Reptile Salvation

DoggyTV asked:

fieldtrips and public tours of its 18000 square foot rescue facility. Visitors to the STAR ECO Station experience incredible hands-on lessons of ecology and environmentalism on breathtaking encounter with beautiful tropical birds, exotic reptiles, wildcats and ocean life in a tropical jungle setting. Environmental partnerships enhance the station with 15 discovery exhibits from organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund, US Fish and Wildlife, Surfrider and Santa Monica BayKeepers …

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Snakes can make fascinating and entertaining pets, but they’re not quite the ideal pet for everyone. They require special care and requirements, and should only be kept by those willing to commit to their care.

Choosing the type of snake is your first step. Some snakes are more dangerous than others, and the types of snakes range from common, harmless garter snakes to large and dangerous pythons.

It’s important to research types of snakes before making a decision. Take into consideration its special needs and requirements, as well as the danger in handling the type of snake.

Regardless of the type of snake, you will need to house it in a secure enclosure with no gaps or open areas through which the snake can escape. A glass structure, like a large fish tank may be ideal. Just be sure the lid is firmly secured and not able to be lifted easily from the inside.

Snakes do not eat vegetation, but must feed on prey. The most common food for snakes (though it does depend on the type) is mice or rats. It is actually preferable to have the prey pre-killed in order to prevent injury to the snake. A live rodent can harm a snake, so pre-killing is recommended. It may be convenient to keep a supply of frozen food for your pet snake.

Speak with the pet store or pet dealer/breeder before purchasing a snake. If possible, the snake should have been bred in captivity. Snakes caught from the wild tend to be less tame and more prone to disease. Also, snakes caught from the wild will generally be more difficult to feed in captivity.

For new snake owners, or those who may be inexperienced with snakes, choosing the right type of snake is key. Corn snakes, king snakes or ball snakes are the best choice for new owners, as they tend to be more gentle, and their needs are not as difficult as some of the other species of snake. They are also relatively smaller than other types of snake, ranging from four to five feet in length as adults.

The life-span of snakes, especially the easier care species listed in the paragraph above, range from twenty to forty years. Snakes are not a low-maintenance pet. They require a good deal of special care, and their long life span requires an additional commitment to long term care.

As with any pet, the decision to own a pet snake should not be taken lightly. Careful research and evaluation of your commitment to taking care of the pet should be done. Snakes can make very rewarding and entertaining pets. Just be sure you’re up to the challenge.

By: Tonia Jordan

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Steve Haddock asked:


Gem, our recently rescued dog is on a couple of organic supplements to aid his damaged hind leg and to assist his joints to heal and strengthen. The ones I am using and recommended by the veterinarian are Glucosamine (Synflex) and Cod Liver Oil mixed in with his daily food. I will keep you informed of his progress.

It’s safe to say that we are all crazy about our dogs and that the pet industry is easily a billion dollar industry in the US alone. Everyone wants the best in bedding, clothes and toys for their special dog or dogs. Many have even turned to feeding their pet organic dog food, often available only at specialized shops or over the Internet. Nevertheless, organic dog food is big business and many dog owners swear by it, I have not gone that far yet but am researching the subject having realised just how many problems Gem has, none of which were mentioned when we rescued him 6 weeks ago. I was not happy with the pills that the Vet had put Gem on basically because they were chemical based.

A typical organic dog food begins with beef that has been produced using strict organic guidelines, pretty much the same process for human organic foods including that the cattle be raised without exposure to synthetic fertilizers, growth hormones, antibiotics or other chemical substances. The cattle must graze on organically-created pastures with a diet producing the leanest beef possible and beef that is high in omega 3 and omega 6 oils, linoleic acid, vitamin E and beta carotenes and strict records have to be taken at every level of the process.

For optimal sources of fiber, organic dog food adds organic vegetables in ways that maintain their high vitamin levels.

Some vegetables in organic dog food include carrots, red beets and broccoli. Herbs that provide an antioxidant effect include organic thyme, oregano and rosemary, all of which have healthful properties in dogs.

