye on him and do nub boops. He is displeased and wishes to return to his throne.

I refer to Io as my definitive “Good Boy,” as he is far too chill to be anything else. He seems to be unaware of the fact that he has claws, however, and while this does make him a little less scratchy to handle as a whole, he does not realize that my skin is not an ideal surface for his little sticky pads and will slide around my arm.

Io also enjoys “handicopter” rides so he can survey the kingdom he believes belongs to him (we are all living under Eddie’s rule here, let’s be honest), and he is otherwise comfortable with exploring.

Despite his need to advertise his presence to all living creatures around him, he has exactly zero idea of what ‘sex’ is on any level. If he does things himself, I fortunately do not see it, but when presented with the smell of a female he seemed to have no idea how to feel about it. Interested? but the feelings were strange? Time to go explore something else around this New Smell!

I am certain that in my non-sleep state I have missed something important I wanted to say about this Good Boy. I suppose something like naming him Io after its depiction in Destiny 2 and some of his colors lining up with that depiction...which makes him less mad-scientist and more Vex-Hobgoblin. Candy corn hobgoblin!

I need to go pick up a family member from their appointment now, but please enjoy my shaky pictures of my candy corn hobgoblin, Good Boy, Io.

#crested gecko #reptiblr #behavior

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cgbraincell · 3 years

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Babies - A Tragedy

or “Why Not to Keep Your Cresties Paired Perpetually”

Discussion of loss, detailed descriptions of health deterioration and death found here.

On the night of the 6th of December, 2020, a friend and I tried to corral Eddie out of her temporary, small container with her ex-mate Gabion into a box for transport. Eddie hid in a log decor - the bog log - so we just stuffed that in the box instead. It just barely fit, but she felt secure enough in it away from everyone so it worked.

Open getting home and opening the box to transfer Eddie into the enclosure I’d set up for her, I found an egg. It had to have been in the bog log and rolled out during transport. Candling it showed a definite red cheerio. Into another small container with some eco earth the egg went, and I contemplated the absolute horror that was going from no geckos to many - the purchase from Altitude Exotics was done and we were a few days from finding a warm enough day to ship, Eddie was laying fertile eggs, it would be a mess of geckos.

As the egg incubated and I started to get familiar with Eddie as an individual, I found her very round, ready to drop another clutch. This too was fertile. She laid three whole clutches in total, with the addition of the one egg prior to me bringing her home and a final fertile egg in March.

On the 3rd of February, the first egg hatched. I named her “Paarthurnax,” but just called her “Ox” since it was just prior to the start of the Year of the Ox. She did well for two weeks, but on that 24th day I thought something was just off. At a glance there was nothing wrong, but my gut said otherwise. Ox had been hanging onto some decor on the side of her keeper, and just...seemed off. So I took her out to get a better look and had to note that she was shaky. Having no idea of what this was, I tried to get her hydrated and helped her get rid of her shed, which I hoped would alleviate the shaking. However, over the next six days her condition worsened, with her losing control over her tail, legs, back side entirely, up to her arms. One night I held her, sobbing as she seized in my hands. This baby had my entire heart, and she was dying, but I had no idea why. Ox passed on March 3rd. It was difficult to know for certain as their little bodies tend to relax and look completely alive, semi-open pupils, bright eyes. I kept checking for breathing, and could see the dark spot on her stomach growing.

The 10th of March rolls around, and as an early birthday present I was gifted with the emergence of the next two babies. I had already picked more Skyrim names for them, Voslaarum and Naaslaarum. I found it interesting that of the dragons in Skyrim, this particular sort admittedly does look a bit like a crested gecko.

Voslaarum, or Vo for short, hatched first (top in picture). Naaslaarum popped out into my hand shortly afterward (bottom) after I accidentally knocked into the Pangea hatch box full of Hatchrite; he came into the world screaming “Nah!” and so he was Nah. Much like Ox, the two of them were okay, until they weren’t. Vo went first, showing some of the same signs that Ox had, although more notable. He too lost gradual control over his body, starting from his tail and trailing up. I noticed an inherent weakness in his neck too, with him being unable to hold his head up. The shakiness was there, although he didn’t seize nearly as hard as Ox had. His symptoms worsened significantly over the next four days before he passed on the 3rd of April.

Nah had all of my hope resting on his tiny little shoulders, and he was admittedly doing better than the others. Soon, however, he too developed the same set of symptoms. He held on the longest (50 days instead of ~30), with his symptoms slowly working their way up his body. I held him one night and in confusion he latched onto my hand and bit me as hard as he feasibly could, his body sticking straight up in the air as he pinched more and more. He passed on the 1st of May. Despite the appearance of liveliness, his tongue was partially out of his mouth and I felt somewhat disrespectful pushing it back in. Some degree of rigor mortis was beginning to set in.

