UPDATES!
Sunday January 20th, 2008
Today, i decided to take a trip to my local pet shop. its about a 45 minute drive. granted that there are about 6 of these shops that are a lot closer, it being a small chain store and all, but this one seems to have more of a variety in the animals that i like.
Usually, i will take a walk through their pet room, look at each and every tank and think to myself how wrong eah and every setup is. thankfully, the animals are only there for a short time in those death traps before being transfered to their new, knowledgeable homes.
the first row of tanks that i stop at are the Chameleons. I am continuously looking for new, healthy Pygmies to add to my collection. And on rare occassions, i do find a couple that i absolutely HAVE to purchase for one reason or another.
This time, however, i made a quick stop at the Reed Frog Tank. they usually have a pretty good selection of reed's. and i saw some this time that i couldn't refuse.. mostly because they were mismarked and about half of what they could easily sell for... lucky me....lol
I believe i have correctly identified all but one.
(ADULT MADAGASCAN REED FROG) scientific name : Heterixalus madagascariensis
( ADULT MALE PUNCTICULATUS REED FROG) scientific name: Hyperolius Puncticulatus
(ADULT FEMALE MARBLED REED FROG) scientific name: Hyperolius marmoratus
(ADULT FEMALE PUNCTICULATUS REED FROG) scientific name: Hyperolius Puncticulatus
(JUVENILE COMMON REED FROG) scientific name: Hyperolius Viridiflavus
this last frog, (last 3 pictures), is the one that i am having trouble identifying. i dont believe it to be a hybrid, however, i have seen hybrid reeds for sale before, and they look vaguely similar.
i have only come across this one specimen. there are little to no reference pictures available on the net for comparison, so in the meantime i will have to wait for something to pop up concerning this specific frog.
Although the pictures do not do the colors justice, it is marbled, almost patched with light brown and dark brown "cow spots" on its back, Pink/dilute red underbelly and toes, and gold/light brown eyes.
it is really quite beautiful in person.
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Thursday, January 24th, 2008
This Saturday night, i will be traveling into town to pick up a snake.
What kind of snake, you say? well, it is a little known species that lives on only one island in the world, the island of Sawu, off the coast of New Guinea, making it the smallest geographical distribution of any python species.
it is called the Savu Island Python. and it is a very beautiful snake i might add.
Scientific name: Liasis mackloti savuensis
it's care is similar to that of the Macklot snake. so i shouldn't have too much trouble keeping it healthy and its condition's met.
i say "it", but it is really a She, and she is about 4 feet long and close to 3 years old. (perfect age for taming and handling).
pictures to follow when she settles in. (hopefully Sunday).
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Saturday, January 26th, 2008
alright, well here are the first pictures of my new Savu python, Cleo:
(they aren't the best, seeing as how i have a crappy Kodak digi camera and all )
ENJOY! more pictures to come, when the sun comes out and it stops raining here. then you will see her beautiful rainbow coloring.
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Monday, January 28th, 2008
i took some pictures tonight of a few of my critters doing what they do best. 
White's just sitting out and about, looking around.
Other White's looking for crickets in his tank.
I KNEW that there was a male singing in one of my Reed frog tanks, but i couldnt find out who it was, until, i got a picture of him. note the extended vocal pouch. (common reed frog)
also caught my Madagascan Reed frog in mid shed.
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Saturday, February 2nd, 2008
today i did some replanting in a reed frog tank.. all the plants were getting too big for the enclosure, making it hard to open the sliding lid without breaking some of the stems...
Misc. Reed Frog Tank....
closer shot..
Male Chameleon out and about..
my mantella tank has FINALLY become its own little eco-system. i spotted some of these orange mushrooms growing.. there are currently around 20-25 of these little things throughout the tank..
and finally, since it has been snowing ALL week here, i havent been able to take Cleo outside for some pictures, so i snuck some when she was exploring her tank.. she didnt think too highly of me for doing so, however.
thats all for this evening.. thanks for looking.. 
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Sunday, February 3th, 2008
today was interesting.
I had placed my collection of Mantella Betsileo up for adoption ( im trying to downsize my cllection). anyway, i was contacted by someone from Zoo Boise out here in Idaho.
they are making a display for the "Year of the Frog" exhibit and needed some interesting frogs for their tanks. i just happened to have what they were looking for apparently.
they are also interested in some of my African Reed Frogs. mainly the colorful ones, like Mitchelli's and marmoratus.
I can honestly say, that i have never been contacted by a zoo for some of my animals, so this was exciting.
the display is suppposed to be up and running sometime in June, when kids are out of school and such.
I will take pictures then, and have them up here for everyone to see.
i hope they take care of them (im sure they will). and im sure that the display that they will be in is going to be amazing.
