Mail Order... Crickets?

For those of you going to the local pet store every week to buy $5.00 worth of crickets or more, I'm here to tell you reconsider your options... Lately, crickets are worth roughly .12c a piece (here in central California) and if you have a plethora of reptiles to feed, it gets a little costly.

Since my new home location only has a Petco and a PetSmart nearby, so I'm looking into purchasing bulk insects online. I know, I'm crazy. But instead of paying 10-13 cents per insect, I'll be paying 3-4. The bugs are tax free and shipping is included, we'll see what the catch is when I order these guys...

The company I have found so far to be the cheapest and the best rated is through the http://www.reptilefood.com/ web site.  Here you can purchase as few as 250 crickets at a time (which will only last me a week). I'm in the middle of trying to find out what species of cricket they carry. Why would I care? Well, there was a huge problem recently with a cricket "virus" or sickness that was killing the acheta domesticus (brown/house cricket) by the masses. There would be countless casualties every day, for apparently no reason. While working at Hoffmann's Reptiles in Concord, we began to carry a new species, gryllus assimilis (Jamaican cricket).

The Jamaican cricket has proven to be a million times more hardy! Can't kill the darn things with a hammer (I'm only exaggerating a little)! And they get significantly larger in size too! However, big box stores such as Petco and PetSmart still carry the brown or house cricket (to the extent of my knowledge), and at least half of your purchase is wasted every time in deaths.

I will be making my online purchase a week or so after my move in date, and will notify you when I have a customer rating, and a definite species nailed down!

That time...

My Bearded Dragon Quiz

Here is a moderately difficult test I created to see what people really know about one of the most common lizards in the pet trade today. If you own a bearded dragon or are looking into purchasing one, I encourage you to take this test! The questions range from general information about the different species of bearded dragon, to diet, and common health problems.

The password to enter (if it even asks) is: scuttlebug


http://www.gotoquiz.com/the_bearded_dragon_1

Visiting Mt. Diablo

Thought I would share a spring vs. summer picture of a tree and hillside at Mt. Diablo Park. Also a picture of a terrified little Sceloporus occidentalis I caught "Western Fence Lizard" or "Blue-Belly."

Here is the beautiful hillside along the "frog pond" trail coming from the curry point trail-head. This is a picture taken during springtime, all of the hills were lush and covered in California Poppies and other flowers.

 This is the same shot, but during our 2011 summer this year. All the flowers are gone! Awwww.

 This is the startled fence lizard I caught basking on the side of an oak tree. So nice of him to pose for a quick photo shoot!

Mt. Diablo is a wonderful place to hike and camp, plenty of diverse wildlife too! Be careful of rattlesnakes though, I don't see them too often but they're hiding in plain sight all over the trails!

My Cold-Blooded Family

I decided that I need to put the spotlight on the little critters who live with me and have their own section in my refrigerator... Many of the animals I have had over the years were short-term responsibilities that needed a little TLC. While I worked for a couple years at PetSmart, I ran across many people who wanted to get rid of an animal they couldn't take care of. So I acquired turtles big and small who needed injections and had respiratory infections, MBD and calcium deficiencies, etc. I had huge fish left in Ziploc bags in the parking lot because people didn't know what to do with them... I cared for a baby pigeon "Norm" who had been removed from a neighbor's roof until he learned to fly and left on his life's journey (on someone else's roof haha...).

Back to the point! I have cared for dozens of animals, here are those that stay with me and have a special place in my heart.

Mojo: Pyxicephalus adspersus (African Burrowing Frog), native to Africa

Here is Mojo, an adult female Pyxie frog. She weighs about a pound or a little more, and eats EVERYTHING! She has two "teeth" on her bottom jaw and has a very powerful (and painful) bite. I bought her for a senior animal science project in 2009 to see how much she would grow over a period of 3 months. She started out the size of a half dollar, and was nearly the size of a grapefruit when I finished my paper and brought her in to show everyone! She eats crickets, nightcrawler worms, mice, goldfish (and anything else the other animals won't eat). Though she burrows and spends most of her time 4" below the substrate level in her 55 gallon tank, she's all mouth and stomach when there's food around (we call her the "garbage disposal")! At about 2 and a half years old, she has been a wonderful spectacle to admire and I hope she has many more years to come.


