pet insurance

One of the hot topics over on our forum HerpUniverse is pet insurance for reptiles, and how to find a good provider. There's lots of companies that offer insurance for dogs,cats rabbits etc but finding a good provider for reptiles and exotic pets seems to be difficult. I still haven't managed to find one that is reasonably priced, and it leads onto another subject, good reptile vets to take your pet to when god forbid, the worst happens and a reptile becomes ill. For me, i guess i am very lucky in the fact that good friends of mine are, experts in reptile medicine so they are usually my first point of call. If a snake of mine does need vet treatment, again i am lucky in that a very good, reputable, reptile vet is only a 20 minute drive away. But with treatment so expensive finding good insurance would be wise.
on a lighter note, this post on HerpUniverse made me chuckle:
To weigh a snake:

Find large digital kitchen scales
Place bowl on top of scales
Place pillowcase in bowl
Set scales to zero
Remove snake from viv
Put snake in pillowcase
Retrieve snake from round leg and replace snake in pillowcase
Retrieve snake from hair, put band aid on bite and replace snake in pillowcase
Hurl self across room in order to catch snake
Place snake in pillowcase
Put pillowcase (with snake) in bowl on top of kitchen scales
Retrieve pillowcase from floor and snake from under wardrobe
Put snake and pillowcase in bowl, hold still for a few seconds
Take weight reading
Lose pencil
Find pencil
Retrieve snake from top of bookshelf and pillowcase from inside laundry basket
Write down weight with one hand while restraining angry snake with the other
Replace snake in viv
Treat your wounds
Prepare self for an evening of being glared at.

That's how to weigh a snake.

anyone who has ever tried to weigh a snake will I'm sure understand.

I would also like to say a big hello to all my friends over at Forum Finder if you have a blog,forum, or website FF has some great resources tips,tricks and lots of fun, its well worth joining and a great community to be a part of.
Bye for now, have a great week everyone,
H xx

Hatchling's

They say good things come to those who wait, well here's one of our tiny anery corn snake hatching's. They arrived in the world a week later than expected but we have four beautiful tiny baby's.Right now they are no bigger than a worm, one is a little bit feisty and tried his best to nibble my finger ( which tickled like mad!!!) the others are very very docile and calm.
It was a big shock to me, with most of our snakes being either adult size or there abouts, i had forgotten how tiny hatching's are, they are growing well and I'm trying very hard not to say OK we will keep them all.
There's still a couple of reptile meetings left on the calender this year, but here in the UK it is getting very cold and they are all quite a distance away so we have decided not to attend anymore for this year(4 hours in a cold car in awful weather does not appeal to me)
I like attending the shows, to see who is breeding what, catch a glimpse of herps you wouldn't normally get to see, and of course catch up with friends for a coffee and a chatter, and we usually come home with a new addition too!!!!!!!
H

Spiders!!!!

After the last blog post i received lots of feedback about spiders, theres loads of you out there like me apparently that aren't too keen. I thought i would share with you some of the pictures posted on the forum at www.herpuniverse.com
these are some of our members spiders, and it has shown me (and hopefully you too) that not all spiders are icky black EWwwwy things . The first one in the picture above is a Avicularia versicolor, picture thanks to and © Steph Cooper

The picture below, is slightly more like the image that springs to mind when you think tarantula, its a Brachypelma vagans aka red rump picture thanks to and ©Gareth Pritchard
















This last picture has to be my favourite, and the picture that first convinced me that spiders can be beautiful, its A. purpurea picture thanks to and ©Monsterspinnen.de


I'm still not 100% convinced i could ever own one but at least now i am starting to see them in a different light and can appreciate their beauty, and hopefully you guys can too.
H xx

One of those days???

Do you ever have one of those days? nothing goes right no matter what you do? and bad news gets piled upon bad news? that's how today has been for me!!! I'm not looking for any sympathies, just venting a little frustration.
It started as soon as i got up, i forgot to put the bins out and had to rush up my garden path as the bin men were doing my neighbours bins and prey they would take mine too (i got a few tut tutts but they did)
I wanted to take pictures of some of the snakes to include in this blog post, but none of them were feeling co-operative, (Samantha and Mr.Tigger, i think they need some lessons from you two, your both so photogenic).

I'm happy for one thing though, the forum at www.herpuniverse.com is still going strong, despite some peoples best efforts, and we still have our friendly outlook and common goals.I am really enjoying seeing the pictures of the members reptiles that they post on the forum, i can see some going onto my future wish list for sure!!! I'm still not 100% convinced i could ever have a spider as a pet, but looking at the pictures that have been posted, i am slowly getting over my fear and starting to see them in a different light, some really are beautiful creatures. Once again i would like to thank all of our members at herpuniverse, you guys make the forum what it is growing into, a warm friendly place to chat about reptiles and herps of all shapes and sizes.
H xx
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