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!

Hamburg!

Every fall (and an occasional spring) we go to Hamburg, PA for the Northwestern Berks Reptile Show.    We used to just rush to the show, but we fell in love with eastern Pennsylvania, so we now make a total week's vacation out of it. 

Here's a shot of me, just getting there on Saturday morning, at the October show...I'm excited!

Have to wear those darn glasses to read the fine print on the deli cups!  And there were lots and lots of deli cups!

The weather could not have been better.  The show opened up at 9:00, and the line went from the building, down along the chain link that separates the old cemetary from the field house, and back to the main road.  At 10:00, even after the doors had been open for an hour, with people flowing in, the line did not seem to be getting much shorter.

Each show is different in that the variety changes some year-to-year, and season-to-season. We go primarily to see and/or purchase some of the "hot" animals, but there are always plenty of other herps, many quite unusual, to see and enjoy.    I cannot remember what kind of snakes these were; appear to be Epicrates ssp., nonvenomous, for sure, but look at the color difference in the pair.  Breeding these two would be fun to see what popped out!

If you like lizards, ya gotta love this guy!

We left him and his offspring there, but we did pick up a few odds and ends, made it back to the motel, and called it another successful trip!

Salmonella...what do YOU know about it?

I knew it was caused by a bacteria, and that turtles under 3 inches in carapace length, could not be sold, except for educational purposes, because it was thought that small children would put them in their mouths, and thereby possibly get salmonella.

So here are some facts that you probably didn't know.  First, the bacteria was named after an American Scientist, Dr. Salmon.  Approximately four hundred people a year die, from salmonella.  Probably thousands of people have undiagnosed salmonella in some form every year.   Young children, older people, and those with compromised immune systems are most at risk.   Samonella can have lasting effects, in the form of severe arthritis. 

We usually call salmonella "food poisoning" as it seems to happen after we've eaten something that may have been compromised.  But it can also come from contact with animals, and waste water.  The most obvious symptoms are cramps and diarrhea.  Severe dehydration can go hand-in-hand with the diarrhea. 

We've had salmonella around here, most likely due to food choices at restaurants, though not bad enough to require hospitalization, or even a trip to the doctor.  We did have one incidence that we caused ourselves, when (Dennis was) syphoning some water from the croc enclosure, and in trying to get the syphon running, inhaled some of the water.  Big lesson learned here!

But in keeping reptiles for over 50 years (yes, that's a long, long time) that was the only incidence we can contribute directly to the animals.   So what do we do different than other people?  We wash our hands a lot!  We are lucky to have two, actually three, sinks in our reptile building.  We also keep sanitizer on hand.   We encourage anyone who comes to visit, that they wash their hand continually, and/or use the sanitizer.  But we also encourge them to do that because if they have mouse or rat scent on their hands, and want to hold an animal...well, you get the picture! 

Do we worry about salmonella?  Nope!  Do we warn new herp owners?  Yep!  Or rather we counsel them on what to expect, and how to properly take care of their animals.  Think about it.  It's all hygiene.  As the old saying goes "Cleanliness is next to Godliness", and if you don't want to meet God any time soon, you'll keep your animals and yourself clean, and hopefully salmonella-free!

Buy one, get a bunch free!

We got a call this afternoon.  Someone opened up a bag of potting soil and found a bunch of baby snakes inside!  They tried to identify them and thought they were corn snakes.  We assumed they were probably baby prairie kingsnakes.  We were both wrong...see below...

Baby Black Ratesnakes (Elaphe obsoleta obsoleta.)  A few!!!

Of course they were delivered in the obligatory plastic jug.   The interesting part is that this was they were found in an UNOPENED bag of potting soil, which had been sitting  (and we can identify with this) on this man's front porch for over 2 months!

The potting soil company, which shall remain nameless, is headquartered in Ohio.  So we believe that these guys may have originated in Ohio.  We're going to keep one or two, and see how they grow up, if their color is the same, or slightly difference from our local variety, even though they're the same genus/species.

We're just glad we didn't have to identify a bunch of "dead" baby snakes!