@turkeysnake - Tumblr Blog

I know I’m repeating myself, but I just can’t fathom getting these expensive, beautiful reptiles and keeping them in tiny, barren tubs that you can’t even see into. They’re wild animals. That live in, you know, the wild. How in the hell are people being convinced that they cannot handle large enclosures without stress?? Wouldn’t you realize that if your WILD animal isn’t doing well in a large space them maybe, JUST MAYBE you’re not meeting its needs?

Also I get really grossed out about the fact that people straight up brag about/praise people for keeping full grown giant constrictors in 8ft longs. Seriously, how is keeping a 20ft retic in an 8 ft long enclosure something to be proud of? That’s not even half its length! We seriously need to re-evaluate how we keep giant snakes. Snakes should be able to fully stretch out, why is that even a question?

This shit is why public perception of the reptile industry is a mess.

In what world does any of this seem to be an acceptable environment for a wild animal?

funny how the only people who have zen habitats are influencers

#jusssssst saying

laurelhach

now there's a pretty face if ever one you did see

draconym

thlpp

Sunny spent the better part of the afternoon working his way into a paper bag.

Not sure about reasoning his way OUT of one though. Time will tell

thlpp

There’s been a development

#that is a Babie

phosmic

👉👈 mealworm is for me?

#gecko

anyone who says kenyan sand boas dont use hides is wrong

exhibit A: a dragon in her lair

#this is her main exit burrow!!!#bioactive #kenyan sand boa

kaijutegu

Bearded Dragons, Sand, and You

One of the most common pieces of advice new bearded dragon owners hear from reptiblr people is “don’t keep your beardies on sand!” This is immediately followed with warnings about impaction and infection and the potential for all sorts of nastiness and death- and those are absolutely true.

But then you maybe see pictures like this and go “uh… that’s… that’s sand.”

And yes, yes it is sand. But it’s not the kind of sand that comes out of a bag from the pet store! But what makes it different? Why can bearded dragons thrive on this sand and not that sand?

I’ll give you a little summary now in case you don’t want to read the whole thing. Basically, Australian sand is more compact and has a heavy clay component and there’s damp soil for burrows available under the outer layers. This means that the soil is less dusty and less likely to cause impaction, especially because the humidity in the burrows means that the beardie is less likely to be dehydrated.

If you’d like to know why the sand is this way, there’s a little geology involved. So let’s talk a little bit about how Australian sand dunes work! The sand dunes in places like the Simpson Desert- in the central/arid zone- formed about 20,000 years ago. Once a sand dune has formed, any rain soaks in and the dune has a damp inner core. Below the sand there’s a clay swale- a layer of clay that holds water. These dunes are stable and actually hold burrows really well! On top of the dunes, plants like saltbush and other scrubby, small things colonize the more unstable areas, holding the dunes in place and keeping the soil/sand from getting too dusty.

What that means is that the sand’s actually quite damp and compact past the top layer and you can get beardies living quite happily in dugout burrows like this!

Loose, blowing sand sometimes ends up on the road, but it’s not the dominant soil type in the dunes where they live. This is a picture from the Rainbow Valley Reserve in Alice Springs, where that first pic was taken- see how the natural soil’s tamped down? This is a clay pan, which is one of the most common soil types in the Australian outback.

Furthermore, Australian soil is different from the soil anywhere else in the world. There’s a couple of reasons for this. Australia has no large native herbivores. This plays a huge part in soil development elsewhere- native hoofstock overturns the soil with grazing. In the grand scheme of things, this has meant that Australia’s soil formation has been very different from other continents’ soil formation. Also important is that Australia had no glacial period. On other continents, glaciers moved a lot of the soil around, stripping regions down to their deeper layers or bedrock, and forcing new soil formation processes. This created loamy, loose topsoils. That didn’t happen in Australia- the soil formation process was much slower and as a result, the soil there is a lot higher in clay. Sand particles in the desert are relatively large and solid and compact, and that compaction is a huge part of what makes it possible to hold burrows. Also, the inner dampness of the clay means that the humidity in those burrows is relatively high.

Now, compare that to the sand you get at the pet store. The grains are fine and the sand is super dusty- and there’s no clay in it! Also, when sand is usually put down in a bearded dragon cage, it’s in a fairly thin layer. It’s not deep enough to allow burrowing or to hold any humidity. Check it out- here’s a bearded dragon cage with sand in it.

Let’s look at that picture of the burrow again.

See how deep that is and how different it is from the sort of sand provided in the cage? The sand dunes in Australia are part of the natural ecosystem and are more than just pure sand. They’re quite complicated compared to the stuff you can buy at the pet store!

