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poisonarium · 2 years

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Emergency considerations with herps

Well, now that my neighborhood street is on fire and under mandatory evacuation, it seems like a good time to remind people that you should always have at least one carrier per pet- including your exotics- and these carriers should always be easy to grab quickly in an emergency, not stashed away hidden under a thousand pounds of junk in the attic or something. Fortunately, I was ready and I have everything my animals need close at hand.

Many herps can go for a while without food, especially amphibians and larger reptiles. No, it's not ideal and should be avoided under normal circumstances, but many species evolved to deal with going long periods without a meal. So food is not necessarily as urgent to for them as it would be for a mammal or bird (though you should find out what's necessary for your specific species).

So, in an emergency, the most important things would be making sure you have secure transportation for them that they can't escape from, which can hold adequate humidity and heat for their species, and which they can breathe in. Since it's mid-spring here right now, I don't presently need to worry about maintaining enough heat for them, but that should also be at the top of one's mind when considering evacuating with exotic pets. It's worth keeping extra vivarium-building and/or shipping supplies around so that you can quickly put together a humidity-stable, easy-to-transport container.

For the dart frogs and small geckos, I got empty/still-unused cups that I would usually use for fruit fly cultures and stuffed the bottom of those with coconut coir and dried moss, then soaked that in distilled water before putting the lid on. The lid for these cups have tiny holes that allow breathing, but which prevents the interior from drying out too quickly. For Sunny, it's a similar setup, but in a medium-sized 'kritter keeper' instead of a fruit fly cup. Since I live in a very arid climate, I was concerned that wet paper towels wouldn't be enough to maintain humidity.

If I didn't also have to worry about lugging around my mammal pets (one of which is an extremely irritable cat that weighs roughly 20 pounds) and my own essentials, I would be more concerned with bringing their food with me, too. Instead, I fed my darts and geckos a particularly hearty meal while waiting for news updates- just in case they won't get another meal for a few days. Since this is just a local fire and not the collapse of civilization or something, I can be reasonably confident that I can buy food for them later if I end up unable to return to my home. Otherwise, I'd be starting a new fruit fly culture right now and bringing that with me, too. Packages of Pangea/other powdered gecko food is easy to stick in one's pocket if you can.

Since I have a stupid-anxious personality, I'm always prepared for disaster anyway- but I know a lot of people think it'll never happen to them. Since climate change is only going to get worse at this point, you should realize it CAN happen to you (and to be honest, if you live in the southwest, either coast, or south in the US... there's actually a pretty decent chance of it happening to you at some point). If you haven't thought yet about what you'd do with your pets in an emergency, take some time to prepare right now. Evacuating with dogs and/or cats is one thing, but there's a lot more to consider with herps and other uncommon pets. If you're prepared ahead of time, you can save yourself and them, too!

#and to be clear: no you should Not release them into the wild in such a situation #theyre unlikely to survive but if they did then it could be an ecological disaster. also it's illegal to do that. so don't #info tag #gecko tag #azureus tag

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poisonarium · 2 years

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It's a Zilla actually, but they're really similar to Exo Terras. I've since silicone'd window screen over the ventilation area, which I think is where they were getting out of. No more escapes since!

Alright, this isn’t a photo post, but I just want to give other reptile people a little warning here.

1.) mourning geckos can escape basically anything

2.) mourning geckos can then start breeding and establish in your home

3.) even if they haven’t been exposed to another gecko in some time, they can still lay fertile eggs, apparently!!!! (I did not expect this to happen, at all)

I’m speaking from experience here. No, I do not live in a remotely tropical climate. I’ve been finding a new gecko every few weeks, all different sizes, for many months after I rehomed my adults, so they’re clearly still being born… somewhere…. in my home. Sure, there’s worse things in the world than being overrun by lesbian lizards, but they won’t be able to find water in your house (most likely), and/or your other pets will try to kill them, so it’s actually pretty stressful trying to find and save all of them, and then stop them from escaping long enough to rehome them. :’)

#gecko tag

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poisonarium · 2 years

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So.

I noticed the right side of this vivarium was looking a little dark. Assuming that some of the diodes on the LED light probably burned out, I turned over the light to get a look at what was going on.

and uhhhhhhh. the light is not the problem. the light is perfectly fine, as you can see. but the creeping fig is creeping, apparently. creeping so much that the light can't get through on the right side of the vivarium and it's starting to peek out from under the lid.

My lid is probably a little confusing, so- it's one of those wire tops you'd use for a rodent or desert herp or something, but since that's useless for keeping humidity in, I taped plastic wrap over it, and then laid some glass panels on top of that. There's a reason for this, but to be brief, I don't want to pay for a fully glass top and the wire one was free. Anyway, the creeping fig is now covering the entire back wall and growing in the area between the wire top and the plastic wrap. You can see its roots dangling down in between the wire top in the image above.

As for why I didn't notice this until today: it's winter, so the glass is foggy all the time from condensation. I basically open the lid to drop in fruit flies, get a look at my frogs to make sure all is well, and otherwise don't really see the inside of the vivarium unless I bother to wipe all the fog off the glass. I usually don't bother because the fog starts coming back within minutes of being wiped off anyway. I could tell the fig was spreading, but had no idea how much it was spreading because I hadn't looked directly under the lights in a long time.

For a comparison, here was this tank in December 2021.