Murphy: Varanus exanthematicus (Savannah Monitor Lizard or Bosc's monitor in Europe), native to Africa

Next is Murphy, the Savannah rescue from last September... Dominic bought Murphy for me as a present at the Sacremento Reptile show last year. I wanted a monitor pretty bad, and this one was in dire need of attention- sounds like the perfect one for me right?! So we picked him up with a small tank he was in for $40, and his health has been improving wonderfully ever since. He's a really shy guy, luckily not aggressive at all! He weighs about 8 pounds and eats and assortment of vitamin enriched ground turkey or chicken and hard boiled eggs, mice, crickets and worms. Measuring at over 30", he has grown a foot in length in 10 months! Now housed in a 125 gallon 6' aquarium, he lounges under his basking lamps (125* under these lights!) and swims in his 5 gallon tupperware "pool."
To read more about Murphy's initial condition and to see an older, skinnier picture of him, view my previous posts!

Nessie and Zilla: Pogona Vitticeps (Inland Bearded Dragon), native to Australia

Here we have Nessie (right) and Godzilla (back), a male and female pair I bought in April for Dominic as an "Introduction to Reptiles." Bearded dragons make wonderful pets as long as you house them correctly! Being native to Australia, they need a hot basking temperature and plenty of UV. These "beardies" (as most reptile enthusiasts call them) are mainly insectivores, but will devour a meal like the one shown above if fed fruits and veggies at a young age. In the photo, they are eating a spring mix, with papaya, apple, red bell pepper, button mushrooms, cabbage, carrots, nectarines and asparagus! They each get one "pinky" mouse every week, and calcium dusted crickets every other day. Usually I will put a few waxworms or mealworms on top of their salads if they don't appear interested... It always sparks their attention!

Though they were spooky and skittish at first, handling them only a few times a week, they have warmed up to human contact quite well. They will continue to mellow out as they come to their first year of age, and are expected to live around 15-20 years! These two are a blast to watch -they both have an odd fascination with our ceiling fan- and are so curious about everything! I'm glad to call them a part of my little family.

Big mama, Spot, Tiny, Fred, Barney, Stumpy, The Twins, Rango and Ringo: Bombina orientalis (Oriental Fire-Bellied Toads), native to China, and parts of Korea and Russia

I have acquired all ten of these lovely amphibians solely through adoption. A few of them came to me missing feet or with fungal infections of the skin from a dirty environment or due to sharing an enclosure with red-clawed crabs (bad idea PetSmart!!). At least 4 or 5 of them came from parents whose children lost interest, and didn't want to buy crickets and clean them every week. So now I have 10 of these little 1-1.5" toads living in a 10 gallon aquarium. Here they live socially and chirp or "bark" all day and night, hopping and swimming around their little pond. I love the sounds they make, here is a link to someone who caught the little chirps one tape.

I've heard that these guys live up to 20 years too! Maybe they'll have babies some day when I make a rain-chamber for them? YES! EVEN MORE TOADS! I highly recommend these cute toads to anyone who wants an active low-maintenance pet! However, they are a "look and don't touch" animal, they secrete toxins on their skin that can cause skin irritation (the oils and salts on our skin can harm them too).

There's Something in the Water...

A few days ago, I got some very sad news. A call came in from Florida early one morning from Bobby Hill, my tegu breeder. He told me that he had lost over 800 eggs during incubation, apparently the chemicals being used to treat the water there had been changed without notice and had harmed the incubating babies. Bobby was deeply apologetic and told me that I could have my deposit back. After thinking for a second, I decided to keep my deposit down and wait until next year's clutches arrived...

