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Just Another Hedgehog (and other goodies) Blog!

30763 Views 277 Replies 17 Participants Last post by  SunnyLeslie
Since I have things scattered all over the place, as is typical with me, I thought I'd just start fresh with a properly titled thread. (If you mods want to lock the others feel free!) So here goes.

First off, a thread introducing my pets that I had when I joined the forum: Pictures of My Pets.

After that, I added some new members, and that happens over here: New Family Members.

Here's a running total of everything I have right this second:
1 African Pygmy Hedgehog, male, Finnick, 1.5 years old
1 Australian Cattle Dog, male, Oz, Estimated 5 yo.
1 Senegal parrot, female, Pepper, 3 yo.
1 Blue Tongued Skink, female, Rocket, Estimated 5 yo.
1 Ball python, unconfirmed male, Illidan, 7 and a half yo.
1 Mexican black kingsnake, male, Sherlock, 3 yo.
1 Green tree python, male, Akihiko, Estimated 2-3 yo.
1 Veil tail betta, male, Keitan, 5 months old.
2 Tiger salamanders, one wild, one bought, unknown sex, Squee and Shaw, Estimated ages 2yo and 1 yo.
3 Crested Geckos, two female, one male, Nanamo, Mordin, and Grunt, all 1 yo.
3 Dwarf blue day geckos, two male, one female, Skaro, Lil Dude, and Kaylee, estimated ages for Skaro and Kaylee 4 yo. Lil Dude is 6 months old.
7 Dendrobates auratus "El Cope" poison dart frogs, two female, three male, two juveniles. All named after Adventure Time characters, Adults estimated 2 yo. Juveniles are 3 months old.
1 Saltwater fish tank. Contents: corals, pistol shrimp, hermit crabs, snails. All brand new.

Pets with estimated ages were either adopted later in their lives, rescued, or wild caught/farmed and imported. I've had a vet as well as an importer help me get as close as possible to everyone's actual ages.

I'll be embedding any future pictures of my family here, so they're all together in one spot. Not including Finnick of course, who can have his own threads, but will likely be duplicated here just for archival's sake. I also post videos from time to time and mean to do a lot more of that. You can see my YouTube account here: 5ubv3rsion. And I'd like to point out a specific video that I just added of Finnick chasing crickets around the bathtub. I took this a few weeks ago and forgot I had it, so here it is now: Pet Hedgehog vs Crickets.

And also, here's the fan favorite Finn Dust Bathing in His Mealworms.

Thanks for reading, and I'll update again soon! Maybe with a video of the ball python having a swim, and some more photos...
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Babies!!! :D Now that's a good surprise! I don't have time to watch the video before work, but will try to look at it later, along with Rocket's video. And also yay Aki!! I hope he continues to eat the f/t for you! *crosses fingers*
I was pretty happy to have a good surprise for a change! :lol:
That's awesome!!! Just out of curiosity, what are you using to candle the eggs?
It's a flashlight I found on sale at Canadian Tire. When I moved out here I didn't bring one, so I just randomly grabbed it not realizing how amazing it is. The back end folds out into a tripod, the three heads can be angled and each has its own on button as well as red blinker led mode, and they all pull out into individual mini flashlights. The tripod base made it excellent for candling because I didn't have to hold it. It's in my top ten list of best things I've ever purchased, easily. It looks like this only solid black:

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Oh cool, I wasn't sure but could see the other lights that weren't on.
I always used one of those promotional flash light key rings, that don't put out a big enough beam to actually do anything a normal person needs a flashlight for. It worked perfect for that because I would have minimal light escaping around the eggs.

Now if you give her a spot to lay the eggs, the real question is, will she use it?
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I had the option of a comically oversized lighter, an actual candle, or the flashlight :lol:. I'll definitely invest in something less "ow my eyes" for candling in the future. I was having a tough time lining the third one up so it wasn't too bright.

Yeah, that is the question. Since I just did maintenance the soil is all loosely packed and just right for digging. I'm hoping the privacy and small opening will make the box seem more appealing, but we'll have to wait and see. I'll be doing more searching in the dirt for a while now either way, since I can't catch her in the act. The soil in the bottom of the cage is really variable on moisture content, so I worry that eggs will mold, drown, or dry out. If she'd just use her box, the soil in there will be perfect.


Just a little more info on how the sexing confusion happened:
With crested geckos, the females usually have flat, smooth scales behind their vent. The males have little dots in the center of the scale in a curved line. They're tiny little pores. The annoying part is that both males and females can develop what look like gonads at the base of the tail, and this doesn't mean anything sex-wise. Mordin doesn't have this, but both Grunt and Nanamo do. I separated Grunt out because he was sexed by his breeder and I confirmed pores easily just by looking. Nanamo's lumpy bits kept getting bigger and bigger, so we started joking about her being a him and I kept a close look on her scales for pores, since they can be quite small and hard to see in juveniles. She's a full adult now, and I still can't see them, but she's been doing Grunt's mating dance very recently, so I'm guessing Nanamo is a boy and Mordin is a girl. I'm going to need to invest in a magnifying glass to be sure. S/he was also sexed and 100% confirmed female by the breeder I bought him/her from. Oops!

