Black Friday: What i did

Forgot to mention, i kinda-sorta-didnt-mean-to.... went shopping on black friday.

What had happened was: I was getting charizard crickets at petco, they didnt have any. As i was leaving to go to petsmart i saw a 20 gal long on the counter, asked what it was instead of walking out. It was a 24inch(maybe) ball python that had been dropped off by its owner because they couldn't take care of her anymore. Needless to say i adopted\rescued little 'Sophie' who is now dubed Noodles. Helped her shed with a bath and fed her a small\medium mouse. Shes a sweety, and isnt mad at me for holding her head while gently whipping her eye cap off for her XD

An announcement of sorts

I still havent weighed myself, but im sure ive dropped 5 pounds because of this stress. Thank god its over and i can sleep semi normally and eat again. I dropped a bra size because of this mess.... im ok with it but not ok with it. 32D's arent fun to lug around all day, but wearing a 32D bra when youve gone down to a 32C isnt much fun either. Its downright annoying actually.... so i have some cheaper bras that fit now. Thank you Aerie store. I love Victorias secrete, but the only reason i shopped there was because as far as i know there the only store near me besides the internet that has 32D's. Which are really C's and half... but whos counting.

Charizards home with me, hes stil kinda like 'woah wtf' after waking at my place and not Ace's. He'll be fine though. My other herps are still at his place, only because i honestly have no room for all the tanks, nor would i be able to take all the tanks that are mine without leaving animals running loose in his apt. I may be stubborn and have had every right to take those tanks, but im not an asshole. That and my adult leos arent doing so well, im worried about them. :(

Resolved

Conflict resolved, for good this time. Though i havent gotten to talk to my roomate, still pretty pissed at her for a number of things...

Havent posted in quite some time...

Theres a reason for that.

Its called stress, or anger, rage, depression, heartache, abandonment, trust issues, lonesome, busy, and rage. But mostly stress.....caused by ALL of the above. Want to hear why? Keep reading, its a fun little story. It involves me, and 2 people you might have heard me mention, Ace and Daphne.

~*~

Here goes, remember those posts where i said i was feeling left out? kept out of the loop? forgotten? Yes, were still talking about my best friend and my roomate here. "if there your friends, why is this going on?" you say? Well fuck if i know. Ive asked myself that, ive asked them that. Nobody can give me a straight or conclusive answer.

They all seem to think ive been upset and pissy because Ace broke up with me. Yea, im still upset about it. But it doesnt have much to do with this situation, im not the one bringing it into fights or even simple conversation. Its nice to have my nose rubbed into the fact that im not datible. Some friends right? You havent heard the fun part. The reason why i almost threw my laundry basket at my own mother (were on good terms btw, i was just angry) and the reason why i have been in a constant state of rage since shadowmoor.

My animals have been at his apartment because i havent been able to care for them. No big deal, when that was arranged we still hung out on a regular basis and he let me know how they were doing. Lets fast forward shall we? I have to beg to come over and see them, I have to plead and whine just to know how there doing. God forbid he gives me the time of day to text me back, or return a phone call. "how is daphne involved?" you say? It honestly doesnt feel like we've lived together since july. She spends all her time with Ace. They arent dating, he isnt interested, hes told her that. Yet shes over there, all day, everyday.

Why even bother paying rent when you arent home, to unpack, clean, help out or do anything that involves living here. You do all that at Ace's house. Hes 22, he can fucking clean up after himself. He knows how to vaccum and do dishes. Ive seen him. You arent his mother, dont treat him like he's 5.

"I seem angry?" You are right, but im beyond angry. Im enraged, i havent ever wanted to hurt something or someone this much before. I have tried to stay out of human contact as much as i possibly can recently. Because do not want to explode on someone. Its happened before, it'll happen again. I know that much.

"But why the rage?"  Im tired of being blown off, lied to, denied visiting right to MY animals and excluded from anything Top Hat Exotics related. Yes lied to. By one of the few people i never thought would lie to me, even a white lie. But here we are. Im starting to wonder if our entire 6 month relationship was even real at this point. Because everything else seems to be a sham, why should that be any different?

So HOPEFULLY after tonight i will have My animals in MY apartment. If not he does have an excuse this once, he doesnt have the gas money to get home. Hes stuck up at Western with Daphne, his brother, his new friends and his new girl friend. Poor baby.

I stand corrected aparently...

So everythings not better. Its worse.

I wont say why except that everything i thought i knew was a lie or a fabrication of some sort. I dont know what to say or think any more. I also didnt think something like this would hurt as bad as it does, i should have learned years ago not to trust someone this much. Why do i always learn the hard way....

Everythings kinda... bleh

So job's goin ok, as is living situations. Got an apartment with daph and aaron. But that seems to be the only thing going good for me lately.