Let me tell you, this was hard for me! I'm not a very patient person, and I had everything  (down to food) purchased for this little tegu baby I was expecting to hatch any day now.
 
Here is my reasoning... Bobby has been there for any and every question I threw at him. If I sent him an email, I got an immediate response. When I was uneasy about a purchase, he phoned me personally and talked me through everything, giving me information to do my own research and make my own decisions. When I was first decided on buying a tegu, I was unsure about giving $75 to some random person via paypal, to turn around and wait 6 months before giving him another $75. AND THEN waiting even longer for them to ship at 3 weeks of age... So Bobby asked permission to call me and tell me about his business, introduce himself, and point me in the direction of hundreds of people who have bought animals from him in the past (www.TeguTalk.com).

I found that everyone I talked to had a very high opinion of Bobby, and the animals he bred. I looked at all of the youtube videos he had uploaded on the Varnyard channel and felt very confident that he wasn't a scammer!

After I put my initial $75 deposit down on March 16th, I waited until the eggs were laid, and then for them to hatch. When things seemed like they were taking forever, I got the phone call with the bad news. Though I was bummed out, I felt a new and even greater respect for Bobby Hill. For a week, he contacted every individual on his order list personally, and spoke with them about the accident and the options.

Though a part of me REALLY wanted a baby 'gu, I couldn't push myself to deny Bobby my business. something had happened that was beyond his control, why punish him for an accident? Especially after he had been so kind!

I am realizing that the world desperately needs more people like Bobby. He was honest, sincere, and a wonderful person to talk to. I'm afraid to say that anyone else in his position would have merely sent out a mass-email stating the bad news, they wouldn't bother contacting all 800+ people!

Thank you Bobby Hill, for being such an honest person! I can't wait until the babies arrive next year!!!

Big News From Varnyard!

Bobby Hill put up a post that eggs are laid, just over 400 eggs incubating right now! The countdown begins, roughly 60 days until they hatch, and then 3 weeks until my little guy arrives in the mail! I'm so excited! Here's the thread so far, http://www.tegutalk.com/showthread.php?tid=8138#axzz1Le9Jv2r4. I'm still trying to come up with names, if there are any recommendations for boys please let me know!

Hoffan's Reptiles

Since my move to Concord in February, I've been making an effort to check out every local pet store. Conveniently, I have the East Bay Vivarium 25-30 minutes up the road in Berkeley, as well as Hoffman's Reptiles roughly a mile from my apartment.

I've recently started working for Dan Hoffman and am now managing the store, which has been fun so far! He carries an assortment of common reptiles you find in the pet trade such as bearded dragons, corn snakes, ball pythons, leopard geckos, Russian tortoises, rose hair tarantulas, three-toed box turtles, blue-tongued skinks, etc. He also carries things that you won't typically find at your big-box pet store like Petco or PetSmart though too. He carries argus and Savannah monitors, as well as black and white Argentine tegus (he has two pairs of adults and a few babies on the way). He also has Colombian rainbow boas, Brazilian rainbow boas, Western hog-nose, children's pythons (funny name in my opinion "here son, play with this..."), Mississippi musk turtles, newts and also a false water cobra.

Unfortunately Hoffman's is not a place that many people know of, however the store has been open for around 31 years! It's a place worth seeing if you're as crazy as I am about checking out different pet stores across the map. Here's his web site: http://www.hoffmannsreptiles.com/.

Varnyard Herps

Just an update for anyone interested in Varnyard Herps Inc. Bobby Hill is a scam artist. Here we are in September of 2012 and I have still not received my tegu. He will not return phone calls or emails. Do not give him your time, he may have been a good and reputable breeder at some point in time, but his time has passed. Do not give him your business, unless you never want to see the product you purchased from him.

