Want to get into Monitors? The Ackie monitor is your answer!

The ackie monitor

      The Ackie Monitor, also know as Ridge Tailed Monitor, is indigenous to Australia, mainly found in the north western region. Ackie monitors are considered dwarf monitors since they only reach a length of roughly 70 centimeters when fully grown. Many people, including me, want to get into monitor species because of their intelligence, personality, and interesting qualities but are afraid to buy a Nile monitor, Tree monitor, or other popular species of monitors. Many of the popular monitors require a lot of room and are really only meant for experienced reptile enthusiasts since they require so much care. This is where the Ackie Monitors come in. Ackie monitors have the same personality of  the popular and larger species, but because of the ackie monitor's size they are much easier to keep. Ackies will thrive in an enclosure that's around 4 feet long and 2 feet wide which is very manageable. The diet of an Ackie Monitor is almost identical to that of a bearded dragon's and their personality is much more laid back than most monitor species. Ackie monitors are great pets and a good gateway to the Monitor species.

                                                image from the web

Dubia Roaches

I recently bought a starting colony of Dubias. I did some research and found that Dubias are one of the best feeder insects and there's are a lot of reasons why. Let me make a quick list for you.

Advantages:
1. Dubias do not stink! Crickets do.

2. They are very easy to breed, I saw babies crawling around the first week I got them.

3. Easy to house: Tupperware container.

4. They can eat cereal.

5. Way more nutritious than your average cricket

6. Very clean, yes roaches can be clean.

7. Reptiles love'em.

8. If you have an abundance you can sell them and make some nice money, they sell for like 50 cents a piece. This doesn't sound like much but if you only sell 12 you get six bucks. That just gives you an idea

9. They can't hop around like crickets, so it's a lot harder for them to escape.

Disadvantages:

1. They are shy creatures.

2. They have the word roach in their name, this makes people think of dirty, gross, insects. Trust me they are not, their the cleanest feeder insects I have worked with.

I highly recommend Dubia Roaches, they are awesome!!!

Step by step directions to breeding crested geckos

How to breed crested geckos.

Here I will show you step by step instructions on breeding crested geckos.

1. Buy a male and female crested gecko. The male should be at least 35 grams and the female should be around 45 grams to 60 grams, any heavier than that would make them overweight.

2. Make sure you have two enclosures, one a bit bigger than the other for a breeding tank.

3. Introduce the male to the female or vice versa depending on who lives in the larger enclosure. It would be best to introduce them in the spring so the temperature isn't too cold.

4. Keep them in the same enclosure for up to a week, in that time they will most likely breed. On some occasions they would immediately start to breed the first ten minutes they were together!

5. Make a lay box. A lay box is a container filled with a substance that the female crested gecko can dig in to lay her eggs. I make my lay box out of a tupperware container. It has to be big enough to allow her to dig. My substrate for the lay box is Eco earth, I find this easy and highly effective. Ex.

6. Separate the crested geckos and put the lay box in the females enclosure. After a few weeks check the egg box every other day. You will soon find eggs. It will usually be a clutch of two. She will lay a clutch almost every month.

7. Now that you have eggs it is time to incubate them. This does not require a fancy incubator. This is how I incubate my eggs:

How to make a cheap incubator for crested geckos.

1. Buy a plastic container with a lid.

2. Buy perlite. You can find this at the garden section of most stores.

                                                      

3. fill the container with perlite, then add water make sure the perlite is thoroughly moist. drain the excess water.

4. Add a thermometer and humidity gauge. Store at room temperature 72-76 f. IMPORTANT: the incubator should be at around 72-78 F and the humidity should be around 70-100 %.


5. Once your ready to transport the eggs from the egg box to the incubator carefully mark the side that was facing up in the egg box with a sharpie. Make sure that side is also facing up in the incubator. Bury the eggs half way into the perlite. it will take around 60-80 days for the eggs to hatch.


6. Your crested gecko will lay about a clutch of two eggs every month or so. after around 3 clutches, lower the temperature in your female crested's cage to around the high 60's (or wait until winter when the temperature change is natural). This will make her stop laying eggs for the season and ensure that she can restore all the calcium she lost from laying the eggs. Be sure to add extra calcium supplement to her food.

I hope this helped!!!

Written by: Alex van Alphen
I do not own any of these pictures

The setup of my bearded dragon tank

Bearded Dragons And Their Third Eye

Some people might not know this but Bearded Dragons actually have a third eye on top of their head!
They use this to look for oncoming predators in the sky like hawks. This eye can only determine the difference between light and dark, but this is enough to escape because of the shadow a bird or hawk creates when they swoop down.
                           
                                 The black dot in the middle of the beardie's head is his third eye

Humidity control

            Having a low humidity for tropical reptiles is a common dilemma. Many people resort to spraying their cage. This is unhandy and you have to spray it constantly. One thing that I do to keep up the humidity is by putting a bucket of  water by the heater, the heater will evaporate the water causing the humidity to rise. With this I also use a pressurized sprayer, this is easier and more efficient to use.

Crested Gecko Morphs

                                           Morph= Pinstripe

                                           Morph= Furry

                                             Morph= red harlequin

                                           Morph= Super Dalmation

                                               Morph= Tiger