Conflict got resolved yesterday, or i hope it did. It wasnt fun and it sucked. I feel better after this morning, but that may just be a euphoria from what woke me up. I hope it lasts, im tired of being mopey and sad all the time. As well as confused, thought i was mostly over ace, enough to date i suppose. But now im not so sure, im starting to think that i may have subconsciously tried to be with korr to be with someone similar to ace. Or something like that. But that never worked out, im ok with it, but now im not sure how i feel about ace. Or whether i still feel the way i did? I think i do... but its getting repressed for obvious reasons, but i doubt that thats a healthy thing to do...

BUT! Top Hat Exotics is online and we are selling a few animals. You guys missed out on corn snakes but we take requests :)

busy busy

So i got a job at PizzaHut, yay. So far so good, seems like it could be a pretty ok job, better than carowinds i hope. Everyone seems pretty chill, which is good.

Love life stuff i mentioned? Not gonna happen unfortunatly, stings but its ok. Still friends, and i wasnt being led on, so please dont think that. Already had to correct 1 person, rather not do it again. I didnt think we would though, purely because ive never felt like i was worth the effort. Plus a 6 hour distance could be hard to maintain. Either way i'll be ok eventually, why im surprised that i got so attatched that quick i dont know :p

Myrtle Beach repticon this weekend! Come out and see Cold Blooded Encounters as well as the debut of Top Hat Exotics (pretty sure about that anyways)

neergghhhh

Well my rant got the point accross. But i still feel like im not worth anyones time to communicate with. Because i still have to contact them first about anything....

But eh shadowmor this weekend so should be fun

Feeling left out

Been doing ok, still looking for a job, possible opportunities, so not totally screwed. Despite owing the ER money, having no money to spare. I feel like the biggest mooch, because i am the biggest mooch.

My love life might be picking up, which would be great, wouldnt feel so fucking lonely and excluded. Only thing? He's in Virginia :( (not mentioning the other thing)

The only time i hear from Ace or Daph now is if i show up at his apt, and the only time i get a response about anything is if i call Daph. No body feels like calling me about didly shit anymore, which is great, when there 2 of the very few people that i actually dont mind talking to on a regular basis. Phone works 2 ways i know, but it works only so well if the other person would answer.

From what i understand, yes understand. I dont actually get to see MY reptiles on a regular basis anymore, so i dont know how Charizard, Crackers, the Sand Boas or my baby leos are doing aside from when i show up (hoping that someones home, so i dont waste what little gas money ive got). Because nobody fucking feels like telling me half the time, even if i message them.

Being excluded is all so fun, its not like i paid for any of the herps and supplies or anything (sounds bitter but i never said anything about this before now did i?).  I get the excuse "oh we've been busy". Busy my ass, your not too busy to txt me and say "hey, Charizards being fat, so is Crackers" or something like that. Easy right?

Granted were (or should i say their?) doing an online pet store thing here: Top Hat Exotics But i know nothing about it unless they post something on FB or on the blog. I know i dont have to sign papers or anything which is ok, but my animals are involved, so i should be right? Apparently im the only one who sees it that way recently. Granted this is the first time im saying\typing this anywhere.

Not to mention we just lost all 5 ball pythons. I watched one of them roll on me, nothing i could do. I was by myself taking care of everyone while Ace and Daph went on a religious excursion. I have no problem with this, but why would you leave when the animals are sick? Leave me with no way to feed them? Yea, nobody got fed for 3 days, because i cant afford crickets or greens. Thats why my herps are with them, and not living with me. But hey, at least i got to see Charizard for the first time in what? 2 weeks?! Granted i was at the beach for 1 week, but still. I miss my bubby.

La-price needs a hug. A cuddle, something to make this feeling of being left out\rejected go away. Because it isnt much fun.

Update at the beach

Meh, not doin so good. putting on a brave face or something.  Eveythings hard, dealing with everything, the jealousy that shouldnt exsist but does, being dirt poor. Just everything, and not having too many friends to talk to about it makes it harder, especially when they either wont understand or their the person making me so miserable. I dont really blame anyone but myself, for being stupid and unable to read subtle signals. Not the first time ive fucked myself over, but this is the worst and most painful. I dont think ive cried so much before, i dont even remember falling asleep.

Anyways, Ace is starting a petshop, online at first but it'd be great to have a building later :). Heres the linky link: Top Hat Exotics

Been Hectic latly

Yeah, been a bit busy, i guess? I havent had much internet access when im not busy anyways. But im living at Daphnees now, with her dog and cats. Said dog ate my last packet of ramen..... Not happy.

But thats not important, well it kinda is, but meh.

