Power Outages and Cold Weather Emergencies

 I know it is almost June and most of us won't have to worry about winter storms for awhile. This post is super late but I wanted to share it anyway. Last January, Western Washington got hit by a massive ice and snow storm. This storm caused power outages and seriously dangerous conditions.

As you can imagine, winter storms can cause problems for reptile keepers. They make it difficult to maintain temperatures. If the power goes out and you don't have a generator, reptile lights and heat pads do not work. So how do you keep your critters safe during an emergency or power outage? Here are a few tips.

 Stock up on hand warmers

Hand warmers can serve as emergency heat pads. They can be placed under tanks or under carriers. Be careful when using them because they can get very hot. Monitor cage and surface temps carefully. Keep in mind that most hand warmers get hotter when exposed to more air. DO NOT PLACE DIRECTLY IN TANK!

Stock up on snake bags, critter keepers, and other animal totes

If you have to move your animals to a warmer location or a place with power, you want to make sure you have enough totes to carry all of them safely. This picture shows some of my feed containers and critter keepers. Plastic totes that are not clear are better (darkness reduces stress and thicker, "weather resistant" totes may hold heat better), but clear totes can be used. It may be handy to keep some extra substrate around so that you can easily add some to the totes. Snake bags are great for transporting snakes. Pillow cases can also be used (just make sure you tie them up well)! Cat/dog crates and carriers are another possible way to transport your bigger herps. I brought home Gary the ball in a soft-sided animal carrier (much to the amusement of my coworker). Just a side note: I would strongly caution against adding anything (like cage furniture) to the totes because they can move during transport and hurt your critters.

Try to keep the room warm

Keep all windows and doors shut. Keep blinds and curtains closed. If you are preparing for a storm well ahead of time, you will want to check for and fix any drafts. We were very fortunate because at the beginning of winter, we bought a kit to fix our drafty window in our reptile room (this helped all winter long, not just during the storm)! If you have a "reptile room" or a warmer room, you can use objects (like pillows and blankets) at the base of the door to block it from larger or colder rooms. I highly suggest moving all of your herps into the warmest room in the house. Another thing you can do is blast the heater when the power comes back on. If the power comes back, don't assume it will stay. Turn the heater up as soon as possible.

Try to stay with your animals

Keep an eye on your critters! A local zoo lost all but one of their giant salamanders because no one was there to monitor the aquarium temperature. When the power came back on, the chiller failed to turn on with the pump, and the water was accidentally heated to over 80 degrees! The poor salamanders (which would have happily survived the extreme cold of the winter storm had the power outage continued) overheated. You can avoid problems like this by monitoring your animals and their cage temperatures closely. Don't assume that because you have an animal that can tolerate cold, that he does not require monitoring. Power outages can cause all sorts of problems.

Have a Plan

The most important thing is to have a plan. I talked with a few of my friends after the power outage and many of them were very panicked about their animals during the storm. One of my coworkers had to sleep with her bearded dragon to keep him warm because she had no power and no emergency plan! Decide what you would do in the event of an emergency. Where would you go if your home gets too cold? I have a friend with a powerful generator, but not everyone does. Do you have enough totes to transport all animals safely? Where are your emergency supplies? Keep in mind that while many herps are hardy and can go a very long time without food and water, very few of them can tolerate extreme cold. And if you have multiple animals, some of the may tolerate cold better than others. Decide which animals will need to be moved and when.

So there is my post about cold weather emergencies. It may be a really long time before the next winter storm, but you can use all that time to prepare :)

10 Must-Have Items for Reptile Care and Maintenance

Over my many years of keeping reptiles and amphibians, I have decided that certain objects are necessary for their care and maintenance. Here are 10 items that I cannot live without. 

 Detachable Shower head

This is one of the most important items on the list. Since we live in an apartment, I can't just take the cages outside to hose them down. We have no hose or backyard! So we have a detachable shower head instead. It makes cleaning cages and cage furniture a snap. Plus, we don't have to worry about dumping bleach water on the lawn. It just goes down the drain! And the high pressure setting really helps wash off stubborn bits of eco earth. In my opinion, this is a must have for anyone with caged animals.

 Huge Mister

This is pretty self-explanatory. Reptiles and amphibians (even desert species) need the occasional misting. This monster of a mister makes it very easy.

  Probe Thermometer

Let's face it: most of those sticky cage thermometers suck. They aren't very accurate and they constantly fall off. Heaven help you if one of the adhesive-backed cage thermometers falls into eco earth. It will never stick to the glass again! While I do use sticky cage thermometers to get a general read of the cage temps, I prefer probe thermometers because they can move and they are much more accurate. I have hung this one on a tack stuck into a cork board. I can remove the thermometer easily to test cage and water temps. When I am not using it to test cage temps, it measures the room temperature for me. Very handy!

