# Just Another Hedgehog (and other goodies) Blog!



## FinnickHog

Since I have things scattered all over the place, as is typical with me, I thought I'd just start fresh with a properly titled thread. (If you mods want to lock the others feel free!) So here goes.

First off, a thread introducing my pets that I had when I joined the forum: Pictures of My Pets.

After that, I added some new members, and that happens over here: New Family Members.

Here's a running total of everything I have right this second:
1 African Pygmy Hedgehog, male, Finnick, 1.5 years old
1 Australian Cattle Dog, male, Oz, Estimated 5 yo.
1 Senegal parrot, female, Pepper, 3 yo.
1 Blue Tongued Skink, female, Rocket, Estimated 5 yo.
1 Ball python, unconfirmed male, Illidan, 7 and a half yo.
1 Mexican black kingsnake, male, Sherlock, 3 yo.
1 Green tree python, male, Akihiko, Estimated 2-3 yo.
1 Veil tail betta, male, Keitan, 5 months old.
2 Tiger salamanders, one wild, one bought, unknown sex, Squee and Shaw, Estimated ages 2yo and 1 yo.
3 Crested Geckos, two female, one male, Nanamo, Mordin, and Grunt, all 1 yo.
3 Dwarf blue day geckos, two male, one female, Skaro, Lil Dude, and Kaylee, estimated ages for Skaro and Kaylee 4 yo. Lil Dude is 6 months old.
7 Dendrobates auratus "El Cope" poison dart frogs, two female, three male, two juveniles. All named after Adventure Time characters, Adults estimated 2 yo. Juveniles are 3 months old.
1 Saltwater fish tank. Contents: corals, pistol shrimp, hermit crabs, snails. All brand new.

Pets with estimated ages were either adopted later in their lives, rescued, or wild caught/farmed and imported. I've had a vet as well as an importer help me get as close as possible to everyone's actual ages.

I'll be embedding any future pictures of my family here, so they're all together in one spot. Not including Finnick of course, who can have his own threads, but will likely be duplicated here just for archival's sake. I also post videos from time to time and mean to do a lot more of that. You can see my YouTube account here: 5ubv3rsion. And I'd like to point out a specific video that I just added of Finnick chasing crickets around the bathtub. I took this a few weeks ago and forgot I had it, so here it is now: Pet Hedgehog vs Crickets.

And also, here's the fan favorite Finn Dust Bathing in His Mealworms.

Thanks for reading, and I'll update again soon! Maybe with a video of the ball python having a swim, and some more photos...


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## Charlotte.the.hedgehog

Can't wait to check out your youtube channel! We also have a kingsnake, a leopard gecko, a couple dogs, and a tank full of fish. It used to be saltwater but when we had kids we kind of decided we could take care of kids, or a saltwater tank, but not both. :lol: Awesome that you are able to manage all your pets!


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## FinnickHog

That's awesome! Saltwater tanks are so pretty, but so much work. I have a leopard gecko as well, technically, but he's about a bazillion years old so my parents kept him when I moved out. I didn't want to stress the old guy. He's.... 19 or 20 now, I believe. I have his hatch certificate filed away here somewhere.

Is your kingsnake a California king or something different? I love Cali kings but I wanted something that stays fairly small for once :lol:.


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## Charlotte.the.hedgehog

Griffin is a variable king, still a baby and so adorable.  Castiel is our gecko. Watching him stalk crickets is always fun. :lol:

Loved your youtube video of Finnick chasing crickets in the tub, we will definitely have to give that a try!


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## FinnickHog

Awww they're so cute! Griffin is adorable! He's so teeny and just look at his little face! I want a variable kingsnake in the grey, orange, and black phase, or their visual counterpart, a grey banded king. They've been on my want list for years! Great little snakes. Castiel is so pretty! Is he a snow? How old is he? Mine is from back before leopard gecko morphs were even really a thing, so he's just normal. I think there's a picture of him in the first pet thread I linked...


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## Lilysmommy

:lol: I'm seriously cracking up at the video of Finn rolling around on his mealworms. Also that video has me wondering if the people telling me to be careful with my slow-moving lazy snake have seen a hedgehog going after mealworms...NEVER get between a hedgie and their worms! :shock:


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## Charlotte.the.hedgehog

Yes Cas is a snow and about 2.5 years old. Griffin is about 6 months and that pic from my iPhone 4 does not do him justice, he is stunning in person, especially after a shed. I'll try to get some better pics of him.  His little face is so dang cute, I can never understand when people say they are afraid of snakes or don't like them. :lol:


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## FinnickHog

So instead of just bathing Illidan, I grabbed Sherlock and Rocket too. Here that is: Bath Time for Reptiles!

I have another video filmed, I just have to add some captions and cut it together all pretty-like.

Kelsey, I'm pretty sure a charging, mealworm-hungry hedgehog could mess you up pretty bad if you got in the way :lol:. Kind of like those angry rhino videos.

Aww, Cas is just a youngster then! You're in for a long haul :grin:. The world record for captive leopard geckos is 32 years. Mine is attempting to break it, I think.

Variable kings are stunning after a shed. (We snake-folk up here call them Thayer's kingsnakes, after their scientific name.) And all the time, really. Just wait 'til he gets older. Some kings get duller with age but those guys really don't. And all three phases are so pretty! Also, come on, who doesn't like snakes that pop out in multiple colors independent of the parents! It's like Christmas!

I can't understand why people don't like snakes either. Some things I can see being "creepy" or "gross" to someone, but I just don't get it with snakes :lol:.


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## KristinNicole

I have to say I love that you named one illidan. he's my favorite <3


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## FinnickHog

Yay someone gets the reference! All my snakes are named after characters with a fatal flaw (or at least an awkward quirk) in their personalities. His being both his lust for power, and his... uhh... "obsession" with Tyrande. :lol:

I'm trying to pretend not to be excited for the next WoW expansion, but I totally am.


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## KristinNicole

I'm beyond excited! it can't come soon enough lol. my hedgie is Poe, he's 3 months old. I also have 3 cats, Emmy, Bob, and Harley and I have a dog named Chaz. I'm getting another hedgehog soon, waiting for the babies to be born


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## FinnickHog

Just in case anyone is genuinely interested in my saltwater tank, here's a thread where I talk about it in more detail. I'll also show any photos, mods or upgrades there, as I don't think here is the right sort of place for technical saltwater things. My First Saltwater Reef

Poe is such a cute name! I wish I could have cats. My dog is a rescue and would eat them. It took several months to get him used to the parrot. And yay for a new baby hedgehog!


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## FinnickHog

And for my final (large) update of the day, I present to you a Video Tour of My Pet Rooms!


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## SimplyMusicality

Oh my gosh I love that your geckos include Mordin and Grunt! Those are the greatest names!


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## FinnickHog

That was my boyfriend's doing. There's a line where someone, I think Wrex.... says that if they have a baby girl they'll name it after Mordin. So our first female is Mordin. :lol:


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## octopushedge

How are you finding the natural set up for Finnick?


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## FinnickHog

I'm still really liking it. I'm planning to add some more varieties of substrates in the near future. It's working well the way it is right now so I haven't bothered updating on it .


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## FinnickHog

So a few things are new around here. First and most importantly, Finnick's old two-storey sleeping house absolutely reeks, and I can't find a way to get the smell out. The inside is just plastic, so I can wipe it down, but the outside is purple sheep-patterned fleece, and it is *not* pleasant. So while I work on making it smell at least tolerable again, his usual house has been replaced with a little pink igloo. You can see it in the tour video I posted, and the old hut is in the closet for now, perched on top. He's had his sheep-hut almost since I got him just over a year ago, and he's not so sure about the new igloo. I had to stuff it 100% full of fleece strips to convince him it was alright, and I still catch him sleeping wedged between it and the wall some nights. I think he's too impatient to find the door. The sheep one had a tunnel and a door, so he had less trouble finding an entrance that worked. And with this new addition, I'm finding fleece strips everywhere. In the sandbox, in the wheel, underneath fake plants... I have no idea what he's thinking!

He's also decided it's hilarious to knock over the cork bark hut the second I put it together. The bark weighs almost nothing and is just gently stacked into a cave-type structure. Finnick goes in, pokes his entire self out the smallest hole he can find, the whole thing topples over, and then he runs over the dismantled pieces. Not it's intended use, but oh well, at least he's using it somehow. :lol:

The cresties are all old enough to move in together for a test run, so both ladies are in with Grunt now. Grunt keeps singing his manly crestie-song to them, and Mordin at least is accepting of it, but every time I've seen Grunt approach her after singing, he messes up somehow. One time he spooked himself and fell off the wall and into the bromeliad. Mordin stared at him for a while and then went back into her bush. I'm not sure about him making a very good father, genetically speaking. :roll:

And last but not least, in saltwater-ville, the smaller crab has worn around every single shell I put in. He can't seem to make up his mind. He even convinced his roommate to switch shells with him, only to ditch that shell for a different one a few minutes later. The other crab had to go across the tank to get it back. And Seamus, my candy cane pistol shrimp, has started eating from an eye dropper that I fill with food and dangle in his face. I'll waft some of the tank water mixed with shrimp particles past his rock holes and all of a sudden two little antennae will pop out. He uses his smaller shrimp-hand to take the food nice and gently right out of the dropper. I'll try to get a video of that in the next few days. I think it's absolutely adorable, but I have an addiction to invertebrates.


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## Lilysmommy

:lol: Poor Finn. Bindi has the same problem when she tries to go into the Lixit igloo I have. She gets too frantic & runs straight past the opening and then stops by the back of the igloo, completely confused. I hope you can get his usual hut cleaned up soon! And sounds like he enjoys being Mr. Destruction, heh. 

I read the bit about the cresties out loud to my roommate, we were both cackling. Poor Grunt. :lol: Not so smooth with the ladies!

I wonder if shells for the marine hermit crabs are as scarce as ones for the land crabs these days. I know there's a shell shortage for the land ones, so when they get a huge variety in captivity, some of them just go nuts. They can't seem to believe there's really so many suitable shells available and can't choose just one. Wonder if he'll calm down soon or keep being a shell critic!

I'd love to see a video of the shrimp eating! I'll probably agree with you...I think my hermit crabs look adorable when they eat too. :lol:


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## twobytwopets

Maybe grunt is trying to make the ladies laugh. But then who can be Rico suave at the beginning??


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## FinnickHog

Finnick is the kind of guy who would rather knock everything over and make a mess rather than cuddle. He thinks I'm a jungle gym when I sit on the floor with him. I usually have to hold his bum while he climbs Mount Leg so he can sit on Knee Point. :lol:

Hopefully Grunt grows into Rico Suave soon. He hasn't caught a single lady yet that I've seen, and when he embarrasses himself he just gives up. The females have also hijacked his sleeping spot. Grunt has been in this cage since I got him, and the girls were just added. They went straight for the fake bush stuck to the wall. When he tries to hide with them they stick their noses out and glare at him until he leaves. He's been sleeping on the cork bark near the floor. Poor guy. 

But nobody is nipping or being nasty, so that's good at least! Crested geckos are one of those weird gecko species that don't grow their tails back if they lose them, and I'd prefer to keep all my tails. There are so many breeder geckos out there with no tails that it makes me wonder if their owners care about their wellbeing at all. Cresties have a sticky pad like their toes on their tail so it helps a lot with climbing and balance.

I have no idea if there's a shell shortage in the water... That would explain his behavior though. He's switched again this morning into one of the white turbo-ish shells. Someone also knocked one of my zoanthid plugs onto the sandbed. *glare at big snail*

Well hermit crabs are super cute, so of course they look adorable when they eat! That's just common knowledge, right? :lol:


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## Lilysmommy

Oh no, poor Grunt! :lol: I"m giggling, but feel bad for him! Poor little dude is getting bossed by the ladies. Hopefully he finds his confidence soon! I've read about them dropping their tails so easily. I'm glad your little ones have all kept theirs so far and hope they keep playing nicely. 

Man, the crabs either really got mad at me for the tank rearrangement or they got annoyed with the temperature dip (still stayed within safe levels). I haven't seen anyone in days, they've all been hiding constantly. No cute crab nom shows for me.  Someone dug a tunnel right by the food bowl, so I'm wondering if they decided it's molting time now that they're stuffed with good food & have the right conditions. Shelob's still sleeping in the moss pit though. :lol:


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## FinnickHog

Quick video of Seamus eating: 




Naturally he's in the one place where my arm covers the lighting.


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## Lilysmommy

Oh no he's so cute!!!! Such a teeny little guy!


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## FinnickHog

I love how he flails at the eye dropper when it's empty. "Heeeeeeey, deposit food here please!"


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## FinnickHog

Here's that crab gif I promised. He says "Hi Kelsey! Thanks for the shell!"










Cute little guys, and they're growing so fast!

So I got to go to the fishie store yesterday for my birthday and pick out a fish and a coral. I haven't gotten great pictures of either yet, but I hopefully will soon. Here's a mediocre fish picture for now:










He's a Wheeler's shrimp goby (Amblyeotris wheeleri). They get about 3 inches long and pair with a pistol shrimp. He's already hanging out with Seamus! I haven't seen him today so I'm a little worried, but they are quite shy at first. Hopefully he's just under the rock decompressing from the move. The car ride home was 90 minutes, and then I had to acclimate him, so it was a rough day yesterday.

The coral is a small tubbs blue zoanthid frag. Someone knocked it off where I placed it, and Seamus grabbed it to use as a door to one of his burrows, so I feel guilty moving it, but I'll have to take it away and glue it down tomorrow, and then I can hopefully get a picture of that.

And here's my tiger salamanders being adorable:










Shaw, the rescue, is on top. He's looking so much better now, and he's adjusted to captivity insanely well. He's staring at Squee saying "hey brother, what are you doing!?" and Squee is staring at me going "FOOD!?" Shaw still follows his big brother around the cage relentlessly. Squee will dig a burrow to get away from him and then pop up across the cage and Shaw will run over to him again. It's pretty silly. They're super nice to each other until feeding time, and then it's best to keep them on opposite sides of the cage because they'll both snap at anything that moves, including each other's toes.

And here are some pictures of Mister Finn trying to sleep in his fleece tunnel, irritated because I'm sticking my phone in his face:









"Soooo sleepy..."









"Go away, mom. I'm busy!"









"I'm not even here. I'm just spikes. Go away."









"That's it! I'm giving you the bum shot!"









"Ugh. Fine."

Poor hoggy. I let him sleep after that, honest.

Also, Akihiko has turned white. This will be his first shed with me, and likely his first shed in Canada. I sprayed the whole snake down this afternoon, instead of just his cage. I'll know in a week or so if my hunidity is at the right level or not. Fingers crossed it all goes well.

And that's what's new around here today. I'll hopefully have a cage update soon, as I've ordered some other beddings to try.


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## FinnickHog

More pictures! I moved the tubbs blues just after I posted. Normally when you move a coral they end up angry for at least a few hours but these guys were like "hooray light" and opened back up beautifully. While I was at it, I took some of everyone with my fancy PAR38 led tank bulb on, since I just changed the schedule to accommodate my new chaetomorpha algae (I'll update on those green balls of fluff later). The pictures don't really show you the size variance between different types of zoanthids. The butterflies are huge and the unknown ones have really thick skirts. The fires and the tubbs are little teeny guys but they're packed really closely.

Tubbs blues:









Fire and ice:









Butterfly wings:









And the pretty pink ones with no name:









They're starting to look a lot more like the gorgeous pictures you can find online. I'm super pleased with how things are going. Can't wait for them to spread all over the place. The butterfly wings have tripled since I got them, so they'll be the ones I'll have to weed out, I expect.

I also forgot to add earlier that I finally found a job sort of. It won't pay for probably a year, but a friend is working on a video game and he needs someone to do graphics and story. I'm fine with graphics as long as they're sprites, and the game is a side scroller kind of like Mario or Metroid, so they won't be out of place. And writing is what I'd hoped to do professionally so that's excellent news. Sadly it means that once we really get going I may not be around as much. I'll probably still check in once every day or two though, so I won't be vanishing completely.


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## Lilysmommy

I love all of the pictures!!  And squealed a bit over the little crabby waving. He chose such a pretty shell too!  The new goby is gorgeous, I love his coloring, and so are the corals.

Also those are great pictures of Finn, even if he was less than impressed. :lol: I tried to get one of Bindi snuggling last night. Got a great shot of uh. Quills? :roll: She'd had her nose poking out from the hoody about 2 seconds before that, sigh.

And the new job sounds awesome, congrats!


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## FinnickHog

I'm pretty sure they can hear the camera coming out seconds before you even think to grab it. The kingsnake is awful for that. "look how cute I am! Okay I'm done now bye!" And then I pull out my phone 30 seconds too late.


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## FinnickHog

Update time!

The fish is doing well. This is my second one of this species. The first one made it a whopping two days. I've had this guy 5 days and he's eating and not throwing fits like the last guy, so fingers crossed that he's the one. Almost all marine life in captivity is wild caught and then shipped out, so a lot of the fishies don't make it. I feel like a monster for losing two in a row, but I took my water in to the store and they said it's all good, so it seems to be nothing I'm doing. He looks just like the last guy, but he's a bit more shy still. He was in the store for 9 days and now with me for 5, so I'm thinking he's probably good. If he dies on me now I think I might give up on fish altogether and get a little anemone. We'll see how it goes.

Aki shed. He did it in two big pieces instead of one, but everything came off, so I'm happy with it. He's super bright green again and his usual friendly self (which still weirds me out considering his species). I want to get a video of him exploring at some point in the future, but he's so squirmy it makes manual focusing on him difficult, and the auto focus on the Nikon D5100 is garbage. Or I'm an idiot, I don't know which.

I took a video of Akihiko entering "drape mode" though, and it's pretty alright. His color is off slightly because he was about to shed. Here that is: 




And here's the rambling Sennie. She was babbling her head off so I grabbed the camera. Naturally she immediately stopped talking, but here she is anyway, getting some pats and arguing with me about touching things: 




And one of miss Rocket sniffing my slipper, just for good measure: 




Enjoy!


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## FinnickHog

Just a side note for those viewing the videos on YouTube: Google auto-sets the quality low so that they load faster, but they're shot in full HD, so if you click the Settings cog in the lower right hand corner of the video, you can turn the quality up if you want to. They look much better that way!


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## Lilysmommy

I hope this fish does better!

I love the video of Aki, he's so much more graceful than Charis. :lol: Anytime she decides she needs to be a GTP & starts climbing on a chair or shelf, I end up nervously hovering near her with a hand nearby because she fell off a bookshelf a few weeks ago & scared the crap out of me. I'm amazed at how well GTPs can coil up on such thin sticks! They're light tight rope walkers.

And Rocket is adorable...you & Tumblr are both making me want a BTS someday in the future. I've been badly bitten by the reptile bug!


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## FinnickHog

Akihiko is my only graceful pet. Everyone else is super clumsy :lol:. I love watching him coil up into tree snake mode.

Skinks are awesome! She's so receptive to me and she's actually pretty clever too. If you decide you need a lizard they're way up there on my recommendation list.


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## FinnickHog

I took a very sad video of Oz this evening. He's a rescue, and he's doing really well now, but he has this one quirk where if you try to set a cookie on his nose he just breaks down. I decided to give up trying to get him used to the trick, since it's a silly trick anyway and it'll never be important, so I took a final video of it.

He's normally a very happy guy, I swear!

There's a bit more of his backstory in the message below the video. Here it is:


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## twobytwopets

OK, that was sad. One of the mysteries of getting older dogs is we really never know...


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## Lilysmommy

I just went "Oh noooo" VERY loudly at his reaction! Poor old boy...such a weird thing to get upset by, but that instant change in his attitude.  He's so lucky he came to you guys though. Seeing how he is the rest of the video after reading his backstory & knowing about how stubborn & difficult ACDs can be, it's very clear you guys were perfect for him.


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## FinnickHog

He's usually open to trying pretty much anything, but treats on the nose is a totally different category. I wish I knew what happened. I even showed his trainer (who was also the person who did his personality and health evaluation at the humane society, which is why I have such a strong contact there) how he reacted and she was so surprised. We took her advice and tried for about six months to ease him into it but if anything it's gotten worse. So I'm done tormenting the poor guy now.

I'll have to take a happy video of him in the near future. He's a very cheerful man. He's sitting beside my desk wagging at me for no reason right now :lol:. We play hide and seek together to reinforce his stay command. It requires a release word, which I yell from my hiding spot, and that's his only clue as to where I'm hiding. He gets so excited he nips me when he finds me xD. Heelers are called that because they nip at the animal's heel, instead of herding with a stance and a glare like most collies. (I think it's the dingo in them, but who knows.) The nippers are better for wilder, larger animals, like Australian and Albertan cattle. They're very popular here. Unfortunately, it means when they try to herd you, you get little nips, and it's a really tough habit to break. I can't let him loose around children because he'll herd them with his mouth. He's stopped nipping me except when I hide on him and he finds me. He just can't contain his excitement. It's pretty silly. I'll get a video of that soon, so you can see his normal personality.

A side note: I love how Pepper is trying to distract Oz in the first clip by mumbling at him in my voice. As soon as I turn the camera around she's completely silent. She also tries to bite his tail if we play near her cage. Parrots. :roll:


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## FinnickHog

I took this cute picture of Grunt last night. He's saying "Ladies?! Where are you!?" They're both hiding in their fake plant, as usual.


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## FinnickHog

So. A while ago, Oz was having a hard time opening his eyes. I stayed up with him all night expecting to call the vet in the morning, but the problem vanished as suddenly as it started. I figured it was a bad allergic reaction to who knows what, and left it at that.

Now he has a small mole-like bump on his right eyelid, touching his eyeball. I can't help but wonder if the two problems were related. Either way, we actually get to go to the vet this time to have it removed. It's likely a small tumor. Yuck. I'll get the vet to test it for cancer too just in case.

In other news, my marine fish, the Borghal Rantipole, is doing really well! I think I finally got a healthy one. Yay!