Having a IHerp Account is :)

http://iherp.com/Public/ShowUser.aspx?UserId=601b3942-94bf-4929-b764-c98f1f4c116b

Hopefully that works :)

Updates about me and the clan

So im staying with Ace and then Daphnee when she gets her apt\house fixed. Then eventually i might have my own apt, but if she doesnt mind when i pay rent i might stay longer with her. I like company you see, especially company that likes to go herping :)

We went herping with Sean (my boss), i'll mention what we caught\saw in a bit. But it was fun, nobody got poison ivy (huge surprise, because we walked through it). I however have bug bites in some awkward places, which are not mosquito bites, i feel like they might be chiggers ><

Unfortunately though we lost the Coachwhip and the Blue Beauty snake, the guys who sold us the blue beauty are going to give us a new one though :). We have no idea why they died, but we think that someone may have poisoned feeder mice, because other people lost snakes too. We have also sold the frillie, because we didnt know her genetics so we wouldnt be able to use her for breeding later. Someone randomly offered money, we did not advertise her for sale. But we know that they will care for her.

NEW! Reptile count

Colored ones are new\updated

Bearded Dragons: Winston (Male), Frank (Male), Charizard (Male), Flare (Female), Kismet (Female) formally blackbeard, Maelstrom (Male)
Red Mali Uromastix: CJ (Male)
Tai Water Dragons: Mushu (Male) has gout
Brown Striped Basilisks: No-name (Male)
Argentine B\W Chocoan Giant Tegus: Lacuna (Female), Aiden (Male)
Yellow Eared\Belly Slider Turtles: Mr. Turtle (Female)
Cooter Turtles: noname (Female)
Nile Monitors: Ra (Male), Aphopis (Male)
Asian Water Monitor: Dresden (Male)
Black Tree Monitor: Iverson (Male)
Leopard Geckos: Crackers (Male), No-name (Female), Murphy (It)
Ball Pythons: Paula Dean (Female)
Black Rat Snakes: Omar (??)

NC Local Corn Snakes: noname (??)

Garter Snakes: noname (??)

Decayes Snakes: noname (??)

Grey Tree Frogs: 5, 4.1

Fowlers Toads: 4, 3.1

Unknown Toads: 1 female

Narrow Mouth Toads: 1 unknown

Leopard Frogs: 2 unknown

Also i might be breeding Leopard geckos sometime soon, soon as i get a colony of Mealworms started as well as a scale to weigh the current leopards and get another female for crackers.

Change Places!

Ive done just that. I wont say anything other than for my personal health i left my parents house. I feel a lot better though, much less stressed. My acne is nearly gone, my stomach has settled. I do wish i could have left under better circumstances, but ive been driven to this point.

Repticon Columbia

So Repticon Columbia was pretty sweet. Came home with too many animals :p however we have heat racks now :D so the snakes and the leopards have nice warm tubs to stay in. I bought a breeding pair of leopards for 80, when the female is worth that or more by herself! The male is awfully pretty too, i think he's some sort of high yellow. But they have been separated for now, till we know how to care for babies and eggs. Set was sold to Full Spectrum Reptiles, for breeding purposes. They want to see if he can breed with a Timor Monitor, so he'll hopefully be making beautiful babies.

Ace got himself a little babie beardie from Lynn, same breeder who sold us Charizard. Hopefully the little guy will get nice and big, and white. His father or mother was a Marketed Luesistic. The Asian Water Monitor is being held till its owner pays for him, hes still nice and friendly though. The Uromastix and one of the Niles is Daphnee's, were just holding them till she can take them to her house. Were holding Aiden for Landis again, untill he can find an apt that will let him have him while he's in college. He's gotten better, not as nippy as he used to be thankfully :) 

Bearded Dragons: Winston (Male), Frank (Male), Charizard (Male) lives with me, Flare (Female), Malstrom (Male)

Red Mali Uromastix: ?? (Male)

Tai Water Dragons: Mushu (Male)

Brown Striped Basilisks: No-name (Male?) or Minivan as i call him

Argentine B\W Chocoan Giant Tegus: Lacuna (Female), Aiden (Male)

Yellow Eared\Belly Slider Turtles: Mr. Turtle (Male)

Frilled Lizard\Dragons: Marble (Male?) or just Frillie

Nile Monitors: No-name (Male), N-name (Male)

Asian Water Monitor: No-name (Male) Is someone elses, holding till they have money to buy him

Black Tree Monitor: ?? (Male)

Savanna Monitors: Matches (Male) (STILL MISSING)

Leopard Geckos: Crackers (Male), No-name (Female), Murphy (It)

Ball Pythons: Paula Dean (Female)

Eastern Coachwhip [florida local]: No-name (Male)

Vietnamese Blue Beauty: No-name (Female) basicly a rat snake that doesnt musk

Shit, thats like 23 reptiles. Not including the 4 Emperor Scorpions we have, 1 of which we found at the end of repticon while we were packing. It has to be the angryist emperor i've ever seen, it's called "the very angry scorpion" It looks like we have 3 female scorpions and 1 male. But we'd like to get someone who knows how to sex scorpions better than we do before thats confirmed. So we might sell scorpions at some point later down the road.

Oh boy

My stress levels have been off the charts latly, cant really mention why. But hopefully it'll get better soon, i cant really take much more.

