|
Updates
Here is the latest on what's keeping me busy. Enjoy!
January 4, 2008
Busy busy! With college and holding a part-time job it is very difficult to do much else.
However, I do have some updates! :)
Just after halloween I had a pair of house gecko eggs hatch. They are my first successful hatchings, and the babies are
doing good, growing like mad.
I also recently mated my crested gecko's. I will not know if it is successful until the gestation period of a month is
up. I will post more once I have more updates.
Other somewhat exciting news; I keep finding interfile eggs in my u. phantasticus cage. I am hoping soon I will find
a viable one! :)
I also recently purchased a ch. dilepis (flapneck chameleon) from Collide on chameleonsonline.com. This little gal is
amazing, and has an attitude to match. Hoping to find a male soon!!
Sunday, September 16 2007
After quite a bit of searching I finally found mates for my flying gecko. They were hard for suppliers to get these unique
gecko's for quite some time, but I finally found them at the Reptile Expo in Missisauga. I found out I currently had a female,
so at the show I managed to buy the one and only male, as well as a healthy looking female to complete the trio. We will just
have to wait and see what happens next!
The house gecko eggs I am incubating appear to be fertile and developing well!
Yesterday when I was observing my U. phantasticus (Satanic leaf tail gecko's) I found 2 white globs stuck to the leaves.
I was very excited thinking these were the eggs I have been waiting for. Unfortunately ofter a little research I found out
they were slugs...infertile eggs. I was disappointed but also glad to know I have a producing female, I just need to wait
for the male to do his thing and hopefully the next clutch will be fertile. I will keep everyone posted! :)
Wednesday September 5, 2007
Well I found an icebreaker in terms of breeding! Upon cleaning the simple gecko and anole terrarium at work I found a
pair of house gecko eggs in the substrate. Yes, very cheap and easy to breed but nonetheless I am excited. That was about
2 weeks ago. I am incubating them according to temps and humidity and I candled them and I have seen blood vessels forming
proving the egg is at least fertile. My guess is around Oct 20-25 is when they will hatch, I'll keep you posted!
Also a note, my pair of Crested gecko's should be hitting the perfect breeding age in a couple months time, meaning I
may have offspring available Spring of 08.
Sunday, June 24 2007
I never get bored of going to the reptile expos. There is always something new, great people to meet, and connections
to build, and you never know what you'll find.
At this particular show I was very surprised and delighted to hear that Bill Love from Blue Chameleon Ventures will
be attending the expo! I have wanted to meet this interesting fellow for quite some time. He is one of the very few tour
guides running wildlife tours in Madagascar and is particularly fond of chameleons. It's funny how you have so many questions
one minute, and then when I finally get to meet him my mind goes blank. Either way, a very nice guy, and a pleasure to
have met him.
I have had my eyes on a certain species of gecko's for quite some time. I never really knew if I could afford
them however. These gecko's hail from Madagascar and are around 4 inches. Known as the Satanic Leaf Tail Gecko, Fantastic
Leaf Tail Gecko or the Eyelash Leaf Tail Gecko, Uroplatus phantasticus is an amazing creature.
I found a few pairs at PCPC for a reasonable price and couldn't help but pick up a male/female pair. I will get pictures up
as soon as I can, these animals are amazing!
Sunday February 25, 2007
Once again the Ontario Reptile Expo fails to amaze me. I went with intentions upon picking up a female Crested Gecko
for my male. I never had any intentions of acquiring anything else.
I did end up finding a gorgeous female dalmation Crested at an amazing breeder; Clint Hill. This is the same place where
I got my male. Below I'll post pics of the 2. The female is stunning, I lucked out with her. The photo's don't justify her
beauty in reality. She is a nice basic grey/tan with a good number of spots, with some nice large blotches. She has a faint
"tiger" pattern, barely noticable. What intrques me the most about her is her throat is hued a very nice reddish-orange which
shows up vey nicely. The pair should produce some very interesting offspring.
My next purchase was very unexpected to say the least. A little while ago I had come across an amazing snake in my research
for information on something else. Called the vine snake, these amazing creatures are very adept to life in the trees. With
horizontal pupils and a special groove in their upper jaw they can see directly in front of them. These snakes are very skinny
but very long, up to 6' but barely the diameter of your finger! They are rear fang venomous (not deadly) and their diet consists
mainly of lizards, frogs and birds. I will get pictures up soon, right now I need them to settle in with little stress.