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Friday, February 8th, 2008
well, its been a hard day at work for me today. we put a lot of dogs to sleep, just to make room for more strays. ( i work at an animal shelter by the way ).
so, to relax, i put together a home for my new Tomato Frog ( Jaba ). here is a picture of him/her...
its about twice the size of a half dollar coin. still a juvenile, but fairly large. im hoping to get a few more once the weather warms up, and shipping on these guys is a little better.
this is the sterilite container that he is residing in. i have kept many a frog like this, and they seem to do better then in standard 10 gallon glass tanks.
there is a low watt heat mat pressed onto the lid, and a ventilation hole cut into it. this is by no means a beautiful display, but it is comfortable to them.
AND...................... since it is SO SLOW in the Chameleon tanks, i shot some more pics of my Reed frogs. one of which suffered a bad burn to his back earlier this week. i had lifted the lid on his tank so i could re-arrange some things, and he decided to hop into the light fixture, and tuck himself back behind the hot light bulb.
not good... when i finally forced him out ( about 2-3 seconds later), he had several spasms.. flopped onto his back and stayed there for a good 5 minutes.
I quickly placed him in a plastic container with sopping wet paper towel substrate, to help cool the burn.. and then misted him with cool water for about a minute straight. thanks to my quick actions, his life was spared and he is now making a full recovery. thankfully, this was one of my more robust frogs that had been quarantined and dewormed, so he wont have to deal with the stress of parasites and anorexia along with the burns...
here is a few pics of what his back looks like now.. it may never heal completely..
you can see the burns ( one on his neck, and the other a bit further down).
he was eating when i snapped these photos, and i added some extra calcium coated crickets and fruitflies to his tank to boost his calcium intake in case he stops feeding for a while.
i was also lucky enough to take two shots of my elusive Afraxilus fornasini. i have three of them, and they NEVER come out when there is any light on in their room or on their tank... but tonight was different.
*EDIT*
i had said that these frogs were HYPEROLIUS, when they are in fact, AFRAXILUS.
to tell the difference between the two species, the Hyperolius have horizontal pupils, while Afraxilus have vertical pupils.
these last shots were taken just after i threw the crickets in the tanks..
WHERE IS IT .......................
FOUND IT ...................
ATE IT ......................
spotted another male in a tank tonight. They are calling almost nightly now.
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Saturday, February 9th, 2008
UPDATE!!
i might as well title this page "reed frogs", because thats all that i seem to have written about on here.. lol..
anyway........
i now have pictures of my reed frog Quarantine tanks. i upgraded them today, since my old ones were worn and needed replacing.
i hope that these pictures will give someone out there a general idea of how to setup a Q tank using other items instead of a standard 10 gallon tank.
sooo.. here you go..
the two Q tanks are there ( white and Blue top bins). currently they are housing the species H. Puncticulatus. i picked up 5 of these guys today. none are adults, at best guess they are around 4-5 months out of the water.
my cricket stash for the Q frogs is off to the left, along with extra containers if there happens to be an escapee, or if they need to be removed for cleaning.
i took a picture of a bin with the heater on it. this, besides the heat bulb that replaces the day light at night, is what i use to warm the Q tanks. it works perfectly. but, i only use this during the cooler months.
this is what the insides of both tanks look like. i make them identical. two (fake) bamboo branches, a bunch of (fake) ivy leaves, and a good sized water bowl, along with damp coco fiber.
all plants and climbing items are artificial for easier cleaning. if there happens to be a disease out- break, i can soak these in bleach and hot water.
one of the new little guys. i have identified that i have purchased 3 males and 2 females.
it was slim pickin's at the pet store today. i wiped them out of their reed frogs.
i also placed an order in for some Pygmy chams. since they have been out of them the last few times i have made it out to that store.
another one, FEMALE, trying to find her way out and onto my floor...... she did.
and some random shots. i have been hearing a LOT of calling several times a day now.. i will be making a rain chamber for them in the coming weeks, see if anything will happen with them..
my burn victim, whom i have named Blaze......
WELL, that is all for tonight.
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Tuesday, February 12th, 2008
I had the day off from work today, so i decided to get a head start on my Reed Frog Rain Chamber. although, i might as well just call it a "chamber", since i havent yet made the "rain" part of it.
for now, this is what it looks like:
i will be giving these guys a few days to settle in before i turn the rain line on..
i dont bother with glass aquariums for rain chambers. rubbermaids/sterilite containers work just fine.
here is a shot, with a dollar bill for size reference. i believe this container to be about 20L.
Inside contents:
cork bark piece
pothos cuttings
large stones ( that have been rinsed for 1/2 hour in HOT water)
about 3-4 inches of NATURAL SPRING WATER, not tap water.. too many metals/minerals in that....
perferated lid. i used a REALLY sharp knife and turned it clockwise to form small holes in the lid.
its amazing how straight the lines are, because i just used my eye to measure about where they should be.....
first group meeting. 2 of the 4 frogs.
i have 3 males and only 1 female in this time. there are 3 established female H. Puncticulatus in the display tank, however, i could only discern this one ( left ) to be gravid.
