Sounds...

For an interesting experience, especially if you have a variety of animals, go into your herp room, in the dark, and just sit and listen.

I did just that today, as I was putting some feeder fish in with our alligator snapper.  As most of the animals could not see where I was, they were doing various things.  One large sulcata tortoise was grunting.  Almost sounded like burping.  Our Yacare caiman was roaring, or rumbling, as he was calling out to our female crocodile.  He does that when, we assume, she's in heat, although we don't know where or when.  She never exhibits any signs, and they cannot see each other.   Today he was out of his pool.  When  he does it in the pool, you can see the water bubbling. 

Occasionally you'll hear the rattlesnakes rattling.  They flexing their muscles or are they seeing shadows?  Perhaps just dreaming?  Like when your dog whimpers and runs in it's sleep?    All in all, very interesting!

Look what we found!

Came in from the shop this afternooon to find this guy next to the foundation of the house. He was all coiled up and doing something so we observed him for a moment. See if you can make anything out.

Here's another photo, and you can see his head a bit better.  He was eating!  Can you identify his food source?  Remember, this is a "kingsnake!"

That colorful curl in the center of the picture should be a good hint! Sorry, no prizes will be given, just an "Attaboy!"

Ouch!!!!! or @#$%%^$&#*@

 

 

You may have been wondering how the rhino iguana, that we "rescued" is doing!

Obviously he's progressed to "solid food" and has a very healthy appetite.  We haven't had the time to make him a more appropriate cage, but it will definitely be one where we can feed him without getting our hands (or fingers) too close, as pictured! 

When people ask me if I've ever been bitten, they're most always talking about snakes.  They seem to forget that lizards can bite too, and very hard! I must admit my language was not printable during this encounter. 
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P.S.  Haven't had time to post new pics (which would entail handling this charmer) but we did make a nice large cage for him, and he settled in nicely, and eats anything and everything with a special fondness for bananas!

First casualty of the year.

Not much to write about during the winter months.  Everyone cleans cages and feeds animals.  We all look forward to spring as a time to see animals in their natural surroundings, breed the animals we already own, if we choose, and just enjoy nature.

This winter, for many, has been very pleasant, and almost too warm.  We have seen errant turtles out in December, and on some warmer days, in February,  you could go to some den sites and see animals basking on the rocks, only to go back under when the weather turns colder.  They don' t venture far until it starts to stay warm all day long. This year has been an entirely different story.   We had our first "unknown snake identification a few weeks ago, in February, when some neighbors wanted to know what they found. Turns out it was a Midland Ground Snake.   Time to make sure there's a snake bag in every vehicle!

This poor guy was found on the road, that I had just driven, in the opposite direction, only 2 hours earlier.   I have to keep telling myself that "you can't save them all."  I do wonder about his placement in the road, as usually snakes crossing are perpendicular, not parallel to the white line,  although they can contort somewhat when hit.  That prompted a thought that possibly another predator (hawk, for example) picked him up and then dropped him for whatever reason.  But whatever happened, he's obviously deceased.  And we can only hope he becomes food for yet another animal.

Since that day we've seen a dead common snapper, and DOR black rat snake.  Different roads.  Hate to think that they started to enjoy the warm weather also, only to become casualties so early in the year.

Know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em...

...to quote a few lines from an old Kenny Rogers song.  No, I'm not into country music, and no, this is not about holding your favorite reptile.  This is about when to keep you mouth shut when someone tells you some ridiculously tall stories about reptiles, and you want to inform them that they're misinformed, but...you don't.

The reason for this blog...I went to buy some fish food for my (legally obtained) alligator snapper.  When I was leaving the bait shop an older gentleman (think 70s probably) asked me if "the fish are biting."  I said no, that I was feeding a turtle.  Of course, to a fisherman, that's anathema!  Because turtles eat all the fish! 

Anyway, he proceeded to tell me that he has a huge snapping turtle in his pond.  All his friends want him to get rid of it, but he said it eats the excess bluegill, as he has too many in his pond.  I told him it would indeed eat the sick ones, etc, and that it was a good idea to leave the turtle there because the fish that survive will be bigger and more hearty.