Because dogs need essential fatty acids, organic dog food provides organic sources of linoleic acid and linolenic acids.

These essential fatty acids are important in handling lipid soluble vitamins like vitamins A, D, E and K; in addition, they help metabolize cholesterol in the pet. Organic sources of these fatty acids include cold-processed canola oil, sunflower oil and organic vegetables and seeds. Organic flax oil contains omega 3 fatty acids for a shiny skin and coat.

One of the least recognizable types of fatty acids in organic food is the omega 9 fatty acid category, which consists of stearic and oleic acids. These help stabilize the flavor, texture and aroma of dog food and are derived from cold-pressed sunflower oil. Cold processing makes this oil a good antioxidant for dogs.

It is believed that up to 20 percent of all dogs suffer from some type of allergy and its believed that food sensitivity accounts for a third of all allergies. Organic dog food, because it complies with strict food safety and production methods, is believed to be hypoallergenic to dogs. Some dog food companies routinely test their products for allergens and, because they carefully trace their ingredients, there is a decreased chance of dog food allergens.

Most organic dog food avoids being allergenic by keeping common allergens, including cord, soybeans, wheat, meat by-products, milk by-products, artificial flavors, chemical preservatives and artificial colorants, out of the product. As a preservative, many manufacturers use bee propolis to preserve the product; this is a naturally occurring substance that is low in allergenic potential.

With my research so far I am beginning to believe that organic dog food is extremely healthy and safe for dogs and, in some cases, it may be worth the extra cost. Gem certainly is enjoying the supplements that we are adding at the moment and I hope that it will have an impact on his overall health in the long run.

I will keep you informed.

Kansieo.com

Mark Chapple asked:


When I was making my first cage my wife Cheryl came out into the shed and asked me what I was doing. I mumbled or grunted something about “building snake cage” whilst earnestly trying to figure out some small detail or putting in an annoying screw (I’m not sure which), to which she rolled her eyes and ambled back into the house – I believe shaking her head and possibly rolling her eyes.

Anyway, I wanted to make a good cage. I had made one already but it was far too small as I had divided it into two sections by placing a timber divider in the middle. It cut the cage in half and was close enough to the floor to prevent interaction while leaving enough space to slide a heat mat under. It covered about 1/2 to 2/3 of the cage either side of the middle.

I decided to do it that way as it cheaper than making two cages and the two children’s pythons were still small, having just graduated from the plastic containers. (When I housed them in the plastic containers I used small terracotta plant bases for their hides. I cut a little out of the side of the base for the entrance – this is a good tip for juveniles and young snakes or lizards)

I housed the two juvenile carpet pythons in that cage, one each side, but as they grew I knew I needed to make another cage.

So I did some research and with a bit of help from pet shops and some research on the web I was able to come up with what I thought was a simple snake cage plan.

A snake cage design that:

- was easy to make

- was strong

- looked good

- had appropriate thermal properties

- had easy access

- was lockable

- was easily maintained.


I suppose I should back up a bit and tell you how I made the first snake cage. Having two juvenile snakes about to graduate from their small plastic cages meant I needed accommodation. Initially I thought I had to make two snake cages with two sets of heat mats, thermostats (I know there are alternatives), lighting and twice the amount of materials.

So I decided, after multiple diagrams and fiddling about, to make one cage and divide it in half. I still needed to heat both sides. I placed a divider in the cage. It was close enough to the floor to prevent the snakes going underneath yet high enough to allow the Flexiwatt heat pad to slide underneath.

I also made the divider so that it fitted in the cage exactly but only held in place by screws. These screws could then be removed if I wanted to make the cage larger and build a second cage.

I made a number of mistakes with this cage.

The front was glass but it was fitted and did not slide or move. There were two hinged lids on top, one for each side. As I had no experience, it didn’t occur to me that his was a poor design. I soon found that it was. I should have at least made a door at the front, either sliding or drop down. The top door was a good idea, but not on its own.

I chose to make the door on my new cage a single drop down door for a number of reasons.