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## FinnickHog

Oz's vet agrees that it's likely a tumor and it will keep growing, so it's best to get it dealt with now. He's booked in for surgery Monday morning. She thinks it'll be easy enough to deal with it. She's going to knock him out completely then cut a tiny wedge of his eyelid off around the lump, and then hit the surrounding tissue with something to cauterize it and burn any excess tissue, just in case it is cancerous, and then off to the lab with the lump to find out for sure.

I am not looking forward to having a young blue heeler in a cone in my house. At all. He's going to be furious, and he'll probably find a way to take it off within the first few minutes. The whole next week is basically a write-off because I'm not going to be able to take my eyes off him. My previous vet would muzzle him, and then go to get the shots ready, and by the time he came back Oz was loose. He's also a genius at slipping any kind of collar. When he decides he wants to leave, he just does.

Other than poor little Oz, everyone is doing well around here.

Later today once I wake all the diurnal animals up, I'm going to try feeding Akihiko a frozen mouse again. I have the sweetest, most adorable orange mouse living in a big tub in the pet room right now. I'll be rubbing the frozen one all over the live one and offering Aki the frozen one. If that works it's one step away from me having to watch him kill live ones. I'll keep the orange one as a pet and just rub dead mice on it periodically. Which is pretty messed up but better than being food, I guess. This snake is lucky he's my dream animal.


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## FinnickHog

No dog hide and seek video yet, but here's my saltwater fish tank crew hard at work. I love how you can see the shrimp grab individual pieces of sand and adjust them. He's such a busy little guy.


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## octopushedge

Very cute! What a beautiful tank.


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## FinnickHog

Thanks! I've almost got everything how I want it, I think. 4 months worth of work just to get the darn thing stable. But it's so worth it now!


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## Lilysmommy

:lol: The shrimp is so cute going back & forth. And the goby looks like a statue, not moving at all.

I hope Oz's results come back with good news! My old family dog had a couple lumps around the eyes & eyelids before, but after we got them removed, they didn't end up growing back. She was a much better patient than it sounds like Oz will be though...good luck. :shock: Definitely don't envy you!! Hopefully he'll heal up quickly, for both of you.

Did Aki eat his frozen mouse or no luck yet? If you end up with the pet mouse sticking around & if you're interested, I know a couple different people who recommend this forum - http://forum.thefunmouse.com/


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## FinnickHog

Aki did not eat his frozen mouse . I rubbed it all over the live one and then dragged it around his cage and he didn't even react. So I dangled the live one to see if maybe he wasn't hungry and boom, feeding mode activated. So I wiggled the dead one around in front of his face with the live one behind it, and he climbed over the dead one to kill the live one. *sigh* I think I'm going to order some quail chicks and Rocket can have them if Aki won't touch them.


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## twobytwopets

Ok, how is Oz doing??


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## Lilysmommy

:lol: I clicked on the thread already anticipating that it was on "active topics" because there was an update! I'm wondering too!!

And Aki, you little butt! I'm sorry he's giving you such trouble. Shame I can't have Charis give him a talking to about how it's better to just eat the yummy frozen food and how nice it is to not have your food biting you back. I'll keep fingers crossed for the quail chicks! I'm planning on trying the day-old ones with Bindi sometime down the road & whole dressed ones for the kitty (because I don't want to be cleaning feathers up in the apartment for days :lol.


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## FinnickHog

He's home and resting! Sorry I was slow here, I responded to Authra while I was laying on the floor with him and now I'm up and at my computer. He's a little nauseous and he's completely out of his gourd, but his eye looks really good considering. They shaved his whole eye spot off and it looks ridiculous! The vet is sending the lump away to get tested and I should have an update on that Wednesday or Thursday.

Everything went so smoothly that it ended up being $100 less than I was quoted too, so that's an added bonus. The vet didn't even prescribe eye drops or painkillers, just a cone. She said if he seems like he's hurting I can call in and they'll email me a prescription. She even put in dissolvable sutures so I don't have to go back!

Poor Pepper is trying to get a rise out of him and he's just laying there all derpy like "huuuuh?" She looks so confused :lol:

I wish they'd used something else to knock him out though. I think he may be oversensitive to this kind, but it's the only one he's had so far, so I have nothing to compare it to. It's the one that they inject in and then inject a reversal agent to wake the animal up when they're finished. Super cool, but it really messes him up.

I took some pictures while I was sitting with him. Here's his poor shaved face:









And this one he's just gone away. If he could talk he'd say "whoa dude"


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## Lilysmommy

Ohhhhhh honey!!! I just want to snuggle the poor dude. I hope he shakes the rest of the drugs off soon so he can start feeling more normal. I'm glad everything went so well though, that's great news! Your vet sounds really awesome.


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## FinnickHog

It's so sad. I tried to give him a treat. He took it and then forgot to chew or swallow so it just sat in his mouth for a minute. Then he was like "oh hey a treat!"

His vet is awesome. And she's fast too! He lunged at her face the first time they met and she dodged it flawlessly. It was pretty impressive. She just graduated from the new University of Calgary vet program in 2014, so she's fresh out of school but she's been great so far and she's not scared to ask other vets for help and to learn new things, which is awesome.

The clinic is pretty simple, but Camrose isn't very big and there are two vet clinics here. The other one has been open much longer but everyone I've spoken to has at least one horror story regarding the place, so I decided to go with the new guys.


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## twobytwopets

Hopefully Oz is feeling like himself soon. I'm sure by morning Pepper will get a rise out of him.


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## FinnickHog

Oz is doing much better this morning. His eye is still a little swollen but it's not bright red anymore. He kept his cone on all night like a good boy and he left me alone until 9:30, which is pretty good for him. I usually crate him at night but the crate plus the cone wouldn't have been pretty. I woke up at midnight to check on him and he was just standing in the middle of the room staring at the floor. It was so creepy. I talked him into laying down beside me and then he just slept. He's already had breakfast and a big drink, eyeballed Pepper, barked at the neighbor, and gone pee.

So far so good!


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## twobytwopets

That's awesome that he is felling better this morning... 
Remember back to younger days, if you did anything crazy enough to be wearing a lampshade on your head there is always some confusing moments in there. 
I have to crate my pups or they end up playing all night and will play on my bed, if I crate them late or accidentally fall asleep early, they are very confused on where to sleep.


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## Lilysmommy

Yay!! Glad he's feeling better today.


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## FinnickHog

Oz says thanks for your concern, you guys! He's completely back to himself now, and his painkillers have completely worn off and he seems totally fine, so I don't think he's going to need any meds at all. Yay!

Oz is... I don't know. He doesn't have separation anxiety but it's close. Heelers are usually pretty clingy but he's exceptionally so. I'm guessing it's because he didn't really have anyone when he was younger so now he's making up for lost time. This means he wakes up periodically during the night and licks my face to make sure I'm okay. It's a really sweet gesture but it's so annoying :lol:. He adores his crate though, so that's not a problem at all. My golden would just sleep through the night at the foot of the bed, but not this one.


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## FinnickHog

Here's his eye today. I added an arrow so you can see where the removal actually was. It was pretty small.


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## FinnickHog

I just have a handful of random pictures today.

Here's what a crested gecko's sticky toepads look like:








This was Mordin posing for the camera.

And here's Grunt after a rough day of chasing the ladies having a nice nap under the bromeliad:








He looks like he needs a drink with a little umbrella.

And I finally got some decent pictures of Sherlock in the sun. He looks chocolate instead of black. I have no idea why he was doing his ball python impression, but it worked well for the pictures:


















Oz is still doing really well, so I'll get a video of him playing hide and seek soon!


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## Dumble

I am not a big snake person as they make me a little bit nervous but I have to say that Green Python is absolutely stunning. Gorgeous animal. I really enjoyed reading about your pets thanks for sharing


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## FinnickHog

I'm so glad you enjoyed it, Dumble! The green tree python is literally my dream snake xD. I used to have recurring dreams about the day when I'd find him, and then one day, there he was!


I have an update about myself tonight instead of the usual pet goodness, because it's going to effect my posting for the next week at least. I have a recurring issue that presents as severe chronic pain, cramping and a few other nasty things I won't mention here (if you want more info for any reason I'm totally willing to share, just PM me. Warning: it's ucky.). I went to the emergency room last night at midnight for the pain and was examined and given some medication for now while they find a specialist who has time to see me asap. One of the medications caused severe chest pain and shortness of breath so a few hours later I was back in emergency, where I was reexamined and prescribed a few more things. Hooray.

I'm so happy I'm Canadian at this point because only the drugs cost me anything, and living in a town is amazing, as the wait room was completely empty and I was tested, diagnosed, medicated, and let loose within two hours of arrival both times. I got blood tests and an ECG! Back in Calgary a trip to emergency meant 7 hours in agony in a waiting room and then the night in an admitted-but-still-waiting side room because the beds and exam rooms were all full.

But that being said, I've been put back on my arch nemesis metronidazole to help treat any potential infections while I wait to hear from the specialist. I get almost every side effect listed from this demon drug, so I'm going to be a complete mess for about a week. After that I likely need surgery, as this problem has been recurring for 6 years now and I'm done trying less invasive treatments that only work short term. So I may be absent for a few months at worst. Hopefully everything goes well and I can still pop in and comment from my cell phone at least.

Sadly this means my final two cricket breeding updates may be late or nonexistent long-term. If I miss them I'll photograph a future batch to share, so they will be available eventually. I'm also going to need to devote what little energy I have to caring for my animals. Oz is still in his cone, and he's figured out how to fling it across the room and go for his eye before I can even get up, so that will take up a lot of focus. And then cleaning, feeding, and maintaining everyone else will likely be the majority of my waking hours.

I'll check in if I can, and definitely provide an update if I end up going with the surgery. For now I'll be able to stay in the loop from my phone in bed but I won't be posting much if at all. If anyone needs me go ahead and PM me and I'll get back to you as soon as I can!

I've attached a picture of my previous parrot, the rose crowned conure Echo, to tide you all over for now. I love this shot because you can see the detail on each feather. You can also see the strange barring that indicated periods of illness that plagued him his whole life. (I'm looking at you, Two! I know you can see them! :grin


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## twobytwopets

Yes I see stress bars... 
I will pray for you, your medical team and your family, including furry, feathered, pokey, scaly and slimy that you all get through this rough time. 
Taking care of ourselves is often the hardest things to do. But sometimes something will happen to force us to tend to our needs... Says the woman who should be on cardio meds and probably needs to get her gall bladder removed. 
Keep us updated on everyone as much as you can. Rest and get yourself healthy.


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## Lilysmommy

I'm so sorry you're having so many issues!  Bodies are stupid sometimes. We'll miss you, but definitely take care of yourself and your babies first. When you can, let us know how you're doing! I'll be sending lots of good thoughts your way and keeping fingers crossed that you heal up and feel better quickly. And that Oz isn't too much of a terror for you through all of this!!


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## FinnickHog

Thanks for the well wishes Two and Kelsey! I'm feeling alright right this particular second so I figured I'd take a few minutes and get caught up and update here quick. 

Oz has figured out that he can drag his cone around on corners and eventually it'll catch on something and pull off, so most of the time while I'm conscious I'm chasing him around and stuffing the cone back on. When I'm resting upstairs I hear my boyfriend asking him how he keeps getting the cone off. Oz never answers, I don't think. He's healing nicely though and he shouldn't have to wear it too much longer. My laying around doing nothing is driving him nuts because he usually gets an hour long walk a day, so we've started playing a new game. He can't catch at all, but the cone helps. I throw his ball into the cone and it rolls down onto his face so he can catch it, and then he brings it back to me. It's like that cup-and-ball game only with a dogface in the way. He seems to think it's pretty fun, so it'll do for now. Now if I could just get him to stop playing after the first hour, that would be great. My arms get tired :lol:.

Everyone else is doing well. Pepper has been super snuggly the past few days which is sweet of her, and I've been getting lots of loud birdy kisses.

As for myself, I'm stuck on the metronidazole for the whole course, which ends Saturday, but my tests all looked alright to the doctors at the hospital. I'm still taking the painkillers fairly regularly. The "stat" appointment with the specialist has been scheduled for June 1st, so it's a pretty long wait for that, but I got the doctor I wanted (instead of the one with all the scary reviews online, like leaving sponges in people and then sewing them up) so that's a plus. Hopefully in the meantime the pain gets less ridiculous or I'm going to be useless for months.

So barring any increase in the pain, I'll be back around more regularly on Sunday, but still spotty until June, I guess.


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## FinnickHog

I caught Pepper rambling on camera! The footage isn't great because I had to hide the entire Nikon to get it, but you can hear her clearly and see her fairly well! Had to get myself up off the couch and share this right away!

Mild Verbal Abuse from a Senegal Parrot


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## twobytwopets

I'm sitting in bed watching this. The bird cage is maybe 4 feet from the foot of the bed and everyone else is asleep in the house. But I watched it and Skeeter started her rambling, I expected that but then she went on her yelling rant when Pepper did the microwave beep...
Pepper: microwave beep
Skeeter: FEED THE BIRD, FEED THE BIRD, FEED THE BIRD
Mind you she can't say feed the bird nice and quiet, nope we have to yell it as loud as her little green cheek voice will let her.


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## FinnickHog

Haha I'm so sorry I set Skeeter off! I hope she didn't wake anyone up. They really don't care to use their little voices when it matters, do they? :lol:


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## twobytwopets

It was 15-30 minutes after alarm clocks had been turned off, not snoozed, shut off O-F-F off. People need to be moving by 6:30 to get out the door on time. Pepper and Skeeter just saved me some waking up and kicking out of bed duties!!


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## FinnickHog

Phew, that's not so bad then.

Well, I'm feeling pretty alright. So back to business as usual until June, I think. Oz has his cone off finally, so that's excellent news too. Yay!


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## Lilysmommy

That's great! I'm so glad you're feeling better.  And that Oz is free too!


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## FinnickHog

Oz is so happy! He's been running around on his back two legs, front legs limp and his nose dragging along the ground. It's so silly but it must be nice to be able to scratch his nose again.

Well, I have a very warped sense of humor. If any of my pets on the list creep you out, don't watch this. If they don't, I hope you find this as hilarious as I do. I don't want to ruin the surprise because I think that's the best part, but if anyone has any questions after they watch go ahead and post. I'm still giggling...

A "Magic Trick."


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## Lilysmommy

:lol: It's like a sideways jack-in-the-box!! I love it.


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## FinnickHog

I couldn't get him to come out of there so I figured why not take a video?

Here's miss Nanamo having an early dinner. She'll lick it off my fingers and off her sister as well. Crested Gecko Feeding Time. Mordin on the other hand says "get that thing out of my face." I dumped some crickets in with them a few days ago, and one has found a way to burrow into the waterfall drain and is now constantly calling and making the geckos run around looking for it. It's pretty funny, but they all stop when I look at them. I'm betting I get to go dead cricket fishing in a few days.

Going upstairs now to wash Finn's poop boots and trim his toenails. We'll see if I can get some pictures or video before he gets too irritated with me.


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## FinnickHog

Two updates in one day!? Unheard of! The thing with Finn is he doesn't need much editing because he doesn't do anything crazy unexpected on me. So the videos are way easier!

This is the ALL FINN ALL THE TIME update! Woooooo.

Here's him enjoying his food outside his cage: Finnick Eating

And here he is eating in super close up: Finn Eating - Closeup

And here's him playing hide and seek in a bag of fleece: What's In The Bag!?

In the first video I love how he's holding his foot all weird because he was so interested in the food. He also downs that giant hunk of broccoli partway through xD. In the second one he's more his cute self but he's still nomming away. You can see his toenails need a trim. I did that right after he had dinner. In the third one I let him have a stroll when we were done in the bath and I changed his cage. He got into the fleece bag while I wasn't looking and I heard a weird rattling sound. He really didn't want me noticing him once he was in there! :lol:

I didn't get any of him in the tub. Honestly, because I think they give the wrong message to youtube viewers. There are so many videos of scared hogs floating in tubs that are way too full for my liking. I only fill his bath up to his boy parts to get them clean, so he waddles around and chases the little bubbles. But he did have a good bath and nail trim! I was going to take one of my nail trimming method, but I really need a cameraman for that. So maybe next time when the boyfriend isn't working ten hour shifts.

I hope everyone enjoys these!


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## FinnickHog

Here's mister Oz playing hide and seek: Hide and Seek with a Cattle Dog

There's a bit of a quality drop because the sun wasn't up yet, but you can see how happy he usually is. It's gorgeous out today, so we're going to go for a walk around the lake and look for muskrats and beavers!

His eye is all healed and the stitches have started to dissolve. The lump was non-cancerous. Phew!


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## Lilysmommy

Meant to reply on this sooner but got sidetracked. Oz is so cute!!! My roomie loved the video too.  And I'm so glad the biopsy results were negative, that's great news!!


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## FinnickHog

I'm glad you guys liked it! We actually took Oz to a nearby provincial park on the weekend and we saw a herd of bison! Oz wasn't sure what to do with them :lol:. I would have been pretty upset if the lump had been cancerous. My last dog, a golden retriever, died at age 9 from bone cancer in his spine. So I intentionally picked a breed not known for getting cancer this time.

I hope you don't mind that I mentioned you and the forum in Finnick's eating videos. I'm hoping people will see his diet and get interested in what they're feeding their own hedgehogs. If you don't want to be mentioned just let me know and I'll change it right away.


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## Lilysmommy

Sounds like a cool outing! I bet Oz loved it.  Probably for the best he didn't know what to do with the bison. :lol: 

I managed to miss the Finn post somehow! Just watched the vids, he's such a cutie. I love the little "snarl" face they get when eating. And it's interesting watching him eat the soft diet compared to a hard kibble diet - definitely less effort to chew the food, which I like. They always seem to have to work so hard to break up kibble. I'm totally fine with the forums being mentioned, I can't see that it would be a problem at all. Lord knows it's far from the worst link/information given out on YouTube. :roll: Hopefully it does catch someone's interest sometime!


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## FinnickHog

Well, I went to my parents' place for Easter. I have a lot of reptile acquaintances there, so I stopped in to visit almost everyone I know while I was in town. I'm not sure if that was a good decision or a bad one.

First off I stopped in to get some feeder bugs from the frog guys, and I ended up leaving with a whole army of new plants for the frog tank. I was also admiring their saltwater reef, and they gave me some chunks of soft corals for my tank. So now I'm needing to overhaul the frog cage, and move some things around in my reef.

The next day Oz and I visited his favorite pet store. My intention was to let Oz see his fan club and buy a small cage for Pepper because my parents like when she comes to visit. We made it over to the reptile section where the head reptile guy (and breeder on his own time as well) plopped a grey banded kingsnake in my hands. I'm still unemployed, and I went with a friend instead of my boyfriend, so I had to put her on my credit card and walk away from her gorgeous male counterpart. That was tough. But I ended up with the (probably) female! I've been bugging the breeder about greybands since 2013, and I guess he had an emergency and needed to sell some off, so the pet store took them, and then I walked in. I had to pay a bit more for her but I don't even care.

She's my first female snake, and just amazing. Great personality, eats frozen/thawed, came from one of the best colubrid breeders in Canada, and she's also HET ALBINO! So if I breed her, I'll get some red, white, and pink striped babies! I'm so excited to have her be part of the family, finally.

I'm just updating on my phone, and I haven't uploaded any pictures yet, but assuming the frog cage overhaul goes well tomorrow (later today?) I'll have time to post some pictures then. She is absolutely gorgeous! In the meantime, here's the breeder's album of my new girl's siblings: http://s398.photobucket.com/user/GONESNAKEE/library/Greybanded Kingsnakes?sort=3&page=1


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## FinnickHog

Alright, the frog cage is done, and I'm exhausted. But my new girl is so gorgeous I managed to muster up the energy to take some pictures. Okay, a lot of pictures. :lol:

I'll upload some video of the new vivarium design either tomorrow or in a few days. It took three hours altogether to catch the inhabitants, safely move the plants to holding containers, dig up the dirt, readjust the hydroball layer for the new pond, re-lay the pond matting, add new dirt, replant the plants, and reintroduce all the critters. When I dumped everyone back in I added a whole bunch of food and they all went hunting. Talk about relaxed after being trapped and moved into weird containers for a few hours. So that was excellent.

And here's my new lady, Kerrigan!





































I know her breeder keeps his snakes in racks with tupperware tubs for homes, and they're slightly opaque, but I'm not sure if he uses paper towel or aspen as substrate, so I gave her a few choices and she started burrowing right away. The pictures are of her travel cage. She's in a big tub now with aspen and fir bark mixed together.

Kerrigan is 7/8ths Lampropeltis alterna, likely a Blair's phase with a bit of aberrance, and 1/8th Lampropeltis ruthveni, which is where the albino genes come from. So she's a very special girl. She can't be bred (in my opinion) back to regular L alternas, because of her hybrid genes. It would result in a genetic dilution of the few grey banded kings we have in captivity. So she's going to be my designer snake and only breed with males I share with other pure L alterna females, or male alterna/ruthveni hybrids. I've never been a huge fan of albino reptiles, so I doubt I'll push her to produce them. But one or two will occasionally pop out, and that is pretty exciting.

Grey banded kingsnakes are problem eaters when they hatch out. In the wild they mainly eat snakes, so in captivity, you either have to supply the babies with small snakes or lizard tails to get them feeding. I've also heard of people having success by waiting a month after hatching to even offer them food, and then presenting a tiny pinky mouse that has been scented with a snake or lizard. So, this will be yet another difficult breeding project to add to the pile. But I think the payoff is well worth it, and there really aren't enough of these snakes available in captivity that haven't been wild caught. I'm also pretty sure the breeder will give me a few tips if I ask, so that's nice.

And that's what's new around here today!


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## Mattfreeds3

how do you post something to the feed?


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## Lilysmommy

If you mean how she included the pictures in the post, you have to upload them to a separate site (like Photobucket, Imgur, etc.) and then use the IMG link to include it in the post.

Okay, Kerrigan is seriously gorgeous!! I adore that second picture of her cute li'l snoot!  You're making me want another snake...specifically one of Kerrigan's offspring... :lol: I looked for images of albino ones and I'm in love. They're like candy cane snakes!! I may have to talk to you about an albino baby from her someday, though my roomie will probably kill me.