Image sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Works cited:

“Sand Dunes.” Australian National Botanic Gardens/Australian National Herbarium, 2012. Available online: http://www.anbg.gov.au/photo/vegetation/sand-dunes.html

“The Soils of Australia.” Australian Bureau of Statistics, 1996 (updated 2012). Available online: http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/Previousproducts/1301.0Feature%20Article801966

tser

I’m not sure these additions will be helpful or not, but here are some simple examples of how these specific soils differ in pet situations.

Sand (real sand, not Calci-Sand, which has no place in any pet keeping situation) from the pet store, play sand, and construction sand, unless specified otherwise (such as aragonite), is silica based.

Natural silica sand is crystalline quartz or volcanic glass that has been worked by weather and other processes into tiny granules. The granules are generally rounded, whether rough or smooth. This means they roll and slide on each other a great deal.

Geologically, clay, such as that in the montmorillonite containing soils in parts of Australia and around the world, is a very fine-grained material composed of clay minerals – hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates. The particle size is particularly important to the identification of clay (< 0.002mm). It is also produced by weathering – in this case from granite.

The shape of these minerals is extremely fine flat planes rather than round granules. When moisture is introduced they are “plastic” (able to take and retain form).

As a safety note, if decomposed granite or clay gets dry it can still be dusty, and as it contains silica, take care not to breathe the dust (silicosis is caused by breathing dust, and the effects are cumulative over a lifetime; once you’ve breathed silica you can’t unbreathe it).

In Australia many animals seek the slightly moister earth beneath the surface. Even kangaroos dig pits to lie in. It is important to note that clay soils retain moisture for a long time (which is why if you have clay soil in a garden it can be compacted and have poor drainage!). Even in an arid environment like the deserts of Australia, there is moisture in the ground.

When pure silica sand is wet enough to hold its shape (such as making sand castles, or in hermit crab enclosures) the humidity would be high in the enclosure. Sand holds together in these conditions basically due to the water on the outside of the grains creation surface tension, called interstitial liquid bridges. This is why it must be saturated to hold its shape. Due to the particle size and material, the surface area will promote higher evaporation as well. So this is not appropriate for desert animals either, but works well for creatures like gill-breathing crabs that live on water-drenched beaches.

In the natural soil of Australia (and elsewhere), it is not pure clay, but a mixture of clay, organic matter (decomposed plants and animals, animal waste, microbes, mycelium, root exudate, etc. are all important to soil structure!), sand, silt, and other minerals. Pure clay or pure decomposed granite is not a good substrate either. This is why it is very important to research thoroughly before going forward with naturalistic arid bioactive vivariums or any enclosure with loose substrate, including the local topsoil and other ingredients available in each situation.

bufovivarium

AAAAAAAAHHHH!!!! I have looked for this information for SO LONG!

Here you go. Please, read this.

fbwzoo

Type the link into your browser for more information!! Help us counter the harmful and abusive wild capture of hermit crabs - they deserve to be valued more than they are now.

ridragon

I was under the impression it was near impossible to captive breed these guys? 0:

fbwzoo

Yes, it's extremely difficult to successfully raise the babies! We're actually starting to see a lot more breeding behavior in many people's tanks at this point, which is extremely encouraging from a care standpoint. There's not a whole lot that can be done to encourage the process though, other than having good care, male and female crabs of a medium-ish size or larger, and see if they do anything. Then you have to hope the female correctly spawns the eggs in the salt water pool for them to hatch - it's not uncommon for the eggs to get eaten, dropped on the sand, or spawned into the freshwater pool, where they immediately die.

The really hard part is if they do breed, and spawn the eggs correctly... then you have to have the right set up (kreisel, or multiple glass jars), keep the water clean with multiple changes daily, feed them, have another set up for the megalopa to transition to needing shells, the right shells.....

It's definitely a ton of work, time, and money, and a huge labor of love. That's a big part of the reason for the cost of the captive bred babies ($50 each, required to adopt at least a pair).

But Mary has been successful in large numbers - I think something like 400+ the first year, 700+ last year? I think I saw a mention that she has at least 500 for adoption still. The money goes back into the breeding program, where she's focusing on exotic species now, and hoping for others to work on continuing breeding purple pinchers. But she only has so much room to work with, and the babies have to be adopted for breeding to continue.

Currently she's focusing efforts on adopting directly to homes - we don't want the babies to go to pet stores to be sold with less care towards who takes them home and whether they're prepared for them or not. That makes things more difficult, but hopefully we can slowly make the shift.

exotic-venom

(Calliophis bivirgatus) blue coral snake

Mainly potently neurotoxic; few bites of humans are reported. Bite usually not very painful & no swelling at site. At least 2 documented human fatalities, an adult male human in Singapore reportedly died within 5 min. of envenomation.

#snake