Stark found a new home =(

Stark, my rescued baby boa found a new home today =( I'm going to miss the little guy and I really hope he lives a happy life...He went thought a lot....I picked him up from an animal hospital a year ago, someone had just dumped him there....with an upper respiratory infection, MITES, and multiple stuck sheds! On top of that he was extremely dehydrated!
A friend of mine who worked at the animal hospital handed him over to me with some antibiotics to clear up his URI. I had to give this tiny boa A SHOT everyday!!! I was extremely hesitant at first...Ive never injected a snake with a needle before...in fact I've never injected ANYTHING with a needle before...I didn't enjoy it at all and neither did the little boa..poor thing. I had to soak him in a tub filled with water for an hour or two each day to try to clear the 3 or 4 layers of dead, stuck shed. Eventually it ALL came off within a couple of days! whew! Now for the MITE PROBLEM!!! I've dealt with Fleas before.....and that was a NIGHTMARE....so you can imagine how much I was freaking out over those stupid mites! I picked up an ant insecticide strip, cut it into small pieces, placed one piece in the dry tub with the boa, and placed the others around different areas of the apartment...I really didn't want these suckers to spread! Eventually there was NO TRACE of any mites! YAY!!! Eventually the URI cleared up as well. I kept him for a year, but decided to find a new home for him because feeding all the animals was getting hard for me financially. I made sure the new owner was knowledgable and KNEW what he was getting into.
Here's to a FULL AND HAPPY, HEALTHY LIFE Stark!!! I will miss you! Grow big and strong!

Dragon Bath Time!!

I decided to give all 4 bearded dragons a bath...together! 2 males and 2 females bathing TOGETHER. Yes, it is a big deal, because I was aware that things could have gotten out of hand pretty quickly. Bearded dragons are solitary creatures, they do not like the company of other dragons around them....unless its mating season....which for bearded dragons....IT IS. Males definitely do not get along well when confronted with one another. But I tossed them all in the bathtub anyways, careful to keep an extremely close eye on them. It was fascinating to watch. Rocko, my first bearded dragon, the biggest, oldest, most macho male of the bunch pretty much took control. Rocko's as well as Dexters beard turned a jet black color pretty quickly. Both had an eye on Dharma.....poor maggie didn't seem wanted.....she didn't seem interested anyways; She pretty much kept to herself, enjoying the nice warm water. Dharma seemed as if she wanted some action,  Rocko was always quick to make the moves on her. Dexter, knowing full well that Rocko was the dominant male, just sat back and kind of watched everything, keeping a close eye on Rocko. Overall the bath went pretty well. No mounting took place....Rocko tried a few times, but I always pulled him away before he was able to do anything...I think Dharma was pretty bummed out about it.


Here they are, freshly placed in the tub. Rocko is on the far left, Drinking at the time, unaware of what just happened. Dexter is on the very bottom, Maggie is the bright orange one on top of Dexter, and Dharma is the bottom right.

Things getting interesting...Rocko is the one with the jet black beard, having a stare-down with Dexter...I watched closely to make sure nothing happened....nothing did.

Here is Rocko and Dexter having their stare-down...they were in this position for several minutes, don't worry, nothing happened.

Dharma was such a tease...hopping in and out of the tub...there's Rocko and Dexter, the two bachelors in the background trying to "strut their stuff"to impress Dharma

Macho Rocko wins...Dharma was more interested in Rocko (I don't blame her) =P

Dharma, Maggie and Dexter

Brian Left today to D.C. =( He will be gone for nearly three months. siigh. At least Dharma, Maggie and Dexter will provide me with more company! They get to sleep in my room. Three more tanks added to my personal zoo. I Just cleaned out their cages and added some new substrate in. I only had one bag of bedding for all three cages. Maggie's bedding smelled the worst so her substrate was completely exchanged out. Dexter and Dharma split the last half of the bedding.Uh-oh I think Dexter just realized that Dharma is right above him. I think he finally discovered her because now he's head bobbing. Dharma pays no attention. I wonder what Rocko's response will be if I brought him in here. I'm pretty sure he'd freak out just a bit.

Not the best picture but here's the set up in my room. Dharma is queen so she gets top left. Maggie is under her and Dexter is on the right. They all have new bedding :)

Here is Maggie!

Here is Dharma! Hi Dharms! So photogenic!

And here is grumpy grumps very UNphotogenic Dexter. He's so dark in this picture, when he's in a good mood hes VERY bright orange!

TRINITY AND FLAPJACK! BEST BUDS!