 Hand Sanitizer, Paper Towels, and Enzymes

Paper towels are an obvious must-have. Same thing with hand sanitizer. The enzyme cleaner is a little unusual, but it is one of those things I cannot live without. Unlike many reptile cleaners, it is completely harmless to the animals. And while I would never spray it on an animal or in their water bowl (duh), I can use it while the critter is in the cage. It doesn't sanitize the cage (I use a small amount of bleach and a lot of water for that), but it is very good at reducing odors! It works very well with care fresh. When combined with a paper towel, it also helps remove stuck-on snake poo.

 Spare Light Bulbs

Because you never know when a light will go out. And most pet stores aren't open 24-hours.

Feed Tongs, Sand Scoop, and Scrub Brush

Feed tongs are useful for more than just feeding. They can be used to move objects in cages (like when you are feeding your pacman frog and accidentally drop the cricket cardboard in his cage and don't feel like losing a finger) or as an "emergency" snake hook for rowdy snakes after feeding (or whenever). You may think, 'who owns a reptile and not a pair of feed tongs'? But trust me, I have met plenty of people who own snakes and not feed tongs. Sand scoops can be used to scoop up all kinds of substrate. They can also be used to separate meal worms from the material they are packaged in (especially when you are down to your last few). Scrub brushes are awesome for cleaning water dishes (don't use cleaners, though)! As a side note, you can also see a thing of calcium supplement in the drawer. I didn't include that in the list because then I would have to include reptile food in the list.


So there you have it. 10 must-have items for reptile care and maintenance.

Petpalooza

I know it has been a really long time since I last posted. My laptop decided awhile back that it wouldn't read SD cards so getting pictures on to the internet from my camera required the use of my husband's laptop. Since he uses his laptop for work and my free time comes when he is at work, that meant I had little opportunity to upload photos. And what is a blog without photos? So I kind of gave up. But my husband went on a trip for the week and left me his laptop. And now I am back :)

I will start with a quick post about Petpalooza. A few days ago, I went to a pet festival with my little sister. The free entertainment included two reptile shows. I had pretty low expectations. A lot of "reptile guys" in zoos and pet stores seem to know very little about the animals they care for (I had a guy at Petco once tell me that I should feed my corn snake crickets). Why would a traveling reptile show be any different? But I was actually very impressed. The first guy made no obvious mistakes and only failed to mention the species name of one of his animals. The guy in the second show did fail to mention the species name of a few of his animals. That is a little pet peeve of mine. Don't give a bunch of facts about a species without telling your audience what the species is.

Impressive...but it would have been more impressive if you had remembered to tell us what you were carrying.

 The other thing that really bugged me about the second show was that the guy kept saying poisonous snakes. Snakes use fangs to inject venom. I will not be affected by eating or touching the snake. I have to be bitten to be affected. So that means snakes are venomous, not poisonous. Same thing goes for bees, spiders, and any other creature that uses a delivery system for their toxin. Anyway...rant over. Here are some pictures

Massive Corn Snake

Beautiful Mexican Black Kingsnake

Later the Gator

 After watching both shows, I realized that I would love to do a reptile show. Not as my career, but as a hobby. I am going back to school to get a teaching degree. How cool would it be to do reptile shows in the summer? And how even more awesome would it be to have a reptile show performed by a woman? I have mentioned before how men seem to dominate the world of reptile keeping. I think it would be awesome to show little girls that women can love reptiles, too! After all, isn't that what this blog is all about?

Oneonta

Please excuse any typos/choppy writing. Today I worked an 8 hour shift at Petco only to go straight to the vet clinic for a few more hours of work. But I am determined to make this blog post even though I am afraid I am going to fall asleep on the keyboard.

So my husband and I turned 21 a few days ago (yes, we have the same birthday). So to celebrate, instead of going out and getting so drunk that we vomited all over the place, we decided to go on a little road (day) trip. Oh, don't get me wrong. We did drink on our birthday (we went on the trip the day after our birthday). I got to try my first drink in a bar. It was a Caribbean Cosmo (soo yummy). I also had a huckleberry lemon drop served in a glass made of ice. Mmmm! See? I told you I was going to be all over with this post ;)

Back to the main story...Oneonta Gorge is one of my favorite places to go looking for "snot lizards" (AKA salamanders) and other amphibians. It is just down the road from horsetail falls and the famous Multnomah Falls. It is well worth spending 8-hours in the car. Especially when your husband's company gives you a company vehicle and pays for gas :)

We started at the base of Horsetail Falls and hiked along a trail to Ponytail Falls. My legs (and entire body) were very sore from work, so I wasn't too happy about hiking up a steep trail. About halfway up, I stopped and sat down on a rock. When we were ready to resume our hike, my husband pointed out a little Northern Red-Legged frog sitting on the rock next to me. Here are a few pictures of the little guy.

So cute!

Me holding the frog. See my new haircut?

See why they call them red-legged frogs? He wasn't too happy with me in this picture.

Fortunatly, the trail leveled out pretty quickly. After a nice hike, we reached Ponytail Falls.

Behind the falls

 We found a ton of amphibians here. 2 Dunn's salamanders, at least 10 Torrent Salamanders, 2 larval giant salamanders (like Pig), and a bunch of red-legged frogs. Including this giant girl...