During this time I faced a number of questions, why was this happening? it must have been something I was doing, so what was it? what is the right route to take with these critters? My care is at the very least adequate, and my friend insisted it wasn’t me. We contacted a number of breeders, whose answers all consisted of “I’ve never heard of this before, but these would be possible reasons, keep me updated.” One breeder said something to me that was somewhat relieving in a way, that this just happens sometimes. To give Eddie a break. He was onto something with that last bit. Following this particular ordeal being ‘done,’ I contacted Alchemist (someone who had Eddie as a proven breeder in past years), and while my intention wasn’t really to ask questions about it to begin with, I did type too much and we ended up going down that path. Alchemist and I sort of rounded up the reality that Eddie was likely not separated at all from Gabion in the two years they were together. Their late owner had health issues and may not have been feeding them on an ideal schedule, and given the tendency of males to want to breed relentlessly, it was highly likely that Eddie’s condition was deteriorating from fighting for resources, being mated with constantly, and the stress those things entailed.

The other questions about the right route was difficult. It would likely have been most humane to take them to a vet to have them put down, but I couldn’t quite bring myself to deal with the stress it would cause the babies, and I couldn’t be there with them as vets are still keeping folks in the parking lot because of covid. The next most humane thing was a non-option simply because I could not do it: destroying the brain swiftly. This would involved crushing their heads, and...no. I can hardly squish spiders in my space, even the more bitey ones, I certainly couldn’t...do that. Studies have indicated that freezing and CO2 may also inflict pain. I ended up just keeping the babies comfortable in their spaces, giving them access to food and water, the latter of which I would aid them in getting into their systems.

In addition to the not-knowing and tremendous guilt for not being able to put them down humanely, there was the question of what to do with the rest of the eggs Eddie had laid. The next clutch was so close to hatching following Vo’s passing that I didn’t feel comfortable freezing them, there were fully developed little lizards in those eggs and they were active in their space. Something else struck me as odd, these eggs and the ones after them were bigger, brighter, and had grown more. They just looked healthier in a way I couldn’t really determine.

On April 16th, the next two eggs hatched. I did not have names picked out for them following the heartbreak of the first two passing and the third being on his way out. Five names were crowdsourced for the first one (Art Trevor Nira Toews Bigfoot), and two for the second (Ripley George). ATNTB later became Arcturus, just Art or Arc for short, and RG became Ripley. Art had come out particularly large, I’m not sure how that much gecko fit into that little egg. Ripley though...I saw the egg had deflated somewhat and there was the head of a crestie. Opening the box, it became clear that eggstuff had splattered out all over the lid and little section she was in. She was laying in a way that looked a little unpleasant, so I went to rotate her egg just slightly and she popped the rest of the way out in an egg-gory display reminiscent of the chestburster scene in Alien. Ripley seemed apt.

The next month, May 15th, the next two eggs hatched. I’d picked names for them prior to them hatching, back to The Elder Scrolls with Herma-Mora and Sheogorath. Mora has gotten extremely dark at times, making one of his side patterns appear like an eye, and Sheo’s mood is all over the place.

The final egg hatched a month after that on June 15th. This was Izar, and while all of the babies that had hatched prior were awfully good right out of the egg, Izar got all of the piss and vinegar. She wants me dead, and she’ll tell you all about it.

These five are thriving, with Ripley just having passed 5 grams in weight. She seems ravenous and tried to eat my hand an hour ago when I had her out to show my friend on a video call that she’d simply exploded in size.

There’s a lot to be said about the progress of the egg size and appearance, Izar’s egg was the longest poor Eddie had to lay and ended up being comparatively gargantuan before hatching. It really did seem like it had everything to do with Eddie’s health improving upon removing her from Gabion, giving her her own space she loves more than anything, and allowing her to have free access without competition to foodstuffs and water. Some breeders will keep their animals together during breeding season, but I personally think it wiser to have them breed, then separate. The health of the dame is extremely important, and I think what happened here perfectly illustrates that.

The losses hurt me tremendously. I have lost loved ones continuously for the past seven years. Since I haven’t had a break it’s hard to tell if it’s given me PTSD or if I won’t experience that until later - I do have PTSD from other events, this just seems...pretty common a cause.

Ox, Vo, and Nah are all packed tightly into little sarcophagi that I have not finished the decor on. Projects tend to fall by the wayside, but part of it is that it has been extremely difficult. They were wrapped in cloth, bathed in soda ash, placed on a bed of eco earth and soda ash, given a cutting of their favorite decor piece, a corked bottle of Pangea, and a small cut of cloth with frankincense oil. Decorating each sarcophagus is a crested gecko head cold cast in a resin/bronze mixture.

To those we have loved and lost, you are remembered, you are loved, and you still mean the world to us.

#crested gecko #reptiblr #breeding #hatching #gecko care #husbandry

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