In mid March of this year, I began my search for an Argentine black and white tegu. For those of you that know, many of these animals are taken from their native habitat as eggs, babies, or even adults and brought into America for trade. For me this is not okay, I was looking for a captive bred, and captive hatched baby...

The first problem I came across was the false advertising by companies who were selling "black and white" tegus. Upon looking at the stock in the pictures, I saw that they were not Argentine tegus, they were Colombian Black tegus. Colombian Black tegus are much like Argentine black and whites, however they are not the largest of the tegu family, and don't have the "dog tame" reputation. Quite honestly they can be quite the opposite. With this in mind, I searched for a picture that would help me better identify what species I was looking at and came across this:

Though it may be a little difficult to distinguish in this quality of a picture, it makes the differences quite obvious. Both look like speckled black and white lizards, however the Argentine has two loreal scales along its snout and has a very distinctive white strip that runs down both sides of its body, unlike the Colombian black. These differences are critical to know! You don't want to buy a $40 lizard for $190!

So in my searches, I came across this web site: http://varnyard-herps-inc.com/. I looked things over and was really eager to put a deposit down, and especially for such a price ($150 shipped)! So I tried contacting the owner, Bobby Hill and crossed my fingers for a response. To my surprise, I got a speedy reply where he explained a little about his business in Florida, and his connections throughout the "tegu community." I expressed my fears of scam and he said that he would call me and explain if that made me more comfortable. I agreed and spent 30 mins on the phone with the owner of Vanryard herps discussing everything from his tegu breeding beliefs and morals, to the places he ships to, people in the trade, other breeders, etc. It was after this point that I looked him up on YouTube and found "un-boxing videos" of tegu babies he has shipped across the US, as well as videos from his breeding facility. I was convinced, this was they guy I was giving my $150 to, he went above and beyond to contact me individually and put my mind at ease!

That night I also joined the forum that Bobby Hill started (and recently sold) called TeguTalk. Here there are tens of thousands of tegu owners and future owners who will answer any questions you have. They share pictures, experiences, videos, advice and everything. Everyone on the site also has a great opinion about Bobby.

Here I am, two months later, deposit down, waiting for my little baby to hatch in June or July! I'm excited beyond belief, and have prepared everything I can and researched so much! Here is the enclosure we are making for the first several months of his life:

It's getting several coats of Drylok to keep moisture out of the wood, two incandescent fixtures for a 100 watt halogen heat bulb and a 100 watt mercury vapor bulb. On top of this it gets one double ballast for (up to) 2 fluorescent bulbs for extra UVB if necessary... I will definitely post a few more pictures of the finished product once we get the doors and everything on! I'll make sure to make an "un-boxing" video once I get my little guy so you can see just how cute he is!

Nessie and Zilla

Nessie and Zilla (we tried to keep with a theme of legendary lizards) are the two most recent additions to my zoo. I bought them both from the East Bay Vivarium in Berkeley for $39.00 each in early February. They both have been great eaters, taking fruits, veggies and crickets daily and have been growing at an amazing speed. Zilla, we can already tell is the dominant one and is growing more rapidly at Nessie. We've also noticed that Nessie will "wave" (in submission some say) to Zilla too. If you would like to see what I'm referring to, check out this link, it's pretty cute! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3ZPew3cvIQ.

Anyways, so the story on why I chose a couple of adorable baby beardies... Besides the obvious (them being so darn cute), Dominic my boyfriend and room mate is not so fond of snakes, spiders and geckos. He's recently become used to Murphy, the Savannah monitor rescue, but wasn't ready for anything without legs yet... So I decided to get something with an almost immaculate track record... BEARDED DRAGONS!

