thereadingreptile

[thereadingreptile]

two freshly emerged female luna moths in the Fuck Cage... stay tuned

(the cage is there to protect them from predators- they spend their first few nights sitting around attracting mates anyway and won’t fly until they’re ready to lay eggs).

I was walking around last night and caught a glimpse of a wild male flying around, so I know they’re out there and hopefully there’ll be a good number of them tonight.

#insects

[thereadingreptile]

iiii need to get this active again!

#it's been quite a hellish lockdown

[thereadingreptile]

#millipedes #it's that kinda day

[thereadingreptile]

Glomerida sp.

photo source-The MacroClub Project

#millipedes #i just...want my millipedes

[thereadingreptile]

#gsoihjsed

[thereadingreptile]

Hold still. This creature was recorded going 2,569 days without moving.

Salamanders play the long game, with many species living surprisingly long lives. But among these enduring amphibians, there is one outlier – the olm, also known as the proteus.

It has been well documented that these small white cave-dwelling salamanders can live well into their hundreds, but scientists have now gained new insight into the creatures’ glacial pace of life.

In a study which makes sloths look recklessly hyperactive, divers documenting the movements of olms in Herzegovinian caves found that over a decade, individuals tended to move less than 10 metres in total.

However, one extraordinarily inert individual was found not to have bothered moving once in over seven years.

Olms have no predators, are highly resistant to starvation – able to go without food for several years – are blind and live in complete darkness underground and underwater.

They are apparently only compelled to move in order to mate, which they do on average around once every 12.5 years.

In the caves in which they dwell food is typically scarce, but when they are able, olms feed on small crustaceans such as small shrimps, snails and occasionally insects.

Read the full article here.

Photo credit here via Getty

#oh mood

[thereadingreptile]

ok but princess is gorgeous

#reptiblr #leopard gecko #reptiles #lizards #geckos #the love of my life??? my daughter??? #this is an older picture but i love it

[thereadingreptile]

why are all the books i’ve seen on millipedes so gotdang expensive?

[thereadingreptile]

#reptile memes #reptiblr meme #leopard gecko #geckos #lizards

[thereadingreptile]

Imp got an upgrade!

#if these are fake plants they look REAL good

[thereadingreptile]

Two new babies!  This is Brooklyn and Pyxis and they’re both stunning. 

#beautiful colors!!!!

[thereadingreptile]

i was going to take in a leopard gecko with possible crypto as a rescue mission but i decided against it because i was terrified of it spreading, even if i was careful

when i went to my email to let the seller know i wouldn’t buy and they should get the animal tested, they hadn’t responded to my last email and their post had completely disappeared, probably from being reported

it still breaks my heart, honestly

#text #crypto #leopard gecko

[thereadingreptile]

Hey bluebell, what's crypto?

I’m gonna answer this publicly because I have three other asks asking about the same thing. 

Crypto is short for cryptospiridiosis and it’s one of the deadliest diseases found in reptiles.  It’s caused by a unicellular parasite calledCryptosporidium varanii (also know in older references as Cryptosporidium saurophilum).  It’s highly contagious by contact and is disturbingly common in gecko farms.  It can infect almost ANY reptile; even snakes have their own strain of crypto. 

What happens is the parasite infects the lining of the intestine, preventing the absorption of nutrients. Essentially, the gecko starves to death, no matter how much it eats. 

Geckos infected with crypto lose weight quickly, and start to show a symptom called ‘stick-tail’.  This is when the tail is super skinny and basically looks like a stick.

Here’s the general progression of symptoms:

anorexia, loss of interest in food

loss of muscle mass in the legs, especially the hind legs

regurgitation of food and undigested skin shed masses

change in consistency of feces, florid diarrhea, ‘cottage cheesy’ stools

weight loss, wasting away, thin tail

enlarged, darkened liver (hepatic lipidosis, or fatty liver)

lethargy

death

This parasite can’t be detected with the usual fecal smears/floats.  TBH, until fairly recently, the only way to detect it was via necropsy.  Now we have a few tests that can find it. 

Tests available:

An acid-fast stain test (ASF) uses a chemical called ‘carbol-fuchsin’ with the feces of the infected animal.  It binds to a compound in the cell walls of the oocytes (eggs) of the parasite.  It dyes them bright red so they’re easily seen under 100x microscope.  This test won’t work if the parasite isn’t in the reproductive phase and should be redone later.

Merifluor Immunofluorescent Assay (IFA) Test: this is MUCH more accurate.  It uses blood, saliva, or another bodily fluid.  I’m less familiar with this test personally.  Long story short, a chemical will cause a color change under the right wave length in an infected sample.

Enzyme-linked immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) Test:this is the one i always advise since it’s the most accurate. This test uses an enzyme or an antigen to test the immune response. 

There’s NO CURE for crypto.  It’s 100% deadly eventually.  It may go into remission, but the animal should be considered highly infectious.  Humane euthanasia is advised.  I’ve seen and heard of entire collections wiped out by this disease, which is why quarantine is SO IMPORTANT.  I quarantine my lizards for about three months before bringing them into the lizard room.  If they came from unreliable or unknown breeders, I quarantined for longer.

Avian Biotech provides an excellent mail-in service for testing for about 25 dollars.  I’m pretty sure they use either the ELISA or the IFA test.

#this is really important #there's nothing that terrifies me more than crypto

[thereadingreptile]

Axanthic mangrove snake Boiga dendrophila dendrophila, CBB in Russia.  Arrival picture from a while ago.

[thereadingreptile]

#this is good

[thereadingreptile]

Welcome to the family little baby Drax. ❤ After years of denial I am accepting that I’m a leachie freak… and that’s okay. He is a GTAx, and I hope he’ll go well with my big dark GTx group!

#he's beautiful!

[thereadingreptile]

Mfw I tell a real dumb joke and mfw nobody laughs at it

#vibin