New beasties in The Reptile Room!!!

Millipedes, Isopods, Dart frogs and a Jewelled lacerta oh my!!!

With my birthday coming up my wonderful husband has gifted me six new Ranitomeya dart frog tadpoles - THANK YOU!!! We collected them this week and they are growing out in The Reptile Room, it will be approximately ten weeks for them to hop out of the water and I just cant wait! I've already got so many ideas for their fully bioactive vivarium!

Bugs!

We have been all about the bugs lately in The Reptile Room - with Avie, my pink toe tarantula growing well, Myrtle, our Ghost mantis successfully making it through her final molt. We have also added two new species of isopods join us - Magic Potions and Red Calicos.

Magic Potions have that ducky beak but are much easier to care for! Red Calicos are a super cool species being in that they are one of the very few where you can determine the gender of them visually - the males are black and the females are red.

The coolest new bugs we have are Siamese Glow Millipedes - yes as the name suggests they really do glow bright blue under UV light!

Timmy

In other news - summer is fast approaching which means that Timmy, our red foot tortoise, has been spending more and more time outside. Now Timmy is a willful little fella who knows his own mind; there are two places in our garden not safe for him to wander into and yet every single time Timmy is outside he heads straight there!

With this in mind we have begun working on his outdoor enclosure so that he can safely explore the great outdoors and I won't have to chase after him every two minutes!

Timmy out inspecting our work

Timmy garden will be approximately 20ft x 30ft, it will be fully planted with tortoise safe vegetables, plants, grasses and flowers, he will have a tunnel buried into the grass for him to climb over or hide inside. He will also have a kennel with a solar powered heat bulb inside for the cooler days. Not all of the garden will be grassland; as red foot tortoises like to dig I'm leaving an open space for him to dig in as well as a rocky area for if he wants to go rock climbing. I'm also planning on making him some fun enrichment pieces like a brush that he can walk under if he wants a back scratch!

The nameless Jewelled Lacerta

Jewelled lacerta settling in to his rescue accommodation.

This month we have also had beautiful Jewelled lacerta surrenderd to our rescue - unfortunately this poor guy is in bad shape; it seems likely that he has suffered a stroke due to the fact that hes never been given access to UVB light before now. He is blind in his left eye, has severe mobility issues on the left side and as such is very easily spooked - we are having to feed and approach him only on his right side as its just heartbreaking seeing him so stressed when he thinks hes in danger. I have no idea how long he has been in this condition but seeing as he is an adult of a good weight and only had two previous owners in his lifetime (neither of whom gave him the correct husbandry and described him as "spazzy") there's a strong chance hes been like this for years. I will be seeking a veterinary consult to ascertain if it is ethical to keep him in this condition, or if it would be in his best interest to let him go peacefully in his sleep. I wont let an animal suffer needlessly, the decision will be left up to the professionals. If the decision is made to keep him this guy needs a name! My youngest wants to call him Sprunky, my mother has suggested Slytherin, my husband has put forward Gobbles as an option. I'm unsure. What do you think?