First and foremost was ease. I didn’t have to slide the door and get a reptile from the other end as the snakes don’t move out of the cage very quickly. If you have dragons or frisky reptiles it is better to have either a sliding door or two drop downs or, alternatively a combination ie a drop down door at the front with a hinged roof on top. This allows ease of access from above to retrieve the reptiles and also ease of access from the front for cleaning and accessorizing.

Drop down doors are the easiest to make and the most forgiving of mistakes, particularly plexiglass. Drop down glass doors and sliding doors require a little more effort, and time. If you have limited room, a sliding door is much more satisfactory. All my subsequent cages have sliding doors but that is a personal choice.

As I had carpet pythons, I did not need to have a UV light – usually you can use supplements to provide any extra dietary needs with snakes. If I had wanted to put in a UV light for a lizard in the first reptile cage I made, I would have had some difficulty because the hinged roof and fixed front would have made the angle of access when installing a light difficult. I had effectively eliminated half the roof and could not access the back of the cage roof easily. The light fitting should have been installed at the same stage as the half roof – something I neglected to think of at the time.

I also chose to make my own heat mats using Flexwatt. My first commercial mat was far too hot and buckled one of my plastic cages and the timber it was sitting on. I had to throw it out. According to the instructions it was supposed to self regulate and not require a thermostat. It didn’t work. So I decided to make my own heat mat and attach it to a thermostat. No problems so far and the results are far better.

To make the mat, I drilled holes in the back of the snake cage and dismantled an old electrical cord. I attached a plug I bought from the hardware and attached it to one end and I soldered the other ends onto the mat. I wanted to use a detachable plug so I could thread the cord through a small hole in the back of the cage. I wanted the hole to be small enough to prevent escape, even by small snakes.

The soldering was a bit difficult as the soldering iron had not been refurbished ( I have since refurbished it and it works perfectly now – you can find out how to refurbish you soldering iron in my book “How to Build Reptile Enclosures”.)

I also had to drill a small hole in the back of the cage for the thermostat probe, which sat on top of the heat mat. I stuck the heat mat down with some tape but have since used double sided tape or clear duct tape as holds on better and longer.

You can put the heat mat on the base and then placed thin ply or something similar over the top. I have yet to try this method. I have even seen snake cages where tiles were glued and placed over the heat mat, after applying a layer of glue or similar substance. I now use inexpensive vinyl over the heat mat, as it is easily cleaned, and have newspaper or other substrates on top of that again.

Melamine also makes a good base as it is easily washable. Silicone should be placed around the edges to prevent water damage and leakage into the joins, but there is a trick to making a smooth silicone joint.

Placing the lights in the snake cage is relatively easy. I decided that I would place an in-line switch to each light so I could control them from outside the cage without having to scrounge around finding the cord or a switch on a switch board. I have since automated all of these using timers.

I have quite a good range of tools in my shed but I really didn’t need a lot to make the cages. I think for most people, cutting the timber square is one of the biggest issues. There are ways around this so that constructing the cage is relatively easy (you can find these out in the book “How to Build Reptile Enclosures”).

I did a lot of looking around at various cages, trying to determine the best material to build them from. I built mine using MDF. I use it for a number of reasons.

- It has good thermal properties

- It’s easy to use

- It comes out well painted

- It’s easy to sand

- It does not buckle easily

- You can work with relatively thin (1/2″) material making it not too heavy


You do need to be a bit careful cutting it and I would advise using a mask. It can be very dusty.

You also need to be a bit careful putting in screws. Put them in too hard and you damage the hole. They will not hold properly.

I would not advise making a snake or other reptile cage from pine or cedar. These materials can be dangerous to reptiles. A few pieces of pine for framing is fine but not the whole cage.

Another good material is plywood. I do not use it mostly because it can be splintery. It does look good however if you finish it with a timber finish a clear coat.

