• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

So... life happened(lots of pics, sorry)

Kokopelli

Kokopelli

Resident Boa Fanatic
Actually, it's just an excuse... I grew tired of keeping too many snakes, not really succeeding with Boas(people who try to breed Boas in central Israel seem to run into frequent difficulties) and I kind of started getting interested in lizards...
So I decided to make a change a few months ago...

Basically? I have only one snake... which I actually got today. They are kind of new to Israel and I couldn't help myself cause they are so cool looking...

But mainly? I have 7 leopard geckos and... 2 dinosaurs.

I'll start with some of the geckos...

This one's a rescue of sorts... born with a disfigured hand.









 
The dinos... I can't say I recommend them to just about anyone. Savannah monitors are some of the cheapest animals you can acquire... but they are very expansive to keep(unlike most other monitors, their menu contains bugs well into adulthood, rather specific requirements)... and, if you get a chance to get your hands on CB babies... well, the price is much higher.


5 months ago I was lucky enough to be able to obtain a CB baby gal... she's at least five to six time the size now, consuming absurd amounts of bugs and stuff...

The male was very hard to get... 2 males passed away in the effort of finding the right one.. one apparently wasn't fed a proper Savannah diet as it grew, the other seems to have been a WC.

Male:





Female:





Suffice to say... these are not the sluggish "puppy tame" animals you see on youtube... these are actually highly wound up animals, very alert and responsive... if they are "too tame", it's in most cases due to wrong husbandry.
 
Nice looking Savannahs ! I agree that I also would be unlikely to recommend them as a pet since their requirements aren't as basic as one would think.
Heavily imported WC's flooding the market as a cheap pet that rarely makes it to adulthood. Great personalities thanks to being very intelligent reptiles.

Love the Radiated Rat. I keep 5 species of Asian rats myself including albino T- and T+. Yours appears to be visually a T+. Usually T- albinos have clear to white areas where black would be and in T+ it tends to be purple, tan to brownish. The way to know if it is genetically a T- or T+ is doing the actual test. So unless the test is done all we really know if it is a "visual" T- or T+ by color.
 
Thank you :)

daddio207- really? I didn't know that... I just got the impression that the T- had just a tad paler yellows, as well as a more prominent red iris... mine too has red irises, but they are less pronounced, kind of like the difference between Amel and Ultramel in corns sort of thing, which is why I suspected T+.

MysticExotics - thank you! I never really left, I am simply quieter... but this is the only herp forum I visit with any sort of regularity.
 
Sorry to hear about the boas, that's a bummer, you had some lovely snakes...but congrats on the new additions :) I LOVE Savs, would love to own one someday when I have more room, and the leos are lovely :) Aaaaand great looking snake!
 
If you ever get the space, I'd still recommend another animal... so many reasons for it...

1- CB animals are uncommon, and command a much higher price than the 30$ an animal you usually see(more like 250-300$ for a baby). It is still very difficult to breed them in captivity.

2- Of the monitor lizards, this one is one of the most specialist of hunters... stomach contents in wild animals contained 80%+ invertebrates... feeding an adult Savannah 2-3 times a week purely on bugs is extremely costly. Other monitors can easily make do on chicken and mice as staple diet... not so much for these guys.

3- At least 2 feet of burrowing medium is recommended.... that's just... well, insane to maintain.

4- They definitely aren't the puppy dog tame animals that they are reputed to be. Truth is that the vast majority of them are kept in improper conditions, leading to a slow decline in health and thus- lethargy. People mistake their eyes closing when about to be petted with tameness when in fact that's as close as you'll get to wincing from them. And it takes a LONG time to get them to even stay put when you're around....

I already own a pair... I took upon myself the responsibility and am looking into sustainable diets for them. They are definitely cool... but if I had a choice right now? most odds are, I wouldn't choose Savannah again... blue tegus seem like a better choice, so do other less specific monitor lizard species.
 
Ackies, Storr's, kingorum, Kimberly rocks, beccarii, prasinus, and argus are monitors I'd love to work with. I already keep yellow ackies, even got breeding this year but no eggs. The last 3 i list I'd have to do massive cages for, and is the sole reason I've not kept them yet. The others, outside of ackies, are just too rich for my wallet; where I'd rather spend the money on creating an advanced caging system similar to what Bob Applegate has.

Definitely agree on the sav feeding. Another specialize lizard that I would love to keep, but would loathe feeding and building an appropriate cage are caimen lizards.

Do you not have the feeder insect diversity as other countries across the Atlantic?
 
We do... it's simply not as commonly available(less keepers, less insect breeders) and expansive.
I make do. I am also checking Repashy's "meat pie".... a friend of mine is using their products to great effect for geckos... I thought to try my luck as well.

I gave up on... 20-30 or so snakes for this pair, keeping-cost wise, so I do manage it... it's just not simple is all, and I don't recommend them quickly...

They are very unique, and their temperament is indeed somewhat tolerant(by no means puppy tame) compared with monitors... their face is primal... they look exactly like velociraptors from Jurassic park.
 
Fascinating specimens, Oren. Sorry you had to give up your snakes, but glad you have retained an interest in the herps. Lol.
 
Thanks,
Well I do have 1 snake :)
I did it willingly... I needed to tone things down. Marriage and college are enough to keep me busy.

And a dog(actually, 2- we're getting a puppy in 5 weeks' time!)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top