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We cleaned the tortoise enclosure today and, lo: the female has laid two eggs. She had buried them, and I am not sure for how long they've been there - I clean the thing every day, but only do a thorough cleaning every couple of weeks.
This is the fourth batch of eggs she's laid. I tried to incubate the first three myself (using a chicken incubator), but unfortunately failed - due to temp and moisture variation, I think. So we took the new eggs to a friendly neighborhood Vivarium that offers incubating services in exchange for 50% of the offspring. Don't think those will hatch either, but we'll see. A baby tortoise would be a wonderful addition to the family :)
This is the fourth batch of eggs she's laid. I tried to incubate the first three myself (using a chicken incubator), but unfortunately failed - due to temp and moisture variation, I think. So we took the new eggs to a friendly neighborhood Vivarium that offers incubating services in exchange for 50% of the offspring. Don't think those will hatch either, but we'll see. A baby tortoise would be a wonderful addition to the family :)
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From:
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A friend of mine, Yuri, is an avid snake and reptile guy, and he's got a beautiful girl iguana called Max - she's huge. Yuri and Bee have tried to do something about the current craze for iguanas -they're exotic pet of the week it seems, and many are being kept in abominable conditions - but no-one wants to listen. Anyway, their dream is to build an iguana rescue sanctuary.
The law is very strict about keeping indigenous reptiles, but there seems to be no control over exotics. *sigh*
From:
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Re: reptile abuse: yeah, that's so stupid. Here, too you cannot pick up a desert tortoise, but Russian and Mediterranean tortoises are often abused, not to mention how they are kept in Petco and other stores.
Iguanas are trendy... I hate that, personally. There's a big difference between loving reptiles and purchasing a weird pet as a decoration for your couch.
We do have sanctuaries for reptiles :)
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Yuri's had Max for years, and when he realised Iguana keeping was the next big thing, he printed up Iguana Care flyers to leave at pet stores, so at least people would have the basic info - and you know what - the pet stores wouldn't keep them to hand out because they would rather have people pay money for a book with out of date information. :(
Unfortunately the SPCA does not have to know-how or space to care for exotic reptiles, so here, "rescued" iguanas are killed. It's a sick thing - pets as status symbols. Makes me so mad.