Monday, January 30, 2017

Blue Tailed Fire Belly Newt

These little ones are small but robust.  Always good eaters.  I have not had any luck with breeding but there is always next year...

Fat with eggs or just fat...

Love their chestnut brown colors

Wonderful- beautiful male


Saturday, January 28, 2017

Fire Belly Newts

These little newts are so quiet and unassuming.  They have striking colors.



This is the year of the Gargoyle Gecko

I am going to exclusively breed my gargoyles this year.  I am deciding on pairing at this point.  My biggest issue is that I will struggle with selling the offspring.  I have sold newts in the past without the same kind of concern.  Now that newts are so hard to come by I am struggling.  I just want to make sure that anything I produce is going into good hands.  

I tried one gargoyle pairing last hear but got dud eggs.  This year I will be trying with multiple pairs.

Archibald- red striped male

Archibald, again

Ricky -reticulated male

Fleck- orange reticulated male- not up to breeding weight

Bleu- reticulated female

Leopard Geckos

My leopard geckos are my largest geckos currently.  Eventually, my leachianus will be the biggest.

Charlie and Elliott are so wonderfully inquisitive and calm.

101 grams of wonderful

he has the eclipse trait so his eyes are solid black

I love his white nose and face strip

97 grams of pow!

Charlie has regular eyes- I think I like them more than eclipse

Love his chunky heart shaped face

Jackson Chameleon- baby Alexander (yes- after Alexander Hamilton- yes- my daughter named him, also)

Baby Alexander- The boy finally started eating crickets.  I can honestly say that I never need to raise chameleon babies again.  

Newt babies are just as hard but I am comfortable with them.  Gecko babies are a breeze in comparison.  

Chameleon babies- hard work, little resources and no room for error.  I hope I am out of the woods but won't be confident until he is about 5x bigger.



he is big enough now that you can feel him gripping
love his baby horns
getting better at gripping and shedding

Your Fired! What being fired is all about.

When I first got into geckos I had to ask what being "fired up" meant.  It is a change in color that reflects a darker pigment.  It is in reaction to the environment. I have discovered they are more likely to fire up if you take them to dark moist to bright light.  I have had them fire up from simply taking them out of their enclosure.  They fire to differing degrees and can even partially fire.  Bellow is an example of Phin unfired and then firing.  He actually will fire much darker but you get the drift.
unfired

fired up

Sunday, January 22, 2017

Leachianus pictures

I love my  geckos and decided to take the plunge into larger geckos.  When purchasing a leachie you must keep in mind that they are expensive- that's it- even a pet- they are expensive.  If you want to pay less you buy a baby.  A baby is going to take years to get to the size of an adult.  Definitely a long term plan.



20 grams- only 200+ to go...

Jackson Chameleons- Martha is quiet Zen

I love taking pictures of these guys.   The only problem is that they don't appreciate it much.  It takes some effort to get close enough to take the picture you want without scaring them out of doing exactly what you want to get a picture of.

I have had these guys since summer of 2016 and find that I learn more every day.  I read about chameleons prior to purchasing.  I purchased a screen cage and lighting per store recommendations.  I have since repurchased EVERYTHING.  The "breeder" that I purchased them from sold me the lighting system- that was also incorrect.

I have hitchhiked on many sites that are chameleon focused and discovered that most of what I knew was incorrect.  I find that the more I look the more I find information that is not on the "Care Sheets" that I started with.

I do regret letting the breeder talk me out of purchasing a Veiled chameleon- I realize now that he just wanted to get his Jackson chameleons sold.  I now wonder if they were CB even.

Well,  I appreciate the experience to learn- I never could have afforded this hobby as a youth.

Very Zen...  Actually she is cricket hunting.



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