What size snakes would hatchlings need? I know I've heard of people selling hatchling normal ball pythons as feeder snakes, which makes me wince, but I know it's a better fate than they'd likely get otherwise, given the overpopulation & lack of responsible reptile owners. Would that be an appropriate size for them? Will you be making sure all hatchlings are eating before they go to new homes? I'm guessing you would, just curious!


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## FinnickHog

Once I find her a man, we can definitely discuss that! I'd much prefer her kids go to people I trust. I wish I'd had 400 bucks in my pocket so I could afford both from the pet store.

Most people use hatchling garter snakes or anole tails. I can get anoles for 5 dollars a dozen if I need them. The greybands hatch out like a pencil. I know Mark would keep his babies for between 6 months and a year just to make sure they're eating mice, so I'll do the same. Selling someone something that eats weird or doesn't eat at all is just awful. Corn snakes can be rehomed a few months after hatching, and sometimes even earlier, but not greybands. I'm sure that contributes to their low popularity. My frogs and day geckos are the same way. I'm just ready to part with my juvenile female day gecko now, and she's 8 months. That means less profit and more effort, so the breeders just in it for money don't bother with them. Me, on the other hand... :lol:.


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## Lilysmommy

All of that makes sense. I can understand why there aren't many being bred, with the difficult feeding. But hey, breeders like you, that are doing it for the love of the animals & want to ensure their babies go to good people, are the only ones I'm okay with. I still prefer to get my animals as rescues/rehomes, but I think I may make an exception for a candy cane baby...  Also I mentioned all of this to my roomie & I think I may actually be safe from homicide since it sounds like this would be at least 1-2 years out. :lol: Hooray!


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## FinnickHog

Yaaay! Yeah, it'll definitely be a while yet.

I hate people who breed on a massive scale for profit. They don't care about genetics, where the babies end up, or the fact that they're causing overpopulation issues. When you produce 200 ball pythons a year and you only sell 100, that's baaaaaad.

I'm highly concerned with genetics and pet trade sustainability. I breed more to make sure the animals are available to people who want to keep them pure but not deplete the wild population by overfarming. I also only breed what interests me personally. If I'm not completely enthralled every time something hatches and madly in love immediately, I'm not breeding the right animals. That way they never have a chance to get neglected or sold to anyone I don't trust.

I agree that rescuing is still the better option though. There are more pets than there are homes at this point. Breeders need to only breed if they know the babies have homes lined up. You shouldn't produce an army of snakes and then realize there's no market for them. That's how a lot of them end up in shelters. Someone buys it for dirt cheap, doesn't really want it, gets bored and dumps it. I deeply respect breeders who have an open ended no questions asked return policy. I plan to do that with my animals too. That way if someone does need to rehome something of mine, I have a huge say in what happens and can keep them out of shelters.

And I have a tendency to rescue odd animals when I find them, since I have such a wide range of weird pet knowledge :lol:. Keeping Rocket the skink was no big deal since I already knew all about them. Oz was the most work, by far.


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## FinnickHog

Frog videos!

Here they are racing up the wall (Just ignore the dogface...): Dart Frog Race!

And here's a short overview of the viv now: Remodeled dart Frog Vivarium Tour

They're so cute!

Illidan and Akihiko are both white, so that's pretty exciting. Sherlock shed yesterday. And I left some f/t mice in with Kerrigan today. So there's lots about to happen with snakes! Maybe I'll get some freshly shed pictures, if everyone will hold still...


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## octopushedge

I love how much care you put into your vivs. They always look so beautiful, but how in the world do you clean them? Do they naturally take care of themselves, or are you dismantling these every week?


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## Lilysmommy

The froggies are so cute!! They were trying so hard to climb the wall, silly things. And the viv is absolutely gorgeous. I love the water feature! I've read several tutorials for how to set that kind of thing up and it just seems so intimidating. It's not a good idea for hermit crabs anyway, though. And I'm not sure if I'll ever end up with something that would need or benefit from one. So hopefully I'll never have to try & actually follow a tutorial to make one. :lol: 

Did Kerrigan eat her food? And yay sheds! I'm so happy Charis is finally done with hers. I'm hanging out at Jackie's tonight, but planning to get Charis out for an exploring session tomorrow evening. She's due to eat again as well, sometime in the next several days. I hope your boys' sheds go well! Tell them I told them to cooperate because I wanna see pictures of everyone in nice shiny new suits!


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## FinnickHog

Thanks Natascha! They're 85% self-sustaining. I need to add water every two days because of evaporation, and spray them down periodically. And I need to dig out the roots and overgrowth every few years, depending on the plants. I actually tossed most of the ficus in the garbage because it managed to root through the pond mesh layer and into the water reservoir. Which then plugged the pump completely, so the water feature didn't do anything except gurgle. That's why it got remodeled. I had to remove all the soil and then rip the roots out of the drainage layer. I also have to wipe the front glass down sometimes because of frog footprints. It's almost like a gross painting. :lol:

I'm glad you like them, Kelsey! I think they're pretty awesome but I have weird taste in animals. The frogs and blue geckos need fancy vivariums because of their insane humidity requirements, but most reptiles don't really need vivariums (or technically pauladriums, because of the water feature). You can simplify the vivs for some tropical animals and just add live plants and a contained waterfall, like I have for the cresties. With that one the pond and the pump are self-contained, which sounds like more work but is actually way easier. Then I water the plants manually. The cresties prefer to drink moving water so they sip right from the waterfall. I know chameleons, most day geckos, iguanas, tree monitors and tree skinks all appreciate the live plants and moving water feature, and most tropical animals will at least tolerate it. I like the vivs better because I can dump springtails and isopods into the soil, and then I don't have to clean up poop, because the bugs eat it or the plants use it as fertilizer. It's also obviously easier to replicate the animal's natural environment with a vivarium than with commercial reptile supplies, which is important to me.

Kerrigan did not eat. She was fed last Thursday at the pet store and ate then, but she wasn't interested yesterday. I'll try again in a few days. She's probably still stressed about the move, and she is looking a little pale so it might be shedding time for her too. Illidan isn't white anymore so he should peel any day now, and Aki is still really pale, so he's about a week off. Soon though! I will let them know you said to be good! I'll get some pictures once they're all done.


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## FinnickHog

Illidan shed last night! I got some pictures of him now that he's all pretty, but I'll wait to post them, because Akihiko is going to shed either tomorrow or Tuesday, and Kerrigan's eyes are solid blue, so she's up next. I'll update with all my nice shiny snake pictures once everyone is done. Sherlock and Rocket shed last week too. It's so weird how synchronized everyone is.

But this also means that I may have purchased Kerrigan without seeing her true colors! I'm so excited. She might be even more vibrant than I thought!

In other news, we took Oz out to the provincial park again and we saw a wild froggie! Spring is finally here, and it's almost tadpole season!


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## FinnickHog

Well, I have had a ridiculous few days. Short version: I still need to get pictures of Aki and Kerrigan but they both look good. Pedialyte is awesome. Nobody is dead.

Long version:
I've been feeling "off" for a few months, but I'd been ignoring it since I've had so much else to do lately, and I don't have a family doctor out here yet. So on Monday when the poop hit the fan (suicidal thoughts, one mild scratch), I strolled into emergency with no wallet, no money, and no ID, and they decided to hold me until this afternoon. I'm on antidepressants and have been for three years, so my guess (and the hospital psychiatrist agrees) is that the starter dose of Citalopram just wasn't doing the trick anymore. He increased my dosage and the nurses harassed me about everything I already know but forgot to do to prevent the crisis in the first place. (If you ever come across this post and want to know what those things are, PM me!) And then once they were sure I knew what I was doing, they let me loose. I've had depression since I was 11, and was only recently diagnosed as Borderline, but I think I've had that just as long. I have a crazy (haha) history of mental illness on my dad's side of the family. I have coping strategies in place; I just messed up. Which happens and I'm okay with it. I'm doing really well now, and I start my new dosage in a few hours. 

Unfortunately that meant leaving my boyfriend with all the pets as a complete surprise to him. I keep meaning to type up a package of care sheets for emergencies but I haven't yet. And once I was admitted and thinking straight, the hospital wouldn't give me access to my cell phone. I understand why, but it meant Ryan had to figure out what to do the first night on his own. He didn't know where I was, he's got a cold, and he's working ten hour shifts, but he still did all the pet stuff he could remember. He did really well. Managed to feed Finnick, do the crestie lighting schedule, deal with Oz and Pepper, and keep everything else functioning. I'm super proud of him!

Now, my bird is a bit of a dummy and likes to cram her Harrison's pellets into her water bottle. She plugged it completely, likely Monday night judging by her symptoms when I got home today, and has been completely without water since then. Her eyes are drooping shut, the skin around them is wrinkly, she's staying fluffed up, and keeping either her foot or head tucked when she's resting. She's still talkative and playing toys on occasion, but she's pretty messed up.

I got her some unflavored Pedialyte and have been syringing her that in batches of whatever she'll drink every half hour, and she seems to already be improving. I got a tail wiggle and some beak grinding, and now she's sleeping on my shoulder while I type. Sorry Finn, but we'll have to play double tomorrow! I've got my hands full tonight. It's looking like she'll make a full recovery, but it means I'll be getting up every hour to give her some more Pedialyte. I could just fill her new water bottle with it but I really want to monitor her exact intake. Sidenote: the unflavored stuff tastes like nothing. Actually. It has less flavor than water does. It's really cool.

She's been drinking between .5ml and 2ml every half hour since 9:00 when I finally figured out the problem (I had her out to get a good look at her again and was half thinking conjunctivitis when she flew to her cage and started banging her water bottle spout against the bars, the smart little thing), so she's willing to re-hydrate, and she has been mumbling at me a bit, so that's good. Her crop is draining quite slowly so I'm going to switch to every hour now that she seems stable and improving and we'll see how it goes. I'm pretty sure she's going to be fine. No signs of stroke or any issues mentally so far. I've called a vet in Edmonton and told them what's going on so if I need to take her in they'll be ready when I get there.

Kerrigan and Akihiko both shed while I was gone. Kerrigan's shed is in one nice piece. I love dry climate colubrids! Aki's is in one piece, but he has a mask on. Behind his jaw downward is good, but his faceskin is still on. I'm going to bring him out later today and rub his nose a little so it starts peeling. And then I'll get his picture! Kerrigan is indeed more vibrant now than she was when I bought her. She's been in her water bowl all afternoon, so I'll get her picture when I'm bugging Aki later.

And some good news: While I was in the mental health unit I was talking to the long-time locals, and they told me where the closest garter snake nests are! Alberta doesn't advertise them as a tourist point because a) they're just snakes and who even likes those anyway, b) the nests are only active for a short portion of the year, and c) if everyone knew where they were, poachers and people who hate snakes would destroy the habitat. It's going to be cold here this weekend, but next weekend I may need to go find me a writhing pile of smelly, disoriented snakes. I've seen one individual one once, but never the mountains of them. I'll take my Nikon for sure and if I find 'em, I'll post the pictures.


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## Lilysmommy

Man, that's a bad week! I'm sorry.  I've been struggling this week as well (I'm actually home from work today on my discretionary day), and it's reminding me I need to try contacting psychs in the area again to find someone to go to. I kind of want to give medication another try, but I'm pretty sure Citalopram is what I tried last time & we didn't get along well.

I'm glad you were able to get in to the emergency room for help and get things straight again.  Hopefully the new dosage helps prevent another nosedive! And major kudos for the boyfriend for being able to take care of everyone in an emergency, especially with no notice or idea of what was going on. Looks like we both better get our emergency care sheets typed up...maybe we should egg each other on until we get them done? :lol: 

Poor silly Pepper! We seriously had similar situations recently, with my trouble with Pancake. I hadn't tried the unflavored Pedialyte to realize just how unflavored it is...that sounds weird. Pancake took it pretty easily too though. I'm glad she's cooperating so well with drinking it...how would you even force-feed a bird? I've done it with wildlife, but for some reason parrots have always intimidated me more than huge great horned owls or red tailed hawks! I think it's the intelligence & grudge factor - the raptors don't seem to hold much of one most of the time, but a parrot...man, they'll remember.

And that's really cool about the garter nests! Those would be very interesting pictures...I've seen some on Tumblr & just can't imagine finding that many snakes all at once!


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## FinnickHog

I started out on Zoloft, and that was baaaaad. I got every single side effect it has listed, even the weird rare ones. It really just depends on the person, and the doctors never seem to guess right the first time. There are tons of other options out there if you decide to try another one!

Haha, egging each other on might be worth it. I'm planning on starting tonight if I can't sleep, or tomorrow after my appointment. I asked the boyfriend and he said he'd love a little booklet of pet directions just in case. I've been stalling because SOMEONE dropped dry flaked fish food in the printer a few years ago and it hasn't worked properly since... It might have been me :lol:. Just means I have to get off my butt and go to Staples to print everything, so it's not a big a hassle as I'm making it out to be. It's at the top of my to do list, really!

Honestly your trouble with Pancake along with Pepper's reaction to her water bottle were what set me on the right path. I was almost convinced it was an eye infection and then I was thinking about Finn because I hadn't played with him yet, which switched to Pancake, and then everything just clicked, so off I ran to get some Pedialyte. So Pancake's difficulties lately totally helped Pepper and I out.

She's currently screaming at the back of my head. Her eyes look a little sunken still, but much better. They're all the way open and they're shiny. Still no bad side effects from the dehydration. She's drinking about 5ml of the Pedialyte every two hours. I put some in her new bottle and she wouldn't touch it, so I switched to water and she still won't touch it. She may have a grudge against bottles now, which I can understand. Once I'm done typing here I'll go and find a spare hook-on bowl and try that.

If I had to force feed her I probably would have just taken her to the vet. I've syringe fed baby birds of all types but they always took it willingly. I think you'd need a narrow tube attached to the syringe and then you'd have to stuff that into their crop, which is really sensitive. I'm definitely not comfortable there. I tried feeding her the Pedialyte on the side of her beak like she was a baby, but she informed me that "I can do it MYSELF!" and just licked the droplets off the end of the syringe with her tongue. It's working, so I'll take it, but it looks ridiculous and it's so slow. The attitude is still in tact despite the dehydration, and that's fine with me.

If the raptors held a grudge, we'd have a tougher time rehabilitating them, I'll bet. Imagine an angry hawk with a parrot's brain. You wouldn't be able to get near it! :lol:

Okay, and now, snake pics! Aki took the rest of his shed off himself, so I'm super proud of him! Illidan's came off in four chunks, as usual, but it all came off. Sherlock and Kerrigan were perfect. I didn't get a shot of Sherlock because he's really tough to photograph, and the one where he's in a ball is pretty much the same idea.

The skins:









Akihiko:



























Illidan:



























And Kerrigan:


















I wanted to get Kerrigan's scales too, but she's not really one for holding still like the pythons are. Everybody is so shiny!

And here's Oz saying "y u sneks?! y u not doge!?"


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## Lilysmommy

Yay pictures!!! Everyone is so gorgeous...though even with as stunning as the other two are, Illidan still made me smile the most. I'm such a sucker for ball python faces! I love the feel of their skin after they've shed as well. They're so smooth & soft! And Oz is adorable as always. 

Yeah, I'm going to be asking about other medications to try once I find someone to go talk to. The last three months have convinced me to give it another try & see if something else works better. Waiting & hoping things would calm down or go away isn't working...had to give a try, though. :lol: 

I'm glad Pepper's feeling better! And that Pancake's troubles were able to give you a clue on what was going on. Kind of funny that a hedgehog forum would end up helping a parrot too! She sounds like Pancake too - when I was trying to force the syringe into her mouth, she was pretty cranky about it. Once she realized it was yummy food & she was hungry, she was more than happy to take it if I keep the syringe just inside her lip & let her lap it down.

I have to leave the house to print my stuff too, once I type it up. We don't have a printer, but there's one at my roomie's mom's house. Not far away, but still kills motivation! My roommate would definitely love instructions though, they told me if I disappeared on them, they'd be calling Jackie in a panic, going "PLEASE COME DEAL WITH HEDGEHOGS". :lol: At least the snake & crabs would be fine left to their own devices for a couple days!

And uh yeah, great horned owls are bad enough as it is. They don't need to be smarter!!! They already have the "I'm bigger and badder than you and how DARE you touch me!!" thing going on. I love them and think it's hilarious, but they're definitely formidable birds. They'd take over the world if they had parrot brains!


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## Soyala_Amaya

I would totally show up. I love your hedgehogs.


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## FinnickHog

Just a quick update on Miss Pepper. She's all back to normal now. I caught the dehydration before it did any lasting damage. For the rest of her life (25-30 years) I will be meticulously checking her water bottle nozzle. Changing the water daily and washing the bottle wasn't helping with the food blockage. And in regards to that, she's right back to stuffing her Harrison's pellets into the nozzle again. So I learned a lot and she learned nothing at all :lol:. I'm just glad she's okay. I was so mad at myself when I realized what had happened.

Everybody else is doing great! Finn is still loving the food and his fur is actually a little shiny now. Next time the sun comes out I'll try to get a quick picture.

The increased Celexa dosage is helping 100%, so it's back to business as usual around here. I'm stuck with what I'm supposed to be working on (a fantasy/realism hybrid novel) so I'm going to be doing some writing exercises for the next few days. I'm going to do a hedgehog one and I'll post it once I'm finished. 

Also, I'm transferring my emergency pet sheets to a usb drive to print as we speak. Now it's your turn, Kelsey!


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## FinnickHog

Kerrigan ate for me last night! I bought a giant bag of black hopper-sized mice at the reptile show last year when I picked up Akihiko, thinking they would be the right size for him. He, of course, ate one and went "yuck, I'd rather eat live". I thought nothing of it until I gave one to Rocket as a treat and she wouldn't eat it either. So then I gave a small one to Sherlock and he downed it, but he would eat my fingers if they weren't attached to my hand. 

After that I decided they were probably okay and put them aside in the freezer to test with Aki periodically. He never ate another one. And then I got Kerrigan and I left her two, as per her breeder's directions. She didn't touch them. And then she went white so I figured she wasn't hungry so I let her shed. I fed her again yesterday, another black hopper, and she didn't eat. She was tongue flicking up a storm, and poking it with her nose, but she wouldn't grab it. Exactly like what Akihiko does when I offer him one. So I tossed it and grabbed one of Sherlock's fuzzies - a nice big one - and I set it in front of her. She ate before I even put the lid on and she's supposedly quite a shy eater. So there has to be something wrong with that big bag of hoppers. I still have 20 or so left, but I guess I'll toss them. I have no idea what could be wrong. I bought them from one of the big frozen reptile food retailers at the Edmonton show, but I guess they must be off somehow.

So that was what I learned yesterday! I'll have to try Akihiko on hoppers again once I get some fresh ones. The poor guys are asking "why do you keep offering me this garbage!?" and I had no idea. *facepalm*


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## Lilysmommy

That's so weird that no one liked the hoppers! I wonder what could've been wrong. Kind of funny that Sherlock didn't care at all though. :lol: At least it couldn't have been anything that wrong if it didn't hurt him at all! I'm glad Kerrigan ate for you in the end, and hopefully Aki will be willing to try some different ones. 

And yeah, my emergency sheets aren't likely to get done for a couple weeks yet...I'll explain why in a new thread I'm posting shortly.


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## FinnickHog

I'll pick a whole bunch of fresh mice up at the expo next month, and hopefully that'll help. For now they can all share the ones I got from the pet store out here, I guess. Aki just had a live one, but next week I'll offer him a frozen one from this other batch and see what happens.

I haven't made it out to the big garter nest yet, because there's a stinkin' nail in the sidewall of our car's rear left tire. Canadian Tire, being the marvelous gents they are, took the tire off to look, told us what the problem was, ordered us a new tire we didn't want, and then didn't torque the tire when they put it back on. So the car can't safely go above 100km/h. Which means we're stuck in town until Kal Tire (we got mad and went somewhere else in the end) gets our new tire in.

But! That being said, I took Oz for a walk around our little crappy lake yesterday. It's surrounded by houses and businesses, but it has a little walking path right next to the water. We were on the back side of the lake where there's a hill being supported by wooden blocks, and then a big house. Well. Under those wooden blocks and likely surrounding the underside of the house is a garter nest. I know because as we were walking by, the ground was writing with snakes. It was amazing! They were doing the whole snake pile rubbing against each other thing, and slithering up and down the hill to sunbathe. It was so cool. Since it was a total fluke, I only had my cell phone, but I did get a few pictures of one of the snakes I moved off the path.

Here he is:

Tummy shot:









Back stripe:









Side stripe:









And his sweet widdle face:









I'm guessing the nest has been there a while, because the long-time locals were walking past me like nothing was even happening, and the snakes didn't care at all even when I got right up in their nest. The one I snagged just slithered through my fingers and wrapped around my wrist for warmth. I'm tempted to go back today and see if they're all warmed up, but it was so hard to walk away without a snake in my pocket last time I'm not sure I can do it again :lol:.

For anyone curious, these are right on the Mirror Lake path in Camrose, Alberta. They're the Common Garter Snake, Thamnophis sirtalis, and these ones have some of the nicest coloring I've ever seen. The pictures are an exact representation of color on these guys.


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## Lilysmommy

Car troubles suck! I hope the new tire place treats you better than Canadian Tire. 

That garter snake is gorgeous! I've never looked at them much, but have been seeing more pictures posted in my bio-active group recently and think they're so pretty with their colored stripes. I bet the whole nest was super cool to see.


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## FinnickHog

I've only ever seen one wild snake in Alberta before this week, so I was pretty excited even if they are just garters :lol:. Living in Calgary was lame for snakes and I never had any luck when I was traveling. I'm prone to finding frogs, which is awesome too, but snakes are my passion.

Well I went back, and they're still pouring out the holes where the nest must be. The grass around the area is flat from so much slithering happening. I won't load the whole thread up with garter pics but there are a ton uploaded to my photobucket if anyone is interested. This one picture though, I have to share.










I lold.

I've gotta go make skink and hog food now, and then I'll see if Finn is up for a photoshoot. He's so shiny now with the new diet!


