Still a lot to do and fill out. All surfaces are sealed a long time ago and should be reptile safe. Cat palm is reptile safe from what I’ve seen.

4 nozzle MistKing sprayer setup for humidity, heat+uva/b provided by multiple bulbs. R.O. water provided in basin and spraying.

Always open to more advice for husbandry! His name is Julian and he gets a large variety of veggies minimizing oxalates

Link to the PDF: https://amphibian-reptile-conservation.org/pdfs/Volume/Vol_17_nos_1-2/ARC_17_1-2_[General_Section]_143-160_e327.pdf

Link to the paper:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10193848/

The paper is from April, but I just became aware of it now!

Some other cool images if the newly discovered species (Bolitoglossa muisca) taken from the paper:

And its habitat:

Edit: We have already freed them. We were worried that they were poisonous and something could happen to our dog. Thank you very much to all.

Found it near our front door and moved it closer to the river.

So, a couple of weeks ago, I wrote to this community, asking for some advice about our new blue tongue's eating. And the advice I got really helped us start to understand the lizard brain a little better.

It's been nearly three weeks since we brought him home, and we've figured out he really likes tinned dog food, strawberries and raspberries. No luck with veggies just yet, but we're still trying new things. The important thing is he's not going hungry, and gets his calcium supplement with the dog food.

But he's still very reclusive, and quite cranky with us. Most of the time, he'll hide under his basking log, or bury himself under some substrate. When we've reached in to try and pat him, he jerks suddenly and hisses.

My daughter's been afraid to try patting him again herself so, the past week, we've just been getting her to hand feed him a small piece of fruit each day, to try and build some trust between them. It's gone well, and he's eaten out of her hand a few times now.

My biggest concerns are that either his behaviour isn't that normal and we've not done something right, or that we're running the risk of letting this behaviour become his new "normal", and my daughter won't get to have a relationship with her pet.

So I guess my question, without trying to sound too anxious or impatient, is if his behaviour at this stage would still be considered normal? Should we be doing anything different?

Once again, thanks in advance for any knowledge and experience you can share.

We got our daughter (9yo) a blue tongue lizard for her birthday this week. We picked it up on Tuesday afternoon (it's now Saturday morning, here in Australia). The store says it's about 6 months old.

We also bought a really nice enclosure for it, with all the bits and pieces: 4' wood enclosure with glass sliding doors; twin 75W ceramic heat emitters; thermostat (located around the mid-zone); UVB light (on 12hrs per day, from 7:30am); good substrate, a basking log, a hide-out, and some fake grasses and leaves to hide under.

I'm not convinced the thermostat is particularly good, but I've kept a digital thermometer at the basking end, and the heat seems to consistently sit at around 30°-35°C (~86°-95°F) there, which at least tells me that zone is OK. I'm not sure the cool zone isn't too cool. I plan on buying another thermometer for that end.

The problem is, it's not eating much. It tends to find a hiding spot near the cool end, and bury itself under the substrate. We gave it some diced strawberries on Wednesday. I ended up putting it right near the food, and it eventually ate about a strawberry's worth.

The past couple of days we've tried some diced apple (freshly cut each day), but it hasn't gone near the food at all. Most of those two days, it stayed hidden and/or buried under the substrate. Per the store's instructions, we're taking the food away again around mid-afternoon - 3pm-ish.

Today, we put some beef pet food out and moved the lizard next to the food bowl. It had a tiny, little munch, but didn't really eat what you might consider a meal.

The store says it could take a week or so for it to settle into its new home, and I understand that. We're being disciplined and resisting the urge to take it out and hold it, to try and keep stress levels down.

But, I'm a touch concerned at all the staying hidden/buried, and lack of eating, as we've been told juveniles should be fed daily. My daughter's starting to get really worried, and I've tried explaining that cold-blooded animals metabolise way slower than warm-blooded, so it's not like he's starving or anything. At least, I don't think he is.

Should we be concerned at all? At which point should I start to seek professional assistance?

Just looking for some reassurance that anything we're doing/not doing isn't causing any problems. Thanks.

A terrestrial juvenile of Lissotriton vulgaris found under a log in the Netherlands.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/6323969

who goes there?

take a gander

it's a sleek

salamander

Hello. Sorry if this isn't the right sublemmy to ask about this, lemmy is still kinda small. But, my pet cornsnake has her mouth open like in the picture, normally it's closed. I did notice some coconut fiber substrate stuck in her mouth when I fed her 5 days ago. (Also she also ate the mouse butt-first, so maybe the mouse's tail got lodged or something?)

Anyway, should this be something to be worried about? Should I just wait a couple days to see if it will fix itself? What do you guys think it is

🦎

https://archive.ph/PgeBP

Had a black snake living my backyard for a couple of years & named her Mirtha. Mirtha was good folk, ate mice, kept copperheads at bay, & occasionally got a lil fancy trying to eat hummingbirds.

This year Mirtha made herself more visible to us. She was showing up in higher traffic areas, seemed to have a blockage in her belly.

A friend, who’s a herpetologist at a local university, connected us with the reptile team at NC State University. We drove Mirtha to Raleigh for help.

Sadly, we learned that Mirtha had eggs from last year that she could not birth. The eggs had begun deteriorating & created the risk of sepsis; Mirtha was euthanized & laid to rest.

I never thought I’d cry over a black snake, but damn do I miss Mirtha…

I have a bunch more of these guys if anyone is interested.

I took in a silkback/scaleless bearded dragons some years ago after all my fosters were adopted, as I wanted to get some experience with such a misunderstood species.

I learned an absolute ton and have been educating about silkbacks on R×ddit for some years now, dispelling myths, discouraging ownership / breeding, and swapping advice with the fellow silkback owners.

One thing I've noticed is that silkbacks seem to be prone to blindness / vision loss. We suspect that their eyes may be much more sensitive to UVB, resulting in eyesight deterioration. My own has lost most of his vision and now struggles to find food on his own.

tl;dr: Is vision restoration even possible? Surgery? I'd love for my guy to be able to see again. It really hurts me to him struggle to even feel comfortable roaming my house now. The world can be scary for a little lizard when they can no longer see what's around them.

Thank you.