Repticon this weekend :) i'll be working this one, as will Ace. Should be fun since Charizard, Lacuna and maybe Set will go with us. Because Sean (my boss) is cool like that.

Update on Set

Sooo, it turns out Set is not a Red Nile Monitor. He is actualy a Freckled or Black Tailed Monitor from Australia. Instead of reaching 7+ ft long, he's at an adult size of 24inchs. Oh well, he's still pretty awesome :)

Pictures of what he looks like, these are pictures from google.

Long weekend was Long

Had 6 shows in 3 days, 3 were super far away. But it was fun, except the driving. That wasnt any fun at all, especially with a Tortoise that makes a mess in his crate....

Got tagged by the Corn snake i was going to bring to shows, but because he wasnt hapy with me just looking for him. I doubt he'd want kids poking at him, so he stayed in his tank. The Yellow rat snake expelled smelly ooze on me because he got scared..... smelled like that for the rest of the day mind you. The Caimen also peed on me. Btw, the Corn snake bite didnt hurt much, Charizards accidental bite hurt much worse.

Beach trip next weekend too :). Should be fun.

Lets do another reptile count shall we?

Bearded Dragons: Winston (Male), Frank (Male), Charizard (Male), Flare (Female)
Tai Water Dragons: Mushu (Male)
Brown Striped Basilisks: No-Name (Male?) or Minivan as i call him
Argentine B\W Chocoan Giant Tegus: Lacuna (Female)
Yellow Eared\Belly Slider Turtles: Mr. Turtle (Male), might rename him
Frilled Lizard\Dragons: Marble (Male?) or just Frillie
Savanna Monitors: Matches (Male) (STILL MISSING)
Red Nile Monitors: Set or Big-Red (Male)
Leopard Geckos: Murphy (It)

Ace's mom decided to give Aiden and his new house a chance and let him stay. Ace's brother had to get a lock for the cage which was fine. Especially since Aiden eats like a horse, we could barely keep up with his hunger. I have a feeling that's why he was so aggressive, he was hungry all the time and wasn't getting enough to sate his needs

We have decided that Matches must have gotten outside, through the dryer vent before we acquired it from the old apt. We look around every time we go outside since Savanna Monitors are territorial. Hopefully he'll turn up, when he does he sure wont be very nice :p

Also! Ace finally got his Armored Bishir, so now the Long-fin has a friend :). There both about the same size too, otherwise there might be some bullying between them.

Was worried about Charizard and Updates

So i have been worried about my Orange Fire Beast. He hasn't been pooping (well he is now, he wasnt 3 days ago) and it had been close to a week. I'd been giving him baths and had stopped feeding him (but then i felt bad and gave him some greens to help things move along).

So 3 days ago or so, i was cleaning his tank because he had pooped a teeny bit. Guess where his poo's had been going? Turns out my bearded dragon had been hiding it under the small gap in his repti-carpet. It was awful. Worst hide and seek ever. I didnt know i was playing either XD But he's fine, pooing and eating normally. I just hope he doesn't start hiding his mess again :p

Also!

Might as well update the Lizard count :). I included Charizard though he lives with me

Bearded Dragons: Winston (Male), Frank (Male), Charizard (Male), Flare (Female)
Tai Water Dragons: Mushu (Male)
Brown Striped Basilisks: No-Name (Male?) or Minivan as i call him
Argentine B\W Chocoan Giant Tegus: Lacuna (Female), Aiden (Male)
Yellow Eared\Belly Slider Turtles: Mr. Turtle (Male), might rename him
Frilled Lizard\Dragons: Marble (Male?) or just Frillie
Savanna Monitors: Matches (Male)
Red Nile Monitors: Set (Male)
Leopard Geckos: No-name (Unknown) Might name him Bold Murphy because he looks like a murphy patternless or a bold stripe

That is 10 males and 2 females and an It, so imbalanced our clan is. Now some of you might think "woah, butt-ton of lizards", well it kinda is. However, we used to have 17, And that apartment was much smaller. Now Aiden is still on the list because Ace's mom wont let his brother take him back, which isnt cool. Mostly because Aiden isnt nice and eats like a horse.

And now their tank situations:

Mushu, Marble and MiniVan share a 55 gal in an eco-set up with Ace's Long-Fined Senegal Bishir and a butterfly catfish
All the beardies have seperate tanks ranging from 20 longs to 40 gal
Leopard gecko is by himself, and will be moved to a custom tank thats about 30 gal
Mr. turtle is by himself in a 10 gal except for the guppys he hasnt eaten
Matches is missing, but will be in a 40 gal
Set is by himself in a 40 gal
Both Tegus live in an 8x3x3 box tank enclosure thing

Most of these, mainly the beardies and Mr. Turtle are on a shelf\tower. Everyone else is placed strategically to not take up much space :)

Monitoring

So while me and Ace were out and about we were like "hey, lets go to queen city pets". So we did and long story short we now have a Red Nile Monitor, its a Ornate type of morph. Hes super pretty. He was also free because the guy who was working at the pet shop is loosing his job because the pet shop is going under because it left Petland. So we have a male Red Nile now who supposidly has behavoir issues....