Remember that picture of me holding the cute little red-legged frog? Well here is a picture of me holding this monster.

For some reason, I have never seen a red-legged frog this big anywhere outside of the Oneonta area. She meowed at me when I picked her up! That's right. She MEOWED! Like a little kitten! I love when they make noises at me :)

So here are a few pictures of the other slimy critters we found...

Cascade Torrent Salamander

Dunn's Salamander with unusual coloration

Another Torrent. He is walking away :)

So after we were done snapping away at the pretty snot-lizards and monster red-legged frog, we continued along the trail.

 

 

 

 

 

Another Dunn's salamander

 

 My husband looked over at a tiny pool of water and found this adorable little guy.

A larval torrent salamander

We hiked back down and drove to Oneonta Gorge (just down the road). There we found too many larval giant salamanders and little red-legged frogs to count.

A larval giant salamander (same species as pig)

I was following my husband along the creek. He decided to start climbing on th log jam to look for Giants. I didn't feel like climbing, so I just waited for him at the bottom. I got bored and turned a little bit to look at the rock face next to me, and I saw a terrestrial giant salamander (the same species as Pig and Reptar, and the same stage as Reptar).

He was just hanging out on the rock wall. At my eye level :)

Me holding the giant. I kinda has the crazy eyes in this picture. o_O

He has crazy eyes, too :)

If you climb over the log jam and hike through the chasm, you will reach a neat waterfall. But you have to hike through really cold water (in some places, it can reach your hips during low-flow). The waterfall is practically impossible to get to most of the year. It has to be late summer so that the water flow is low enough that you can walk through. It also has to be a really hot day so that you can stand the freezing cold water. It was waaaay to cold to hike up to the waterfall.

After that we hopped in the car and started our journey home. We stopped at Multnomah for a little while to enjoy the gift shop and heated restrooms. Once in Washington, we decided to make a "quick" stop at an Applebees to use the gift card I got as a birthday present. It took them an hour to bring out my Lemon Drop (which tasted like rubbing alcohol with lemon. Eww) and it took them another 45 minutes to bring out our potato skins. Note to self: "Applebees" and "quick" do not go in the same sentence unless the phrase "is not" is put in between them!

Anyway, that is it for our little birthday trip. I should update with more posts soon. I still have to make a post about the newest member of our family...Merlin the corn snake! He was rescued from a friend. But more on that later ;) See ya!

Tipsoo Lake

So my husband and I live near the Cascade Mountains in Washington State (west side). It is absolutely beautiful over here, and there are lots of hiking opportunities within an hour of where we live. Last week, we decided to visit Tipsoo lake. Tipsoo is an alpine lake that sits at about 5300 ft above sea level. The lake is surrounded by beautiful alpine meadows. If you have never had the pleasure of seeing an alpine meadow in person, you seriously need to go out and visit one. They are so beautiful! Even though pictures don't really do the place justice, I thought I would share some.

While we were walking along the trail, we came across a couple that were dipping their feet in the water. We talked to them for a moment and then realized that there were several Cascade frogs sitting on the rocks right next to their feet! The couple didn't even see them! We grabbed one and took a few pictures.

Would you notice this little guy if he was at your feet?

Cascade frogs are endemic to the Cascades of Washington, Oregon, and Northern California. They are also found in the Olympics in Washington. They are awesome little frogs. So next time you are out hiking in the woods or splashing in a creek in Western Washington, don't forget to look down :)

Home Decor: Our Froggy Bathroom

When my husband and I first moved in together last year, I was surprised at the amount of reptile and amphibian-themed decor. Most of the things I could find were frog themed and were meant for children. Still, I never expected to find anything themed towards our slippery and scaly friends. Our apartment is now decorated with quite a bit of amphibian decor. We even have a froggy-themed bathroom!

I thought I would share some photos of the decor around our apartment. I will start with our bathroom. The items in our bathroom are more childish. The decor in our living room is a little bit more grown-up. Despite the fact that our bathroom is more child-friendly, our guests seem to get a kick out of it. I personally love our bathroom. I think the smiling frogs and bright green tones make the room very cheerful. I can't help but smile when I see those happy froggy faces!

Shower Curtain and Shower Hooks

Where we bought them: Target

Cost: About $15 for the curtain. I don't remember the cost of the hooks (somewhere in the $10-20 range)

Bath Mat

Where we bought it: Target

Cost: $30

Potpourri Dish

Where we bought it: Goodwill

Cost: $2

Picture

Where we bought it: I bought the picture (which is actually a postcard), the frame, and the picture mat at a local craft store.

Cost: About $12

Magazine Holder

Where we bought it: Target

Cost: $3

Soap Dish

Where we bought it: Target (it was a wedding present off of our target registry)

Cost: I think around $10

Toothbrush Holder

Where We Bought It: Walmart

Cost: About $5

Frog Towel

Where We Bought It: Target

Cost: About $10

Wastebasket (Croaks When the Lid Opens)

Where We Bought It: Target (another wedding present off of our registry)

Cost: I think about $30

So there is our bathroom. What do you think?