ok.. major update.. all pictures taken have been taken over the past several weeks.. FYI

ok.. so several weeks ago i finally made the trip to Tampa Fl to pick up those snake cages.. remember the tiny Aru locality neonate and 4 cages i talked about months and months ago.. well it finally happened! so up first are some pictures of the animals at Kris Wolf's "Rising Sun Arboreals" the first little guy is my Aru Locality animal. i paid 500 bucks for this little one and its nothing special, just a Aru Type Locality breeding from exceptional parents. i am very proud to have this little one in my collection. he/she looked really great and i cant wit to see the color change..

next are various pictures from Kris's collection. all stunner animals

 this little one below was a clutch mate of the above animal i purchased

 nice Emerald Basin..

 Abigail.. so beautiful..

 the ever beautiful Cora, and her sketchy attitude.

 it's really a shame i don't have more pictures of this girl.. she was my favorite! she is an Aru x Biak outcross and was huge!! truly the jewel among his other jems.. i wish i had her in my collection.. her and Frank would make killer offspring!

 this is the same big girl.. and that's a shot of our host and breeder, Kris Wolf.

 me and Kris, just before i shook hands and hit the road..

cages loaded up and ready to go.. i am was super pumped about these cages. they were built amazing and really nice, big cages.

here is a shot of the cages, all 4 of them, and the extra perches that came along with them..

it was a really pain in the ass but i got them situated in my tiny apartment! ha ha its going to be killer!!

more shots of my little guy, checking out his new tub..

ok so at this point i wanted to start putting perches up in the new cages and decided to go a different rout so here is a short and crappy tutorial of what i did.. in my previous cages i would use the ol' hook and eye method, which works great but this time i wanted to do straight perches and i wanted perches that would be easily removed for photogenic purposes.. 3 point attachment systems is too difficult to remove. while i was in Tampa Kris gave me this great idea by explaining to me how he hangs his perches.. so.. i went to the woods and cut some nice straight branches..

 after cutting them to length i drilled a hole, using a 21/64 drill bit. both ends..

 my plan is to use these adhesive backed plastic hooks.. apply them to the cage interior, drill hols in the wood, and rest on the hooks.. seems simple enough right?

 adhear the hooks evenly and level to the inside of the cage walls..

 hang perches.. looks pretty great. due to the shape of the plastic hooks they are thick and deep enough that they keep the perches from rolling. if you cut them right and drill the holes correctly they fit pretty tight. and if you want to remove one all you have to do is reach in and lift up evenly and presto.. photo opportunity!

ok, so i'm pretty embarrassed that its taken me this long, but i FINALLY got a good disinfectant. i wash the water bowls with a bleach/scalding hot water soak, then wash them with  hot water and soap, let dry and i'm good to go.. but i haven't had anything but bleach/ water solution to clean cages.. everyone raves about Nolvasan, and chlorihexidine.. and it works great, no doubt.. but its flippen 60 bucks a gallon! Quatricide is much cheaper.. by half, and it is just as effective as the Nolvasan solution. lab tested and hospital grade bacterial disinfectant.. heard its safe for animals to but haven't confirmed it yet.. however. this is what i will be using.

i am still getting the 4 cages ready, and have a few more things to update. my lap top has been broke for weeks so it's been hard to post anything that's been going on.. tune in later for more..

thanks,
brandon

more on the new rubbermaid tubs.

ok, so i thought i would create another post about these tubs, so here is the process of setting them up and getting them ready for one of my animals. first i drilled the ventilation holes. i noticed that the plastic these tubs were made from drilled a lot better than the harder clear plastic the Sterilight tubs i was previously using. so that was a plus for me. these drilled nicely and didn't break or crack from the drilling, like the Sterilight tubs would to.

 these wooden dowels came from home depot for 5 bucks each. they are perfect for these tubs as they are the perfect length. when cut in half they provide 2 perches perfectly suitable for the interior of the tubs.

 1 dowel cut and mounted

 if you look ate the picture above, the bottom of the tub has a pretty high lip which is perfect for adding any kind of substraight for terrestrial animals. aspen bedding or red cypress mulch would more than lay in the bottom without fear of spilling over.

after which i gave it a good wash in the tub with scalding hot water.

 add some newspaper, the animals water bowl and of course the animal itself! awesome front opening tub suitable for keeping animals, arboreal and terrestrial.

product review

good morning, i thought i would post a few shots of some animals along with a product review that i was a little skeptical at first but now im very excited about the idear. so firstly here is two shots of the newest aquisition. a friend of mine has named him Frank. its a little boring but its sticking soo.. Frank.. isnt he amazing!?

ok, so product review.. Rubbermaid has come out with a new line of storage tub. it is called the Access organizer tub.

 as you can see it has a front opening clear hard plastic door which allows for front access. thus making it perfect tub in which to house Chondros.

 the tub's door is hinged at the bottom and doesn't have a latch. it lifts and folds forward. its super easy to open and indeed could be open by exploring animals if not taken into consideration. a thin wooden dowel across the top of the door would secure any animals from escaping. i haven't yet mad this adjustment but i do intend to. i will post more pictures at that time.

the tub is very light, should hold humidity well and the top lid is strongly secured. i think its an amazing tub and i am very excited to use them in my quarantine rack. the only draw back is its not really as big as i would like it.. its only 22 x 17 x 15. in my opinion its a little small for housing Chondros in but for quarantine purposes, i think they will be amazing. front opening, light weight and cheap (i got 4 for 8 bucks ea), holds humidity well and is attractive in 3 colors, turquoise, blue, and black. and they are stackable!!

go check them out!!

here are a few other shots of my animals.