I dont know why, he's a bit skittish about being touched around his face but so far its been 2 days with no biting and not too much hissing. He likes sitting on my shoulders or my head, monitoring the situation obviously. Hes so sweet, and surprisingly cuddly. The little guy is maybe 2 feet or so, mostly tail. Hes like a snake with legs, but adorable :)

MiniVan

Soooo....... We kinda have to call the Basilisk MiniVan now. Why? Because he got out during the move and crawled inside the electrical wiring in a van. We couldn't get him out so we had to wait till the morning to retrieve him. How we caught him? He was chillin inside a shopping bag from petsmart, so we grabbed it before he could get out and plopped him back into the 55 gal. It was eventful. MiniVan is ok, eating and everything just fine.

Charizard likes bananas (there treats, like once every few weeks treats), he kind of attacked me to eat one :p. My finger is fine, tiny nip mark. But i should know better than to feed him something mildly squishy from my hand.

New look

So i discovered that Blogger let us have more fonts, and with those fonts i have played with the look of the blog. Let me know what you guys think. Especially if it hurts your eyes, please tell me if it does. Currently using a very old computer so the resolution may be weird.

First show by myself tomorrow, it's a b-day party so hopefully i wont be too nervous. I get to use the beardie this time, to my knowledge he's never been used. So it'll be interesting, and i'll have to use judgment on whether the kids can pet him or not.

Been helping Ace build the tegu tank, it's like 8x3x3 or something. Its huge, like he could sleep in it. So far it looks pretty awesome, hopefully it'll get finished soon so Lacuna and Aiden can stop taking over the bathroom at his apt. They aren't allowed to walk around un-supervised anymore, which is a good thing. They get porch time though, nice way to let them get some natural UV's and a bit of exercise.

Oh wait

Forgot to mention that Ace is now living in a new spiffy and CLEAN apt now. He's down sized with the lizards, though some were not intentional.

Count now is 10

Bearded Dragons: Winston (Male), Frank (Male), Flare (Female)
Tai Water Dragons: Mushu (Male)
Brown Striped Basilisks: No-Name (Male?) or Minivan as i call him
Argentine B\W Chocoan Giant Tegus: Lacuna (Female), Aiden (Male)
Yellow Eared\Belly Slider Turtles: Mr. Turtle (Male), might rename him
Frilled Lizard\Dragons: Marbles (Male?) or just Frillie
Savanna Monitors: Matches (Male)

That is 8 males and 2 females, so imbalanced XD

Everyone else

Nugget and Sandfire: Were found to test positive for the Reptile Adneovirus and are with the Dept of conservation of Wildlife (i think? ask Ace about where they are) They will receive all the care they need and then some to stay healthy while living with the fatal disease. Everyone else was negative for their tests or showed no signs like they did.

Gandalf and BlackBeard: Both have found new homes with responsible owners, they just need picking up.

Other Basilisk and Savanna Monitor: Found new homes with responsible owners.

Neon Tree Dragon and Emmi the Jackson's Chameleon: Both tragically died due to dehydration or not enough humidity. We aren't sure as they both ate regularly.

Charizard: Living happily with me.

How the new guys came to be acquired

Flare and Frank: Little girl in petsmart was selling them and their set up for 100 (both worth much more than that), Ace jumped on this and 'kind of' rescued them. The little girl was trying to find a good owner for them because she felt bad for not spending enough time with them. Both are in good shape, Franks nail were super long but they've since been clipped and he was kinda thin. Flare was a little nervous of us first but is just as cool and chill (kinda) as Charizard.

Mr. Turtle: My dad found him at work, wandering the pavement. So he brought him home in an empty coffee mug and we cant release him since we aren't sure if he really is a Yellow Belly slider or not. So Ace is keeping him for me in the Frillies old 10 gal since Mr. Turtle is only the size of a quarter :p (OMG he is so adorable)

Nothing really new to report

Average b-day this year, wasnt as shitty as i thought it would turn out because of recent events. But i'll be ok in time, time being key here. I got mostly candy, Cadbury creme eggs specifically. I think my family is plotting to make me fat :p

Charizard is much better, apparently i cant count because he is actually 9 months this month. Measured him a few weeks ago and he's about 16 inches, probably 17 now. I have discovered that if fed Mangoes he will rewards you with the biggest and smellyist pile of poo imaginable. You think cat-boxes and horse shit smell bad? Feed Charizard Mangoes, you'll probably throw up. Not kidding. Good thing there only treats, otherwise i doubt i'd be able to clean up his tank in the mornings.