3 of 4.
i dont know if this will pan out. i usually add 2 to 3 females per tank....
2 males. the one on the (right) is the one that i am hoping breeds with this female. he has such beautiful markings that i would like the offspring to have.
on a side note..............
I CANNOT BELIEVE MY LUCK TODAY!
while i was driving around, trying to find a nursery that had pothos plants in stock, i ventured into the local mall petshop....
i usually dont, because they have THE WORST animals in there that i have ever seen.. none of them are in proper housing, the prices are sky high for low grade specimens, and, the puppies that they sell there are 9 times out of 10 sick with Kennel Cough or some other respiratory infection..
however, it just so happened to be their reptile delivery day.
so, i casually looked over their new selection of animals, thinking to myself how much better off they would have been if they had died en-route to the store, instead of suffering here.. when i saw something that caught my eye..
a White Side Bull Snake...
granted, that there is a pet store of higher quality across the street, i couldnt help but inquire how much they wanted for the little thing.
the price mark was $49.99. Fair. considering that is about the average..
this is where my luck changed for the good, however.
the young guy that was working back there, obviously enough, didnt seem to know anything about what he had. so i asked to see the Texas Bull snake....
he lifted the lid and removed the hide it was in... "uh, i think its in shed".. is what he said as he pointed to the obvious White Sided ( whom he thought was the Texas Bull ).
"oh", i said.. and asked to pick him up. i then went on with questions regarding its health, shedding records, and eating habits..
after everything checked out good, i gave it a minute and then said to box it up for me, because even though it was almost $50 bucks, i fell in love with it and had to bring it home..
he did, and as i payed up front and walked out to my car, it hit me that i only handed the cashier $40.00 ...
i looked at the receipt, and she had only charged me $29.99 for a "Texas Bull" snake.
YES!
apparently, they had sold the Texas Bull earlier in the week, and hadn't marked it off their registers yet...
so, i got a killer deal for a great little guy ( or gal ).
i will put up pictures tomorrow. after he settles in..
that is all for tonight........
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Saturday, February 16th,2008
well. my rain chamber was short lived for the H. Mitchelli, as a representative from the Boise Zoo came over last night and picked up all of the frogs that i had placed in the chamber.
maybe they will have better success?
ALSO.. they are getting in some Mossy Frogs, which i have been dying to get and breed FOREVER, and they are willing to sell me some froglets (when) their frogs produce!!
Sidenote:
my Bullsnake, whom i have named, Domino, ate two pinky mice fom my hand today. i didnt think he would be interested in food, since he just shed yesterday (complete shed, no retained eye caps).
he struck at those things without me even having to scent them or use the "braining" method. which, i DID NOT want to do anyway.
Sidenote:
Today, i picked up a lucky litte guy named Curacao. he is a 3 month old ball python.
i was at the petstore looking at some Sand Boas, which i am thinking about starting a breeding program with by the way, when i saw this guy...
he hasnt eaten yet, just settling in.
i WILL have pictures of Domino up tonight, though.
he is going to be my last snake purchase for quite some time. that is, unless i come across one that is in need of a home or that has been abused or abandoned.
7:40 pm
here are the first shots of Domino:
i am keeping him in the "shoe box" method. this works extremely well for younger snakes, as i am able to control the heating and humidity better in this setup than i am in a glass tank.. when his next growth spurt hits, though, he will be moved into a 10 gallon glass aquarium.
INSIDE CONTENTS:
medium sized piece of cork bark for a "hide".
small water dish, just big enough to soak in.
Aspen bedding.
along with an UTH that is actually placed ontop of the lid.
this is his first shed skin next to my 1 year old cat for size reference.
i estimate Domino to be between 12-14 inches long right now.
slightly closer shot of Domino.
and.... a random image of the newest Reed frog additions. this was taken with the flash at night, when they were out feeding.
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Monday, February 18th, 2008
since i have sold off some of my little critters, i decided to make an empty 10 gallon tank a permanent home for my Tomato Frog.
here it is setup:
i have pothos cuttings and pillow moss growing in here. this will hopefully, in time, spread the length of the tank.
and, here is a closer shot of him. he is a little smaller than the size of a baseball right now.
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Tuesday, February 19th, 2008
well, no sooner do i sell off some Mitchells reed frogs, do my Common reed frogs decide to go into amplexus..
i found one pair this morning after i turned on the lights. i thought they would have waited until i put them into their rain chamber, but i guess not...
they have been in amplexus all day now. so tomorrow, i should know for certain if they are going to lay a clutch or not..
i managed to snap two photos before heading off to work this morning..
all of the common reed frogs in this tank, i had raised from newly morphed froglets.
the ratio in this tank now stands at 5.2.0
it ALWAYS works better for this species if there is a male heavy breeding group..
anyway, i hope to have more on them tomorrow.
good night.