I also painted my cages (spray paint gives a nice finish). I let them dry out for about a week before I put the animals in there. This is to ensure that the paint has time to cure and that the amount of vapor it releases has declined enough to be no threat to the snakes. You can pop your head in the cage after 4 or 5 days and smell the inside of the cage. When the paint smell has almost gone ,the snake or lizard cage is safe to put the animals in.

After painting it’s just a matter of adding locks, door holders and accessories like climbing branches, rocks, hides, water bowls, fake rock walls and whatever you fancy.

My children’s pythons, blue tongued lizards and bearded dragon now happily live in their respective habitats.

Good Luck.

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Michael Gutemberg asked:


If you are interested in the anaconda, you may do some cursory research on the Internet to learn more about these fascinating creatures. In doing so you will find a plethora of information, some accurate, some not. Riddled among these items, though, you will likely also see some pictures of anacondas eating people.

These images perpetuate the myth of anacondas being stalkers and killers, an image exploited by Hollywood in order to make horror films featuring these massive snakes. With today technology, some of the pictures are very life like and could lead you to believe that anacondas, if not regularly, then occasionally hunt and kill humans. But is it true? In a word, no! Humans are not a part of the anaconda diet!

In fact, there are exactly zero verifiable reports of an anaconda killing a human being. There are definitely stories involving anacondas eating people and some may be plausible, even likely. Throughout history anacondas coming in contact with humans may very well have resulted in a death or two.

But as far as pictures are concerned, no such genuine item exists. What we do know is that anacondas will attack people under certain circumstances but even this is a very rare occurrence. There are actually more occurrences of human attacks from anacondas in captivity than in the wild. In the wild, the snakes will generally leave humans alone unless they feel threatened or haven’t had a snack in awhile.

There are verified and documented reported cases of anacondas attacking people. Most of this occurs from scientists observing the snakes for research. Fortunately, no deaths have yet to be reported. Most times when an anaconda attacks a human they either miss or they are easily dissuaded from continuing the kill. The fact is humans are too large a prey to be worth their time and the anaconda would rather have a tasty rodent or if really hungry a yummy crocodile.

We humans are simply too much of a bother. So, even though there are pictures of anacondas eating people available, the validity of them is questionable at best. This includes an attack in progress as well as the stomach contents of a half-digested person. It simply doesn’t exist in reality.

Just because pictures of anacondas eating people are not real, does not mean these creatures should be taken for granted and extreme caution should not be taken when handling them in captivity or observing them in their natural habitat. The sheer size of these creatures dictates caution around them.

There is no doubt that an anaconda is capable of killing a human and if caught, there may be some injury. But since attacks on humans are rare and kills are currently at zero, the validity of pictures of anacondas eating people is proven false. While it may be an interesting theory and makes for great cinema in the horror genre, we will just have to live with the fact that anacondas are not a huge threat to the general population.

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MoronDude asked:

A song by The Frogs that I illustrated. Hope you Frogs fans out there appreciate it.

Frogs

Brandon R. Cornett asked:


If you have decided to get a snake for a pet and you’re now wondering which type of snake to purchase, then this article is for you! Below, I have listed four of the best snakes to keep as pets, based on my 25 years of snake-keeping experience.

Ask ten different snake keepers what the best types of pet snakes are, and you’ll get ten different lists. That’s because everyone has their own opinions and experiences. Regardless, I am willing to be the four snakes listed below come up on most of those lists!

My Criteria for Best Snakes as Pets

What makes a good pet snake? What kind of criteria should you consider before purchasing a snake to keep as a pet? Here is a list of criteria that I feel are most important when choosing a pet snake:

1. Average adult size

2. Feeding habits

3. Temperament / behavior

4. Health in captivity / hardiness

Four of the Best Snakes to Keep as Pets

Based on the pet snake criteria I have outlined above, here are the four types of snakes I recommend as pets — especially for the novice snake-keeper.

Pet Snake #1 – The Corn Snake

This corn snake appears on a lot of “best pet snake” lists besides my own, and with good reason. Corn snakes meet and exceed the four criteria I’ve outlined above: (A) they rarely grow to over six feet long, averaging just over five feet; (B) they have good temperaments and can easily be tamed; (C) they will generally accept frozen / thawed mice or rats on a consistent basis; and (D) they will generally live long, healthy lives if their basic needs are met.