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## FinnickHog

Today it is 30 degrees Celsius in the sun! It's so nice out I decided to wake poor Finnick up and do a photoshoot outside so you guys can see how shiny he is! This was his first time outside since I had hawks, eagles, and owls in my Calgary yard, so he was sniffing up a storm. We were only out for about 5 minutes though, just to be safe. I've heard foxes and coyotes out there!

Here's my handsome, shiny man:



























And since I'm a sucker for macro shots, here's his quills both in the sun:









and in the shade:









I love how you can see the different bars of color and his dark brown tips. That was one of his lighter areas, but not one of the pinto spots. You can see a small pinto blotch in the sunlight quill picture. He's a very mottled, unusual boy. I don't actually know where he fits on the color guide, but I think he's gorgeous!


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## Lilysmommy

What a handsome shiny boy!! He looks fantastic. His color looks similar to Bindi's, I think she's a snowflake, but I don't know what color. She has a lot of white quills though, scattered all over her.


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## FinnickHog

I'm guessing the consistent addition of oils to his food is what's caused it. The cat food I used last time (and now this time as well, with the addition of "duck pate") has some fish in it, and some duck, which I think is quite oily. I'll definitely be sticking with this diet if the outcome is a super shiny, super energetic hog!

Bindi and Finn do look pretty similar, apart from Finn's big white blotches. They've got that spattering of color thing going on. I love it!


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## FinnickHog

Well, today was another one of those days. My sweet baby girl, Kerrigan, had a seizure. I didn't even know snakes could have seizures until it happened.

It was her day to come out for enrichment so I scooped her up and brought her to the living room with me to explore. After about ten minutes she started squirming awkwardly and had a messy, unexpected poop on me. I can usually guess when poops will happen based on the feeding schedule, and it wasn't even close to poop time for her. She settled down to an excessively calm state after the poop, and I changed my clothes and then set her in the sink to be wiped down. She started thrashing, dunking her head in the half inch of water, twitching parts of her body awkwardly, and just acting completely uncharacteristic, so I scooped her up and dried her off.

She went completely limp. She would gasp periodically with her mouth gaped all the way open and trachea stretched, but her lungs weren't inflating. No tongue flicking, no light response, no touch response, nothing. So first I had to run a tube (first I had to FIND a tube, and lube, and another, smaller tube, and a sanitized surface, and a heat source, and water, and a syringe...) into her stomach to check for a blockage. There was something bulky in her throat just above her stomach. I'm guessing discharged food remnants from the seizure. I cleared the blockage the way I was taught, and she started breathing a bit better, but she was still gasping and she had swallowed her tongue while I intubated her. I had to remove her tongue from her throat and then run a smaller tube right into her trachea and basically do CPR to stimulate her lungs. After that she gasped a few more times, and then finally closed her mouth and began breathing normally.

At that point I called the exotic vet's office, which is over an hour away (and my tire still isn't torqued so I can't safely leave the city) and told them what had happened. They said they were clueless and couldn't do anything more than I already had, so to just keep her a touch warmer than usual, remove her substrate, and monitor her. That's what I've been doing since. If she recovers enough she can go in for testing, but the stress may kill her at this point.

She's still limp most of the time, but she's reacting to movement, sound, and touch now. She's lifting her head and trying to keep herself orientated upright, which is a huge improvement. She's actually moved her whole body twice, both times just to tuck her head under something. Both of her lungs are functioning, and her heart is beating normally.

At best, she'll make a full recovery. At worst, death in the next day or so. In between the extremes lie permanent brain damage from lack of oxygen, respiratory infection or pneumonia if she inhaled any water, and getting to go fishing up her rear end for the blockage when it gets in the way of pooping in a few days. I'm hopefully optimistic at this point since she's recovered significantly in the past two hours, but I'll have to give it more time to be sure.

Fingers crossed I check on her in the morning and she's all better.


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## Lilysmommy

Holy crap!!  That sounds terrifying, I'm sorry you both had to deal with that. Poor baby...I'm glad she was with you & you knew what to do to help her right away. Keeping fingers crossed and sending lots of good thoughts to both of you. I hope you find her doing much better in the morning...Update us when you can! I know I'll be checking the forum first thing when I wake again.


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## Artemis-Ichiro

I'm not a big fan of snaked but I know how much you love yours. The whole ordeal sounds scary, I hope things improve. 

Keep us posted.


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## FinnickHog

I'm having a hard time believing it, but Kerrigan seems to have made a full recovery. On top of that, her breathing is fine, there are no nose bubbles, no lung clicking, nothing indicating a respiratory infection. Looks like during her seizure she didn't inhale any water at all. And she's not dehydrated either.

She's completely back to herself today. She even rattled her tail at me when I opened the lid to check on her. She came out for a quick climb up my arm and she's gripping with her whole body and not limp anywhere, unlike yesterday when she was really just like a wet noodle. She's holding her head up, her eyes are moving to look at motion, she's tongue flicking and her tongue is fine. I can't believe it. I honestly thought I was wasting my time opening her trachea yesterday because she was so far gone.

I'll be monitoring her closely for the next week, and if it happens again we're going to the vet. If I hear any clicking in her lungs I'll pick up some antibiotics from the vet here.

My best guesses as to what happened: She may have eaten a mouse that was too big at the store before I picked her up and it lodged oddly. She may have swallowed some aspen bedding, but that shouldn't have had such a strong reaction since she's showing no signs at all of dehydration. Or she may have eaten or been bitten by a spider. I'm actually leaning toward the last one. 

We have a moderate number of herpyllus ecclesiasticus, or the Eastern Parson Spider, in the house right now. If they bite people they can cause a few mild symptoms, like swelling, itching, and minor pain. I was bitten days ago and still have two small swollen nodules on my hand where the fangs went in. There are no studies done on snakes, of course, but the lump in Kerrigan's throat looked more like swelling than something stuck. She may have been bitten and had a reaction that got so swollen it closed her throat, and my entubation cleared it until the swelling went down.

But who knows? I won't know for sure until she passes the potential blockage, or if I need to have the vet cut her open, which I really hope doesn't happen. If anything changes I'll update again, but as it stands, unless it happens again, I think she's going to be just fine!


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## Lilysmommy

Yes!!!  I saw your comment on Pancake's thread, so I've been sitting here refreshing & waiting for your update, heh. I'm so glad to see it's a good one!! The spider bite idea sounds pretty likely...they don't seem so dangerous to us because we're so big, but the effects can be so much worse for small critters. Fingers crossed that she continues to be active & healthy and that no surgery will be needed!


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## FinnickHog

I actually checked Pancake's thread while I was still laying in bed :lol:. I had to get up and pee the dog before I could check Kerrigan, because Oz will totally pee in the house if I ignore him for half a second. So that's what took so long .


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## FinnickHog

Just a quick update on Kerrigan: She didn't eat yesterday, but I'm not terribly surprised. She has been drinking and she's back to herself, rattling her tail against the wall every time I check on her. She's been orbiting her cage a lot instead of finding a spot to settle down, but I took away her aspen and gave her paper towel, so that might be why. She seems alright so far.

In other news, I may have snagged one of the plains garter snakes and brought him home. They typically eat frogs and worms out here, so I need to get my hands on some earthworms ASAP for him. I offered him a tiny pinky mouse but he made soup with it instead of eating it. If he doesn't eat for me I can easily just toss him back where I found him. It's currently 3 degrees Celsius and snowing outside so I'm not feeling too guilty about bringing a snake home. The other ones will have all gone back into the nest.

He's adjusting really well so far. He's in the basement with me because it's a bit too warm in the pet room for him. He's in a semi-opaque tub, and he likes to stare through the wall at everything. He's not really scared at all. When I open the lid he just looks up at me.

He is a confirmed male, which is why I picked him. Garters give live birth, and the females should all be gravid now, so I really didn't want to bring home a lady. When I snagged him he showed me his junk, which made sexing him nice and easy. I'll post some pictures of him once he's been here a few more days. I'm trying to keep bothering him to a minimum for now while he adjusts.

If anyone is super interested, here's an article on what the garters at the main nest just northwest of me eat: http://www.kousebandslangen.nl/tham...ds/Food-Habits-of-the-Plains-Garter-Snake.pdf

Plains Garters are fairly common pets in Europe, and they come in several different morphs just like corn snakes and ball pythons!


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## FinnickHog

Well I was bored tonight and I got all my chores done, so you know what that means. New avatar and signature! I'm sad that the forum doesn't really understand transparency, and won't let me add a drop down menu of pets using BB code. But hey, I think I managed to make some functional things. Now I'm off to do something useful. Like... Read a book maybe... Or something... :lol:

I'm planning on doing a fancy-ish photoshoot with everyone who will put up with it in the near future. Likely tomorrow or over the weekend. I'll upload those shots as soon as they're taken and edited!


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## FinnickHog

Well, editing was a pain. For some reason my camera decided the lighting sucked, even though it showed fine on the screen. I took 124 pictures. But! I got a lot of good ones and was able to adjust the brightness so they're usable. Good thing I had "save as raw image and .jpeg" turned on or I would have had to start over. Here they be!

First, Finnick. Blurry because he refused to sit still, but still pretty good:


















Mister Illidan:


















Kerrigan. Hasn't eaten yet but she seems fine:


















Sherlock. I got a bite for scooping him to do this:


















The new guy, potentially Mister Slithers. Too busy for a body shot:









Miss Rocket. She escaped and I had to find her first:


















The Pepperoni, currently wondering why she wasn't first:


















And Smilin' Squee.


















Akihiko just had dinner, so he couldn't come out. And I want to get some of Oz but he's all hyper because there are ELK ON THE LAWN! So there's no way he was going to pose tonight :lol:.

So. I did Sherlock, then Illidan, then Kerrigan, then the new guy, and then I sanitized and went looking for Rocket. She was not in her cage. She somehow managed to push the tube that connects the tubs out of the hole, slide along the wall behind a cage which is about a 1.5" gap, loop around the whole room, and then dig a hole in my bag of crushed walnut shells, causing them to spill all over the floor. She then climbed inside the bag, poked several more holes in it, and went to sleep. When I saw the spill I thought "no way" but yeah, she was inside the bag. I had to rip it open to get her out and she was like, "Oh hey. How are you?" as if nothing had even happened. Pets!

In other news, I may have scented a mouse by rubbing it on the garter snake and offered it to Kerrigan. She was more interested, but it still didn't work. I'll keep at it. She has to eat eventually. It's breeding season there now, so she may be off because of that. She also may have been brumated by her breeder, which means her food intake might be wacky while she warms back up. Or it could be stress from me stuffing a tube down her throat and then changing her substrate to fleece. If she doesn't eat by next Friday I'll email the breeder and ask about tricks.


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## FinnickHog

I hate to post again right away, but when I went upstairs to feed Finn, you'll never guess who wasn't in her cage. You got it.

Rocket was crammed in the tiny gap behind the cage, wiggling her way bit by bit to freedom. I caught her and she threw a hissy fit. Now she's on my shoulder while I find a temporary solution. The bins are easily 12" tall. She's 10.5" long. I taped the tube in place. Really securely.

I have no idea how she got out the second time. She had to have climbed on a hide, stretched to her max length, somehow hooked a leg, and then pulled her whole body up by that one leg while being propped on her tail. Then she would have plopped to the floor in the gap behind the cage. I know as soon as she goes back in the cage she's going to start looking for a new escape route, the stupid smart lizard she is. I've moved all the hides away from the walls for now, and hopefully that helps. I guess I'm going to be busy building custom lids for the next week. Ugh.

Lizards. :roll: :lol:


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## Lilysmommy

:lol: Rocket, you stinker! I never would've guess a skink would be such a good escape artist. Sounds like she enjoyed her newly discovered bed & wanted to stay in it!

The pictures are all wonderful!!  Everyone looks fantastic, though I admit to being partial to Illidan again. Such a sucker for the cute ball python smile. Other snake faces look weird to me these days! And I don't know if it's due to their reputation for attitude, but kingsnake faces always look like they have a "come at me, bro" expression to me. :lol: 

I hope Kerrigan eats for you soon. I wouldn't be surprised if it was stress...that whole thing sounded really stressful to me! How long has it been since she ate last?


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## FinnickHog

They're smarter than they look, skinks. Which is probably a good thing since they look pretty dumb :lol:.

Thanks! I think it's the colubrid eyes. The pupils are easily visible, unlike with balls where it all blends. Makes them look super serious. 

It's only been 2 and a half weeks, so there's no need to panic yet. But I'm worried anyway :lol:.


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## FinnickHog

I was just cleaning up my hard drive full of junk, and I found some pictures of previous pets I've had. I picked out some favorites to show everyone.

Starting with my golden retriever, Vivi:

8 weeks old, picture taken with a potato, not a camera:









11 weeks old, much better camera:









The awkward, lanky, feet bigger than his head 8 month stage:









And age 7 with a much whiter face:








His mother was a nearly white colored ribbon winner in the show ring and his father was a really deep red colored bird dog, and they had 12 puppies in the litter! Picking one took me FOREVER. I ended up choosing the weirdo that was playing by himself, and I think I made the right choice. He was an amazing first dog. Super easygoing all the time. Not like Oz at all :lol:. He lived to be 9 years and three days old. I had to put him down because of bone cancer in three spinal vertebrae, which is why I'm always so mad at cancer when it comes up in hedgehogs on here. My boyfriend's family has two goldens as well, so we'll likely get another one eventually.

This is Spoot:








She's a button quail, or a Chinese painted quail, or Coturnix chinensis, depending on where you live and who you ask. She was hilarious. They can't really fly, but when they're startled they'll jump really high and flutter. I had to make her cage lid out of fishnet pantyhose so she wouldn't bonk her head when she was settling in. She used to call for me when I was out of the room like a parrot would, only she could only say one thing. Cheep. So she would yell "CHEEP CHEEP CHEEP CHEEP" until I came back or she got bored. These guys like to roll in sand or dirt like chinchillas and hedgehogs and they get it tucked right into their feathers. And then when you pick them up they let all the dirt go and you're covered. I highly recommend these guys if you're looking for a very affectionate but odd small animal. The main downside is that the females need high calcium because, like chickens, they're constantly laying eggs. The boys are easier to care for and live longer. The average is 3-6 years for these little guys. I want to get an army of them and build a little quail room one day .

And this is Pippit:








A friend fell in love with Spoot, but her cat was a bit touchy with birds, so she waited and waited and waited, and then she went away to college. Finally, she got her own quail! And then her housing arrangements fell through, so I got to babysit Pip 8 months out of the year, which I was totally fine with. This quail was a snuggler!

This is Derp:








Named because of his silly expression. Yes, that is him, loose on my cabinet. He was a brat. I didn't want to risk him getting loose in a rental I knew nothing about, so I gave him to someone on kijiji who seemed to understand his needs and was even interested in breeding him. We don't keep in touch, sadly, so I hope I made the right choice. But had he gotten out of his cage here I could have been evicted or he could have died, neither of which were worth the risk at the time. This is my only past pet that I wouldn't buy more of one day. Phelsuma spp. day geckos aren't my thing, it turns out . He sure was pretty though.

My planted freshwater fish tank:








I adored this tank so much that rather than kill everything to move it up here and start over, I found an amazing lady to take all of the plants and the two fish I had at the time. I was worried about moving the fish by van 3 hours in the heat, and to move the tank I needed to drain it which would have messed up the plants. So she took my two fish and all of the plants from me, and she lived 15 minutes away so it was super easy to move everything over. Her and I still talk, and the reddish plants on the sides in the picture have gotten huge for her. She's also crazy in love with my pea puffer, who I have a picture of in a bit.

This is the tank's original owner, Miso:








He was a veil tail betta, and my first pet fish! He started that addiction single-handedly. He lived to be 5 years old, which I figure is pretty good for a pet store betta, and he was a real grump. When he was mad his drapey blue fins would turn red. He liked to kill and eat everything. His hobbies included killing and eating everything. He was the reason I couldn't have nice things.

And this is Blimpy, who took over after Miso died:








He's a pea puffer. They only get about 2 centimeters long max. He has all the personality of a larger puffer, with an immeasurably smaller appetite. He's still doing really well, and still a huge brat. He likes to eat tiny live snails, which means lots of trips to the pet store to collect snacks. Puffers don't have scales so they're quite sensitive to water and temperature changes, and I was worried he wouldn't safely make the trip here, so I had to leave him behind. As silly as it is, I miss him :lol:.

Here's Gabe's foot:








I am so sad I don't have a better picture of him. He was a giant African land snail, likely Achatina achatina, and he was HUGE. His shell was almost the size of my hand, and when he came out to have a stroll he was almost as big as my head. I actually bought a better camera specifically for him, because I wanted to frame a picture of him and hang it on the wall, but he died days before my camera arrived. He lived to be 7 years old! He was so big that when he would eat you could hear him chewing across the room. It used to keep me awake at night, but it was so funny. Here's a thread of pictures of his cousins for reference: http://www.reptileforums.co.uk/forums/spiders-inverts/963444-giant-african-land-snail-thread.html. These are the smaller Achatina fulica snails. Amazing little guys. They seem to be illegal here now, so I doubt I'll get another. If the law changes I would like an army.

Here's Professor Lumpiarty:








She's a pacman frog. I was young and stupid when I bought her, and I didn't realize if an animal is 90% mouth, it probably eats a lot. She ate triple what Illidan did in a week :lol:. Her hobbies included sitting, eating, pooping, sitting in poop, and eating. Pacmans are ambush predators so they rarely move at all. She would just wait for lunch to get close enough and it would vanish into the maw. She ate mice, roaches, earthworms, grasshoppers, crickets, waxworms, mealworms, superworms, phoenix worms, silkworms, hornworms, the moths of any of the above, and fingers. She didn't croak but she rubbed her legs against her butt, and that made a noise I don't think I can describe. She was pretty cool.

And last but not least, I've shared him before but this picture is hilarious. It's Echo:








Echo was a rose crowned conure, and he was a pet store bird. I've since learned that the reason the Petlands around here always have this species is because their "distributor stocks them". Which likely either means smuggling or parrot farms. He wasn't banded and had a myriad of health problems. Plucking feathers, mutilating feathers, lumps, twisted feather shafts, crop problems, chronic malnutrition problems despite me doing everything I was told to do, chronic infections, the worst of which were in his preening glad, and one time he snapped a blood feather and it sprayed so badly I couldn't find the damaged feather to pull it out. He was coated with blood. And of course it was during rush hour so it took me 2 hours to get him to the vet, where they put him on oxygen for 24 hours. With all that, he was still an amazing little bird. He was great at learning tricks and sounds. Not so good with words. He could say "Chocobo" and "what?!" and that was it. And when he said "what?" he didn't say it nicely. It was quite rude :lol:. He only lived to be 4 years old, but I made his time as happy as I possibly could. Here's a video of him playing basketball with no feathers: 



. We used to call him "Checko" because he would say "chkup" when he wanted something, and he could sort of say his name.

And that was a massive post. But there's some of my previous animals and some stories about them. If you made it this far, I hope you enjoyed reading!

And now it's 7:00am, which means bedtime!


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## Lilysmommy

I love all of the pictures & stories!! I think my favorites are the quail. I seriously want to get some button quail someday. They're just so freaking cute, and if I end up with females, I'll probably use the eggs as animal food. But I don't trust Ebony around them for a second, so that will probably have to wait quite some time...at least until I have the room to keep them in a room shut off from kitty!!


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## FinnickHog

They're absolutely hilarious. Massive personalities for such tiny, silly things. One time, Pip was mad at my friend for leaving her behind, so when my friend took her out of the cage, she fluttered out of her hands and landed in my hair where she tangled herself in so we couldn't get her out. I thought it was hysterical but Liz was pretty upset. The little dorks really hold a grudge :lol:.

Miss Kerrigan is turning white! I didn't expect her to shed again for ages, so it was a huge surprise. She's only had one small-ish hopper since she got here, which wasn't nearly enough, but she's super pale today. I don't know what they fed her at the pet store, but I guess she was still full. I'll let her do her thing and then try to feed her again. She's been doing a lot of sleeping in the water bowl, which makes me happy, because Loki the milksnake didn't soak at all and I think that's part of what killed him. He refused to use his humid hide and if I tried to spray him he'd burrow, so he was never humid at all during shedding. Sherlock on the other hand is a prolific soaker. I have to fill the dish on his head 90% of the time.

Kerrigan had a small, strange-ish poop a few days ago. It looked like a normal poop, only a third the size and slightly green. So hopefully she's passed the last of whatever was bothering her and everything is back to normal so I can get ready for the next catastrophe now. :roll::lol:


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## amsterdam

Im so impressed that you can manage so many pets! I am thinking of getting a hedgie (dont even have one yet) and am totally/fairly stressed out by the idea of how big a responsibility it is to take on the care of a life, by owning a pet. (Maybe you can tell I didnt' grow up with pets!)


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## FinnickHog

It takes a lot of time and decent scheduling ability to manage them all. But I've always had multiple pets, even when I was a kid. It is definitely a huge responsibility, and it takes a lot of patience and money. But what you get back is always worth it. Especially with hedgehogs, in my opinion. They're great in their own quirky way :lol:.


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## Lilysmommy

I meant to add that I really enjoyed reading about all of the critters in general. I wouldn't want most of them, but they're still so much fun to learn about. I like hoarding animal knowledge. :lol: 

I hope Kerrigan's shed goes well! I'm so glad that she seems to have recovered so well from the scary issues last week. And that she's going to be a good girl & take care of herself during shed! Charis is completely blue-eyed & staying firmly in her hide the past couple days. She's not been fond of me because I've been pulling the hide up so I can spray her and the inside of the hide. Sorry kid, you wouldn't like it if I have to peel stuck shed off you again either! Running the room humidifier again to make sure the humidity stays up high too. It's been staying between 70-80% for the most part, between the humidifier & daily sprays. I wish she was willing to soak herself!

This is my first time owning more than one pet all on my own, and I kind of jumped head-first into the deep end with it. So it's been a steep learning curve. :lol: I'm starting to get used to it though! Right now my bank account is suffering the worst of it, with all of the vet visits.

And Amsterdam, just keep in mind that while it's not quite comfortable to be nervous & a little stressed about taking on the responsibility of a pet, it's probably better to feel that way about it than to not take it as seriously as it should be! I'm sure your potential future hedgie will be very lucky to live with you, with how carefully you're going about considering it.