Its been awhile since I posted anything on this blog. Lots of updates are coming, but I'll start with Trinity and Flapjack.
Trinity is still a sweet little cuddle bug. She enjoys being tickled...when she is in the mood for it. She's very playful, I can't even keep up with new toys, she destroys them so fast! I've been making her toys, which has been fun, but the second I put the new ones up, she destroys them almost immediately! It probably takes her two to three days tops to destroy 6 toys! ANYWAYS, Trinity and Flapjack get along GREAT! I hope Trinity continues to tolerate Flapjack as she grows older! Trinity enjoys being groomed by Flapjack; She'll put her head down next to him and he knows what to do. It's so cute! I don't want to bore you with words, so here's two videos. That should be worth at least 2,000 words right?

One Month!

Trinity has been with us for one month now. She is doing so well. I was so excited to hear her say her first word today: "hello". It was clear as day, my sister, who was sitting next to me heard it too! of course she never repeated it. Hopefully she will. You can definitely tell from the numerous sounds she's been making that she is definitely practicing speech! She already has the tongue clicking sound down pretty well.
I've witnessed her pterodactyl screech a few weeks ago when I was cleaning FlapJack's cage. It scared me! I thought she had hurt herself! Nope! when i turned around to see what happened, she was sitting on top of her cage as if nothing happened. I looked at her closer and she put her head down for a scritch. CLEVER GIRL. looks like someone gets jealous if i pay FlapJack a little too much attention, even if I'm just cleaning his cage. She repeated the same behavior again a week later when i was cleaning FlapJack's cage. She still is reluctant to step up for anyone. Oh but she will if i have a sunflower seed in my hand!!!! we'll work on it a little bit each day. I found she enjoys water. Ive caught her several times taking a little dip in her waterbowl. Sometimes i'll take her in the shower with me and have her perch on the curtain rod. She will tolerate a little splash here and there. :)
She LOVES SHREDDING PAPER. I used to have a small poster on the wall next to her cage, torn to shreds now. Thats ok, it was getting old to look at anyways.
The ither day, i was on the ground with my laptop a little ways away from her cage watching einstein the african grey on youtube. I purposely turned it up to see what she would do bshe flew down in front of my laptop, took a look at the screen for awhile then walked back to her cage and climbed up. lol. She is pretty silly.

Reptile Educational "Show and Tell"

A couple of days ago I packed up my reptiles and headed to an Elementary School where I would be talking to 6 different 1st grade classes all about snakes, lizards and tarantulas. Unfortunately I no longer have a tortoise =(
There were 9 creatures altogether and the children LOVED every one of them! They were so fascinated by them and had a billion questions. I explained to them what type of species they were, where they were located, what they ate, and about their sense of smell, sight and hearing. The kids were full of questions, so I let them ask away. Some of the most frequently asked questions were "does it bite?" and "what does it eat?".
"Does it bite?" is a very popular question with anyone I show the animals off too and I must say it is a HUGE pet peeve of mine.
"Does it bite?" OF COURSE it CAN bite just like you or me.
Does your dog bite? no? but it CAN right? Same goes for reptiles or any other species for that matter.
My reptiles generally don't bite out of aggression, they're actually very docile, but that doesn't mean they won't have an "off" day. Reptiles aren't domesticated like dogs and cats and can be kind of hard to read. With any reptile or wild animal, even the most tame, you must be on your guard at all times.
Sorry just really had to put that out there. Food for thought.
Anyways, back to the "show and tell".
My boyfriend and I brought:
 4 bearded dragons- 2 male, 2 female
1 Argentine Tegu- my Spartacus
1 Albino Burmese Python- my Loki
1 baby Columbian Red Tail Boa
1 4.5 ft Columbian Red Tail Boa
and of course Lucretia the Chilean Rose Tarantula

The kids got to come up (if they wanted to) to pet the bearded dragons.
Some kids got to pet Spartacus but because I woke Spartacus up from his slumber that morning he was being a bit cranky and uncooperative. So I had him on his harness and leash and let him walk around on the floor. The kids got to watch him from a distance.

They kids also got to witness the bearded dragons eat some super worms. They REALLY enjoyed that.

Unfortunately they didn't have parent permission to touch the snakes. =(

The event went really well! I was really tired out when I got home! The reptiles were too.

I'm bummed that I didn't think to get pictures of the kids with the animals. Maybe next time!