Oh well, looks like I need more ladies just in time for reptile show season!
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Two small updates this evening, or morning, or whatever this is.

First, the skink cage doors are now so battered that Rocket can escape. I found her under the fridge and had to lure her out with her dinner. So I need to go and buy some plexiglass. That should be thick enough to withstand the Face of Wrath.

Second, I finally had my doctor's appointment. Unless something crazy happens, I'll be going in for surgery on the 24th. This doctor didn't even have a look, he just read my seven or eight years worth of medical history and said "why has no one cut you open yet!?" Finally! It's a super minor surgery so I should be fine the following day.
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I'll just leave this here:

Mordin Shedding and Eating It

Oh, I forgot to mention! I don't know if any of you are part of my amazing group of 12 YouTube followers, but if you are (and even if you're not!), I'm going to be starting a series next week, on Sunday, where I'll showcase my individual exotic pets. It'll be updated Sundays and Wednesdays.
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Yay more videos! :D I don't use my youtube account at ALL, but I'll definitely look forward to seeing videos on each pet! I finally watched the last few and they're very cool. Rocket is seriously making me want a BTS. They're getting higher and higher on the "future pets" list...Though hopefully if I get one, they won't have the same knack for escaping that Rocket does. :lol:

That's good news about the surgery too! I hope things go well and you recover quickly.
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I'm glad you enjoyed the videos! I wouldn't give Rocket up for anything. She's so much fun, even with the escaping. I actually just made her a harness so she can go for a walk outside when the sun comes up all the way. Hopefully that'll get some of the wanderlust out of her system. I'm starting to think I know why she was traded in though... :lol:

I haven't had any input on my candling yet on the reptile forum, so I guess I'll ask my... uh... mom's cousin's son, whatever that makes him? He breeds cresties too, so he should be able to help me out. The three eggs still look good though, and Mordin is looking around for a place to lay the next batch as I type. After this round I'll separate them to give her a break.

After seeing all the baby leopard geckos at the first show of the season, we're seriously considering one or two or three of them. The boyfriend likes the common morphs like hypo tangerine and snow. I of course like the Tremper albino raptors and anything with the snake eyes gene. The next show is in August, so we'll see what happens. That's also the show that will have the most lizards available. Here's an available list from a local breeder to show the pricing and sweet eyes.
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So, of course, the second I wanted to split the male and female crested gecko up, Akihiko turned white. I was going to put the female in his cage and the male in the other similar cage I have, and then move Aki into the big one. But now I have to wait for a snake shed. I might rehome the male in the meantime.

In other news, Oz and I went for a walk through the carnival that is downtown right now, and he was such a good boy! We saw about 5 dogs and a ton of people. He smiled the whole way and got pats and didn't bark or try to kill anything! It was really impressive. He's come such a long way from when I got him. We've started training for treibball, which involves the dog pushing a big ball down a field and through a set of goalposts with guidance from the handler. He's such a strong herder I think he'll love it. Right now he can close a door with his nose. We'll introduce the ball in the next week or so.
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The first video in my pet series, Legs, is live now!


I hope you all enjoy it!
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Wow he eats fast. Must admit, I laughed at your tongs and said, hey those look familiar!
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He really does. By far the shortest feeding video I've taken.

They're really good tongs! :lol:
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They will hold your tongue still when your body is telling you to move it!

My only pet snake was a ball python. I had others that we caught as kids but they always "ran away" within a few days. As a mom, I now totally understand "escaping" wild animals! But I swear, my ball python would sit and look at his food, have a little conversation about whatever they talk about, try and make friends with his food. If they had it available, I'm sure they would have had a couple beers together. Then he would eat it. I always joked that it was like he was figuring out if the mouse deserved to live or die.
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They will. It's kind of frightening.

Aww he sounds like a cutie! Kind of warped to make friends with your dinner though :lol:. My wild caught pets always ran away, too. I usually caught frogs, and I can definitely understand them "running away". They're not easy to feed at all.
That's a great video! I have always been interested in snakes... Maybe one day! I find them quite striking and intriguing pets, and completely different from the ones that I have. For future reference, is there a species that you would recommend for a beginner? Obviously I would have a lot of research and learning to do before making the decision, but I would love to hear your opinion.
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I really like corn snakes as a starter snake. They're easy to find, well priced, almost always captive bred, there are tons and tons of colors to choose from, they're easy to handle, and they almost never have issues with dinner time. They rarely bite, if ever, calm down really well, live 15-25 years, just need mice, so no rats or anything larger. They get 4 feet or so. Easy temperature requirements, normal house humidity works well... They're just awesome!

The other really good option is a ball python. They're nearly the same as corns, but get a lot chubbier so they're a heavier snake, they can have some issues with feeding, and can go off their food for months at a time, and need a higher stable humidity than corns. But they're super pretty and usually really sweet. They're also slower than corns.

So those are a good place to start!

I'm glad you enjoyed the video! Wednesday is the green tree python.
Thank you so much for the recommendations! Both corn snakes and ball pythons sound like a great option. I will start reading into them!
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Episode 2 with Mister Aki is live:

He's about to go into shed so he didn't eat, sadly, but he's still a good boy for the camera. He's solid white now, so he should shed next week and then I can feed him.
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