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## twobytwopets

For me, a flow develops. I get up and get kids out the door to school. Drink coffee and do some morning chores. Do some house chores, more animal chores and more coffee. In the evening it runs very similar. A lot of my stuff is ordered in a way that clears the ability to do the next, or chores are combined. Like everyone gets watered at the same time. I take the rabbit water out when I let one of the dogs out. I pick some tortoise food on the way back in. The birds get fed when I change laundry over. It all has a flow that works. 

I say this now, hopefully by fall you all can laugh at me because many more chores will get added because new animals will get added. Chickens, dairy goats, more rabbits, turkeys, a pig or two and I don't know what else... Hopefully they get added gradually. But I vote that my goats come first.


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## FinnickHog

Oh I love goats so much! That's so exciting! I'm hoping to own a decent chunk of land out here one day and I want goats and chickens so bad.

I wish I could get a flow going. Something always messes up my plans. Someone won't eat, someone is going into shed, someone pooped all over the walls, someone is loose and hiding in my substrate bag... I always have to reschedule things with these guys, it never just goes smoothly. The number of times I've gone upstairs with 5 mice and come back down to put 3 in the garbage is astronomical. I've started offering them to Rocket when the snakes won't eat them :lol:.

Some updates:
First, I ran out of rats for Illidan, so off I went to the pet store, not realizing that they don't stock frozen rats because their supplier is in Alberta. Live rats are illegal here, so breeding them to freeze them isn't allowed. It took us years to convince the government to let us have imported frozen ones. The closest thing and only properly sized item was African soft furred rats, which he's never had before. I'll give him one later today and we'll see what he thinks. I'm a little worried he'll like them too much and then I'll have a huge bag of rats from the show that he won't eat.

Second, I went out yesterday to hunt for earthworms, and found absolutely none. Digging in the soil in copses of trees was no good. So I stopped at the lake to see if I could spot anything the garter (who I have named "Legs" because I am awful) might like. I caught some aquatic snails, some shrimp-looking things, and a big, nasty leech. He wasn't interested in the snails or the shrimp things, but the leech was gone SO fast. I thought Sherlock ate fast. It was like sniff sniff gobble gobble nom nom gone. So cool. So I've found a food source until I can get my hands on some worms at least. I can't find anywhere online that sells Canadian nightcrawlers within Canada, and the shipping isn't over $50 for a small container. Hopefully it rains soon and I can go out and grab some off the sidewalk.


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## Lilysmommy

I'm still too new in my schedule to have a flow yet, but hopefully I'll get there. Everyone's stuff is in different rooms, so it's a bit difficult to combine tasks, but it's easy enough to do one animal's care, then switch to the next, and so on. Most of them only take a few minutes (check crab temp/humidity & change food, change cat's food & water, etc.), so it's easy to string them together & get it done in 30 minutes, or do one animal here, then the next animal after eating, & so on. 

Fingers crossed that Illidan doesn't get picky after this! I know ASF rats are one of the things I saw mentioned repeatedly as a favorite, but I haven't been able to find them around here yet. And jeeze, that's ridiculous with the earthworm thing.  At least you found something to keep the new guy fed for now. I'm glad he ate for you! Are you going to try to set up a worm farm or anything to keep him fed, or just catch things as needed & order if you can find someplace good to order from?


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## FinnickHog

Well, tonight, my plans changed completely. No more digging for worms, no more worrying about parasites, no more catching leeches, no more panicking about shipping prices. Legs ate a frozen/thawed pinky mouse! Mice have everything garters need nutritionally, so I don't have to vary his diet if that's his staple food. Now I can just give him (and everyone else) worms when I can find them for sale. That makes things so much easier! I think I'll call the guy I bought Sherlock and Aki from and see if he can order me some nightcrawlers for the long weekend coming up, and I'll bring them home with me as treats. There's no rush any more though! Woohoo!

Illidan took his ASF with extreme gusto. If I hadn't been using forceps I would have been constricted too :lol:. I'm glad he likes them. Now we just have to wait until the end of the month to see if he'll switch back to rats after 4 ASFs. I'm going to buy a huge bag, so he'd better still like them! I usually buy about a year's worth, but I was a few short this time. I'll also remember to take my cooler, since nobody (except Sherlock, who doesn't count) ate that bag of black hoppers I bought in October. I doubt Canadian Mouseman did something wrong, since I always buy from them, but the hour long trip home may have been too much and they thawed, which would make them nasty.

Kerrigan can see again, so shedding should happen any day now. I'm excited to see if she'll eat when she's done. I also want to get a video of her rattling her tail at me. When it hits the plastic bin it sounds like a rattlesnake! I was discussing the behaviour on a reptile forum and someone called it "shaking their tic tacs" and that's exactly what it sounds like :lol:.


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## FinnickHog

I hate to double post, but I wanted to share this before I forget. It seems that Lygodactylus williamsi, my electric blue day geckos, are about to be placed on CITES in Appendix 1. What does that mean? It means the Tanzanian government didn't do enough to stop the export on these guys and they are now critically endangered and heading toward extinction. I will be postponing all other breeding plans and focusing on producing L. williamsi offspring until a stable, sustainable global captive collection can be produced.

Take a look at this link for more stats: http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/14665363/0
Some highlights include:
Red list category: critically endangered
Total global area of occupancy: 8 kilometers (4.97 miles. Yeah, I know.)
Population: Known subpopulations are not connected due to lack of suitable habitat in between, and the population is consequently considered to be severely fragmented. (deforestation. ugh.)

They only live on one species of tree, they're heavily targeted by poachers and smugglers, and illegal and LEGAL deforestation of the area is continuing at an alarming rate. We're nearly at the point where the wild population is extinct and only captive specimens remain to keep the species alive. This horrifies me.

And that is your scheduled reality check of the day. Remember, good breeders are the key to keeping the animals we love alive and healthy in captivity!


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## Lilysmommy

Yay, good boy Legs!! That's great news for him & for you. I'm glad Illidan ate too! Will keep fingers crossed that he doesn't give you any trouble switching back to normal rats later on. That would make sense with the hoppers. Even though the big bags usually stay frozen pretty well, I imagine small things like hoppers would thaw much more easily than adult mice & big ole rats. 

Poor little geckos.  That's such a shame that they're almost gone in the wild...I know captivity is better than nothing, but it's always just heartbreaking to have another species disappear from where they really belong. I hope your crew get busy & give you lots of babies! Sounds like there's a lot riding on them now. What are your plans for the offspring? Trading & selling to others who will be able to help with breeding & sustaining the captive population? What is the likelihood of reintroduction if their habitat ends up saved somewhere along the way? I know there have been a few success stories for larger animals, but I don't know what the success rate would be like for such small critters, especially with such a limited area & habitat type.


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## amsterdam

Lilysmommy said:


> And Amsterdam, just keep in mind that while it's not quite comfortable to be nervous & a little stressed about taking on the responsibility of a pet, it's probably better to feel that way about it than to not take it as seriously as it should be! I'm sure your potential future hedgie will be very lucky to live with you, with how carefully you're going about considering it.


aw, thank you. I think I will be super nervous at first, but will ease into it okay. I would be sad if I ended up never making the leap, just because I was too scared! Owning a pet is a unique thing in life, which is probably why I have a hard time placing exactly how it is and what it means, but I do know that it brings love into your life, and that it brings meaning. Two great things. And animals just make me happy, so having one in such an intimate way seems guaranteed to be rewarding.
http://www.hedgehogcentral.com//www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/


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## FinnickHog

At this point I'm just glad everyone ate! :lol:

I actually have an adult female available now, and I was offering her on the local reptile club forums and nobody wanted her, not even to trade genetics. The couple I get my dart frog supplies from in Calgary have a breeding trio, but they're having no luck at all producing offspring. The lady I got my captive born ones from isn't working with any of the lygodactylus guys anymore. So I don't even know if there's anyone else in Alberta with conservation in mind at this point. I may have to get Facebook and try starting a group to find more people.

In captivity, males are produced when the eggs are held at a steady temperature of 78 or so F. To produce a female you need to dip the temperature down quite a bit. That's why my latest is a female. She was in the egg when I moved up here. So that alone complicates things. A person I've been talking to about all of this says that females are going for £200 in Britain right now, and most breeders are keeping them because they're so uncommon.

Even the ones in captivity are in trouble if everyone doesn't get educated on how to produce females fast. Breeding programs are bottlenecking because there are so many more males to females. I'd guess 5:1 at this point.

If the habitat is saved I don't know if reintroduction would be possible. Since the little guys only like one kind of tree, and those trees are heavily fragmented, something would have to be done to fill the gaps back in, or the populations would end up too fragmented to survive. It's also in Tanzania, so I'm not sure anyone will ever be able to protect the area from poachers, even. With the CITES ranking, selling L. williamsi without paperwork will be impossible, but I doubt that will stop the poachers from trying. Which means confiscation, and probably captivity for those ones as well. I'm really hoping some of the larger zoos get on board to help with the captive population soon, as they have the best chances of actually producing the number of babies we need at this point to even stabilize these guys. I'm not optimistic though about them in the wild or in captivity. I figured out that females need vast temperature variance while in the egg fairly early on, but I knew a lot about leopard geckos, which are similar. Most people interested in L. williamsi seem focused on other day geckos, and none of them need this temperature shift, which means none of them have tried it yet.

Along with some pictures I posted on the United Kingdom's reptile forums, I added my personal experience and a care sheet. Hopefully it gets viewed enough for the guys across the pond to catch on. But we'll have to wait and see.

I had no idea the mess I was getting myself into by liking these overconfident little geckos. This is my life now. :lol:


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## Lilysmommy

Poor cute little guys.  I hope you're able to get more people on board with breeding them and can educate them on producing some females. It'd be such a shame to lose them all...


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## FinnickHog

Here's hoping. I actually contacted a major conservation team in Europe to see if they know of anyone with large groups in North America. I may donate them if there's someone working with them large scale over here.


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## FinnickHog

Kerrigan shed last night and ate two big fuzzies just now! I'll keep an eye out for her next poop, but this should mean she's going to be fine!

There were two male grey banded kings available in my area last week, but I didn't buy one just in case Kerrigan didn't make it. Naturally, both are sold now.

I haven't heard back about any L. williamsi programs in North America yet, so for the time being I'm feeding them extra well and giving them some space to lay eggs without being bothered. I have two more eggs due to hatch this week, so hopefully I get a few babies soon.

My saltwater tank had an outbreak of red bubble algae, green hair algae, and aiptasia. I've been treating the aiptasia but the other two had to be manually removed, and since I tend to get bored, the whole set up is now in my 7.8 gallon instead of the ten. The 7.8 is a way nicer tank aesthetically, and my snails were having a tough time combing through the sand in the 10, so this cuts it down a little. I just have to do a quick water change and I'll take some pictures. The fish and shrimp are thrilled, the crabs couldn't care less, the snails are all happily rummaging around, and the corals all made it so far. The xenia doesn't look very happy, but it should just die back a bit and then perk back up. It was being constantly stung by aiptasia where it was before so hopefully it decides this isn't so bad.

And now I have an empty ten gallon tank! The boyfriend wants a desert-y reptile, so a baby leopard gecko might end up in there. We'll see. The next show is on the 28th.


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## FinnickHog

Tank pictures!

Here's the whole tank now:









Seamus and Ranty are living in the tunnel on the left hand side. Seamus has already dug a cave underneath that whole rock.

Pink and yellow zoas:









Discosoma that came with the rock:









Butterfly Wing zoas:









Tubbs Blue zoas:









Fire and Ice zoas:









They seem to be settling in well so far!


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## twobytwopets

Ok, the one place I thought I seen a gecko like yours doesn't have them listed now. Don't know if that's because of their status and their breeder no longer supplies them. As far as I know, they are only a broker (backwater reptiles) don't judge I hadn't bought anything from them. 
It may be worth contacting them to see if they used to carry them and if they could possibly put you in touch with someone.


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## FinnickHog

I wouldn't trust Backwater with anything endangered . I have no personal proof, but judging from customer reviews a lot of their animals are not in the best shape when they're shipped out. Hopefully they just finished selling off the last of their semi-legal wild caught geckos and won't be getting any more. Their prices are always much too low for my liking.

They honor their guarantees by replacing any unsatisfactory animals, but the number of animals they ship out in the first place that aren't pet quality to begin with worries me.

Thanks for having a look around though! If you see them anywhere else, let me know!


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## twobytwopets

No, I don't think I'd trust backwater with anything non-endangered. 
Although, I've been tempted to get a box turtle from them. But, no box turtles from home for me. 
I also checked on hoobly, no luck there.


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## FinnickHog

I love box turtles! There's a review on the BBB website regarding a box turtle. Backwater shipped one out that had a large cyst on it's neck . I felt so sorry for the little guy.

Darn. I haven't seen one on kijiji in months now. I'm hoping it's because the conservationists have snapped them all up.


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## Lilysmommy

Yay Kerrigan!  I'm glad to hear she's back on track and doing well.

Fingers crossed that you get some new babies. And hear some news soon on someone trying to do more for them! The corals look so pretty, I hope they all continue to settle into the new tank well. 

Ahhh, I will demand so many pictures if you guys get a leo! I'm leaning towards them right now for my future gecko, though I don't know if it'll last. They're so cute though!


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## FinnickHog

I love them so much. My other one is still with my parents. He's almost 21 now, I believe. We're also looking at these: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/fa/4b/d5/fa4bd515c64b0d154f53abdd8c573617.jpg or these: http://i.imgur.com/mfBnpPI.jpg

The second one was really common in the pet trade in the 90s but now they're hard to come by. I'll have some words with the guy I got Sherlock, Aki, Loki the milksnake, and my feeder earthworms from in Calgary if he's at the Edmonton show, or later, since he co-runs the Red Deer show. He's probably our best bet for finding one. But if the perfect leo comes along we'll just do that.

I'll have to go digging through my old hard copy pictures and see if I can find any of my leopard gecko when he was a baby. He was so cute!


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## FinnickHog

Just a few garter snake pictures today. Since I moved the fish into the 7.8 gallon, I decided to make the 10 gallon's hood snakeproof and put Legs in there for now. It's too small for Kerrigan but he'll be alright in there for the time being. I want to go out with my hedge pruners and get him a nice big branch, but this is it for now:










He looks like he's going to shed soon so he's a little pale, but here's a closer shot of him from the above picture checking things out:









And here he is being mister photogenic and saying hello. Look at all those intimidating teeth :roll: :lol::


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## FinnickHog

And here's mister legs having a snack. He's realized the food comes from me and stares at me every time I go by now. Also I really need a tripod.


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## Lilysmommy

Jeeze, he really scarfs that down! I giggled when you moved the tongs & he whipped away. "No, MINE!" :lol: I love the open mouth "grin" picture above too!!! Such a handsome guy.


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## FinnickHog

He's a silly guy. And again, his personality is completely different from the other snakes. Now that he's settled he's insanely overconfident unless I swoop right above him. He has two decent hides and can burrow but he likes to sit dead center in the cage staring at Pepper, Oz, and I. If I rub his back he leans into it instead of making a run for it. He also seems to forget where he's parked his butt. He tends to leave it in weird places while he's exploring with the front end.

I bought this magnetic hide for the day geckos and frogs ages ago and neither liked it, so Legs has it now. He can curl up tightly in it. I put some aspen in there for him and wrapped the heat cable around that area so it's nice and warm. Oz and I also found him a nice branch today, and I threw in a spare fake plant. The cage looks like this now:










He's currently coiled up in the foam hide stuck to the back left corner. Oh no, I lied. I just turned around and he's sprawled out all over the new plant and branch. :lol:. I can't believe how well he's already settled in.

...I think I forgot to tell my boyfriend that I named the snake. I just said "Legs get back in your hide" and my boyfriend sloooowly turned around with this look on his face and said "you named him LEGS?"

Yes. Yes I did :-? .


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## FinnickHog

Just a brief update for today. Rocket is still escaping her bucket cage somehow, so I'm going to build her a new enclosure that's a bit like Finn's only with more wood and less coroplast. I moved Finnick's camera around so it's pointed at Rocket's escape point. She's stretching to her absolute maximum length, scrambling at the wall with her silly legs, balancing on the tip of her tail, managing to hook the edge of her chin over the top of the shorter bucket, and then slowly pulling herself up and over using just her chin. She's a special one.

Finnick's weight has stabilized a bit higher than before and his sides are straight now instead of slightly indented. He's looking really good and still loving his food. I'm going to go and make a new batch in a few minutes. It has some squash this month, some raspberries, and some turnip greens. We'll see what he thinks.

He's also started liner diving again. I don't really mind, but right now he's managed to wedge himself under the fleece between his food and water dish. When he got comfy, it looks like he pulled the fleece around him so the wheel is tucked in where his entry point was. I think I may need to rescue him :lol:.

Everybody else is doing really well. I'll update on Rocket's cage once it looks like something other than a big sheet of wood.


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## Lilysmommy

They just keep taking turns driving you nuts, huh? :lol: I cracked up at Rocket's escape method...how the heck is her chin that strong?

I'm so glad Finn is still doing great on his food! That's fantastic to hear. I hope he likes the new batch just as much. I gave up fighting the girls on liner diving, I have little hope of discouraging either anymore. I started putting Pancake's bowls all just on the tote floor so that she won't dump her water or anything when she yanks the blankets everywhere. :roll:

Can't wait to see Rocket's new home! Hopefully it'll keep the silly girl in place.


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## FinnickHog

It's always something around here :lol:. I'm pretty sure Rocket is just one massive muscle. She's really strong all over. I want to catch her escape with a decent camera, but I stuck a heavier lid on her for now, so hopefully she won't get out again.

I was thinking about doing a fleece diving liner, and then something a bit heavier like a plastic mat for food and water. We'll see what I can find.

I just finished cutting the wood up for the new cage. I had just enough for the frame. I still need to do a little sanding, and then I'll glue and screw the back, sides, and bottom together. Then I'll coat the inside in whatever I'm coating it in, make the outside pretty, size up the inner platform and secure that in place, secure the front upper and lower lips, and then put the door(s) on.

I'm not sure if I want to do sliding plexiglass, one big hinged piece of plexiglass, two horizontally opening pieces, or glass of some sort, or something with chicken wire to let more air in... But I know the dimensions I need, so I'll keep my eyes open. Other than that, the only materials I need are the linoleum or vinyl inner liner, lino glue, and chicken wire for the top. Not too bad at all.

It's going to rain all weekend and I'm going away (along with the hog, the bird, and the dog), so I'll definitely have it sanded and glued by Friday so I can bring it in the house. I'll post some pictures when it looks like something!


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## FinnickHog

She got out AGAIN! I went in to feed everyone and she just wasn't there. I found her in the closet and lured her out with her dinner. This lizard. I don't feel safe going away for the weekend with her getting out, so I either need to get the new cage habitable by Friday or put her in Finn's cage while we're gone. I have no idea how she did it this time. She was in there at 2:00, I went to feed her at 3:30 and she was out.

The top of the new cage is about to be secured on right now, and the back, sides, and bottom are done. The platform is about a third of the way finished, I'm just deciding if I want to use wood or coroplast for the basking surface, and I'm going out in a few hours to get a liner for the inside and look at door options again. It's possible it can be livable by Friday but I'm going to have to keep working my butt off. I'll post pictures tonight once I get the waterproofing attached. I'm probably going to use a patterned shower curtain. I'm hoping I can find an Australian outback-looking one.

She's lucky I like her so much.


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## twobytwopets

Time to teach pepper to tattle on rocket. 
Over the winter the birds move into the hedgehog and tortoises room. Skeeter would go nuts when someone was in the wrong spot. Now if my Boston terrier finds out that someone is on walkabout he follows them and cries.


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## FinnickHog

She yells when the dog gets into the garbage, though. If I move her upstairs my garbage alarm will be gone!

Haha poor Skeeter. She sounds like she's good at her job though. I wish my dog would just follow strays around. He'd rather eat them before I notice.


So I cut into a piece of Ikea bedframe backboard thinking, "hey, I'll have this nice 3 inch thick piece of particleboard to use for my ramp!" I took a picture. There's about a half inch of particleboard around the edge and then cardboard in the shape of honeycomb to fill the gap. I'll post that image later with the cage pictures. I was so sad, but it was hilarious.


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## FinnickHog

Aww I forgot to download the Ikea picture. Oh well, tomorrow, I guess.

Here's where I'm at with the cage now:

With no doors:









With doors:









Top down:









And Oz and I for scale:









It's 24x48x22", so pretty darn big. The doors are ready to go in, I just need to add the tracks so that they don't fall over or get stuck. I still need to finish the outside, it's pretty rough since I cut everything with a jigsaw vertically against the side of the house. But the waterproofing is in, the ramp and platform are done, I found doors, the top is secure, and it's huge, so I'm feeling good so far.

I used vinyl for countertops as the waterproofing. As you can tell, I didn't have enough to go all the way up the walls, so I'm thinking I'll see if I can find some cute tape or a wall border design and use that to finish it. The top is chicken wire, everything else is leftover wood from an old bedframe we had laying around and a few boxes of screws. The doors are heavy plastic picture frames in 24x36" size. For tools all I needed were a jigsaw with a few blades, a power drill with a screwdriver head, some wire cutters, glue, a hammer, and a knife. Not too bad at all.

Rocket was loose again when I went upstairs, so she's been tossed into Finnick's travel cage for now. It has a *firmly* locking lid. I should have the cage at least habitable by tomorrow, so I won't have to worry about her escaping. The outside might be unfinished for a while but I can live with it as long as Houdini Jr. is safe.

Things I have left to do:
Add tracks and secure the doors
Add door handles
Potentially add a door lock

Sand, paint, and fill the exterior
Finish the inside wall design
Heat and furnish

I'm getting there!


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## Lilysmommy

Jeeze, Rocket is determined to be a brat, huh? Glad you'll have her cage done soon to keep her contained! It looks fantastic so far, I love how big it is.  Clearly Rocket just wanted to be spoiled with a nice giant new cage. Smart girl! :lol: 

By the way, speaking of cages....I got a reply on my PVC cages! Answered some final questions on color & whatnot and got the invoice sent. Will be getting a final one after they get my reply on the shipping option they offered. I asked how much longer till I get them, so hoping to get an updated estimated soon! I won't be spending money on the pets for fun much for a while after ordering them....gonna be pricey.  Oh well!