One thing i have noticed about my big orange fire beast though. I didnt think he would be afraid or wary of cats because of Sammy, Aces cat. Turns out he is smarter than i thought. Charizard could care less about my retarded fat cat Tiffy, but as soon as the white cat Boobles (Princess Ivoree) comes near him if hes not in his tank Charizard hisses and beards at her. He then will run away. Hes definitely a smart lizard, because that cat is the feline embodiment of Satan. You can ask anyone, they'll confirm.

I'm working with Cold Blooded Encounters as a reptile presenter now, doing educational shows and partys. I think i'm doing ok, at least i did during training. My first show alone is coming up this sunday, hopefully i dont screw this up.

Feels like a bad mom

So i bought a UV and everything i needed since Charizard is at home with me now, mom wanted to get to know him more. But turns out the light was bad, like really bad.

http://www.beardeddragon.org/bjive/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=145181

http://www.uvguide.co.uk/phototherapyphosphor-info.htm

Poor Charizard, he just lays there with his eyes closed. I turned the light off yesterday around 2-3, so he was exposed to it for 12-20 hours. Internet says he cant burn his retinas from the light, but he'll be sick for a couple days :(. So i'll prolly be buying a reptisun 10.0 at Repticon this weekend, or off petmountain.

Repticon, SOLAR, work

So I have a Self-Employed type job doing Reptile shows :) Its pretty fun, though i need to get better at talking in front of people. I'll be doing the 2nd Cold Blooded Encounters Show at Repticon, Charlotte next weekend. I'll be there sunday to work as well as look around. Also to keep Ace from bringing home a new friend.

Unfortunatly i'll be leaving SOLAR early to go to Repticon again, oh well. Should be fun either way.

By the way, kinda broke so please commission me :)

Meh

Hokay, no more animals for sale or adoption from Ace (at least for now :p). Water dragon found a home, he was on the mend so hopefully they'll take good care of him. So a count of everyone excluding Charizard because he lives with me now, since mom wanted him to come home. Which is cool, helps me get up in the mornings now....

3.0.2 Bearded Dragon's (Gandalf has found a new home, but they need to pick him up)
1.0.0 Water dragon's
1.0.0 Brown or Striped Brown Basilisk's
1.0.0 Savannah Monitor's
1.0.1 Argentine b\w Chocoan Giant Tegus
0.1.0 Neon Tree Dragons
0.0.1 Jackson's chameleons
0.1.0 Frilled Dragons\Lizards (probable male)
(Males, Unknown, Females)

That's a total of 13 critters. Soon to be 12 when Gandalfs owner comes to get him. Then 11 when ace's brother takes Aidan back, i think he misses him. Aidan's been nippy lately. Ace has promised to replace Commodore Squiggles, he doesn't have to but if he wants he can. I miss my little Leopard Gecko, he was adorable.


Everyone's names starting with oldest:

Beardies: Winston, Nugget, Sandfire, BlackBeard and Gandalf
Water Dragon's: Mushu
Basilisk's: Not yet named, he's a mini Ivan tho
Sav's: Matches
Tegu's: Lacuna and Aidan
Neon's: Not yet named, he hides a lot
Jackson's: Not yet named, shes pretty chill
Frillie's: Marbles

Numb

Shitty week was Shitty

I have an interveiw type thing later today.... i guess thats good.

In reference to my last post, only the water dragon i mentioned is available now. The others were bought by some friends, which will go to feeders probably....

Procrastination at work

I'm supposed to be writing a paper, 2 paragraphs so far...

Anyways, still no sign of Commodore Squiggles. He will be missed. Tai and one of the rescue water dragons got out a week or so ago. Havent seen or heard them either, so i guess the Tegu's ate them as well. I'm not surprised about Tai, he's been getting sicker and sicker even with UV and stuff. It looked like he had a genetic deformity which made him unable to process the Uv\calcium that he needed. He would have died anyways. The other water dragon however was doing ok, but he seemed to be in the same condition that Tai was in. Hopefully it wasnt too painful for them.

Still no job. Had a lead, but they havent responded in over a week so its back to filling out applications...

Charizard is 9 months old, since yesterday :). I think he's 16 maybe 17 inchs now, which is average but he's still got a bit of growing to do. Mom also wants him to come live at home with me, i dont mind at all. However i cant afford crickets, though i chip in to help out Ace since he's feeding all of them. I also dont know where a 29long os going to go at my house, let alone when he needs a 40 gal. Mom seems to think he's still a little guy, Charizard is very much a fat ass. If i took him home i think he'd miss Ace as well, whenever i watch everyone while ace is gone at Clanthia, Charizard gets upset the last day and is either very clingy or angry. Its kind of adorable.

In short my average day-to-day is kind of meh right now. Hopefully it'll get better around my birthday next month. I'll be 20, yay?

Also!

• We have a few reptiles that gan go to new homes once healthy. The rescue water dragon, i cant remember if its a girl or a boy. But he's getting much better. 
• I think Ace's brother is letting us give his savanah monitor away, i'm not sure but i'll find out. He's a few months old and is in good shape. He's also very docile, though have fun finding him if he gets out in your house :p.
• We may have a brown\striped basilisk as well, well we do, but he may go to the wildlife conservation peoples that Ace works with. He's got a tail nip thats on the mend.