Okay, he then tells me how it sits there with its mouth open, and the little "worm" in its mouth lures the fish in.  Huh?  I always thought that alligator snappers lived in big river systems, and they have the tongue lure, and common snapping turtles lived in farm ponds.   But I'm not going to tell this man he probably misidentified the turtle.  He'd probably deny me anyway.  After all, he knew his turtle, and I would just be going by heresay.

Then he told me if the "wood ducks" nested there, and the turtle started to eat the ducklings, the turtle would have to go.  He said the turtles just "suck the babies" down into the water.  Okay...another misunderstanding?  Better to let it go, i.e. hold 'em.

When trying to educate the public, you learn when to keep your mouth shut, just nod in agreement, and try to make positive remarks to offset some of the bad information, while not offending the person(s) you're speaking to, or just walk away on a, hopefully, positive note.   Know when to fold 'em!

To rehab...or not...

We recently acquired the rhinocerous iguana shown below.  I'm holding him to show how he looks.   His previous owner fell ill, and was hospitalized.  Due to the owner's health problems, the remainder of his collection was sold/given away.  The iguana was kept with the thought that perhaps if he got better, he would have something to "come home to."  Something to boost his spirits.  Alas he passed away, and the iguana was forgotten about.   Fast forward a few months, and the family realized this animal was more than they could properly care for.  As many of you know, rhino iguanas are not known for their wonderful temperments.

So we got a call and were apprised of the situation, and would we take the animal.  Of course we said yes, as we already have two rhino iguanas.  We did not realize what shape this animal was in.  After bringing him home, we questioned our sanity, and our resources.  This of course meant yet another cage to be built, with the hope that this animal will survive long enough to enjoy it. 

With that in mind, we wondered if we should even try to rehab him, or just have him euthanized.  Which is preferable?  How does the animal feel?  Is he in pain?  How's his attitude?  That alone made a big difference on what we planned to do, as he was feisty.    If he were lethargic, we may not have bothered with him.

So how does one go about rehabbing?  Our plan, so far, has been to keep him warm, and hydrated, and feed him every single day.  We are feeding him only vegetables, and some fruit.  We feed our other iguanas veggies, and some dog food, but he's too thin to try to pack on the pounds in a hurry.  We feel he needs to get his digestive system operating properly again, and give us some good looking stools.

The picture is him after a month in our care, so you can tell, he was almost more than emaciated.  He's actually gained weight in this picture.  Look at the folds of skin in his tail and rib cage.  With horses there is a scale called the Henneke scale, 1 being the thinnest (1=Poor:Emaciated. Prominent spinous processes, ribs, tailhead and hooks and pins. Noticeable bone structure on withers, shoulders and neck. No fatty tissues can be palpated), 9 being almost too fat.  This poor guy was a 1 or perhaps even a negative 1.

With any luck he'll start to really fill out, and we can call it a success.   Since starvation can hide other problems, and/or cause other problems, we'll probably consider him "out of the woods" a year from now.   These things cannot be rushed.  As much as we want him to be fat practically overnight, he didn't get skinny overnight, so it will take time to refit this very desirable animal.

If this all works out, we'll post pictures of the fully recovered animal.  His attitude, at this point, is "better" (read that to mean even more feisty) than when we originally retrieved him.

The Staten Island Zoo Reptile House

Old herpers will remember this place as the home of Carl Kauffeld, one of the founding fathers of modern herpetology.  Or at least his stories in books kept us all awake nights wondering when we'd ever be able to see some of the wonderful animals he had experience with.    He was the Curator of Reptiles for many years.

When we first went to the zoo, we saw the old reptile house.  They have completely remodeled it,  (it was quite dark and dank) but kept some of the very interesting elements, such as the tile work as shown below.  If you look closely you can see Kauffeld's name on the glass plaque underneath the tile of the gaboon viper. 

And of course, Dennis.

These tile "pictures" are above the various entrances to the various hallways of the reptile house.

The last relic from Kauffeld's days is a mock-up of his office, when he was curator, and it houses many of his personal belongings and momentos.

Many apologies for the poor quallity of this particular photo.  To see the room is to appreciate how Kauffeld's memory has been preserved.

The rest of the herpetarium has some very nice displays, and collection of animals, but the history of the building and it's human inhabitants cannot be denied.  This history is as meaningful to a herper as Gettysburg is to a Civil War buff.  It's only about 120 miles from Hamburg, so if you go to one venue, you can easily make a side trip here!