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## FinnickHog

The cage is habitable!

First, here's what I found inside the wood from Ikea: 









Here's the cage completed but empty:









And full, including lizard:









And here's Rocket basking:









I'm thinking I'll trim the door width a little shorter since they overlap so much, and I need to finish the outside, but other than that, it works. I also just filled it with stuff I already had. I'd like to mimic Australian tropical savanna, but I'll have to find supplies first.

The whole cage so far cost me $70, so not too bad at all. I'm going to knock over my parents' basement while I'm visiting this weekend and see if I can swipe some paint and some door handles.

I can't wait to see the PVC cages! They're going to be way nicer than my ramshackle mess! :lol: They're pricey but they're so worth it. Some day in the near future I'm going to buy one for Finn, one for Illidan, and a spare one for something huge. Maybe a Varanus acanthurus or three. But that'll be down the road a bit yet.


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## Lilysmommy

Dude, yours looks freaking great! And the price just makes it that much better!  I really would like to try making a wood viv, but I don't have the skills for it right now, nor the time/energy to research how to do so. Someday in the future maybe.

So now that you have Rocket contained...are you ready for the next problem that's surely going to appear? :lol:


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## FinnickHog

Thanks! It turned out pretty good. It's the first cage I've made out of mostly wood. It was fairly easy, but I've been tinkering with power tools my whole life so nothing was really new to me. I actually drew up the plans myself and everything.

Well, as I was connecting the new heating, there was a blast of lightning and the power went out. If it keeps happening I'll have to stay home for the weekend and make sure everyone stays warm enough. Fingers crossed it was a one-time thing. And I'm thinking about a few more animals, despite the already existent chaos. I must be crazy :lol:.


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## FinnickHog

Rocket stayed confined while I was away, and then as soon as we got home, Oz slammed his fat head right through one of the sliding doors. It cracked pretty good. I figured I could replace it in a few days, so I left it, and about an hour later, while I was in the middle of an Overwatch match and couldn't pause, I heard Rocket sliding through the crack in the door. I managed to toss her back in while my character was dead, but she came right back out. I had to stick her in my shirt while I finished the game and then duct tape the cracks shut.

I'll be buying something a little more heavy duty for the doors in the near future. In the meantime, duct tape on the cracks and a squirt bottle sitting on the cage frame will have to do. Oz is terrified of water, so all I have to do it squirt the bottle at Pepper (who loves it) and then set it somewhere and he'll avoid the area. He's such a turd, this dog.

Other than that, there haven't been any more power outages and everyone who went away for the weekend with me handled it well. My mom went in Finnick's room to get something one night and he looked at her from his wheel like "get out, I'm busy here" and just kept going. He's really tough to spook, which is awesome. 

The snakes, salamanders, and Rocket just had dinner. I brought back a big tub of Canadian nightcrawlers for everyone. Legs had two whole worms and then a few segments the salamanders didn't finish, Squee had a whole worm to himself, and he ate it backwards so it kept escaping while he was trying to swallow it, and Shaw had his in pieces and wasn't thrilled about it. Rocket had a few chunks, and she seems to have liked them well enough. She picked out the egg and yellow bell pepper first and then ate the rest.

I'll give Finn a few worm chunks when he wakes up. And then I'm going to save the rest and see if I can get them breeding, or whatever worms do to make more worms. I had to buy them from the bait section in Cabela's, so I don't really want to have to find more.

Kerrigan had two fuzzy mice with no problems. She wiggles her tail and then strikes. I'll catch it on camera sooner or later. So she's all back to normal.

Everything is good right now! Who wants to take bets on what happens next?! :lol:


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## twobytwopets

Proof that heelers are hard headed! Did he not know there was glass there, or did Rocket convince Oz to break it. I'm telling you, they are in cahoots!!


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## Lilysmommy

I'm starting to think they're teaming up too! Good lord, critters. Just stay in your own bedroom!! :lol:

Glad your travelers handled it well too! Both of my girls are doing fantastic, I'm really relieved. No going off food & both wheeling well. Though they got a little crankier with me when I darted into the room after lights out last night to steal their fan. :lol: It was only five minutes after lights out & they were both already up & at it!

Yay for nightcrawlers! I hope you can get them breeding. I want to start a worm breeding/compost bin sometime, but the worms that are best for that are red wigglers, which Bindi didn't like. It's on my list of future projects though, to see what it'd take to start breeding the bigger ones. Glad Kerrigan is doing great again too!! 

Well let's see...so far there's been drama from Pepper, Oz, Rocket, and Kerrigan...My guess is Legs or Finn are up next. :lol: Fingers crossed that they take it easy on you though!! & that they give you a nice long break before causing more drama, for that matter. We're both due for some quiet pet enjoyment for a while, I think.


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## FinnickHog

Oz punched his head through a metal screen reptile cage lid once too. I think he knows but it just doesn't matter :lol:. He really doesn't care if he gets hurt. It drives me nuts!

Yay, I'm glad the girls did well! Traveling is so stressful for me because I worry.

No one here likes red wigglers either. I'll have to research how to care for these night crawlers. I know they like it cold so they're in the fridge right now.

Here's hoping everyone behaves for both of us for a while.


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## FinnickHog

Well, I got a pretty crazy surprise this evening. The crested geckos' pump wasn't working, so I had to dig out all the substrate and have a look. While I was digging, I found four eggs! One likely isn't any good but the other three look alright. I'm so excited! I have no idea when they were laid as I didn't know anyone was gravid, so they could hatch any time from now until mid-July. I've got them all set up in an incubator and we'll see how it goes. I'll try to candle them in the near future. They're about the length of a quarter and then oval. The red stuff is just sharpie, because I had to mark which way was up to move them safely.










And in other news, Miss Rocket got to try some dog treats from Stella and Chewy. It's a sample of their beef flavor, which means Oz can't have it, so I gave it to her and she likes it quite a bit. Oz used to get Stella and Chewy's rabbit patties, but they were so expensive considering the persistent listeria recalls that I decided it wasn't worth it. But hey, samples are samples and they're brand new, so hopefully they're clean.

Here's the video of that: Rocket Tries Some Dog Treats

I had to cut the audio because the Witcher 3 was on in the background, but I really like the track I picked. Usually I just grab one of the top results but I actually had a look around this time.

If the egg candling shows anything I'll take some pictures!


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## FinnickHog

Oh, I completely forgot! I bought a bunch of snake snacks from the expo (and a heat panel for Rocket, but no animals despite eyeballing a beautiful $300 crestie), and I gave a frozen/thawed small adult mouse to Akihiko when we got home and he took it right away! Hopefully he sticks with it this time, so there's no more live mice in the house! I took a big cooler and a bag of ice with me and put the mice and rats in that for the ride home. I'll throw the old black hoppers in the garbage.


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## FinnickHog

I candled the eggs so the folks over at reptileforums.co.uk could have a look, and I thought you guys might be interested too. I'm a complete noob at candling, but I'm guessing eggs 1 and 3 are newer, within the month, egg 2 is two-ish months old, and egg 4 is toast.

But three babies when I was expecting none is pretty exciting. I have to set mom up with a laying box still, because she looks a little round and when I was feeling her tummy I think I felt eggs. I'd much prefer to know where to look next time :lol:

Here's the video: Candling Crestie Eggs


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## Lilysmommy

Babies!!!  Now that's a good surprise! I don't have time to watch the video before work, but will try to look at it later, along with Rocket's video. And also yay Aki!! I hope he continues to eat the f/t for you! *crosses fingers*


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## FinnickHog

I was pretty happy to have a good surprise for a change! :lol:


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## twobytwopets

That's awesome!!! Just out of curiosity, what are you using to candle the eggs?


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## FinnickHog

It's a flashlight I found on sale at Canadian Tire. When I moved out here I didn't bring one, so I just randomly grabbed it not realizing how amazing it is. The back end folds out into a tripod, the three heads can be angled and each has its own on button as well as red blinker led mode, and they all pull out into individual mini flashlights. The tripod base made it excellent for candling because I didn't have to hold it. It's in my top ten list of best things I've ever purchased, easily. It looks like this only solid black:


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## twobytwopets

Oh cool, I wasn't sure but could see the other lights that weren't on. 
I always used one of those promotional flash light key rings, that don't put out a big enough beam to actually do anything a normal person needs a flashlight for. It worked perfect for that because I would have minimal light escaping around the eggs. 

Now if you give her a spot to lay the eggs, the real question is, will she use it?


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## FinnickHog

I had the option of a comically oversized lighter, an actual candle, or the flashlight :lol:. I'll definitely invest in something less "ow my eyes" for candling in the future. I was having a tough time lining the third one up so it wasn't too bright.

Yeah, that is the question. Since I just did maintenance the soil is all loosely packed and just right for digging. I'm hoping the privacy and small opening will make the box seem more appealing, but we'll have to wait and see. I'll be doing more searching in the dirt for a while now either way, since I can't catch her in the act. The soil in the bottom of the cage is really variable on moisture content, so I worry that eggs will mold, drown, or dry out. If she'd just use her box, the soil in there will be perfect.


Just a little more info on how the sexing confusion happened:
With crested geckos, the females usually have flat, smooth scales behind their vent. The males have little dots in the center of the scale in a curved line. They're tiny little pores. The annoying part is that both males and females can develop what look like gonads at the base of the tail, and this doesn't mean anything sex-wise. Mordin doesn't have this, but both Grunt and Nanamo do. I separated Grunt out because he was sexed by his breeder and I confirmed pores easily just by looking. Nanamo's lumpy bits kept getting bigger and bigger, so we started joking about her being a him and I kept a close look on her scales for pores, since they can be quite small and hard to see in juveniles. She's a full adult now, and I still can't see them, but she's been doing Grunt's mating dance very recently, so I'm guessing Nanamo is a boy and Mordin is a girl. I'm going to need to invest in a magnifying glass to be sure. S/he was also sexed and 100% confirmed female by the breeder I bought him/her from. Oops!

Oh well, looks like I need more ladies just in time for reptile show season!


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## FinnickHog

Two small updates this evening, or morning, or whatever this is.

First, the skink cage doors are now so battered that Rocket can escape. I found her under the fridge and had to lure her out with her dinner. So I need to go and buy some plexiglass. That should be thick enough to withstand the Face of Wrath.

Second, I finally had my doctor's appointment. Unless something crazy happens, I'll be going in for surgery on the 24th. This doctor didn't even have a look, he just read my seven or eight years worth of medical history and said "why has no one cut you open yet!?" Finally! It's a super minor surgery so I should be fine the following day.


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## FinnickHog

I'll just leave this here:

Mordin Shedding and Eating It

Oh, I forgot to mention! I don't know if any of you are part of my amazing group of 12 YouTube followers, but if you are (and even if you're not!), I'm going to be starting a series next week, on Sunday, where I'll showcase my individual exotic pets. It'll be updated Sundays and Wednesdays.


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## Lilysmommy

Yay more videos!  I don't use my youtube account at ALL, but I'll definitely look forward to seeing videos on each pet! I finally watched the last few and they're very cool. Rocket is seriously making me want a BTS. They're getting higher and higher on the "future pets" list...Though hopefully if I get one, they won't have the same knack for escaping that Rocket does. :lol:

That's good news about the surgery too! I hope things go well and you recover quickly.


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## FinnickHog

I'm glad you enjoyed the videos! I wouldn't give Rocket up for anything. She's so much fun, even with the escaping. I actually just made her a harness so she can go for a walk outside when the sun comes up all the way. Hopefully that'll get some of the wanderlust out of her system. I'm starting to think I know why she was traded in though... :lol:

I haven't had any input on my candling yet on the reptile forum, so I guess I'll ask my... uh... mom's cousin's son, whatever that makes him? He breeds cresties too, so he should be able to help me out. The three eggs still look good though, and Mordin is looking around for a place to lay the next batch as I type. After this round I'll separate them to give her a break.

After seeing all the baby leopard geckos at the first show of the season, we're seriously considering one or two or three of them. The boyfriend likes the common morphs like hypo tangerine and snow. I of course like the Tremper albino raptors and anything with the snake eyes gene. The next show is in August, so we'll see what happens. That's also the show that will have the most lizards available. Here's an available list from a local breeder to show the pricing and sweet eyes.


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## FinnickHog

So, of course, the second I wanted to split the male and female crested gecko up, Akihiko turned white. I was going to put the female in his cage and the male in the other similar cage I have, and then move Aki into the big one. But now I have to wait for a snake shed. I might rehome the male in the meantime.

In other news, Oz and I went for a walk through the carnival that is downtown right now, and he was such a good boy! We saw about 5 dogs and a ton of people. He smiled the whole way and got pats and didn't bark or try to kill anything! It was really impressive. He's come such a long way from when I got him. We've started training for treibball, which involves the dog pushing a big ball down a field and through a set of goalposts with guidance from the handler. He's such a strong herder I think he'll love it. Right now he can close a door with his nose. We'll introduce the ball in the next week or so.


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## FinnickHog

The first video in my pet series, Legs, is live now!






I hope you all enjoy it!


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## twobytwopets

Wow he eats fast. Must admit, I laughed at your tongs and said, hey those look familiar!


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## FinnickHog

He really does. By far the shortest feeding video I've taken.

They're really good tongs! :lol:


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## twobytwopets

They will hold your tongue still when your body is telling you to move it!

My only pet snake was a ball python. I had others that we caught as kids but they always "ran away" within a few days. As a mom, I now totally understand "escaping" wild animals! But I swear, my ball python would sit and look at his food, have a little conversation about whatever they talk about, try and make friends with his food. If they had it available, I'm sure they would have had a couple beers together. Then he would eat it. I always joked that it was like he was figuring out if the mouse deserved to live or die.


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## FinnickHog

They will. It's kind of frightening.

Aww he sounds like a cutie! Kind of warped to make friends with your dinner though :lol:. My wild caught pets always ran away, too. I usually caught frogs, and I can definitely understand them "running away". They're not easy to feed at all.


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## Prue

That's a great video! I have always been interested in snakes... Maybe one day! I find them quite striking and intriguing pets, and completely different from the ones that I have. For future reference, is there a species that you would recommend for a beginner? Obviously I would have a lot of research and learning to do before making the decision, but I would love to hear your opinion.


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## FinnickHog

I really like corn snakes as a starter snake. They're easy to find, well priced, almost always captive bred, there are tons and tons of colors to choose from, they're easy to handle, and they almost never have issues with dinner time. They rarely bite, if ever, calm down really well, live 15-25 years, just need mice, so no rats or anything larger. They get 4 feet or so. Easy temperature requirements, normal house humidity works well... They're just awesome! 

The other really good option is a ball python. They're nearly the same as corns, but get a lot chubbier so they're a heavier snake, they can have some issues with feeding, and can go off their food for months at a time, and need a higher stable humidity than corns. But they're super pretty and usually really sweet. They're also slower than corns.

So those are a good place to start!

I'm glad you enjoyed the video! Wednesday is the green tree python.


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## Prue

Thank you so much for the recommendations! Both corn snakes and ball pythons sound like a great option. I will start reading into them!


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## FinnickHog

Episode 2 with Mister Aki is live: 




He's about to go into shed so he didn't eat, sadly, but he's still a good boy for the camera. He's solid white now, so he should shed next week and then I can feed him.


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## FinnickHog

And just a quick update with a video schedule. This is tentative, because nobody ever does what I want on the day I want them to do it, but upcoming videos should look something like this:

Episode 1 - Legs - Sunday, June 5 - Posted
Episode 2 - Akihiko - Wednesday, June 8 - Posted
Episode 3 - Cresties - Sunday, June 12
Episode 4 - Salamanders - Wednesday, June 15
Episode 5 - Illidan - Sunday, June 19
Episode 6 - Finnick - Wednesday, June 22
Episode 7 - Sherlock - Sunday, June 26
Episode 8 - Pepper - Wednesday, June 29
Episode 9 - Keitan - Sunday, July 3
Episode 10 - Kerrigan - Wednesday, July 6
Episode 11 - Saltwater - Sunday, July 10
Episode 12 - Rocket - Wednesday, July 13
Episode 13 - L williamsi - Sunday, July 17
Episode 14 - Oz - Wednesday, July 20

So make sure you catch Finnick on June 22nd! I'm sure there will be lots of hedgie bum and not much looking at the camera or behaving himself. I'm also hoping Rocket's new door will be installed by July. Right now it's sliding cardboard, so she can't even see out .


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## twobytwopets

Rocket gets time in "solitary confinement" for repeated escape attempts. Security measures need beefed up and she has to meet with the warden before being aloud back into general population.


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## FinnickHog

She's really sad about it too. I keep hearing her flailing against the cardboard trying to knock it over. She went outside for an hour yesterday but I guess that wasn't good enough :lol:.


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## FinnickHog

Cresties today on YouTube! I was fiddling with the video quality and I don't like how this one turned out, so it may get redone and re-uploaded in a week or so. 




In hedgehog news, Finnick managed to pop the lid off his dirt bath box and flung sand EVERYWHERE! I found some on top of the frog tank across the room, and in the windowsill way above him. So he definitely had a good time last night :lol:. I'm glad he's still enjoying that box so much.

And in Akihiko news, he shed and pooped! The shed is in two pieces because it got stuck on his plant, but it's all off and he looks great. I'll try feeding him a frozen thawed mouse tomorrow. Hopefully he's hungry now.


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## FinnickHog

The salamander video is live a little bit early because I'm going to go play Skyrim all night! 




Akihiko ate, but he did it while I wasn't watching and it was dark. I'm glad he took a frozen thawed mouse, but I didn't catch him eat it. I actually tucked it in his coils and he constricted and sat with it wrapped up for 45 minutes, so I left him at it and went to bed. He didn't ever strike it but it was gone in the morning. Whatever works, I guess!


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## FinnickHog

It's Illidan today! (Tomorrow? I'm an hour early local time) 




I've settled on a piece of 1/8" thick plexiglass and a long hinge for the skink cage. Unfortunately a 48" long piece is triple the price of a 36" piece, so I'm going to buy the 36er and bring the front walls in a foot to frame the plexiglass. That should give it enough support on all four edges to prevent it from buckling if it gets dogslammed. Oz has warped the cardboard now by pressing his head in the top and folding it over. He's definitely persistent, I'll give him that. He's doing better with sudden skink movements but he likes to periodically bend the cardboard and look inside. Dogs :roll:.

Finnick's video is almost done, I just need to take a shot of his cage. And then it's ready to go, so it will be up on Wednesday!


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## Lilysmommy

Illidan is such a good boy. I love him! And the cresties are adorable too. 

Oz is such a dork. :lol: Hopefully he doesn't assist Rocket with another escape before you get the new door up!

I can't wait to see Finn's video! I posted an update recently on my thread, but may post again today or tomorrow. I have a ton of pictures & videos of the hermit crabs after cleaning & rearranging their tank today, and I want to get a new picture of Charis's tank too, since I just rearranged hers a bit after the cleaning.


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## FinnickHog

He's my little sweetheart. As you can see the cresties haven't been moved yet. I still haven't decided who is going where. Too many choices!

Oz is so rotten. I actually put him in the bathroom for Finn's video because I didn't want a dogface on my lap the whole time :lol:.

Finnick refused to sit still while I was filming. He does this goofy waddle from one of my shoulders to the other. It's pretty darn cute.

I'm so excited to see pictures of the crabbies and Charis's tank! I'm sad the little naked crab didn't make it. It was super cute.


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## FinnickHog

It's Finnick day! 




He absolutely refuses to hold still when he's out of his snuggle sack :lol:. I'm hoping to do a more detailed video on hedgehog care, maybe in segments, in the near future, so it'll be a bit more all-inclusive instead of just the basic stuff.

I also have a funny outtake to post a little later. During our first filming session, Pepper decided to feed me. And then I wouldn't take it so she plays with it. It was really gross! I had to re-shoot all of it because there was puke all over her beak and feet.

I'm done my prep bloodwork and physical and am now confirmed for surgery Friday morning, so I've pre-filmed the next two videos. They'll be up on time but I may not be around consistently to discuss them or answer any questions. I'm assuming I'll be able to use my phone while I'm in bed though, so I won't be completely gone.

Here's hoping the doctor finds something to fix while he's exploring around :???:.


----------



## FinnickHog

And then there's this dummy:










I don't know what to do with him. He is the worst predator ever. I think he was reciting Shakespeare to it.


----------



## twobytwopets

He loves him, and hugs him, and names him George!


----------



## FinnickHog

He's going to be very skinny, but he'll have a lot of Georges!


----------



## Lilysmommy

:lol: Silly Finn! Bindi will usually do the "Nope, not staying here, must move" thing if I don't let her go straight to my shoulder or chin and calm down for a few minutes first. I love when he froze on your shoulder and seemed to be posing, heh. He was so determined to hide though! Finn's worm reminded me I have thawed out earthworms in the fridge to sort out of the dirt & arrange for re-freezing...not looking forward to that! :?

Silly Aki. At least he gets halfway there? That's a pretty great picture though. :lol: He just wants a stuffed animal to cuddle!


----------



## FinnickHog

Blech. I have a 2 gallon tub of earthworms in the fridge right now full of peat moss mixed with top soil. I toss some rotting fruit on the top once a week, but I'm not sure if they're breeding. I don't want to go digging and accidentally hurt any babies. The internet says to just look for castings but I don't see any.

He is quite cute in his ridiculousness, I must admit :lol:. I was actually filming him trying to catch him eating when he did that, so I stopped shooting and took a picture. He stared at it for a good 8 minutes without moving. He ate it once I gave up and left. I think I should have just waited until Aki's lullaby was over. "Rock-a-bye mousey in the tree top~" "Okay song's over! *nom*" 

I'm in for surgery at 11:00am today, so in 4 hours from when this gets posted. I'm going to be pretty loopy the rest of the day but I'll check in at some point on the weekend. I should be back on my feet by Monday, hopefully.