If you are interested leave a message here for me or message ace on his blog. We may ask for a donation, but as far as i know the water dragon at least is free to a good home.

Bad news

So i got laid off like 2 weeks ago? Near the end of february i guess. But i'm looking for a job once again. So far i've applied to 4 Petsmarts, Target, and 5 Lowes. Hopefully i'll get lucky.

But more bad news:

Commodore Squiggles some how got out of his 10 gal. Its been nearly 2 weeks and we havent seen him, i've torn apart the apt looking for him. I'm starting to think that Lacuna our tegu ate him, i hope not and if it turns out to be the case i wont hate her for it. But i'd like some closure. Ace has promised to get me another one, i told him if he wants but i want some sort of confirmation that Commodore Squiggles is gone for good.

Another very late update

Yea late update. Not like people read this, at least to my knowledge.

But Valentines day was pretty good this year, we went to Boudrouxs. Its a Cajun restaurant in NoDA, or off N Davidson street in Charlotte. Pretty awesome food, we'll be going back on Thursday. But back to this V-day stuff. Ace has been making a custom cage out of his mothers old end table, for a Leopard Gecko. We shifted tanks around so Nugget and Sandfire are in a 20 and the Leopard Gecko now named Commodore Squiggles is in the empty 10 gal.

The Blood Bank dragon will be coming to us in time, they were cool with waiting for us to have space and the funds for it. Hopefully that can be soon, if not i dont mind waiting. Since were saving we'll have time to get the heat bulbs and a 20 gal tank, since they sell their beardies as juveniles. I'm pretty sure i've only seen 8-9 inches at the smallest for sale from them.

We also took in 2 Chinese Water Dragons from the Petco that Commodore Squiggles is from. They unfortunately due to corporate Petco were not housed on or in water and instead on a coconut substrate. Thus causing tank stress and severe dehydration. So they let us have them because they didn't want them to suffer anymore and they knew we could take good care of them. When they are both healthy they will be up for adoption. The other animals were healthy, the albino corn snakes were actually mating when we picked up Commodore Squiggles. It was amusing, then we told them about it so they could watch for eggs for the next few weeks unless someone buys it.

Everyone else is good, fat and happy. Commodore Squiggles doesn't like being picked up, but he isn't screeching so that's good. If he screeches that means he's mad or scared. When we do hold him he waddles on our hands, he may just be scared of our hands reaching for him.

Well i havent posted in a while

So i forgot i had a blog

But news

So on the Bearded Dragon Forums theres been a discussion about a video that was posted. Not gonna go into that, you can read the post for yourself here. If not heres the jist of how im involved.

In my video I feed off an anole and a scorpion. I clipped the scorpions tail with a pair of fingernail clippers so that non of my bearded dragon would receive eye injuries or stings. The anole was fed off to educate on the veracious appetite of the bearded dragon. People are constantly surprised when an adult bearded would eat their smaller dragon. I hoped this portion of the video would save some heart break.

Bearded dragons are equipped to digest both of these food items withe ease. Similar to a trout eating a craw-fish.

In the second part of the video I show the breeding and egg laying. This is the most difficult part of most phone conversations. (describing how to handle the eggs, prepare the medium, ect.) People are always asking; how can I dig them up without rotating the eggs? The eggs can be handled vigorously for the first week. After a week or more the embryo floats to the bottom of the egg and attaches its self to the side wall. Then the eggs become fragile. I handled the eggs in my video with purpose to educate.

People commented that my shop must stink since I wear a "dust" mask in the video.

I wear a dust mask because I am allergic to insects. The video shows me working the same way I do every day. I put on my dust mask and do my thing. The shop has 2 people cleaning and feeding full time. Plus myself caring for the dragons and a 4th person taking care of the bugs. 8 hours a day every day. I also have 2 full time sales people taking care of all the photos and sales. This allows me lots of time to study my dragons, microscope feakles, consider parings, ect. My shop is one of the cleanest shops you will ever visit.

I was producing the same amount of dragons is a 10X20 shop and just recently was able to afford a new 20x30 facility with new cages. State of the art dishwasher and my own bug breeding project on the second storey for healtheyer more consistent feeders. Same dragons now with 3x the room.

I built this business from 3 dragons 8 years ago, to what it is today, with nothing but hard work and passion for breeding bearded dragons. I have since refined my collection and the shape of the bearded dragon.

I did not know about the no shock video policy on this forum. I apologized to the moderator who pointed it out and removed my post. I am only sorry I posted my video on this forum where it did not belong. I am not sorry for the content of my video.