Just to update everyone on what I currently own here it is:
1.0 Furcifer Oustaleti - Oustalet's Chameleon
1.1 Rhacodactylus ciliatus - Crested Gecko
0.0.1 Ptychozoon kuhli - Flying Gecko
1.0 Python regius - Ball/Royal Python
0.0.2 Ahaetulla nasuta - Long-nosed Asian Vine Snake
I also have a colony of Six-spot cockroaches on the go. My plan is to breed them for feeders eventually. My Rough Green
Snake that I owned I sold due to my original plans of moving. However those plans have been changed. I still also have my
jeuvenile Emperor Scorpion, Freshwater Toadfish and South American Leaf Fish. I am planning to rid of the fish, which will
be a hard thing to do, however I plan to focus my attention on breeding what I have at the moment.
Male Crested
Female Crested
Oustalet's Chameleon in Shed
Ball Python
Flying Gecko
Snake Vivarium
Saturday December 2, 2006
Ah once again another addition to my collection!
I'm not sure
if I mentioned about the possibility of my acquiring some pygmy chameleons so here it is. The same place I got my Oustalet's
chameleon had some "Kenyan Leaf Chameleons", now when it comes to chameleons, never go by the common names. It is best to
learn the scientific names to specify what cham is what. The way they were described to me sounded like Brookesia, possibly
superciliaris. The store was supposed to order more in, so I had hoped I could get a few if in fact they were Brookesia. A
friend of mine called me up and said his friend bought one, and was selling it. For $35 I said yeah pretty much right away.
It turned out to be a cute little male R. brevicaudatus (Bearded Pygmy). I was a little disappointed, but that soon passed
after I saw him eat a few times. I, as always, hope to get a colony of these guys breeding. I will of course post updates.
I'll get pics ASAP.
^TOP^
Monday November 27th, 2006
My ball python Beau
is growing like a weed. He is on adult mice and should be getting some baby rats soon for him. Here is an updated pic of him.
Enjoy!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v314/vipervenom_8/100_5353.jpg
Friday November 24, 2006
Welcome once again. I have been busy with some new arriving reptiles
lately, but nothing could prepare me for what I was about to see. I was browsing in a local exotic pet store for fish, and
made my way over to the reptile section. I don't like to spend much time over there, their lizards aren't taken care of the
best they could.
I made my way from right to left, left to right as I peered into every tank, row by row, until I
was left with the top row of tanks. Scorpions...ball pythons...chameleons...day geckos...wait, chameleons? That definitely
caught my eye, I really don't know how I overlooked them! In front of me were a pair of Oustalet's Chameleons (F. oustaleti)
and a single Spiny Chameleon (F. vurrucosus). These are among the largest of all chameleons. Clad in an array of browns and
tans, with tints of red and yellow detectable, I was instantly intrigued by what I saw. They were definitely in the worst
care possible, but they still looked fairly healthy, aside from dehydration.
I ended up coming home with a gorgeous,
large male F. oustaleti. I have decided to name him Oliver, Oli for short.Immediately after I got him home, he drank for 20
minutes from a mist bottle, and so I took the opportunity to get him some electrolytes in his water.
Since then he
has hand fed from me already, and is doing much better. I have full intentions of breeding him, once I find a lovely lady
for him.
Here are some pics below!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v314/vipervenom_8/ChamGeckoNov24044.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v314/vipervenom_8/ChamGeckoNov24006.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v314/vipervenom_8/ChamGeckoNov24047.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v314/vipervenom_8/ChamGeckoNov24004.jpg
^TOP^
Sunday November 19, 2006
Well I have a few more updates. I attended the reptile show once again,
in Mississauga in hopes to find something I can breed. I had a few tanks already set up, so keeping in mind the setups, I
would make my decision once I got to the show.
When I entered the show, I did my usual route. Go around vendors on
the perimeter, and then quickly go through the vendors in the middle. This is so I have an idea what is what and where, before
it's sold. I was hoping to find a chameleon I liked there, but there wasn't anything I was interested in. One vendor had a
Fischers (probably B. f. multituberculatum) and a Mt. Meru Jacksons, way over priced. The Fischers wasn't in top shape and
I just wasn't interested.
I ended up at a table of very nicely priced Crested geckos. Normally I avoid the common
animals but these were really nicely coloured for their price. I ended up with a gorgeous male Crested gecko. As far as I
can tell, it is a flame morph with some dalmation in it. There is a pic of him below.
Also at the show I saw a flying
gecko fairly cheap. I figured it would be neat to try breeding them as well. So I will be needing a female for my Crested
and a couple more flying geckos to ensure a pair.