Here are the reptiles that showed themselves off for the kids:

Rocko: Bearded Dragon

Dharma: Bearded Dragon

Maggie: Bearded Dragon

Dexter: Bearded Dragon

Kaa: Columbian Red Tail Boa

{Instert picture of Stark}

Loki: Albino Burmese Python

Spartacus: Argentine Tegu

Lucretia: Chilean Rose Tarantula

Lucretia is doing well

So Lucretia went to her first classroom the other day. She was featured in my educational "show and tell" for first graders. The kids loved her. She did really well. I didn't take her out onto my hand, partly because I don't have too much experience handling her, and partly because I wouldn't want her to jump away and become loose in a classroom with potential allergic kids. That would be bad. My sister took some much better pictures of her! She still hasn't eaten, so far I've only offered super worms, I'm guessing she just isn't interested and would rather have a cricket or a roach. I'll pick some up this weekend. Hopefully she eats. Overall she's very very calm. Love her!

PICTURES!

Finally had my sister take pictures of Trinity with the better camera =)

Meet Lucretia

Brian and I went to a reptile show in Pomona, we had no intentions of bringing home any new animals, we just went to get out and to pick up some feeder bugs for the beardies. I saw a booth full of tarantulas and marveled at the sight of someone holding one. I have never held a tarantula before but really wanted to. I ended up holding a Chilean Rose. AWESOME experience! I fell in love with her of course and just HAD to bring her home! So I did....
She is said to be 8 years old.

The car ride home. Isn't she beautiful?

Fearless

I'm so proud of Trinity. I introduced the vacuum a couple days ago and was really worried how she would handle it. (but the carpet really needed a good vacuuming!) FlapJack is completely fearless and has never been afraid of the vacuum, or anything for that matter. I brought the vacuum out and I guess the sudden sight of a big red thing coming in from the other room startled her, she took off in flight. (WOW! she really can glide pretty far even with her feathers clipped, which I'm happy about). Brian rescued and cuddled with her, and once she was alright I warned her of a "BIG NOISE! BIIIIIG NOISE!" and turned the vacuum on. Brian had her so she was busy cuddling. She did fine =)
Later that same day she managed to throw her pellet dish and pellets went flying everywhere. She was on her play gym at the time. I took the vacuum out once again and she didn't get scared like she did earlier. yaaay. I totally forgot to warn her about the "BIG NOISE" and turned it on......it didn't even phase her! (of course I turned it off after realizing I forgot to warn her, said "BIIIIG NOISE" and turned it back on) She just sat contently watching me. She didn't seem frightened of it at all! =) YAY. =)

She really loves attention and sounds like a little puppy when she begs us to come out of her cage. I take it she enjoys our company so I thought maybe she is ready for some simple clicker training...the "step up" command. I didn't want to push her at all if she wasn't interested. SHE CAUGHT ON FAST!!! She learned that putting one foot on my hand would get her a sunflower seed. I decided to show her how FlapJack steps up. I went over to FlapJack's cage and had him "step up" onto my hand for a seed (FlapJack is a pro at it). Trinity watched and must have understood because when it was her turn she stepped onto my hand with both feet! AMAZING =) She's so smart and such a fast learner! (FlapJack too) Both FlapJack and her took turns "stepping up" onto my hand and "going to cage" for seeds. FlapJack is a good teacher =) I've been doing the "step up" command a couple times a "session"..don't want to bore her or frustrate her =) Now she is stepping up for Brian as well =) I think she really enjoys the attention! 

It's Been One Week!

It has been a week since Trinity came home and she is doing well =)
Yesterday I introduced her to FlapJack's Play gym, She was a little iffy at first but calmed down fast. I fed her some of her bean mix on it, she ate like a little piggy! She's definitely starting to eat more now. Hopefully now she starts gaining her weight back.
She's very playful and loves playing with her toys =)
She makes very cool whistles when she's in her cage and she wants out.

She wags her tail A LOT like a little duck! It's so cute! I recently bought a book on parrot behavior and was reading that the tail wag means "I'm glad to see you", "that was interesting" or "My tail feathers are out of place" (Mattie Sue Athan)

Her favorite treats are dried noodles and (of course) sunflower seeds.
She doesn't know the step up command yet, but I was playing with her a little bit last night. I have a clicker and did a few "training" sessions, nothing really serious, I just wanted to see how she would react. She understood last night that if she puts one foot on my hand she gets a treat! =) The session didn't last long, I just wanted to introduce her to the clicker.

She's very sweet! I hope this isn't just a "honeymoon" period.
She loves being rubbed around her head and LOVES cuddling underneath chins!
I bought a couple of cheap towels to drape around me when cuddling with my birdies, I'm getting tired of being pooped on. haha.

Here She is on a branch of the play gym. I think she liked it =)