Steven Barnes
bloodbankdragons

and my response to everyones posts:

After reading your post Blood Bank i feel better about the scorpion, i was surprised but not appalled like everyone else apparently (no offense guys). Beardies in the wild probably do eat scorpions like that, and they dont get the tail clipped for them either. The anole is used as a feeder for a lot of reptiles like snakes, spiders and probably larger lizards. So it may be a little inhumane for the anole, but they are technically lower on the food chain. I would still buy from blood bank, i'm poor as crap so i cant anytime soon (nor do we have the space).

To everyone else:
Guys, the video might be upsetting to others, they posted a note about it with their video. You were warned that it contained reptiles eating reptiles (i know its not supposed to be posted here, but they apologized and removed the video from here). I will say that since this was a sort of advertisement for their reptiles that a note should be posted saying something to the effect that unless you take precautions that anoles and scorpions are not good feeders and that feeding them those things doesnt make them aggressive. Mating is usually aggressive from what i'm told, and i didnt know that you could handle eggs moderately rough with the first week. Doesnt mean you should, but to each his own.  

Basically i'm saying everyone should calm themselves and think about beardies in the wild and what they would be eating and how they behave (yea we want them to be happy and loved, but if we didnt provide for them they'd eat anything they could catch). If you think about it the video is portraying the wilder side of them, that isnt a bad thing. It certainly doesnt mean that Blood Bank is selling mean beardies, if they were wouldnt there be complaints or something going on?

and Blood Banks response:

Laprice. Half off any dragon you want. + Free shipping

Steven Barnes

FOAMS

Bwaarrrrrrr

So were off to Repticon again, Atlanta this time :)

I'm going to look at everything, and to stop Ace from bringing a new friend home....
But it's this Saturday, when i have work. BUT! I asked my boss 2 weeks ago if i could switch days with someone so i could go. I told her if she couldn't find anyone then i wouldn't go and would be working Saturday morning. She said cool and like a week later a co-worker texted me asking if i was able to take her place on Monday or Tuesday. Tuesday works for me so im covered :)

We'll be getting up at 6am like i do for work and probably arrive sometime after it starts which is 10am. Repticon ends at 5pm so i dunno when we'll be back, most likely not very late. Long car drives are long.

Tales of Symphonia

So me and Ace hung out again today, too bad a friend of ours couldn't join. It's cool though. But we started replaying Tales of Symphonia, great game by the way. Check this out

But Ace has never played, really hard to not tell him what happens or what certain things mean or who Lloyds father really is :p

So Repticon was awesome

Were back from Repticon :)

It was pretty cool, shit ton of snakes though. But the corn and king snakes were pretty neat, really cool morphs. Saw a Silkie in person, they are bald.

But we now have a Frilled lizard and a Savanah Monitor with some very interesting colors. He bit me yesterday too, he got startled by something. It hurt because of how hard he bit me, not nessisarily his teeth. Hot water got him off, thumb is sore but good :)

Took Charizard and the new monitor named Matches to the second day today. Charizard seemed to enjoy himself, as did Matches.

 The silkie

 Marbles our new frilled dragon\lizard?

 Our very oddly colored savanah monitor

 blue spots

 stripes

 charizard drove us through the tacobell drive-through

Sleepy monitor is sleepy

Upterdating and a cute moment

So my itty bitty is doing much better. it looks like it may have been a bit of shed that didnt come off, i cant find the little red spot anymore. I've decided to name her Sandfire, though if i think of a better one i'll let you know :p

So while getting crickets last night we were walking back to my truck and this van that wasnt even going to petsmart pulled near our spot to park. It was a little girl and her dad and possibly uncle, they said they liked out iguana. We currently had Winston with us, wrapped in beardi burrito. We laughed a bit and explained that he was a bearded dragon. The little girl squeeled and hid but soon came over to see him up close. They seemed pretty interested in him. We said that he was pretty chill and wouldnt bite, so she and her dad could pet him. We said that he was also a rescue and they thought that was pretty cool too. They then walked off to officemax, which was another store down from the petsmart.

Has a sad

So we came back from skiing and my itty bitty was acting funny. Lifting her leg up and looking at it, walking low to the ground, squinty eyes. So we picked her up immediately and checked her over.

It seems she was bitten in the crook of her back foot. Because its the crook we doubt her tank mates did it (Black Beard is still being separated), it sounds more likely that a cricket bit her. It looks like it too, tiny little red spot that doesn't look like 'Nugget' bit her (Ace's itty bitty is lovingly referred as a chicken nugget because of how round she is).

We got her eating, since it seemed like she was having trouble getting to the crickets before 'Nugget' does. She looks like she is in pain though, only food or sudden movements really get her to open her eyes completely. I hope she'll feel better and doesn't contract an infection. Ace says she is doing ok and the bite doesn't look worse.

But everyone else is doing ok, Winston is doing good with eating. He will have his beardi belly back. Tai is not eating again, not sure why again.... hopefully he's just bored. Apparently water dragons can get bored with their food. Charizards still fat and happy, and an attention whore. Ivan's colors, OMG he has them. We will post pictures soon on the blog, or rather Ace will.