New beasties in The Reptile Room
After a fantastic day at The Reptile Expo Ireland we arrived home with four new Geckos, two colonies of Isopods and a rescue Snake!
The Show
I have been looking forward to this year's Reptile Expo for months and it did not disappoint! Mat and Jen put on a heck of a show!
As I don't exactly do well in crowds I got VIP tickets for myself and my daughter and I'm so glad I did; the first hour of the show was everything I dreamed it would be! We got to go around every table three times, look at all the beasties on sale and chat with all the venders before the masses arrived. In fairness though everyone I met was so friendly, the vibes were great!
We got to see Wink's siblings on display at the Irish Exotic Pets table - it was great catching up with Aaron and Liam and getting to chat about my little Wink. Even better was getting to compare Wink to his siblings size - he is holding his own and was actually bigger than a couple of his siblings!
I'd also like to say a huge THANKYOU to everyone who came up to me at the show to talk about The Reptile Room and my beasties back home (Ladybug, Wink and Timmy got the most mentions). It was just lovely getting to meet so many people in our Irish reptile community, some of whom I've been speaking to online for the last seven years but never got to met in person, until now.
Our new Beasties
We had originally planned on getting a chameleon from the show - and there were some fabulous specimens to choose from - but I decided to go with my head instead of my heart.
My Ladybug (female crested gecko) lost a lot of condition this last breeding season and so we will be giving her next year off so that she can gain weight and get back to being my chunky love. With ladybug out to pasture for a year we needed a replacement RTB (ready to breed) female. I was hoping for another Lilly White - preferably a red Lilly - but there was only one RTB female at the whole show - a lovely dalmatian female.
Thank you to Davys Pets for my lovely lady! Agatha is very friendly, easy to handle, and at 43g is already on track to be the perfect size for breeding in a couple of months. I'm really looking forward to pairing her with Severus as he's a high white I think that would be a good match.
The second, third and fourth new beasties I procured are an adult trio of Viper geckos
(Hemidactylus imbricatus) courtesy of Dobs Pets, we were able to swap four Klemmeri geckos for these three breeding adult Vipers and I'm delighted with them!
Oh my goodness what an escapade that was though - on Friday I separated six Klemmeri (including three RTB) out into a separate smaller enclosure so that they would be easy to catch on Saturday BUT when I entered The Reptile Room on Saturday morning I was met with THREE Klemmeri
out of their enclosure climbing my walls! It turns out that the heat lamp I had placed over their temporary enclosure had gotten so hot that I warped the metal in the lid which left a small enough gap for them to escape through. I managed to catch two juveniles from the window, and one from underneath a picture on my wall but the other three are still loose somewhere in The Reptile Room. I came close to catching one today but she was too fast for me.
Anyway back to my Viper geckos - OMG how cute are these guys! We have named them Cinders, Smokey and Ember as they are lit! I love them so much! I've set up a fabulous bioactive arid desert vivarium for them with twisted spider wood, Coral rock, succulents and buffalo beetles, arid springtails and orange isopods as a clean up crew. Now apparently one of my ladies laid eggs on the way to the show so it shouldn't be long before I get eggs and babies from these three!
The plan was to buy a 45x60x60 exo Terra for Agatha, but unfortunately the vivarium didn't make it to the show which meant that I had cash burning a hole in my pocket....and then came Steve from Dragon Morphs. Steve had the most amazing collection of Isopods, I had already planned on purchasing ten Ember Bees (Ardentiella sp. "Ember Bee") from him but couldn't resist giving Rubber Duckys another go....so I got five more.
I'm so happy with them - The Embers are fecking amazing and, well, who doesn't love Duckys?
Shout out to the crafters!
It wasn't just the outstanding Reptile, Snake, Amphibian and Invertebrate tables that caught my eye, but the crafters were on point!
Here are our two favorites
The first table I couldn't walk past without making a purchase was the taxidermy table (Robs insect art) he had the most spectacular framed, mounted and domed invertebrate specimens on display. We came home with a framed Stag beetle and a beautiful Butterfly.
My daughter is currently learning to crochet so was delighted to find the crochet stall (Skull and Fiber) she came home with a crochet turtle and I'm still kicking myself that I didn't get the skull handbag! It was fabulous and I hope whomever purchased it treasures it forever!
....And a new rescue...
Meet Noodle, a baby corn snake who was gifted to a small child but unfortunately the child was terrified of him and so Noodle has never been handled.
We knew about this rescue before the show and collected him on the way home.
I did not know how big/old Noodle was before collection so I was prepared for a very angry adult snake - not a slightly grumpy over-grown worm! I'm very glad I did not rush to buy a snake hook as I would have looked absolutely ridiculous arriving in with thick gardening gloves up to the elbow and a big ol snake hook. Noodle did not even attempt to put up a fight, barely a hiss.
As I didn't know what size he would be I planned for the worst (a big angry snake) and had set up a 4 ft vivarium for him back home but as soon as I saw him I knew that would be a ridiculous waste of space for a tiny noodle. He spent his first night in the big viv and was swiftly transferred over to a more suitable glass vivarium the next day.
Noodle will be available for adoption in a couple of weeks once I get to know his temperament and can make sure he's healthy.
So, now that all my beasties are home, fed and happy there is only one thing left to say - See you at the next one!
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