Wanted

[MWheelock]

Hey y'all,

I figured one of you would know.

I'm looking for some display animals for my clinic office. I'm thinking day geckos or leopard geckos.

I'm not interested in pricey morphs, just the traditional of both. I'm also on a budget (imposed by my wife). Anyone know anyone that deals in either of these lizards.

Thanks for any help,
Matthew

 

[gonzalez6115]

i know a guy who live near me. he owns crestedgecko.com. he deals in cresties and leos among others. he ships anywhere and could probably find you a cheap one. he got me a nice crestie with little pattern for $25 but he lives liek 5 miles from me so i didnt ahve to pay for shipping. give him an email he checks it everyday.

 

[MWheelock]

Actually,
I've gotten a pair of cresteds and leopards since that last post.
Thanks for the link though. I may use it later.

I think I will be getting another female crestie in July when Repticon 2007 comes to town.

Matthew

 

[Will Hayward]

Matthew, have you looked into pygmy chameleons? The whole natural vivarium is what makes them such a great display animal for me.

How about putting one of these in your offices waiting room Eh?!

 

[MWheelock]

I have thought about getting some. There are a few things preventing this...

1) I have limited space. I share my office with 2 of my associates and it already seems like a rain-forest. (This problem I could probably overcome as I am the boss .)

2) I don't really want to have to keep smaller prey items for the pygmies (am I right to assume you need to keep pinhead crickets and fruitflies in significant quantities-especially for the babies?)

3) I worry that if I kept a harem, I would be innundated with babies that I would never find appropriate homes for. (Am I right to assume these animals require better than the average reptile keeper? How do you other breeders unload your babies?) Right now, if the crested and the leopards lay eggs, it should only be one or two at a time, a commitment I can handle.)

4)I like the idea of a display, but we have a lot of kids(and equally bad adults) come through and I KNOW there would be some glass banging (which is a personal pet peeve). Usually if I have kids that are even moderately well behaved, I have my staff show them the critters in my office. (How well do Brev's deal with stress? That was a beardie enclosure, right? Did you set that up for them?) I guess I get really protective of my animals so I might be too worried to have a public display...

5)And this is the biggest deterent right now - I have promised my wife that I will not get any more reptiles at this time. (She is also a vet and not squirmish about this hobby.) She understands that I keep them (different species) so that I better understand the husbandry of my clients animals. However, she sees that I could easily be obscessed and be covered over in animals since I have so much fun with it. (Since my cresteds hide during the day when she visits the office, I might be able to get away with buying another female for the cage without her knowing. It depends if I find a female I can't live without at Repticon 2007 in Charlotte.) I also promised that any reptile I have not be fed vertebrates. I had a red-tailed boa named Maurice in college. She was not too fond of him. On a side note- If I do hatch out some dalmation cresties and/or carrot tail leopards. Or it my dubia collection of roaches starts to grow out of control, is anybody on this forum interested in buying from me if I post here? (I'm not going to hold y'all to it right now, but I like the forum members here and would give them first shot if they were interested...Just trying to get an idea.)

 

[Will Hayward]

1) 10 Gallons is large enough for the common species. Size above this, really only ristricts how many individuals you keep.

2) Sow bugs can reproduce well within the enclosure and brevs have eaten them. Springtails can be added in to clean the soil aswell, and the babies will take them during their first while before they can accept the sowbugs. The crickets did pretty well in my tank and lasted a few days if uneaten, since they could much on many plants. I was only buying crickets twice a week for them, and the care on 1/8 - 1/4" crickets is pretty minimal. They will accept your roaches aswell. I never used flies with mine. but they did accept the odd waxworm, mealworm when I would offer small ones and loved silkworms. Also, they will eat pheonix worms, firebats, and etc.

3) They CAN be prolific, but it's usually because one male can, err, satisfy half a dozen females, minimise the number of ladies and you minimise the offspring. They werent in my care though I did find the odd baby whos egg had been layed, incubated and hatched all IN the terrarium without me knowing. Brevs usually lay between 1-4 eggs and more commonly 1-2 in my experience. I tend to dissagree with most on this part, I think other than their fragility, and our lack of ability to treat their miniature sicknesses, they seem to be great pets for people that are willing to put in some reading time, join our forum, and sit back and watch them. Adults and babies can seemingly live together without any issues that I have seen (roo might comment further?)

4)Brevs would probably be the hardiest and have resisted quite well to movement outside the glass. Secondly, they are hard to find! To someone unkowing, the terrarium would look like just a neat mini planted jungle, sans-life. Usually took me 5-10 minutes to find 4 or 5 since it was well planted.

A plaque mounted beside could say "DO NOT TOUCH GLASS" aswell as a breif detail on the species inside. Also, plexiglass or accrylic does not generate as much vibration as glass does when tapped. a pane infront of the tank, as in a double pane of glass, separated from its structure with some foam cusioning would dampen the resonation quite well I'd think.

Having the tank at the heing of 5' would elimate the children trouble, though maybe not the adults. The signs near the tank would eliminate most of the dummies who would tap. combined with proper dampening and I dont think you would have trouble.

The one in the photo isnt mine, but it looks fantastic.

5) You can tell her that these belong to your associates.

 

[Heika]

2) I don't really want to have to keep smaller prey items for the pygmies (am I right to assume you need to keep pinhead crickets and fruitflies in significant quantities-especially for the babies?)

Yes, especially for babies. The adults do quite well with crickets, roaches, house flies and moths. Mine won't touch anything that looks like a worm, but I have read that other keepers have success with them.

3) I worry that if I kept a harem, I would be innundated with babies that I would never find appropriate homes for. (Am I right to assume these animals require better than the average reptile keeper? How do you other breeders unload your babies?) Right now, if the crested and the leopards lay eggs, it should only be one or two at a time, a commitment I can handle.)

Yes, they require different care and probably aren't the best animals for beginners. I sell mine when people IM me from the forums I belong to.. I haven't actively tried to sell them. I am fortunate that one of the people I sell to purchases for three small zoos, and has bought the vast majority of the leaf chameleon youngsters I have raised. In fact, after his last purchase, I am retaining all of my leaf chameleons for the time being.

Or it my dubia collection of roaches starts to grow out of control, is anybody on this forum interested in buying from me if I post here? (I'm not going to hold y'all to it right now, but I like the forum members here and would give them first shot if they were interested...Just trying to get an idea.)

I am always looking for more dubias to increase my breeding groups, especially if they are large nymphs and priced right.