Luna my Aru type female

AtomO my Aru type male

Kronos, my Vinsky blue line male

new update, and a new arrival!

well, i guess its been a minute. so here is what i have been up to. :)

i was so excited last night at the arrival of a new acquisition that i didn't take any of the pictures of my "getting his tub ready" but here is a shot of it anyway. standard quarantine tub with water bowl and perches. i also built a new bakers rack in the kitchen so i can separate my new animals from the established collection. more on that later.

so here is the box of the new arrival. i'm so pumped about this guy. he weighed in at 588 grams and is my biggest male. he also makes 7 in the collection now. there isn't anything special about him, but he is an Aru island X Biak island cross. and man he grew into a really stunning animal. absolutely beautiful! i haven't tried any breeding attempts yet and i still think i'm pretty far from that, but i want to breed him with Luna, my female Aru type. maybe i can get some blue high lights in that green and yellow with white speckles!! that's my goal.

god, isn't he just a stunner!? this is the only picture i have of him, i didn't want to stress him out too bad so im going to let him acclimate and then take some more shots.

so this is the bakers rack i was talking about. on the top shelf there, its Luna's tub on the left, and AtomO's tub next to her on the right. then on the bottom its the new arrival on the right and my Theraphosa Blondi (Lolth) on the left. she is doing well and is very active, i had her up at the shop in the 40 breeder but i wasn't doing a good job of taking care of her so i did away with the 40 breeder tank and brought Lolth home and placed her in that tub. its working out much better.

ok! i'm never been good with plants but i was reading that these things are bullet proof so i bought 6! ha ha they are carnivorous plant, (yes bug eating) Nepenthes Miranda which is a tropical pitcher plant. they get pretty big and eat bugs, so i thought i would buy them and place them in my apartment to catch some of the small insects that plague me! i'm looking forward to watching their growth as well as their disposal of the pesky insects!

here they are being re-potted into new pots with straight sphagnum moss.  as you can see in the photo above they were not very happy with their 2 day travel in a  dark box.

here they are in the new pots, they look happier all ready!

its hard to tell but in person they are doing well, and have perked up a ton from the top picture to the one taken below.

well, the only other thing i have going on is i'm FINALLY able to purchase the 4 cages from the guy in florida. so its bills this week, and rent next week, then the following 2 weeks back to back is paying for those cages. then its another road trip so more on that. i am really looking forward to the new cages. i hop to get every one set up and into them for a really great looking uniformed display. pretty pumped.

also as another update, my 2 Aru type animals that i purchased off of Kingcnake.com have been fighting internal parasites for months now. they have remained very healthy and active and feeding well, but they have the few bugs. Dr. McGee and i have been working with them and have finally had our first clear fecal. i will continue to monitor them and make sure their fecals are clear, then its onto the external parasites under the skin. :( slow process but it will be worth it. they are beautiful animals and hey!! we are making progress.

holy shit, i forgot i had this thing! ha ha

hey guys, so i have been sick the past 3 days and 2 weeks prior to this illness i was in the fucken ICU for some retarded life threatening bacterial infection. pretty crazy, i have also been working hard on my chopper project and haven't done anything crazy with my GTP's, not to mention that i have been working 6 days a week and i actually forgot i had blogs to write in! wtf..

anyway, here is an update. all my animals are 100% well mostly.. Atom O  and Luna, my two Aru locals are still fighting internal bugs, but they are eating great and are very healthy and alert. lets see.. Kronos had a shed recently. a small patch of stuck shed on his head remained but i removed it with some eye drops and a damp paper towel. Gorgeous George had a really bad shed. about 10% or his old skin slaugthed off but the other 90% remained. total bummer. so i took a 3 gallon tub and saturated a hand towel with warm water, laid it in the bottom of the tub. then i set Gorgeous George in the tub and covered him with another saturated warm hand towel. put a lid on the tub and let him sit covered in wet towels for a little under 24 hours. about 4am this morning i checked on him and he had worked through the wet towels and the rough texture of the towel removed every bit of dry skin. my lights don't turn on until 9 am, when i'm at work, so i didn't get a chance to see him until i got home. but when i checked and saw all his old skin removed i left the top off so he could climb up to his perch. however, when i got home, he looked amazing. seriously the best he has ever looked! i couldn't believe how beautiful he was like a drop of the most pure lemon/ lime, simply stunning. sorry no pictures. :( every one else is doing great. i have a new acquisition that should be arriving in 3 weeks and i'm pretty stoked about him. other than that its bills, chopper and snakes..

Oh, i also got some tropical pitcher plants for my apartment. 6 total, and i'm pretty stoked to add some greenery to the place. not to mention the added kool factor of them being a carnivorous plant AND they will take care of all the bugs that may find themselves into my place. pretty excited about that.

pictures to come, stay tuned! swear it wont be long before another update. :)

Brandon