weekly reptiles facts

Black Mambas

by Rachel Parsille

Black mambas are one of the world's fastest, most neurotoxic snakes in the world. They can climb trees, swim, and slither fast! They are vicious hunters, and are highly intelligent. Most people when they hear, "Black mamba!" in Africa, people know to get inside and stay away from that area. They are the second longest snake, besides the king Cobra, and commonly grow to be nearly three meters long! They can slither at just about ten miles per hour! One of the common predators of the Black Mamba, are mongooses! They tire the snake out and make the snake dizzy, as the snake slowly gets tuckered out, the mongoose pounces on the snake, and might get bit once or twice, they have adapted to the point where their venom can't do as much as it could do to a human, or rodent. Some famous sport players have the nick-name Black Mamba because of their skill, speed, and intelligence. Don't worry, they are NOT native to our country, but they are native to Africa, millions of miles away from here! They can climb and lift themselves nearly all the way to the very tip of their tail! They get their food from anywhere really, they can swim some, climb, burrow, and hunt on ground level! It is a really good thing we don’t have to deal with them here!

Reptiles as pets

by Rachel Parsille

Most people love seeing geckos, bearded dragons, snakes, turtles, and tortoises. What most people don’t understand is why you need to do real research when you want to own one as a pet. An example of this is tank size, how tall, wide, or how many gallons, how humid do they need to be, how hot? The list can go on forever, most people might do two days of research, and think they have it all right, but if you do it right have you ever seen the reptiles at pet shops? They might be "cuddling" or in reality, they can be fighting for space without you realizing it? Have you ever seen a tiny gecko in a tank with bigger geckos? They are most likely not being feed, or have you seen their arms bent in weird ways? That’s a disease! If you ever think of buying a reptile, think of a breeder, pet stores don’t really take care of them properly, and you shouldn’t support it. Do your research, reptiles in captivity live an average of ten years if properly taken care of! That is a long time commitment, and what most people think of a pet is the animal that you love and care for. In reality, they rely on you, and yes you should love and care for the animal either way, but without you means no food, water, heat, and eventually die. Consider if they are really right for you, or if you can really take a fifteen year commitment. - Rachel Parsille

I'M AN ORIGINAL CATCHPHRASE

Eyelash Crested Geckos are native to New Caledonia in the Isle of Pines and are a common species in the exotic pet trade, there are many morphs which are genetic patters, color, het. Etc. Which is heterozygous meaning the parents will pass a gene that is non-visible for them to their kids that are able to visualize the gene. Examples of this would be a female gecko who is fifty five percent het. Albino, and the male is thirty percent het. albino, their offspring will be mostly albino and able to show it with the red eyes, yellow tint to all areas of their bodies. Eyelash Crested geckos are a arboreal species meaning they are a tree dwelling species and will rarely come down to the forest floor. They are omnivores, and their diet consists of bugs, fruit, but no vegetables. In captivity, their diet is fruit based and bug based. They need tall tanks not long tanks, the taller the happier. They need to have plants and enriching plants and branches to hang and hide on, they need a humidity of seventy to eighty percent, they also don’t need a heat lamp, which is up for debate with numerous reptile professionals. However you still need to dust their crickets, mealworms, and waxworms( only to be feed as a treat). If they drop their tail it is a completely normal behavior, and it will never grow back. They can't blink because they don’t have eyelids! So they lick their eyes whenever you spray their tank down and water gets on their eyes they lick the water off! When they are babies they are about an inch and a half long including the tail! But when they are full grown they are six to eight inches! You need to feed them every day to every other day, and have variety, make sure whenever you want to feed them something new always do your research!

Rachel Parsille