Hopefully sometime soon I will find a nice looking female Crested,
so I can get this breeding project on the way.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v314/vipervenom_8/ChamGeckoNov24012.jpg
^TOP^
Monday October 23, 2006
Wow, a lot has happened since I posted updates.
My biggest change was deciding I am temporarily retiring the hobby of fish (for the most part) and focusing on reptiles.
My goal is to get something off the ground soon, in terms of breeding. My current zoo consists of a Rough Green Snake, a Ball
Python, a South American Leaf Fish, a "FW" Toad Fish, and a very young Emperor Scorpion.
Beau, the Ball Python, is doing great! He is very healthy and has stunning patterns. He is growing like a weed and is
still the friendliest animal I have owned to date. Great animal. I couldn't be happier with him.
A new addition as mentioned above, is my Rough Green Snake (Opheodrys aestivus). I have been on a look out for them for
quite some time, either in pet shops, or on the look out for it's equally amazing cousin, the Smoothe Green Snake. After seeing
this particular label on one of the tanks at a local pet shop, you can imagine I was excited. There were a pair of these extremely
long, yet very skinny (by biological appearance rather than starvation) lime-olive green looking ropes. I was allowed to handle
them so I could choose the healthiest of the two, and inspect for parasites, deformities, or any other possible downs. The
one snake had a very obvious blister. It is apparently very common for them, and I would have taken him for his brighter colour
but the blister was too risky for sure. I ended up with the other one. He measures I'd say around 2.5 - 3 feet in length,
and maybe a half inch wide at the widest part of it's slender body. I purchased one of those front opening reptile tanks made
by Exo-Terra and bought some live plants to liven up the cage. I am very pleased with the looks of the tank.
Upon bringing the snake home, it took a while to get him eating. The first week he shed, which I blame for his hunger
strike. But after than it took him another good week to get him eating. But now he eats I would say around 2-3 crickets a
day. Yes, that's right crickets. These are one of the very few snakes that are almost entirely insectivorous by nature. They
consume a wide variety of insects and arachnids. They attain a length of around 3 feet or so, and are a lime-green in colour.
They are particularly arboreal but spend some time on the ground as well. They require high humidity but must have dry periods
to avoid blistering. If he continues to do well, I would like to attempt a breeding and see what happens. They make great
pets once acclimated and would make ever better pets if captive bred. I will be sure to get pictures up as soon as possible.
^TOP^
Sunday June 11, 2006
I just arrived home from yet another great show in Mississauga. I was pleased to see a large variety of animals, everything
from scorpions to softshelled turtles, to skinks. And of course chameleons. After searching through all of the vendors I was
actually quite shocked at the total lack of chameleons throughout the show. Until I found a vendor who runs a basement business,
and whom I have dealt with before. I peered into this newly misted class tank and was shocked to see what was before my eyes.
Within this tank held a pair of very peculiar and interesting chameleons known as Bradypodian tavetanum. Formerly known to
be a subspecies of the gorgeous Fischer's chameleon, it has since been placed into it's own species.
These chams are actually very small, they only reach around 8" for males, that's about 4" SVL. They are montane as well
however are oviviparious (egg layers). Males colours range from brown with orange to green with whites.
The cham I purchased is WC. Normally I do not aim to purchase WC and actually discourage from it however, given the circumstances
in that a), it was in captivity for a few weeks for quarantine and proven to eat and drink b), never encountered CB and c),
they are actually very hardy chams once settled down.
I will be hopefully purchasing a female from the same vendor sometime during the summer and of course, I have full intentions
of breeding them in the future.
Sunday, April 26, 2006
Today I attended the Ontario Reptile and Insect Expo in Mississauga. I made sure to have lots saved up for this awesome
event. I was on a mission though, and it was to pick up a gorgeous pair of Rudis chameleons (C. sternfeldi in the Rudis complex),
from a breeder and fellow cham enthusiast I have known for some time. I got there in good timing, found her table, and saw
the cutest and most gorgeous little chameleons ever! I purchased a male and female both around a year old, and from different
bloodlines so breeding is possible. The male is a gorgeous green with a lateral yellow stripe down it's sides, while the female
is a magnificent red-orange or terra cotta colouring and instead of the yellow stripe, it is in this case white. They are
both around 2 1/2 inches SVL (snout to vent length) and are setup in Exo-Terra's new cages called Explorariums. These are
nice, they hang from the ceiling. A little bio on the chams: they are montane chams that hail from Tasmania in the wild. They
like cooler, more humid temps than Veileds. And since they thrive in a cooler environment, these guys are viviparous (live
bearing). They attain only about 6-7" at most, (app. 3 inches SVL). They are actually relatives of the well-known Jackson
chameleon, however Rudis chameleons lack the trio of horns. If you have any more questions or comments about montane chams
or Rudis chams feel free to e-mail me or post it in the forum.