On top of all this, corn snakes come in a wide variety of color “morphs” with names such as snow, pewter, blood red, candy cane and creamsicle … just to name a few.

It’s hard to go wrong by choosing the corn snake as your type of pet snake! I put the corn snake on the top of my list of pet snakes — especially for the first-time keeper.

Pet Snake #2 – The Gopher Snake

I have an albino San Diego gopher snake (one of several gopher snake species), and I refer to him as my “ambassador” to the snake world. He is my ambassador because he has the best temperament of all my pet snakes. So he is the snake I get out whenever a curious — but somewhat intimidated — houseguest wants to learn about snakes. I tell them, “Wait right here. I’ve got just the snake for you to meet.”

I’ve shared this story because it’s indicative of gopher snake behavior. When you raise them by hand, they become extremely tame and are very predictable when outside of their enclosures.

Gopher snakes reach an average adult length of just over six feet (though some species can grow a foot or so longer than that). Gopher snakes are the longest snakes on my list, but they are still a manageable size, and they do well in the 4′ x 2′ cages that you can find everywhere.

Also, in the six+ years that I’ve had him, my gopher snake has only turned down a handful of meals … out of hundreds of meals! Usually, it would be because he was going into shed. So that satisfies another of our pet snake criteria — feeding behavior.

In addition to the San Diego gopher snake that I keep as a pet, there are Sonoran gopher snakes and Great Basin gopher snakes. While they don’t come in as wide a variety of colors as corn snakes and kingsnakes, the gopher snakes are still beautiful to behold.

Pet Snake #3 – The Kingsnake

There are actually a wide variety of kingsnake species and sub-species, and many of them make good pets for the reasons outlined above. The California kingsnake (Lampropeltis getula californiae) is one of the most common types of pet snakes in general, and one of the most popular kingsnakes among keepers. Other kingsnakes commonly kept as pets include the grey-banded kingsnake, the Florida kingsnake, and the mountain kingsnake varieties.

The kingsnake species mentioned above (and several others) meet the four criteria I’ve outlined for good snakes to keep as pets. Depending on the species, adult kingsnakes will average between four and six feet in length. They can be tamed easily, they eat well, and they do well in captivity.

Also, because of the wide variety of species and sub-species, you can get a pet kingsnake with many different colors. Some are speckled, some are striped, some are banded — but all are interesting in their own way. The kingsnake is truly a great type of pet snake for any level of snake-keeper.

Here’s an interesting fact about kingsnakes that many people don’t know. Kingsnakes are immune to rattlesnake venom. In fact, rattlesnakes are on the menu of many kingsnake species. There’s a reason they call it a “king” snake — it eats other snakes, including venomous ones!

Pet Snake #4 – The Ball Python

I’ve put the ball python last on my list of best types of snakes to keep as pets for one reason only. They can be a bit more finicky with their eating.

For example, I currently keep four ball pythons that are the same age and kept in the exact same types of conditions (cages, heat, etc.). Nevertheless, they all have their own eating habits. Two of them will eat frozen / thawed rats on a fairly consistent basis. One will sometimes eat frozen / thawed, and sometimes not. The last one has only eaten frozen / thawed rats once — all the other times I’ve had to offer fresh rats. Yes, that means regular trips to the pet store!

As long as you accept this characteristic about ball pythons, and you’re okay with it, then I would still recommend them as a pet snake. They are very docile and reluctant to bite (I’ve never even had one strike at me). They rarely get longer than five and a half feet. And they do well in captivity if you take care of their basic needs. In fact, they can live for 25 years or more in captivity. So be sure you’re in it for the long haul if you choose a ball python as your type of pet snake.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this tutorial as much as I enjoyed creating it, and I hope it helps you choose the type of pet snake that’s right for you!

* You may republish this article online if you keep the author’s bio below with the hyperlinks left intact. Copyright 2007, Brandon Cornett.

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