Beardies were referred to as "The Labrador of Lizards" by Reptiles magazine last year, and I think most people would agree. They are relatively inexpensive, usually costing around $60 and have fairly simple housing requirements. Since they are diurnal, they need a source of UVB light so that their bodies can process calcium. Basking temps should stay around 100-110 degrees Fahrenheit so that they can properly digest their food without risk of impaction. And last, babies should be sprayed down or soaked everyday to prevent dehydration. Offer them a variety of foods daily and enjoy as your baby dragon grows into a sub-adult/ juvenile in just a year or two!

Murphy Update!

My monitor rescue, Murphy, is pulling through so well! He's gained weight, 8-9" in length, and is a wonderful eater. Unfortunately this spike back up to good health means he's getting his "monitor attitude" back too. He's a little skittish around people, but calms down once he's out of the enclosure. Here's a video of him roaming around and checking things out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHRLlSe4Ls8. He's definitely doing much better, and I'm so happy he pulled through everything he'd been through before he came to me!

Murphy- My Monitor Rescue

Here's a bit about how I got my little urban dinosaur, Murphy:
We picked up this little guy as a rescue at the Sacramento Reptile show in September of 2010. He was skinny, dehydrated, not shedding properly, and VERY cold. We put him under lights right away and started giving him warm soaks every other night, and discovered he had a huge tick under his left arm!! 

Over the last few months, he's been fed a very diverse diet (to say the least). Lots and lots of very large worms and insects, some cat food at first to give him an appetite, he loves hard boiled eggs, an occasional fuzzy, and lean turkey meat.

He's recovering quite well, has gained weight but could use to take on some more. The last healing he has to do is actually in his tail... When I got him he had a stiff 1/2" tip of his tail that looked like it had been jammed or broken, and was going to fall off. Over the last week, I've noticed the stiff spot creep its way up slightly, and a scab has formed. I've done a little research and contacted Davis, as well as my herp vet, and all that they've said is that it might be a dry gangrene? I'll be taking him into a vet shortly to get him a diagnosis and a treatment, but if anyone has heard of this, please let me know!

In the meantime, he's being socialized with people as much as possible. He's picking up the typical lizard behavior and (as monitors always do) is constantly trying to escape his enclosure. He's 20" so far, and is being housed in a 125 gallon aquarium. The enclosure measures roughly 6'x2'x2'.

Quality UV

In my constant searching for quality reptile UV products, I came across a website (www.ReptileUV.com) that seemed pretty reputable. From there I continued to search any forum posts or references to this company that I could find, hoping to determine if they were legitimate. My next searches wound me up at a web site that I had visited previously to do some reading about box turtles, (http://aboxturtle.com/uvb_output_of_various_bulbs.htm). This specific page went into reasonable detail about what reptile UV brands and lights were available on the market, what their outputs are and at what distances. JACKPOT! Obviously, I'm going to look for the one with the best UV output rating, which was the Mega-Ray 160 watt flood lamp... which I could purchase at the Reptile UV website I came across in the first place! PERFECT! Right?

With all this information in hand and feeling lucky, I created a PayPal account to purchase one of these lamps. My total came out to a whopping $56 plus shipping- If you're a herp enthusiast these numbers won't surprise you... I sent everything through on November 29, 2010 to be processed...

After a few weeks of waiting, I began to wonder if I have been cheated out of my money. I found a confirmation email in my spam folder,which was a little reassuring, but after I began trying to contact the company with no luck, I got nervous. I tried calling and leaving messages with their "customer service" and tried sending emails with no reply, nothing seemed to be working in my favor.

So I did what I thought was necessary, I filed a dispute with PayPal on December 17, which got me into contact with the company, and I said I wanted my money back. The dispute came to it's closing date on January 6 and I still had no refund, so I escalated the dispute. Next thing I know, I have a UPS tracking number for the item I wanted my refund on- great. Finally, the package shows up via snail mail on January 12, 2011, a little lengthy for me. 

