So, Back to it

So...

Smudge is still not really eating as much as I would like, perhaps eating just one 'hopper every three days, which doesn't seem like enough to me....

However she is still looking healthy and plump and still seems very active, so perhaps I should put off worrying for a while. 

Back to the Smudge Saga, last time we had realised what a giant chicken-up we had made of the background, and having hacksawed off around a third of the background in order for it to fit, Smudge seemed quite happy with it, climbing all over, and attempting to get behind or over the background. As close fitting as the background was, there was still some gaps which meant that worms could crawl behind it, and the size of the background meant it was even trickier to remove in order to clean the viv.

 Smudge asleep behind the original background provided with the glass tank.

In the end, we decided to abandon the glass viv and the background, partially because of the reasons above, but mainly because the temperature was too difficult to maintain. We had the heat mat on 24/7 and the temperature really struggled to get into the high 20's (Celsius). 

The wood viv we replaced it with needs a lot less heating to maintain a decent temperature, and because we could cut holes in the wood we were able to mount the heat mat inside the viv, drill a hole for the cable, and cover it with a small section of vinyl flooring to spread the heat evenly. 

The Mother in law took the glass viv for Flick, and seemed to have more luck than we did, probably due to the fact that she has it positioned on a solid wood cabinet, where as we had it on a slatted shelf, and I'm sure a lot of the heat from the mat was escaping into the air. She also dumped the background and bought a little more furniture for the viv than we had, you can see a picture in a previous post.

So that pretty much brings us up to date, if there is any particular aspect of Leopard Gecko care you would like me to post more about, just let me know.  

Shedding Doubt

So Smudge, shy as she is, usually hides away when she is shedding (unlike Flick, who apparently is an exhibitionist and likes to sit in the middle of the vivarium, in full view, and devour his dead skin without a care!). This week, however, she was wandering around all over her viv, skin getting whiter and whiter, just like a king of pop, until it started falling off her in bits. 

These bits

Like I said, this is a little unusual for our pretty gecko, so we were a little concerned. 

yes its a tail. not a duck tale or a tall tale, but a leopard gecko tail. skin.

However after a day of wandering around looking like she was wearing a white loose-fitting lizard skin dressing gown, she appeared the next morning with just a few pieces of shed left on her head and toes. 

Perhaps this is the way she will be shedding from now on, and this change of behavior signifies her maturity. 

All I know is the papery rustling sound she made while walking around the viv was very unnerving, like a tiny Mummy was wandering around in the dark.   

Eat prey, Love

So as promised, here is a video of our lovely leopard gecko chowing down on some of Englands finest crickets, this video was taken when Smudge had just begun eating again, and as you can see from the spartan interior of the viv, we had just cleaned it out and decided not to put back the hides and other furniture to give Smudge a better view of the crickets, and to give the crickets nowhere to hide. 

(BTW there is again some minor swearing at the end of the video, Wifey having spotted a cricket making a bid for freedom, so might be considered NSFW by some oppressive, nanny-state-regime-like boss)

The artful savagery, the swift death, the tiny crunching noises.

(BTW you can also see the fat tail and bulgy belly of our sweet cold blooded baby - looking back on this I wonder why we were ever concerned she might starve!)

Visiting Relatives

We're back, although you probably didn't know we were away, apart from the ever so slightly less regular posts. We have just spent the week in the Republic of Ireland, just as they were having their General election, so lots of people handing out leaflets (well three) and loads of posters on streetlights and telephone poles. 

But you guys aren't interested in Irish politics (or are you? let me know), so I will stick to the reptilian news. Smudge had to stay with grandma for the week, and I believe it was the first time Smudge and Flick were in the same room.

Grandmas reptile house, cattery and kennels

Smudge seemed fine when we got back, had apparently been eating every couple of days and had been pretty active, BIL let her loose in their conservatory after making sure it was lizard escape-proof, and she ran around quite happily.

BIL also mentioned that Flick could smell Smudge on his hands after handling her, but as he was under strict instructions to act as chaperone,  no canoodling or any other funny business took place (according to him anyway, I guess if Smudge starts requesting bacon flavoured icecream or huge quanties of chocolate we will know he failed in his task). 

 As it has been such a long time since I have given you any posts, pictures or videos, the next post after this one will be a hunting, catching and eating video right after this one. 

Panic Over

I thought I would let you guys (y'know the internet 'you guys') know that Smudge has eaten! 

After work today I went and bought some more crickets, bigger ones than the locuses and crickets we have been offering her for the last few days, and while I was on the computer I heard a light snap and looked in the viv to see Smudge chewing, and a solitary cricket leg sticking out the side of her mouth!  

I put four in, and I can't see any of them now, so I think she has eaten them all. I offered her some more but she didn't seem interested, so I reckon she has had her fill for now. 