Also at the reptile expo, I was on a mission wondering if I had saved up for what I have been wanting for quite some time.
I decided I likely had enough, and started my search around the tables at the expo. After going to a few different vendors
with this one thing in mind, I returned to the best looking ball pythons I could find at the show, from PCP (Port Credit Pets).
It took me a while but I finally decided on a beautiful juvenile male ball python, around 18-20 inches in length. I decided
on a name for him soon after that still suits him, Beau (beautiful in French). He is very friendly and docile, and loves being
handled. They are notorious for going on hunger strikes so I am very pleased to see he already has eaten two pinkies (baby
mice, before they get their hair). He will definitely make a great pet when older and is an amazing animal to own.
^TOP^
February 23 2006
I have very many updates to tell. First off, I would like inform everyone, my poor Brookesia and Veiled, have passed.
The Brookesia passed about 4-5 months ago likely due to parasites, although it is very hard to pinpoint the cause. My beautiful
Veiled, Yoshi, passed about a month ago. One day I woke up to my veiled on the floor of his cage, not looking too well. He
fell from the top to the bottom, and within a few hours, he had passed. I lost a great friend, who was put through a lot.
When I first got him I knew nothing of the true care of chameleons, however with the right advise I quickly changed this and
he lived just over 4 years of age. I do plan on getting another one, however I have another species in mind. Check up over
the next little while and see what I come up with.
What I have now:
10 gal. FW tank; inhabitants include a WC catfish, African Butterflyfish, a tiger snail, and various FW mussels.
10 gal. tank; inhabitant is a large Halloween crab.
28 gal. BW tank; inhabitants include two large beautiful knight gobies, my poor green scat died not too long ago from
unknown causes.
20 gal. BW tank; inhabitant includes "FW" toadfish. Which by the way, is filled with eggs once again. I am going to try
and find a mate for her and see what happens.
10 gal aqua-terrarium BW tank; inhabitants include 3 awesome Indian mudskippers. They are doing very well, I am very
pleased with this tank and will post pictures soon.
*FW = Freshwater BW = Brackish Water SW = Saltwater*
^TOP^
March 29, 2005
Much has happened since this site was left last. I'm not sure exactly what I had before, but this is what I have now.
10 gal Piranha tank (piranha being removed shortly)
10 gal Halloween crab tank
29 gal Brackish tank
20 gal Brackish tank
29 gal - 1.1 brookesia decaryi chameleons
The pair of Brookesia chameleons are my newest addition. These are fairly rare 'pygmy' chameleons which reach a total
length of 3" (3.5 for females). I am hoping to breed these guys and so far so good. They are eating and drinking very well
and if I can simulate seasons, I will have a couple of these guys hiding about by early next year, possibly sooner. If anyone
would like more information on these neat chameleons, please e-mail me or post on the forum. I have pics of them below as
links, as I only have limited space for pics on the site.
Male
Female
Size comparison (male is larger at the moment)
Tank
*All pictures copywrite Travis Underhill*
I also recently purchased an awesome book called, "Stump-Tailed Chameleons" written by Petr Necas and Wolfgang Schmidt.
It is a hard-cover, 255 page book, stuffed full with colour photographs of every species of Rhampholeon and Brookesia. It
also has information on their care, breeding, feeding habits, as well as their habitat in the wild. A must have for anyone
wanting to breed any type of 'pygmy' chameleon.
^TOP^
December 30, 2004
I was in an awesome petstore the other day with a gift certificate from relatives. Knowing me, I headed straight
to the reptile and fish departments. Saw tons of cool things, but as I was searching each tank, fate brought me to an awesome
fish. It's called a freshwater stonefish. Actually a brackish water species these fish are actually slightly venomous. Not
fatal but can give you a sting to remember. They attain around a foot in length, and LOVE to eat feeder goldfish. I loved
this fish so much, I had to make room. So I returned my beautiful convict cichlids to the local pet store, to make room for
this fish. It is in a 20 gallon tank at the moment until it outgrows it. It has a sand substrate and loves it. They like moderately
brackish water. It seems this fish is very prone to fungal infections because mine has a very minor white area which
may be a patch of mould. It was the only one they had so I had no problem taking it. The store had it in freshwater which
may indicate why it had this fungus. I since then have raised the salinity of 1.010, and added a few drops of Sera Baktopur
to control the fungus. I have a pic below. Just for fun I named it Gollum.
^TOP^
|