----------



## FinnickHog

Haha, so I posted and forgot to mention what I found at 11:00pm last night when I got up to eat. I wasn't allowed to eat after midnight, so I got up to put everyone to bed and feed Finnick and myself. I went into the pet room and there's this teeny adorable face peeking out at me from behind the fruit flies in front of the frog tank. I have no idea how she managed it, but the baby williamsi who isn't a baby anymore, still nameless because I'm hoping to trade her to bring in some new genetics, was loose. I chased her all over the upper floor of the house. They are SO fast! I managed to snag her before she hid anywhere and she's back in the cage now, but I get to go looking for holes. The fun never stops here! I saw Kaylee was still inside the cage but I haven't seen Skaro yet. He's my little escape artist so I'm worried he's out, but maybe his daughter just inherited his skill and found the hole before he did. So I'm off to patch a hole and go gecko hunting!


----------



## twobytwopets

Surely Oz had something to do with helping her escape.


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## FinnickHog

I wouldn't be surprised. He's pretty sneaky himself. I can see him talking to her in the middle of the night, "okay I'll just lift this up and then you run for it! The boss won't know what happened and you'll be free!" He's insisting he's innocent until proven guilty in the court of Pepper, but of course Pepper already thinks he's guilty. She may be biased.

The containment field has been patched and all three geckos are still inside. The tape along the entire back edge was peeling up.


----------



## Lilysmommy

Glad you found the little one before she got lost or hurt! And I totally forgot, I was going to add well wishes for the surgery to my last comment. Hope everything goes well!


----------



## FinnickHog

Thanks Kelsey!

I'm up and about enough to upload Sherlock today, so that's a good sign. Still in a bit of pain and feeling icky, and still covered in pink. I'm hoping to have a shower right after this. I can hardly wait! The doctor did find a few things and removed them, so I should be fixed once I'm healed up! I've been dealing with this for 8 years and all the other doctors refused to do exploratory surgery for some reason, but this one didn't and it seems to have worked. Yay! As I was passing out from the anesthesia he was telling be about the surgery. He said "Okay so this is a really simple procedure. We just cut you open from your belly button to your collar bone, and then we add some little side cuts so we can spread it all open..." The last thing I remember is laughing and saying "No, I changed my mind!" :lol:. Really funny doctor. I quite like him. The actual incisions are about a centimeter a piece, so just tiny.

When I got home and was still drugged up, Oz came over and had a great big stomp on one of my incisions for me, so that was nice of him. He's worried but he's the least graceful dog ever so he's been tied up or crated a lot the past two days. I feel bad about it but I really don't want to be stepped on again :???:. Everybody else is doing well. Pepper's been yelling at me from across the house and I've been responding :lol:.

And here's Mister Snerklock:


----------



## Lilysmommy

Glad to hear the surgery went well & you're doing well! Poor Oz...he really needs to work on that clumsiness. :lol: I bet that hurt a ton though - my sister had a similar incident after one of her c-sections for babies where one of the older kids accidentally stomped down on her c-section incision. She just about passed out!

The Sherlock video is still set to private, can't watch it yet!


----------



## FinnickHog

He's staring at me from his crate right now with sad puppy eyes. I managed to catch him before he put his full weight down but the area is a bit more bruised now and I made a pretty interesting noise.

It should be public now... I don't know how I managed to change it to private, I just uploaded it. Oh well. I guess I won't do anything mentally strenuous and important yet :lol:.


----------



## FinnickHog

I had a pretty rough couple of days Monday and Tuesday, but I'm doing alright now. The surgery seems to have not changed a thing, so I'm booked in the see the specialist again.

But! I'm doing okay today with some new painkillers, so I'm up and about. I managed to feed all the snakes, and everyone except Aki ate right away. Aki had to drown his in his water dish first, so I'll go up and check on him in a minute.

Pepper's video is live here: 




Oz is bored out of his mind. I can't walk him yet so I've been bouncing his toys off the walls when he brings them to me. I'm going to owe him a hike when I'm all better. He's been climbing up beside me, ramming his face into my armpit, and flopping over sideways. He's a real bad complainer. I think it's hilarious, but he grunts a lot when things aren't going his way or he's trying to get comfy. So there's this dog nose rammed into my armpit with these muffled "rrgh, mmph, hurg" noises emanating out of the abyss. It's pretty silly, but laughing hurts :lol:.


----------



## Lilysmommy

Sorry to hear you had some rough days and that the surgery didn't work!  I'll keep fingers crossed the specialist will have some answers for you.

Did Aki eat after properly drowning his food? I'm going to finally try offering a rat to Charis again on Saturday, provided she's not about to shed or anything. I haven't seen her out in the past couple days & haven't been in mental shape to get her out, so I need to check on her first, tomorrow or Saturday.

Pepper getting scritches is so cute!! I miss getting bird cuddles and petting feathers. And her cage is awesome!

And poor Oz. I love talkative dogs though, I'd probably laugh at him too. :lol:


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## FinnickHog

Thanks!

Aki did eat. He's decided he likes me to press the mouse against his snakelips and he just opens his mouth around it. Then he hangs on until I leave and eats it. It's weird but at least he's eating. I hope Charis is done fasting now! It's so stressful.

Pepper's a real snuggler. Echo didn't like cuddles at all so it's a weird change but I like it. Her cage usually has way more toys but she's been really busy destroying everything lately :lol:.

I'm hoping to make a compilation of Oz noises sometime soon. His range is impressive!


----------



## FinnickHog

Fish today! 




I'm feeling much better today, so I get to do some cleaning around the house. Yay. But poop needs to be scooped and dirt needs to be moistened, so off I go.

Kerrigan is white, and I had her planned for Wednesday, so she's been bumped back and now it's Rocket.


----------



## FinnickHog

I finally got Aki moved into his new abode! I am loving it! He's... not sure yet.

Some highlights:

The whole cage, 24"x24"x24, redecorated for tree pythons:









"Mom I don't like this take me out":









Forgot how to tree snake:









He's still sitting like he is in the last picture, trying to decide if the cage is dangerous or not. He used to be in a 12x12x18" I believe, with one plant, so this is a big scary new world for him. He'll probably go off his food. :roll:.


----------



## FinnickHog

I just wanted to add that the "perches" are actually PVC piping that I scratched to death with a knife and then painted. They're not real wood! I'm going to go out wood hunting with my pruning shears in the next few days and see if I can find him some real ones of the correct lengths. While I'm at it I'm going to try to find a small, bonsai-ish shaped branch that I can add some dried moss to so it looks like a mini tree. And that will be going in the baby leopard gecko cage.

8 weeks until the Western Canada Reptile Expo, and I get to have another leo!

Way back on page 14 I mentioned that we were considering some Ouroboros cataphractus lizards, also known as Sungazers or Armadillo Girdled Lizards. Well, the guy I got Aki and Sherlock from knows of three or four pairs available now that he could ship in for me. They would be $3500 a pair. So those are going to have to wait. I knew they'd be expensive, but whoa!


----------



## Lilysmommy

Aki's new digs look awesome! I'm sure he'll get used to it eventually. Hopefully he won't be off his food for too long either, silly guy. I really like the second picture of him, the close up. :lol: 

Glad you're feeling better too!


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## FinnickHog

He did a lot of exploring last night and now he's coiled up like a tree snake on the front branch in plain sight. He really isn't one for hiding at all. He seems to be less jumpy today, so he should be settled in soon!


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## FinnickHog

Miss Rocket! 




I have a few other shorts to add, but I'll do that in the afternoon instead of the middle of the night :lol:.


----------



## FinnickHog

Kerrigan shed. It was in one piece but all rolled up, so I didn't keep it. I only have one really pretty one from her, while Sherlock takes up most of a wall to himself.

In other news, I'm writing an article to try and help revive a dying subreddit, /r/Geckos, and it's so freakin' dead that there's no one even around to look at the article for me and see if the formatting is okay and if it follows a logical progression. 

Does anyone here have any interest in reading about how to build a planted, live vivarium? I've included two styles, a Madagascan jungle type, and a Pakistan desert type. The Pakistan desert one, on a much larger scale, would work for a hedgehog as a "naturalistic habitat" type enclosure. I'm building it now for my future leopard gecko, so there aren't any pictures yet, but the direction and steps are all there, and I can share the pictures as I complete each step.

Is anyone interested in taking a look for me?

I'm going to go and edit those few shorts I took and I'll have them up on YouTube soon. One is of Pepper sharing her dinner with me. Ugh.


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## Lilysmommy

Yes please!! I'm still really curious about trying bioactive for the hedgies, so that would be really good to read. I know I'll have free time this weekend & I think my brain's back on an upswing so I should have energy too.


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## FinnickHog

Yay, that's good news! Did you manage to get an appointment to see someone yet?

I'll pm you the Google Docs link as soon as I'm done uploading all this junk to YouTube. I have two gmail accounts, and one is my Docs account, while the other is my YouTube account, and it won't let me merge them *sigh*.

For the Leo build, I have to run out and steal a few more bricks from a vacant lot downtown, and then I'll start taking pictures. I'd like to have an image for each step. The pet store here actually carries the Excavator Clay I want to use, which is really quite impressive, so I'll pick up supplies for the build while I'm getting rodents and harassing them about employing me tomorrow. I should have the tank done by Monday, hopefully.


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## Lilysmommy

I have a therapist I'm seeing, two visits done so far. Next one isn't until next week as she didn't have any openings for a couple weeks. I'm going to check into getting on medication next visit & see if that helps. So working on it! Slow progress, but hopefully it'll keep improving. 

Yeah, I had that problem with google docs too. Annoying!!

Can't wait to see the tank when it's done! I'll have to order excavator clay online if I want to use it, the store I go to for rats only has tiny bags. But hedgie bio will be a few months off, I think. Charis's bio comes first since it's less experimental & I want to set it up before she moves into the new viv. I need to start making plans for that, though I'm STILL waiting to hear on when the vivs are actually coming...Starting to finally get annoyed over this, ugh. Last I was told, they should've been ready mid-June. And now we're getting close to mid-July & I haven't heard anything from them yet. They better be amazing once they finally get here or I'm finding a new company to order from next time.


----------



## FinnickHog

It's about the same wait times in Canada, too. Worth it though!

I've been eyeballing the excavator clay for years. Probably since it was released. I've seen some gorgeous builds with it and some crumbly messes. I'm guessing a) half the people using it don't read the instructions, b) it's too wet still when they add animals, and c) it's the wrong substrate for the job. I'm using it to fill cracks and up a bit of the back wall, plus a small permanent hide, and I have a month to let it dry, so it should work. I want it rock hard, and dry air plus heat makes it hard, and that's what leos like!

I'm really hoping the negative reviews aren't all true. I'll let you know how it goes either way!

I started the new viv a few hours ago, so there are some new pictures on the document. If anyone else wants to have a read, let me know!

I really hope you get an update on your cages soon... they seem to have suddenly gotten much more popular, so hopefully it's just backlog of orders. If you're lucky they'll give you a discount for missing the estimated completion date.


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## FinnickHog

Itty bitty geckers today! 




My leopard gecko vivarium is coming along really well. I'm not sure if the Excavator Clay has hardened enough, but I'll keep poking at it and we'll see what happens. I need to go outside and get a twig for a tree I want to make but it won't stop raining.

Only 3 more pet episodes and then you will have seen all my critters and I'll stop spamming videos twice a week! Yay!


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## FinnickHog

Miss Kerrigan is all pretty again, so it's her today! 




Just the saltwater tank and Oz left to go and I'll have shown you guys everyone!

I'm just about to eat breakfast and then I'm going to get Finn up and try to do a nail trimming video so that y'all can see some of my techniques. If it goes well I'll post it in a little bit.


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## FinnickHog

The fish tank video is up!

In other news, my hedgehog allergy is still really bad. Commenting on it here because I still haven't tried everything, but the cream helps a little, but not enough. If Finn scratches me with his feet it doesn't bother me, just his quills. So up next is trying Claritin, I guess.

Akihiko found the pool where the waterfall drains and has been sitting in it. So I guess I don't need to worry about dehydration, but it's really weird. I'm pretty sure I didn't buy an anaconda!


----------



## FinnickHog

Well, I went to the store today to buy Oz some dog food, and admittedly I let the bin get lower than usual because I was being lazy and I buy his food from the other end of town. I got there and the Orijen section had been ravaged. They're having issues with their supplier for some of the Tundra ingredients. So poor Oz gets to do a rather rapid switch to Six Fish. Which still looks great but I liked the protein variety of the Tundra better. Oz is allergic to beef and the most popular Orijen flavors have beef.

Tundra's top handful of ingredients: Goat, venison, mutton, bison, whole arctic char, rabbit, duck, whole steelhead trout, whole pilchard, whole alaskan cod, goat meal, venison meal, alaskan cod meal, mutton meal, blue whiting meal, red lentils, green peas, duck fat, herring meal, pollock meal

Six Fish's top handful of ingredients: Whole salmon, whole herring, salmon meal, herring meal, pollock meal, whole flounder, boneless walleye, boneless northern pike, boneless lake whitefish, salmon oil, herring oil

So you can see there are a lot more protein sources in Tundra, minus beef. You can also see why it's always 20-30% more expensive than anything else in the store. Once it's back in stock I'll probably switch him back, but it's fishies for now!

In other news, Oz has been grazing every time we go for a walk. We live next to railroad tracks, an industrial-ish area, and then a lake, so the grass gets quite long for most of our walks, and he likes to walk in the grass, head down, nibbling away for the whole hour or so. He isn't vomiting, either. I asked the vet and she thinks it's either an old habit from being a stray or he needs more fiber, so he'll be getting more fiber for a while to see if it helps. I'm not too concerned about it at this point. His poops are fine and he's not puking.

And finally, the leopard gecko vivarium is finished, sort of. I'd like to have a removable moist hide, so I'm going to find something that works and then form the excavator clay around it to make it blend in nice but still pull out like a drawer for cleaning. I also want to add a few more succulents and a tillandsia or two. The local flower shops (yes we have two. Crazy, right?) both have specials on succulents right now so I'll be going to have a look in the next few days. In the meantime, the viv has two small potted plants, one a local specialty, the silver buffaloberry (Shepherdia argentea), and the other some kind of perennial succulent I picked out of a neighbor's flowerbed while she was weeding it out.

Here's a picture of the viv without the potted plants. I'll add another once all the plants are in, and another at the end of August after the show.


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## FinnickHog

I made a horrible miscalculation. I went to the flower shop closest to me and they had SO. MANY. SUCCULENTS. I stood and just stared for probably ten minutes, and then I did some Google research on each type I liked, and then I asked the ladies there for help. We agreed (to my dismay) that any of the species they had would be fine. So I picked my favorite, without considering my tiny 10 gallon viv. This thing is like 7 inches tall and 5 or so wide. But it's so cool! So I'm going to be ripping out a rock, digging a well, and then planting this big guy in the corner. I haven't decided if I want to make a pot out of excavator or pot it as-is, but some changing around needs to happen.

This is what it is:








Senecio "blue chalk"

Right now it's sharing the saltwater fish tank's light while I figure out what to do.


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## FinnickHog

It's done! Now I just need me a gecko!


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## twobytwopets

You sound like me when I go to the nursery. Now I have to order my plants and seeds online. So now I have well over 100 catalogs for plants, because I have to comparison shop. 
If I go to the greenhouse or nursery I am like a kid in a candy store, I want them all, need them all and will buy as many as my credit card will allow.


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## FinnickHog

I like to be able to go and poke at them before I buy them. My mom buys all of her plants online now but it just isn't the same to me.

When I was living in Calgary I'd go to the frog peoples' house to get flies and stuff, but they also build their own vivariums to sell, so they had a crazy selection of tropical plants. I'd go in with $100 expecting to spend $30 and come out with bags and bags of plant clippings. At the last reptile expo I walked by their booth complaining that I only had $7 left, and they sold me a begonia.

I wouldn't be so bad if they weren't enabling my addiction!


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## twobytwopets

I usually just do the seeds online unless it's something I've failed at starting from seeds in the past. 
My normal common variety plants I will sometimes buy started. But prefer to get most started here, and i like some really strange vegetables.


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## FinnickHog

Like what? I've only ever grown string beans, peppers, tomatoes, and herbs .

I am obsessed with how this viv turned out. The buffaloberry didn't make it, but everything else looks so good!


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## twobytwopets

I prefer heirloom on just about everything. That goes double for tomatoes. 
I have a weird thing about colors. Purple beans, orange or purple coliflower, yellow tomatoes, black tomatoes.
Peppers, we tend to go overboard. Hot peppers, sweet peppers, cayenne peppers for the birds. Then some oddly shaped ones. 
We also try and add new stuff every year, usually something we hadn't tried or something more exotic.


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## Salt&PepperHedgie

Your pets are adorable! I love Finnick's picture, his face is smashed! Cool channel by the way


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## FinnickHog

I've never even seen half those vegetables! That's so cool!

Thanks Salt!


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## twobytwopets

http://www.rareseeds.com

Ashley will now be busy for the next 2 hours looking at vegetables. Leave a message at the beep!!!!!


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## FinnickHog

That radish is the size of that child! This is so cool!


----------



## FinnickHog

I was at the pet store today (yesterday now I guess) getting my weekly pile o insects and I found some new food for Finnick to try!

Merrick released a line of dog food a while ago with dried raw chunks in the kibble mix, and I was looking at it, but the specs just weren't right. The cat one is out now, and there's also little wet pouches. I picked up the duck, whitefish, and rabbit ones to try for now as an extra mix-in to Finn's veggies and bugs. Here's the rabbit one: http://www.merrickpetcare.com/cats/...Protein-Rich_Morsels_in_Gravy_Cat_Food&id=343

There aren't that many ingredients which is nice. Once the water weight is accounted for it's 47% protein, 16% fat, 6% fiber, so not too bad, and since I'm mixing it with veggies and bugs it will balance out perfectly. I'll be trying it out tomorrow!

I picked up a small bag of the kibble too just to give it a try as a treat. I don't like it as much as the wet food but it's not terrible.

This one is "game bird" http://www.merrickpetcare.com/cats/..._Backcountry_Game_Bird_Recipe_Cat_Food&id=321

Turkey, salmon, and chicken aren't game birds. The game shows up 11th and 12th on the list. I laughed a little. But the ingredients aren't bad if you ignore the name, so we'll see how that goes.


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## FinnickHog

He likes it! It's all gone and more than usual of his normal food is left. I think I'll gradually transition out the canned food and use these Merrick pouches for the meat portion instead.

I'm planning on doing a step by step video for how I make my hogfood, so I can go over the changes then.

And now I'm off to feed the snake army!


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## FinnickHog

I've been hacking away at the spreadsheets for common fruits, veggies, meats, and insects today. Insects is as done as it's getting, I think. A lot of nutritional information just doesn't seem to be available. And the meats one is finished!

I'm going to dig through some scholarly articles and see if I can find any information on the vitamins and minerals in insects, and I'll finish fruits and veggies in the next few days, and then I'll post all of those along with my calculator as one big post.

I'm still trying to figure out how to calculate Ca: P ratio and adjust the calcium... I think it'll have to be weight based...


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## twobytwopets

Alternate source of information, possibly. Could be those people that eat bugs. I don't know if they might have additional information or not.


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## FinnickHog

I found a retailer out of Thailand that ships pretty much every insect you could imagine. They have rhino beetle larvae, lightly seasoned. But the packaging doesn't even have an ingredients list, let alone nutritional info. I'll keep digging there in case I'm just blind. This is their product here: http://www.thailandunique.com/edible-insects-bugs

I've also found a few blogs by people who eat bugs with some data, but a lot of information is missing. Like where they found their numbers, or what measurement the vitamins or minerals are in. "27 magnesium" really isn't very helpful :lol:.


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## twobytwopets

I checked Amazon and found distributed selling those, hoped that there might be more info on the back of the bag or Amazon sites. Nothing there. At least the ones I checked.
Now I wonder if a college entomology department would know of anything.


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## FinnickHog

Weird, right? It's a health movement towards eating insects, yet nobody knows the detailed nutritional information for what they're eating. Not that I would eat bugs anyway. Yuck. :lol:


----------



## twobytwopets

The way I see it, when I feel like eating a bug, I'll jump on a horse or motorcycle and talk. 
But there is no information on them. Not even how many weight watchers points they are.


----------



## FinnickHog

It's really strange!


----------



## FinnickHog

I had one of the worst days of my life yesterday and it's going to take some time to recover, so I'll be taking a short hiatus while I cope.

I should be back within the week, but if anyone needs me urgently, pm me. I'll try to check those.


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## twobytwopets

I hope things get better for you from here on. Take all the time you need. You and your zoo will be in our prayers.


----------



## FinnickHog

Thanks, Two!

I'm back now, but still a bit of a mess. Oz managed to get Pepper's cage open and I wasn't fast enough. She's gone.

It's way too quiet around here now.

But! Everyone else is doing well. Aki is about to shed and I got a video of Kerrigan rattling her tail at me. Oz and I are doing some new training, for reasons I think are obvious, and hopefully I can tame his instincts a little bit more.


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## twobytwopets

I am very sorry about losing Pepper. 
I remember the quiet of my house after my Pugzy died. My house hadn't been quiet in years with kids, but it felt so quiet. Then I got used to not having her talk to us. Eventually, we came to the conclusion that we were all ready to get another bird, but was NOT getting another green cheek. So we got Lexi, and 2 other ****atiels, but it wasn't the same. 

I'm glad that everyone else is doing well. Hopefully Oz makes headway with his extra training.


----------



## Cranky_Turtle

I'm sorry about Pepper. I'm glad you're not giving up on Oz as some people would & I've got high hopes for him with his training. Sending positive energy your way *hugs*


----------



## FinnickHog

Thanks so much, both of you. It's been a tough time, but I'm _actually_ back on the forums now. I got the urn back with my Bee's ashes two days ago. It's mother of pearl in a green color. Very pretty, and it matches Echo's, which is white mother of pearl. I also bought a small glass globe with a topper, like the ones I was using to make hedgehog quill necklaces, but smaller. I put a green head feather in it and put it on a chain. It doesn't photograph well but I'll keep trying.

