#reptelligence

[taking-wing-consulting]

Bruce wants to come out and explore but I have to go to work so he can live his best life. I'm sorry baby boy! #reptelligence #reptileenrichmentandtraining #reptileenrichment #reptiletraining #enrichment #foraging #snakes #snakeslearn #snakesthink #snakesofinstagram #indigo #indigosnake #easternindigosnake #drymarchon https://www.instagram.com/p/B6RRcFxheB3/?igshid=p950zqvyqkl

[bufomancer]

Hi! I wanted to know if you have any tips for starting to handle gargoyle geckos? I can't find much help and a lot of it is just general to new caledonians/usually cresties but my lad is more shy than usual i think, i offer my hand at night but he'll just turn his head away and trod off. obvi i dont wanna just grab him, i want him to trust me. i am newer to this tho, it's my first proper reptile so i don't know if he's just a bit young for it (he's almost 6 months at this point) or if its something else

That’s normal. Geckos typically won’t seek out physical interaction with their handlers. Some might step on you curiously, or associate you with bringing food so they’ll approach to see if there’s a snack in it for them, but many have no interest in climbing on you at all. You could try target training, there’s a group on facebook for that sort of thing “Reptile Enrichment and Training (RET)” which is run by the Reptelligence people. If he’s target trained, you can use that to lure him onto your hand or into a separate container if you ever need to move him, without having to pick him up.

Give it time. It sounds like he’s not fearful of you, just not interested in interacting. That’s good!

I honestly never handle my geckos unless I have to, and when I have to I just focus on making it as quick and stress free as possible. They don’t enjoy being scooped up, but they’re used to it and don’t fuss so long as it’s brief. Your reptile willingly choosing to interact with you is awesome, but it’s okay if he’s just used to your presence but doesn’t seek out interaction :) You don’t need to handle your gecko for it to have a good, enriching life.

[sweet-slither-friend]

A more updated version of my ball python reference slide show complete with lots of photos of my amazing snakes

Sources referenced are listed below the cut

Ball Python Behavior and Health (Terrarium Quest)

Ball Pythons don'ts (Living Art Reptiles)

Ball Python Feeding Advice (Reptile Knowledge)

Ball Python Lighting (the Spruce)

Breeding Pictorial (Markus Jayne)

Ball Python, The Best Pet Reptile? (Clint’s Reptiles)

A Crash Course In Ball Python/Reptile Genetics (Reptiles Magazine)

Common Health Problems in Snakes (Reptile Knowledge)

Complete Ball Python Setup & Care Guide (GoHerping)

Detailed Discussion of Trade in Wild-Caught Reptiles (Animal Legal & Historical Center)

How to Create the Ideal Ball Python Habitat (Doctors Foster and Smith)

How to Handle a Ball Python (Reptile Knowledge)

Python Regius (Animal Diversity Web)

Python Regius Care Sheet (World of Ball Pythons)

Python (San Diego Zoo)

Royal Python (EcoHealthy Pets)

Setting up a Tub (Where My Scales Slither)

Snake Anatomy and Physiology (Pet Coach)

Snake Health 101 (Reptiles Magazine)

Snake Senses (The Robinson Library)

Spider Ball Python: Why it Needs to STOP (Amazing Animal Adventures)

Understanding Snake Body Language (Reptelligence)

Vibrating Skulls Help Snakes Hear (Science Magazine)

[ciameth]

Can you name any alternative sites to the dodo? I like their content because I like watching animals, but I see that they are not a real animal conservation/ animal rights group. I just don’t know good alternatives with equal amounts and „quality“ (as in HD videos opposed to shaky cellphone) content

I can try!  So, if quality videos of cute animals being cute is your thing, Zooborns is probably the best blog out there for frequent HD adorable content. It is an aggregation of baby animal videos and news from accredited zoo around the world.  Zooborns also has a youtube channel and under their Subscriptions, there are a ton of zoo channels. AZA. EAZA, WAZA, ZAA accredited zoos have incredibly high standards for animal welfare, support species conservation and public education, and donate millions to conservation programs worldwide so you’re following a good and educational source that cares about the welfare of wild and captive exotic animals when you follow an accredited zoo blog. A lot of larger zoos have really good content online - blogs, twitters, tumblrs, youtube channels, etc - so depending on the medium you like, I’d seek out those. I’ll list a few of my top choices. They’re my favorites because they include a high proportion of pure animal content vs advertising, and because I’m fond of the zoos themselves: 

San Diego Zoo’s Tumblr, their ZooNooz online magazine, Youtube, and San Diego Zoo Safari Park’s Youtube

Woodland Park Zoo’s Youtube

Cincinnati Zoo’s (home of the adorable baby hippo Fiona) Youtube. Some of their animals (like the cheetahs and Fiona) have their own channels.

Dallas Zoo’s Twitter and Oregon Zoo’s Twitter

Andy N. Condor’s Facebook page. Even if you don’t like vultures, he will change your mind.

The Association of Zoos and Aquariums has a Facebook page that shares most of the best video content from their member zoos.

CARE Rescue Texas is an exotic animal sanctuary with mostly big cats and primates, California Wolf Center has wolves, to add some good unaccredited facilities’ channels to the list, because they exist.

If you want videos of animals in the wild, BBC Earth has a youtube channel full of clips from their documentaries. BBC makes the best nature documentaries IMO, but their channel also features good domestic animal clips. Their secondary channel BBC Earth Unplugged has even more stuff. 

US Fish and Wildlife has a youtube channel that regularly features wildlife rescue and rehabilitation stories if that’s your favorite part of The Dodo.

There is a lot of good exotic animal content, but outside of individual pet owner’s blogs/channels, it is hard to find domestic pet video aggregators that actually credit the original owner of the video/picture and uncredited content is a big pet peeve of mine. It’s another problem I have with The Dodo.  Like The Dodo, most other major aggregators of “cute” pet content regularly post videos depicting situations that are dangerous or stressful to the animal so I don’t have many of those to recommend (Animals In Predicaments is generally good about sourcing, and not posting any animals in genuine distress, but it’s not perfect). 

However, here are some individual pet owner blog/channels I like: 

Mr. Max TV has silly cockatoo videos. Sesame has silly cockatiel videos. Einstein is an African Grey who is quite the talker and clearly well-loved and well-kept.  I am a huge bird nerd so unfortunately I’m not familiar with a lot of furry pet content. I have some friends who also work in the animal care field who like The Pipsqueakery, a pocket pet rescue. If anyone wants to chime in with good dog/cat/pocket pet blogs please do.

KaijuTegu has a great blog about pet reptiles with a whole lot of misc but very interesting topics thrown in.

Potamotrygonbio, aquarist and owner of Bisquick and IHOP the rays.

They’re all informative, portray pet ownership realistically, and best of all they don’t force animals into situations that are unsafe or stressful for the sake of creating content.

Some other animal blogs I recommend:

Reptelligence is a facebook group about reptile enrichment and training with lots of videos of reptiles exploring enrichment.

Dr. Ferox runs an outstanding veterinarian blog. Not a source of cute animal videos, but great content, very entertaining and informative.

You probably saw my post through why-animals-do-the-thing but I’ll just throw that out there as my favorite all around animal tumblr blog.

None of these are an exact replacement of the array of videos The Dodo offers but hopefully you find some of them entertaining!