T
Topaz
Guest
I have recently had a male, female pair of leo's bestowed upon me by my youngest son's best friend's family. They will be moving 4 or 5 provinces away and feel the 2 day drive in the car will be to stressful and may kill them.
I currently raise corn snakes, as well I have raised garters and kings. So I guess this is just another branch on the reptile tree for me.
As soon as I agreed to take them I started to pay close attention to the care they were receiving and researched recommended leo care. I want to be able to provide them with the best possible care I can just like I do for my snakes, dogs, cats and children.
Here is what I noticed about their care before I received them and then what I have done so far since I received them. Any polite constructive information on things I may have missed or need to do, esp. regarding the female, please let me know.
The girl seemed to be quite stressed, apparently she spent most of the day roaming the 20 gal tank she and the he shared, while he usually spent the whole day in the warm side hide. She did not seem to like to be held much and would panic quite a bit upon being lifted.
She is approx. 50-52g (maybe lighter as I have had her for 6 days and got her eating for the last five, but she still has not pooped), her tail is fairly thin. The male has been mating with her continuously since Feb. She has laid 10 eggs since then and none have been any good, the shells are so thin the egg dents right after being laid, and is virtually see through (at least the last 3 that I actually saw were). The condition of the eggs has me concerned with calcium deficiency, esp. knowing the prey items were not dusted, nor were they gut loaded. I was told she would only eat Super Worms and Crickets. The crickets were left in the tank with so many of them they were breeding in there and I think they may be part of the reason she is missing about 4 toe tips, that and the thick retained shed on her toes.
They were housed in colored Calcium sand, I know some are fine with sand but not Calcium sand, but I worry about impaction, not to mention it has stained her skin.
The male seems to be in better condition, he is approx 69g and does not have as much retained shed on his toes. I only picked him up 2 nights ago so have not thoroughly checked if any toe tips are missing, nor have I removed the retained shed yet.
I have separated them, she has a 30 gal long tank and he has the 20 gal reg tank. She is more relaxed now, she will peak out of her warm side hide when I come in the room, she will readily eat when I put food in her tank, she is still fussy about taking the butter worms. I am trying to get some just born mice to help fatten her up.
They each have a feeding dish with calcium & vit D powder in it. They have UTH's set to approx. 90 degrees with slate on top, cool and warm side hides, moist hides with beaked moss, shallow water dishes and logs to climb on. The remaining area with out the slate has paper towel so I can monitor poops and look for signs of illness. The food sources are now being gut loaded with commercial cricket gut load cubes. The cool side hovers around 75-78 degrees.
The only thing I have not gotten for them yet is vit & mineral supplement to give 1 x weekly.
Pics as soon as I have some.
I currently raise corn snakes, as well I have raised garters and kings. So I guess this is just another branch on the reptile tree for me.
As soon as I agreed to take them I started to pay close attention to the care they were receiving and researched recommended leo care. I want to be able to provide them with the best possible care I can just like I do for my snakes, dogs, cats and children.
Here is what I noticed about their care before I received them and then what I have done so far since I received them. Any polite constructive information on things I may have missed or need to do, esp. regarding the female, please let me know.
The girl seemed to be quite stressed, apparently she spent most of the day roaming the 20 gal tank she and the he shared, while he usually spent the whole day in the warm side hide. She did not seem to like to be held much and would panic quite a bit upon being lifted.
She is approx. 50-52g (maybe lighter as I have had her for 6 days and got her eating for the last five, but she still has not pooped), her tail is fairly thin. The male has been mating with her continuously since Feb. She has laid 10 eggs since then and none have been any good, the shells are so thin the egg dents right after being laid, and is virtually see through (at least the last 3 that I actually saw were). The condition of the eggs has me concerned with calcium deficiency, esp. knowing the prey items were not dusted, nor were they gut loaded. I was told she would only eat Super Worms and Crickets. The crickets were left in the tank with so many of them they were breeding in there and I think they may be part of the reason she is missing about 4 toe tips, that and the thick retained shed on her toes.
They were housed in colored Calcium sand, I know some are fine with sand but not Calcium sand, but I worry about impaction, not to mention it has stained her skin.
The male seems to be in better condition, he is approx 69g and does not have as much retained shed on his toes. I only picked him up 2 nights ago so have not thoroughly checked if any toe tips are missing, nor have I removed the retained shed yet.
I have separated them, she has a 30 gal long tank and he has the 20 gal reg tank. She is more relaxed now, she will peak out of her warm side hide when I come in the room, she will readily eat when I put food in her tank, she is still fussy about taking the butter worms. I am trying to get some just born mice to help fatten her up.
They each have a feeding dish with calcium & vit D powder in it. They have UTH's set to approx. 90 degrees with slate on top, cool and warm side hides, moist hides with beaked moss, shallow water dishes and logs to climb on. The remaining area with out the slate has paper towel so I can monitor poops and look for signs of illness. The food sources are now being gut loaded with commercial cricket gut load cubes. The cool side hovers around 75-78 degrees.
The only thing I have not gotten for them yet is vit & mineral supplement to give 1 x weekly.
Pics as soon as I have some.