I've started using the bulb that came in the mail, and I've seen amazing results with my Savannah Monitor, Murphy. In the past, I've tried ZooMed's 5.0 and 10.0 compact fluorescent lights, which are quite frankly crap. ZooMed's Powersun self-ballasted mercury vapor bulbs (100 & 160 watt) were a huge step up in quality (and price) from the other lamps that local pet stores offered, however they didn't seem to have any longevity for how much I was paying. They seemed to last a few months then they would die. For $60-$70 each, and after 3 purchases FORGET IT! Last, Exoterra's compact fluorescent bulbs, the 10.0, 5.0 and 2.0 are all the bottom of the barrel- to say the least. After reading and trying these products, you can tell these lights' UV output decays over a very short period of 2-3 months, totally not worth $20. I'd give an exception if it's an emergency short-term fix and you can't afford the better bulbs.

All in all, I can honestly say that Mega-Ray has come up with an outstanding quality product! But as far as customer service is concerned... We need to hire a few more people.


My conversation after the claim escalated with Mac Industries is below:

• 1/2/2011 22:21 PST - Buyer: My account just hasn't been refunded yet. I last spoke with the supplier on the 21st of December, and I don't want the closing date to come and go without my account being refunded $56. Last I heard, I was told that my account could be refunded, and I was very clear in my response that this is what I wanted.
• 12/21/2010 09:44 PST - Buyer: I would appreciate it if you would refund my purchase. I know that your UV bulbs are far superior, and that is why I made the initial purchase from your company. However, it took so long to complete the order, I've already spent more than enough in trying to compensate. I'll try your company again some other time, maybe in 6 months when I need to replace the zoomed bulbs I purchased. In the meantime, I can't afford to buy so much. Thank you. Hannah Eilers
• 12/21/2010 08:21 PST - Seller: Hello Hannah We're sorry you've had to wait but our bulbs were on back order since we had to switch to a new manufacturer this year after our old one sent us shipment after shipment of bulbs made with the wrong glass for 5 months and instead of just selling those bulbs like all the other brands did and blinding and burning reptiles we took a $250,000 loss and set out to find new factories to make us safe bulbs again. Our customers who have been with us for over 8 years now all had to wait 2 to 5 months while we worked day and night to make these new bulbs and we now have them in. We'll also now have an unlimited supply so next year we'll have our bulbs in stores too. I have looked and i have no emails from the email listed here for you so i don't know what email you used or contacted us at but since Aug. i have had to take on 5 jobs at the company to keep us going while we get through this. We got in 1500 bulbs this month and have 2500 more coming next month. We have caught up with the 200 to 300 back orders and are almost current and about to go back to normal operations where we ship the next day. We had to be sure what we sell is safe we run rescues and rehabs so we can't hurt animals. I will be glad to refund your money or if you'd like your order filled we can do so right away, please let me know which. Also every other brand of reptile bulb on the market is made in china now for $3 a bulb and they are better in a land fill then over our reptiles they all have a 10:1 output ratio and ours have to have at least 30:1 to pass testing or they go back as defective, we will also have new bulbs with a 40:1 ratio of uvb to uvi coming next month and thats exactly what the sun puts out. Our products are about a decade more advanced then all others on the market but don't take my word for it reasd more at the uvguide.co.uk an independant testing website. Just know we are working for the animals more then the money and care about what we sell, its just been a terrible yea
• 12/17/2010 16:47 PST - Buyer: I purchased a reptile UV bulb from www.reptileuv.com and never received my purchased item. I have tried twice to contact via email, and twice to contact via their customer service line. Every attempt with absolutely NO RESPONSE. I'm done waiting for this product, and done asking for a peace of mind from this company. I feel that I am being ignored, and that I have been robbed of my $56. At this point I just want my money back. It has taken so long already for my purchase to be completed that I have purchased other bulbs from local stores to compensate instead and have easily spent twice (or three times) as munch money as I needed to in the first place. I am 100% unsatisfied with this company and would like this transaction reversed. Thank you, Hannah Eilers