Oz and I have been working on his recall and his drop it a LOT the past week. He's doing quite well, but is still fixating on Rocket if she rustles. It's going to take some time, but if I can get him comfortable around other dogs, I'm sure I can get his recall and drop it up to snuff. He's lucky he's so handsome.

I'm currently wearing Kerrigan, who keeps slipping off my shoulders and falling into my hand, like the braindead goof she is. So she's doing well. She really doesn't understand hanging on with her body like the others do. Sherlock does it just fine so it's not a kingsnake thing. I think she's just a little off, mentally.

Everybody else is good, too. My arm is actually getting a blister from the way I hold the sprayer when I water Akihiko. He refuses to drink from anything but the sprayer so I spend 40 minutes a day watering him. But not directly on his head! On the coil beside his head, or gently onto a leaf, or down his neck onto his lips, but NEVER directly on his head because "how dare you touch me with that, human! Water is super scare! Now I must go do a hide!" At which point he wedges his nose into the nearest coil and hisses. Imagine a grumpy old man grunt, and then turn it into a hiss. Like that. Which then blows bubbles, because I got him wet. So he's fun as always.

Finn is still loving the new diet, and I'm allllmost out, so I'll be able to film my process when I make a new batch. That should hopefully be up next week.

I got some new friends for the saltwater fish tank in the mail today. Turns out you can order fish on the internet! I got two more tiny hermit crabs, they're little blue legged hermit crabs, and I will probably never see them again because they are _so_ small. And I got two Astrea snails, who should eat the green goo on the tank walls, and I got one great big zebra turbo snail, who has wedged himself between two rock formations and hasn't moved since. Eat the green hair algae, dangit!

I had a cyanobacteria outbreak while I was out of it the past while, so I'm also treating that. I added the stuff at 6pm and it's already half gone, so that's really cool.

Also this is living in the cubby under the stairs. I'll make it a link so there isn't just a giant spider in your face. But it is a giant spider. You have been warned. http://i.imgur.com/VLN9pPp.jpg


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## FinnickHog

Well, the expo was yesterday. It's not a leopard gecko. It's a bearded dragon. We got a little distracted :lol:. One guy had some Cordylus Jonesii, and Rocket's breeder had some adorable cbb uromastyx babies. The importer I know also brought some of the $3500 lizards we were considering, just to taunt us specifically I think. That was tough to walk away from.

But! This is Broxigar! He's a whopping 10 grams and 9 weeks old. I got him from an Alberta breeder who's been going to the shows for a few years now.










He ate a cricket last night and at least two today. We'll try some raspberry in an hour or so. He refuses to go in the hides and is just sitting on his hammock watching us. And he's sooooooo cuuuute!

We couldn't agree on a leo, because Ryan likes the really highly patterned yellow ones and I like the blotchier orange ones, and then we were discussing the effort required to tame down the Cordylus jonesii, and the fact that the two the guy had were female and they're communal so we'd want both and that was getting pricey and we'd need a whole new cage, and then the uromastyx babies were piling on top of each other and being adorable and I know that breeder is amazing, but they were bigger than what we wanted, and then we realized we kind of *did* want something bigger, so we had to start over... It was tough! So it's a beardie!

In other news, I just need to edit the food video together so that should be up later in the week, barring me forgetting to do it, or eat, or sleep with Legion coming out on Tuesday.

I also made a slug bro, but I need to edit the photos yet!


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## FinnickHog

I'm much too excited for Halloween this year to wait until next month, so I've started the photoshoots already. Brox is done and Finnick is up next! Brox is going as a sweet little lady who loves gardening and chatting, or a warlock who is trying to raise the dead from his sleek purple coffin.





































I'll post Finn's here once they're done, but I'll make them their own post as well, since they're not off topic for a change.


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## FinnickHog

I couldn't get the little stink to sit still for more than one picture! He and Brox just got to share the witch hat, since it was the perfect size for both of them.









And in other news, I couldn't stand the lack of bird in my house but I'm really not ready for another parrot, so I got a little quail. She's not quite hand tame yet but we're really close now. She'll sit in my hand for a while and she loves my pockets, but she still won't eat or drink with me watching, or out of my hand. She's an absolute cutie though, and content to be bothered for an hour or so a day at random intervals, so she's living safely in the reptile room, and Oz doesn't even know she exists. I named her "Kusu" originally, but I keep calling her "Twerp" so it may change. Here she is nestled in all comfy and plotting world domination:


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## Salt&PepperHedgie

Oh my gosh those photo shoots are adorable. Do you have a ball python in your pet family?


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## FinnickHog

I do! His name is Illidan and he's 8 or 9 now I believe. There should be some pictures of him in this thread somewhere.


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## FinnickHog

Well, Christmas has come and gone again, and I got a whole pile of money instead of presents this year. I was ordered to buy myself something nice. "Something nice" consists of a 30 gallon long Innovative Marine tank with the stand and all the fixins, plus a Maxspect Razor light fixture. It is a HUGE upgrade from my little 8 gallon cube!

Here's an early shot of the 8g after I swapped it from the longer 10g into here:








That would have been... April maybe? Somewhere around there. The rocks have colored up a ton and the corals are doing well, but it was always so cramped.

And here it is yesterday with the blues cranked up:









And just now with the lights off:









The file open on my desktop is the blue tank picture :mrgreen:

The Borghal Rantipole, Seamus, and the clean up crew are all in and settled. I dumped in the 7 gallons of water from my old tank, plus all the rock, plus some water conditioner, and everything is stable so far. Ranty has been coming out to take a look at his new surroundings.

I'm hoping to get a clownfish and something else to go in once I'm sure the water parameters are stable. I'd also really like a tuxedo urchin! The new light can handle anything I throw at it, so I can get a much larger variety of corals, too!

Finnick also had a good Christmas. He got some new toys and a new kind of wet cat food that we're slowly introducing. Twerp got some crushed up dried mealworms and a calcium supplement since she's started laying eggs. Illidan got a big plastic tub to live in beside Kerrigan, Rocket and Akihiko got a new heat setup, and Oz got a bunch of toys!

Mister Broxigar trashed his cage, so he's on the same patterned plastic that I wrapped the custom cage with, and his decor has been scaled up since he's growing so fast! He's 110 grams now. He was 10 when I got him! I'll take some updated pictures of him once he's done shedding.

And that's what's new around here! Did anyone else's pets get anything awesome over the holidays?


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## Lilysmommy

The new tank looks awesome! Very nice Christmas present.  And all of the critter presents sound great too! I'm glad you guys had a good holiday. I was wondering how you were doing!!

Ebony got a big package of toys & a new cardboard scratching thing. She loves both - the toys are getting played with because she's a weird cat that actually plays with things we buy her. :lol: And the scratcher went next to our chair in the living room & she's using it constantly, as hoped. That was one of the spots she was still scratching at the carpet frequently - now as soon as she gets overstimulated or excited, she looks around & runs to hop on the scratcher instead.  

The hedgies didn't really get anything (though I want to order some liners for them soon, and get a new sleeping tunnel for Pancake so I can swap them for washing), but Charis got some new supplies to go into her big enclosure once she moves, and the hermit crabs got some new dried fruit I found when I was at a fancy grocery store. I meant to do more for everyone, but the holidays are difficult & I was a little out of it for most of them.


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## Artemis-Ichiro

Cool tank and nice presents. Ichiro got a dig box with rocks, I have been sick with a nasty cold since before Christmas so last night I finally set it up, it's a shallow cake pan with ricks inside, i put some canned mealworms and he ate them all, i heard him digging, i guess he liked it. I also got green and red fleece to use during Christmas time so his cage looked festive!


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## FinnickHog

My cats were always the "play with the box and not the toy" sorts. You lucked out! I can't wait to see Charis's new place once you get it set up. 

I honestly thought I was going to be working Christmas Eve and Boxing Day, which would have meant staying here alone for Christmas. But I was off until Thursday so that worked out. Would have been a pretty boring holiday otherwise.


Yay, I'm glad Ichiro likes his dig box! I wanted to do themed liners for Finn but I haven't gotten around to it yet. He's still only got blue with owls and grey with owls. I like owls. :lol:


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## Artemis-Ichiro

Well... he liked looking for mealworms, not too thrilled about looking for his kibble. Lol. 

Since I only have one pet and one child, when I got Ichiro I kind of went overboard with the fleece... we have grey with yellow owls, black/white pet prints, Olaf, and few more... i think my husband thinks I'm crazy. Lol. 

By the way, cats and kids are similar... they rather play with the box than with the toy, my daughter is 8 and we say she's a box troll. Lol


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## FinnickHog

Just a short update for now, and maybe possibly some videos later, depending on whether I finish them or not.

Brox seems to never be done shedding. I'm used to snakes and geckos who do one big piece all at once, or Rocket who explodes tiny scales all over the place. Broxigar sheds in patches. Right now one back leg and the upper portion of his tail are white.

The fish tank is still great, and naturally, since my adorable 8 gallon is empty, I'm thinking about moving the betta into there. Unfortunately, my monitor broke last week, so I have my TV on my desk right now, taking up all the space. It's ridiculous. So I might wait to move the fishie over, but I also might not. I get bored .

Rocket escaped from a closed, latched, reptile-proof enclosure. I have no idea how she did it. She's in Pepper's cage now with the heat panel against the back. That sneaky lizzerd. That means Illidan is back in the tank I bought for him a while back. Sherlock has been shifted into a big tub, and Twerp is in his old cage. At least Finn is still good in his cage.

Kerrigan has a lump. It might be a tumor and it might be a blockage. I haven't fed her anything big, but she's such a weirdo that a mouse may have gone down curled. She's still doing okay, but she's needing a vet visit. I'm trying to decide if I want to take a sample myself and send it to Edmonton, or take her in and let them do it. I'm perfectly capable of doing it myself, I just don't want to.

Everyone else is behaving for now!


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## Lilysmommy

If you move the betta over, I definitely want pics! I've been really wanting a betta again...I blame the fact that I got back into my animal-themed tumblr I run, and I have a few fish blogs on there with bettas. It'll have to wait until we move later this year, but I may start looking into it more then. I want to completely set the tank up first, and I'd like to do a planted one this time, I think. Also my plan for now is to just post on Craigslist that I can take in a betta & see if I can adopt one that way. No plans to support the stupid little cups from pet stores!

Rocket, what the heck?!! I think you have a magic skink....honestly. Tell her I said she seriously needs to start behaving herself so everyone else can stop getting moved around constantly. :lol:

I hope Kerrigan is okay!  Let us know what you find out? I'll keep fingers crossed that it's nothing serious...I don't blame you for not wanting to do it yourself.


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## FinnickHog

And another short update for today!

I've decided I'm definitely moving Keitan the betta into the 8 gallon, so that should happen in the next few weeks! I uploaded two videos, one of the 30 gallon "reef" and one of an updated pet rooms tour. Those are 



 and 



! Finn is in the tour one briefly, but he was being a grumpus so I just gave him a pat and let him sleep. In the food dish is some new kibble I'm trying out for my mix. We're just in the testing for allergies and bad poops phase now, but it's been great so far. He gets a full bowl of that a night plus his usual mix, and he is picking at the kibble a bit!

Kerrigan's lump is a lung tumor, which is bad news. We're working out what the best course of action is, but it's not looking great right now. The little lady is only 3 years old.

I'm going to be taking a break from the forum for a while. The arguing and ignoring advice is stressing me out, and along with being cut down to 5 hours a week at work, plus having found a dream job of mine, but as an apprentice that won't get paid well for a year or so, plus Kerrigan's tumor, I'm about as stressed as is possible right about now. I won't get into the boring details, but things are rough all around. So I'm cutting out one stressor to keep myself sane!

I should only be gone a week or two while I sort everything else out, but I do have terrible luck so it may be a bit longer.

For now, enjoy the videos, and I'll be back soon! Be good, everyone!


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## Lilysmommy

Love the videos! Nice to see everyone's updated set ups & such in the tour video! I started giggling when you were trying to put Illidan's log back down & he was in the way. Same thing happens when I try to put Charis's turtle shell hide back over her. :lol: She just kinda slides out all over when I move it on her! I really wish I could have a room just for pets, it'd be so nice. Maybe someday I can end up in an apartment or town house with enough space, once I have fewer debts & a raise or two from work.

Broxigar has gotten so big!!! I love him! I can't wait to get a beardie eventually, I've wanted one for years.

I'm so, so sorry to hear about Kerrigan.  That's awful. Sending you lots of extra hugs & good thoughts...

I don't blame you for taking a break, I'm starting to think another sounds good right about now too. :roll: I hope it helps and things improve so your stress goes down. That's no fun at all.  The dream job sounds awesome though, what is it?


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## FinnickHog

The betta has been moved!





I need to fill in some space, but that'll just take time while the plants grow.

I don't know how I'd function without a pet room. Even at my parents' place I always sort of had one. Bumpy was in the extra bedroom/office, along with whatever small mammal I had at the time.

I still need to do Broxy's video. He's perpetually shedding still, and I want him to be all nice for the camera. :roll:

Miss Kerrigan is holding stable. I'm just watching for any growth or really odd poops at this point. Hopefully it keeps up. I'm happy to feed her liquid for years as long as she's alive.

I *think* I'm back from my break now... Things seem to have died down here, and both of my jobs are still going well, plus my boyfriend has some work for the next little while. Yay, no more bread sandwiches! The new job is as an apprentice groomer. She's willing to train me and in payment I just owe her some baths, dries, and brushes, which is more than fair. It's either that or go to school for $5000 while learning next to nothing. So I'll take it. Tomorrow morning there's a saint Bernard puppy coming in!


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## Lilysmommy

The new betta tank looks really neat! I love the little wood shelter/platform. 

Glad to hear Kerrigan is hanging in there. Give her a pet for me. ♥ I hope she keeps doing well with her liquid diet!

And glad things have improved for you as well! Have fun helping with the Saint puppy, I bet that'll be some work! My aunt has two of them and good lord, the fur. And the DROOL. Saints are very cute, but I couldn't stand to live with one due to the drool. :lol:


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## FinnickHog

Whew, I have been so crazy busy! I had yesterday off, but I had cage cleaning to do so I didn't manage to sit down here until now. I've been lurking all week, just haven't had time to post.

What's new... Well, animals-wise there's a few things. I decided I hated the betta tank. It's been remodeled again. I'll post a picture once I have a minute to take one. It has a glass bottle with a vine growing inside it floating around on the surface for the betta to play with now.

Brox got a small upgrade. I planted him a mini garden. I took my teeny tiny baby gecko tank and put the whole thing inside his cage. I've sealed the top and sides to keep the humidity away from him, and I have some basil and parsley seeds about to sprout any day now. I'll plant those in his garden and he can have them as snacks when they're big enough.

Kerrigan's lump has grown slightly and shifted, which means the vets have changed their minds on what it looked like. There's a gentleman here in town that used to work on wildlife in South Africa, so I'm thinking I'll ask him if he wants to have a look. I'm really needing someone to just do explorative surgery at this point. You can see where the problem is, and it's isolated, but it's on her belly now instead of at her lung. It has to be some sort of abcess or blockage. She's still eating her mush and still acting like herself, but I'm getting that feeling that something needs to be done quick.

Finn is going to have a tiny bit of salmon with dinner today! He eats just about everything, so I'm not too worried, but we'll have to see how his poops are afterwards.

Oz got to go to the groomer and I practiced on him. He tried to kill the dryer so I had to get him used to it reaaaaallly slowly. But he did alright considering he'd never been before.

In related work news, I've been either at the groomer's or at my other job, so I don't have much me time when I get home, what with all the pets. But my crappy job is paying better now, and the groomer who's teaching me thinks I can go for my level 1 certification at the end of May. Which means less free time while I study a lot, but it will be worth it!

Brox's head is shedding finally, so I'm planning to do his video tomorrow, and I'll take a picture of Keitan's place while I'm at it.

Now if someone would just buy me a Halloween Tuxedo Urchin that would be great. :lol:


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## Lilysmommy

Glad to hear things are good! Fingers crossed for Kerrigan...I hope the vet will be willing to do surgery & see what the heck is going on. And that it's removable!! 

Brox's mini-garden sounds awesome, and the betta's vine too! Looking forward to seeing pictures. 

Curious to hear what Finn thinks of the salmon. Bindi seems to like hers quite a bit. I've had no issues with poops with the salmon. But she got very stinky when I tried herring, so that got cut right back out. :lol: I have sardine to try next.

I'm glad the job situations are going better too! Poor Oz though. :lol: Dryers are scary!


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## FinnickHog

I'm planning on calling the vet tomorrow to see what he thinks. I'm glad she's at least still acting like herself. And she's put on 8 grams!

Ooh, I will pass on the herring then! Have you tried tilapia? The place I work gets whole ones and I could feed it to everybody.

Oz kept biting at the air stream and he couldn't figure out why it wasn't grabbable so he started chasing the nozzle. He's such a pest :lol:.


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## Lilysmommy

I haven't, it's not generally recommended in my raw feeding groups. Most tilapia is farm-raised & not terribly healthy, and it's not very high in omega-3s either (which is the main reason most dog/cat raw feeders include fish in the diet). 

:lol: That'd be funny to watch! I'm having fun watching Ebony tonight - sprayed catnip spray on her stuffed squirrel for her to murder. :lol: And then also on a couple small toys that I tossed into her hidey-hole game and she's been going nuts trying to get them out. She's not as good at the game when she's high, apparently, hah.


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## FinnickHog

I knew there was a reason it was cheap. 

Haha poor Ebony!


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## Artemis-Ichiro

Glad things are better and hope you get good news about Kerrigan. 

Salmon is Ichiro's favorite, his main kibble isnwith salmon and when we make it he eats the whole thing and I don't even find crumbs. 

Tilapia is not even recommended for humans.


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## FinnickHog

Got a few videos and an update on my snakelady today. Kerrigan's lump has grown again, but now it's growing underneath her instead of side to side, which really makes me think it's an impaction. She's booked in for Monday for the specialist to have a look and do surgery if it's needed. Turns out you can give a snake an enema and that can clear up some impactions, so we may try that first.

Here's a video of how crazy the lump has gotten in the past two weeks.





And, finally, here's Brox's video!






Everyone else is doing well. Finn is loving the salmon!


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## FinnickHog

Little update on Kerrigan today. With where the lump is located and how it's twisted and ovaloid, I'm starting to think she's eggbound. Which means surgery and the snake equivalent of being spayed. I have to move the appointment to Tuesday because I'm stuck working Monday night. The main concerns now are if she's going to make it to Tuesday, whether she's strong enough to handle surgery or not, and price. It's tough to gauge vet costs, but it looks like removing bound eggs via surgery can be 250 pounds in Britain, which is about $475 Canadian. Blech. I can afford it but it won't be pretty.


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## Artemis-Ichiro

That really sucks. Hope everything goes well and she recovers so you can relax.


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## FinnickHog

Thanks Artemis! I've got my fingers crossed. And she's still very active and drinking. It's just the muscle loss in her back end that worries me, surgery-wise


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## FinnickHog

She's home. The x-rays showed nothing at all. I'm treating for a partial impaction now, but I'm doubtful since something should have shown up in contrast, but there was nothing. I'll give this two weeks and then she'll go back and get further testing. The vet thinks cryptosporidia parasites, but I'm doubtful of that too, since there's nowhere she could have contracted it. Cryptosporidia is manageable but there's no cure, so if that's the case she'll be medicated for the rest of her life. The other option is gall bladder issues, for which the vet knows of only two successful surgery stories. So I still have no idea what's wrong. She's out and exploring now, as per doctor's orders. Hopefully it's an impaction of something containing no calcium and no density and it's all fixed up in two weeks.


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## Artemis-Ichiro

That's hard. The not knowing is horrible. Hopefully at this point is something that will go away soon.


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## FinnickHog

So here's a really late update. Like three years late? 

First and saddest, Kerrigan passed very shortly after my last update. Best guess was she was born with an unusual gallbladder, and no one was willing to attempt to fix it. It was kindest to her to just feed her her slurry until she passed away. 

Mister Finn left me in late 2018 after a long fight with an oral tumor. The tumor was removed and unfortunately re-grew in a position that was inoperable. The vet felt that she may have missed some tissue which may have led to the second tumor but we can't be sure. It could easily have been a whole new lump. 

Before Finn passed, I started having an allergic reaction to his annointing. I'm guessing it was a mild saliva allergy combined with the slight pokes from his quills getting it into my skin. I haven't held a hedgehog since, so I'm hoping it's passed. If not, I'll find a way to treat it. 

What else is new? I'm back in the city again, so no more struggling for supplies. I unfortunately sold a bunch of my critters because I thought I was moving back out to nowhere again and figured they'd have easier times in the city. And then my plans fell through, everything changed, and I'm living with my parents again. It's been a rollercoaster! 

My current list of critters is:
-Oz the cattle dog
-The saltwater tank and inhabitants
-Illidan the ball python
-3 new snakes, two variable kings I'm hoping to breed, and a Mexican hognose
-A giant day gecko
-A brackish goby fish tank
-Two ****atiels, Pippa the baby, and Kashi, the Oldman I'm birdsitting while his dad is at college
-Nova the budgie
-Tater the button quail
-Two ghost mantises
-Two jumping spiders
-And seven tarantulas

So I've still got a houseful, it just sadly isn't the same bunch I had when I left. 

In awesome news, I'm on the waitlist for a baby hedgie from a breeder in Hope, BC. So I wanted to revive this blog to have a spot for baby pictures and whatnot! 

It looks like I wasn't the only one who moved on, so I doubt any of the original readers will see this, but if any of you are still here lurking, hello! And a big hello to all the new forum members!


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## OddDarkMatter91

I’m so sorry for your loss, and I’m glad everything turned out well for you! 
A massive hello back to you!


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## FinnickHog

Thanks very much, OddDarkMatter91!


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## FinnickHog

Bandit is here and settling in well! Here's a quick video of him being high-centered. He's SO BIG!

Clumsy Boy!


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## SunnyLeslie

FinnickHog said:


> Bandit is here and settling in well! Here's a quick video of him being high-centered. He's SO BIG!
> 
> Clumsy Boy!


What a cute video! The animal is very cute and charming. How long has he lived with you?


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