Both wifey and I are very relieved that she has started to feed again. 

Next up, more videos!

A little compensation for lack of postings!

Yes, yes I know, no postings for more than a week!  I've now sorted out the job situation, and hopefully now I should be able to post more often.

As a little apology for the lack of posts over the last, well, since I started really, I have uploaded a video of a very young Smudge hunting crickets in her original tank, with some commentary (and minor swearing) by wifey and I. Note that we call her 'him' in this video as we were unsure of her gender for the first couple of weeks (okay, first couple of months)!!

A video of our leopard gecko pouncing on a few crickets (minor swearing)

NSFW if you work at any type of cricket sanctuary or for any Protection of Insect Societies! 

(BTW The 'worm' wifey refers to is a type of beetle that shops include in their live feed boxes as they clean up the waste that crickets and other insects leave behind)  

In other news, over the last few days we have been a little worried about Smudge, as she has been acting up, is off her food and constantly scrabbling at the glass doors at the front of the viv, trying to open them. 

After consulting with the wonderful community at reptile forums UK , we have come to the conclusion that as it coming up to the breeding season, Smudge is ...er... restless, and is looking for a mate. Hopefully this will pass in a few days. We have weighed her today and she is around 75g so she is still a good weight and not in any danger of starvation.

I will keep you updated as to her progress.

Building a background for a vivarium!

While we were debating about getting the new viv, wifey had been looking up various threads in the Reptile Forums habitat forums . She came across a number of threads involving owners who built backgrounds into their vivs and how they managed it, some of the threads involved re-creating the pyramid from aliens vs predator aswell as other exotic looking backgrounds. 


This is not the same sort of story, but let us begin our journey anyway. We decided to start off simple and went and bought some polystyrene, cement grout, silicone, coctail sticks, eco friendly clear varnish, stone texture spray paint aswell as some tester pots of paint. Firstly we measured the viv and decided to build a back ground that would cover the back and part of the sides (to provide more cover for our smudge).

Construction begins, we used the cocktail sticks to hold the structure together, before siliconing them.

Once we had the background sorted out we decided how many shelves we were going to have aswell as where we were going to place them, to get the edges wavy and to cut the polystyrene in general we used craft knives.

 

One shelf, Ha Ha Ha.

 Two shelves, Ha Ha Ha

 Close up of a shelf that has been sculptured using the craft knife.

Lots more shelves and on the right side of the picture a hide.

As you can see from the pictures above, I started attempting to sculpt the edges of the shelves to give them a much more realistic look.

  Many more shelves plus steps!

Just a little readjustment.

And finished for the moment.

Once all the shelves were in place we then went about siliconing them down, this was quite tricky as we wanted to leave the cocktail sticks in place to provide extra support, we also realised at this point that the hide lid would have to come off and be attached later otherwise the insides of the hide wouldn't get properly covered in grout and varnish.  Once the silicone was dry (this took a few days to let the fumes clear also) we went about grouting the back ground this didn't go to well to begin with as the grout wasnt sticking to the polystyrene, so what we did was found some old powder grout mixed it up and applied that first as it was more watery and easier to apply, then watered down our the cement grout slightly and applied it again.

 After attempting to put the grout on without watering it down, didnt go too well which is why the back only got done.

 After removing the hide lid, we were able to grout everywhere successfully.

 Grouting in progress.

 The contrast of colours of the different grouts used.

Finished with first layer of grout.

As you can see from the previous pictures the old powder grout was of a completely different colour but that was ok we knew we were going to cover it over with the cement grout which would be a better colour and texture.  When watered down the cement grout was easily applied with brushes (we bought cheap ones which we wouldn't mind chucking away after wards).

 And so the next layer of grouting begins.

 A look at inside the hide.

 More grouting.

 Nearly done.

Voila! finished, the non grouted line you can see is where the hide lid would be placed.

Once finished grouting, we then attached the lid to the hide and added some more grout to cover the joins, we also sprayed some of the textured paint spray and added some extra colour to make it look more realistic.  Once fully grouted we then applied about 3-4 coats of eco varnish; we purchased eco varnish mainly because we were concerned about the chemicals in varnish, online forums will usually recommend yacht varnish but we were unsure of where to purchase this and others did say as long as you gave the background time to air before putting it in your viv then alternative varnishes were ok, which is why we bought this eco friendly varnish we found in B & Q.

The finished product unfortunately we don't have any others of it with paint on etc.

This is not the end of our tale though, although we did measure it, when we tried to place it in the viv, wifey hadn't accounted for the front of the viv being that the doors start halfway up and unfortunately we couldn't squeeze it it through the top, so it had to literally have a third sliced off and be readjusted before it would fit!  Unfortunately we don't have any pics of what it finally ended up looking like but I will hunt around and see if I can find it somewhere.