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Wednesday March 5th, 2008
UPDATE POSTIN' TONIGHT!!
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Friday, March 7th, 2008
i know, it has taken me forever to get an update on here.. but here it is...
i FINALLY upgraded my H. Puncticulatus tank from a small exo-terra cage to a 29 gallon long tank.
here are some before shots of one of the setups:
this was what the tank originally looked like. this was home to (4) adult H. Puncts.
and, a better shot of the inside.
CONTENTS:
cork bark
pothos
lava rock
thermometer/hygrometer
pillow moss
small water bowl
bamboo poles (for climbing)
and aquarium background covering three sides for added privacy.
a shot of the 4 together. this group stands at ( 3.1.0)
female is on the top left.
and, just in case you didnt know what a gravid Reed Frog looks like, here you go..
gravid female H. Punct.
another of the same female.
and a tank shot after the lights went out. i added a blue/black heat lamp for night time because these guys kept smacking their heads on the top of the tank.
and, a shot of their NEW 29 gallon terrarium. i put this together using most of the materials that they had in their previous tank, with the exception of a few new plants and cork bark pieces.
i got this tank and a weird looking stand at Petco, for a very good deal.
and this is a shot detailing the tank and stand.
i even had room on it to house my ball python and Bull snake tanks!
one of the little one's exploring his new home.
small male hanging out.
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Saturday, March 8th, 2008
i decided that i didnt like the look of the Reed Frog tank that i had currently set up.. so i re-did it and took some pictures.. they will be up in a minute................
Okay, as promised, pictures of the improved H. Punct. setup:
i added a bigger drainage level, some twisty branches and more cork bark.
i wanted it to have a forest type look, which i think that i accomplished.
i also realized that i hadn't posted a picture of Curacao, my ball Python. so, here (s)he is.
i picked this one out of a lot of about 7 babies. this one stood out with the brighter coloring and markings.
this picture, (pardon the cat hair that is on the rug, which i can never seem to vacuum up all the way), illustrates the stripe that goes up a good portion of the tail.. which was unique to this snake.
and Curacao's current setup. the blue toped container is the shed box i put in the tank when (s)he is close to shedding. this is removed afterwards and a cork bark round, as well as a half log hide is used on both sides of the tank for cover.
and, this is the setup for my Bull Snake, Domino. he is currently in shed, so i have taken out his water dish and replaced it with a shed hide/box for a couple of days. he has access to water everyday, when i place the dish back into his home for a few hours.
and, one of my NEWEST Pygmy Chameleon tank. 20 gallon long.
currently housing one pygmy chameleon. this is a night shot. i thought it looked kind of like a forest when there was only background lighting on....
and a day shot from a month or so back when it was first established. the plants have since taken over the tank almost completely.
a hiding male chameleon.
some common reed frogs (hyperolius viridiflavus) another frog that i am currently trying to breed.
another.....................
and, another (male).
well...........that is all for today. i hope to have some photos of my progress on the outdoor pygmy housing up by next week sometime..
--C.
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Saturday, March 8th, 2008
well, looks like i had more to post about then i first thought.
just to update everyone, i had placed my group of (4) h. Punct's in a rain chamber that i made this evening.. i basically used the old exo-terra that they were in, and added the lava rock waterfall (desk top waterfall) to the enclosure. i then filled up the bottom 1 1/2 inches of the exo-terra with water and added some live pothos leaves and cork bark.... and BAM..... a ghetto style home made rain chamber.... sorta....
anyway, i went to check on the frogs at about 10 pm tonight, and to my surprise, i saw this:
i hope that this outcome is better then the last attempts that my H. Viridiflavus had.... we'll see in the morning....
i will get pictures of the rain chamber tomorrow if this experiment was successful!!!!
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Sunday, March 9th, 2008
i have successfully uploaded a sound bite of my frogs calling to Youtube.com
here is the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQ1a9b_ZuhA
now, this was taken with a digital camera, so there was nothing for the lens to point at in their dark room, except for the floor. these guys are EXTREMELY loud at night. and may keep even the most sound sleeper awake...lol
enjoy!
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Tuesday, March 18th, 2008
i have been really busy with work, so i havent had a lot of time to get on here and update this site as much as i would like, but updates will happen when time allows....
like this one:
i have ordered 4 new pygmy chameleons today. they should be in this Thursday, if everything goes according to plan!
i should have pictures up of them in a few days...
keep checking back!!!!!!!
i will also have pictures of their new setups as well!
