Little bit of this and a little bit of that!

Hello Everyone!

I hope everyone is doing well. I never know where to start when writing in my blog because I always have a million things that I could write about! I could write about my future breeding projects, holly's health problems, my trip last weekend to the SDNHM's exhibit Lizards & Snakes: ALIVE, etc, etc. However since it is so late tonight, I think this will be a short little blog :)

Tonight I was having edamame and peas for dinner so I shared some with the beardies. Tonight was the first time they have ever had soybeans. Holly went NUTS! I mean the girl was chowing down quicker than I have ever seen her eat! Either she was starving, or I found her new favorite veggie! Then again, she eats like a horse all the time so it is not anything new, haha. Frankie didn't touch his veggies tonight. He has refused almost all food the past few weeks, accepting only super worms. He won't even eat his favorite (blueberries) when I tried to hand feed him. He isn't really acting sick so I am not too worried just yet, however he has lost about 18 grams in the past few weeks so if he doesn't start eating again soon, I will be making an appointment with the vet. I am hoping it is just because the weather has been really crappy lately.

I am trying to grow a very large collection of herp books. My short-term goal is to begin a breeding project in my home and my long-term goal is to open my own retail store. I want to do everything right and so I have been spending many, many hours lately reading as much as I can and doing as much research as I humanly possible. I also happen to be a HUGE bookworm so naturally I am interested in growing a library of reptile/amphibian books. The Border's bookstore near my house is going out of business so I dropped in after work the other day. I got a good deal on a couple of snake books. Today my library grew by another book. I won a contest through Reptiles magazine Facebook page and I will be receiving the book "Monitors and Tegus". I am pretty excited because I don't know much at all about monitors or tegus yet. I can't wait to get the book in the mail and bury my nose in it! I will be impatiently waiting for it until it gets here! ;)

I am planning on purchasing a baby male corn snake to raise along with Snow White, my female corn snake in the hopes of breeding them. I do not plan on housing them together so I bought a second tank last weekend. I am very excited to get another gorgeous baby! I have been looking around but I have yet to fall in love with any little guys. Hopefully I will find one soon because I would like my male to be about the same age as my female so that they mature at the same time.

Well I think that is all for tonight. I will be writing another blog post soon so that I can tell you guys all about my trip to the SDNHM with my Dad last week. I fell head over heels in love with an Australian Water Dragon and I am going to start researching their care. I think I may add one to my collection next year! I have plenty of pictures of all the squamates from the museum, courtesy of my amazing photographer-father and I think you guys will enjoy them.

One last thing.....Please check out my Rin's Reptiles facebook page:
Rin's Reptiles Facebook Page

The herps thank you for reading! I promise pictures in my next posting!

Lizards and Snakes, Oh My!

Ohhhh man. It has been a very long time since I wrote my first/last blog. I told myself I would update this thing all the time but I have failed miserably. I am not the best writer in the world so I guess this blogging thing will take some practice, hehe.

I have so much to write.....where oh where do I begin???

I guess I could begin with some exciting Holly Berry news. I weighed her last weekend and my "Lil Bitty" weighed a whopping 291 grams! I wanted to cry I was so happy. Holly has had health issues most of her life, including MBD and also a nerve problem with her front wrists. Neither of her vets have yet to figure out exactly what is causing it. It is a long story, for another blog entry but it made me very happy and eased some of my fears knowing that my tiny little girl has gained 91 grams since October. Even though she is almost 2 years old, she still seems to be growing and bulking up. The vet told me that he doesn't believe she will ever grow to be a normal size but at 16 inches from snout to tail tip and 291 grams, I will be happy even if she never gains another gram. There was a time when I worried daily about her health but she is a tough little girl and won't let anything get in her way. The vet even complimented her big strong muscles. Ahhhh she makes me such a proud mommy :)

At the same time that I weighed Holly, I also weighed Frankie and my Snowy Girl. Frankie weighs 484 grams and little Snowy Girl weighs only 34 grams. She is so little that it is insane to think that she will some day weigh a couple pounds. She is also my tough little girl and she has the most voracious appetite! She now eats 2 pinkies approximately every 10 days and I swear after her second pinkie, she is still looking for more! She had her second shed tonight since I got her and it was awesome that I was actually able to watch. It was crazy to see her wiggle her way out of her skin. Tomorrow I will have to take a picture of it. :) She had a little bit of a bad first shed, her tail tip did not shed completely and I was a little bit worried but when I looked in on her tonight it looks like this shed corrected the problem. I haven't inspected it up close however so I could be wrong.

Well I am getting tired so I think I will cut this short for tonight, but I will definitely try to write more tomorrow.

Introduction

My whole life I have been interested in reptiles. In 2005 I obtained my first reptile - a baby bearded dragon that I named Frankincense. My collection has since grown to 7 amazing herps - 3 fire belly toads, 2 bearded dragons, 1 tree frog and 1 corn snake.

Animals and Birthdates:

Bearded Dragons:
Frankincense (Frankie) born in 2005



Holly Berry (Holly) born in 2009
(She is the smaller of the two)

Fire Belly Toads:
The bobs - I believe all 3 were born in 2008 or 2009

Tree Frog:
Noelle (this little frog was wild and literally "hopped into my life" as I like to say on Christmas Eve of 2010. Hence the name Noelle.

Corn Snake
Snow White (Snowy) born in 2010