...And here it is as of today, February 2022, after I wiped the fog off to see what my plants are actually doing. The cork bark background is now 100% covered in creeping fig.

I like this plant.

#vivarium #azureus tag #just to clarify- this was the leucomelas vivarium a while back but now my azureus pair lives in here instead #im just being clear abt that because i dont want anyone to recognize it as the leuc vivarium but with azureus in it now and-#-assume im cohabitating both species in there and then get pissy at me. im not doing that. theres only azureus in here

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poisonarium · 2 years

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new and magnificent beasts will arise from the muck. trust me on this one

#other people's posts

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poisonarium · 2 years

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it's them!!!

they better not be thinking about laying more eggs there

#the egg laying is seriously bananas. can i spay a frog #dendrobates azureus #azureus tag

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poisonarium · 2 years

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Mourning gecko seen through the underside of a leaf.

#gecko tag

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poisonarium · 2 years

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she likes watching the mourning geckos when they get active at night.

#im not sure how to tag this because there's no actual visible geckos in this post #gecko tag #i guess

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poisonarium · 2 years

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youtube

#other people's posts

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poisonarium · 2 years

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don't tell the others, but she's my favorite.

also, I love how dart frogs always look like they're making >:( faces when viewed from the front.

#azureus tag #poison dart frog #dendrobates azureus

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poisonarium · 2 years

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Took this right after she seemed to be officially out of brumation for this season. She brumates every year, and I miss her. :(

#crested gecko #gecko tag #queue

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poisonarium · 2 years

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sure sunny, that's a normal position to sleep in

#crested gecko #gecko tag #queue

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poisonarium · 2 years

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they like this bromeliad a lot.

#poison dart frog #dendrobates azureus #azureus tag #queue

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poisonarium · 2 years

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long time no post, here's a baby mourning gecko

Everyone makes a big deal about how cannibalistic adult mourning geckos are towards hatchlings, but I've had zero issue with that with mine- so I'm speculating that as long as there's enough space for them and they're all well fed, that's unlikely to happen. Every egg that's been laid in the vivarium so far has hatched and the offspring survived and grew.

#hi a lot has changed with the vivariums over the past few months #also despite rehoming my mourning gecko... i found another. so i put her in her own vivarium #and then she just kinda did the mourning gecko thing and cloned herself and now there's 6.#but i THINK ive found all the ones that were breeding in mysterious places in my room now #and i THINK ive blocked off all exits in this vivarium bc i havent seen a loose mourning gecko for a few months now #gecko tag

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poisonarium · 3 years

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On Wednesday, we were alerted to an urgent situation in northern Alabama where multiple sick hamsters and gerbils were at risk of being turned loose by an unscrupulous pet store that did not want to treat them medically. After a 4.5hr round trip, we made it home safely last night with nine hamsters and two gerbils in tow. One of the hamsters was so infirm when we arrived to receive the animals that it couldn't maintain its body temperature and had to make the trip nestled in my bra for supplemental body heat; sadly, despite providing fluids and nutritional support overnight, that little one did not make it. Another, pictured here, is hanging on but will need further care for a respiratory infection. All animals involved have lice, which was the initial complaint when we were alerted to the situation, and as of this morning have been given their first treatment of Revolution to get them started on the road to recovery.

To protect the employees that DO care, I will not be naming names, but these hamsters came from a pet store. I wish I could say that ill health, parasitism, and medical neglect were an outlier in the commercial pet trade; sadly, they are not only common, but typical. Individual stores vary in the degree to which the animals suffer (largely based on the whims of management), but even at well managed stores who treat illness in their live animals proactively, sickness and death are an inevitability of the trade. This is due to a combination of poor conditions at the breeders who produce the animals, stressful transport conditions, and substandard husbandry on a store level. And this says nothing about the fates of these animals once they go home, often in unsuitably small cages, eating low quality diets, and in the care of owners who have purchased impulsively and are not educated on care.

In their most recent 2021 inspection, SunPet - a major live animal producer that supplies stores like Petco and Petsmart - was cited by the USDA for a number violations including sick, dying, and dead animals observed on site. Filthy conditions, lack of access to water, moldy feed, sick/deceased animals observed in multiple enclosures, and widespread cannibalism were among the conditions noted. 22 hamster enclosures had evidence of animals having been cannibalized, one of which was found being fed on by cagemates while it was still living. You can download a PDF of the inspection results here.

Please understand this: there is no responsible, humane way to produce animals on a large scale as a commodity and still make a profit. From the breeders to the stores themselves, the commercial pet trade makes its money by cutting corners on care and selling gimmicky products that often do not meet ideal husbandry standards. The industry markets playfully-themed, colorful habitats designed to appeal to children with no regard for the needs of the animal that will be living in them, and relies on the ignorance of impulsive buyers to sell products that are useless at best and harmful at worst.

These conditions will persist so long as they remain lucrative. Please, do not buy small animals from pet stores. There are rescues and shelters for small pets in every state, as well as transport networks that can connect animals with rescuers across the country. Lending your voice when industry boycotts and animal welfare legislation arises will help improve conditions for these animals, but at the end of the day, the suffering will only stop when the demand for cheap, readily available pet store animals dries up and is no longer lucrative.

If you would like to donate to the care of these animals, which will be treated and QT'd at our facilities before being transferred to other rescues, our PayPal is [email protected] and our Venmo is @acsrescue. Thank you!