Q}can you tell us about any difference between yours you keep and those in the wild? Like housing, lights, diet, health etc. I am trying to be as broad here as possible to pick your brain Do you keep them indoor all the time or outside?
hello cheri!
sorry ive taken a while to get back..aohell... shhh! we wont mention them and i may stay online.
thats a good question. and i think the answer is commonsense... we try to keep them inside in an environment that is as close as possible to normal for them.
in the housing i set up with bark and leaf substrata for the barbatas.. as they are rainforest and eastern seaboard dwellers. tho they are seen on the beaches they live in the bush nearby. for the vitticeps substrata i use sand.. compacted with about 1/4" loose on top. all 3 species that i have are arboreal..{tho i find the vitties ground dwell alot more than the others}....so high branches and cairns of big rocks. water bowl big enuf to swim in and of course a cool side and a basking side. they like a good sized ledge.. i have a terracotta wall sconce and it heats just right under the heat light. {i havent seen those in the wild tho!} i have a cool little set up for my nullarbors..a cairn .. small smooth rocks piled together..they love to get into the crevices.
for all i have UVA/UVB reptivar flouros and 60 watt as the heat source. also i turn my lights on manually... i have always and i may change but i like to follow the natural sun patterns...and looking back on that statement i sound like a fanatic. oh what the hey.. i probably am.
diet ..here is a link about the diet here...please note i have stated in it that i dont have vetrinarian training and its just my opinion...also..we do some things a little differently here because our rep trade is only just getting a move on....so not a lot of medications for reptiles. some of the things i trust are from the old school guys who only know our reps..and have great stories of amethystines as big as a footy players leg to how to fix a respiratory problem in a snake with bush sulphur.. um..i didnt put that in my notes cause ive never tried it.. everything else ive tried and found suitable.
they are extremely healthy as a whole.. ive not been to a vet with any of mine and just had the minor problems such as incomplete shedding, an eye infection once or twice. ive never seen uris in mine.. so i can only guess theyre in a good environment. there are no prominent diseases here that affect Pogonas.
i do think that export/import ban worked. {tho id like to see it alleviated under some circumstances.}
i have indoor tanks and a big outdoor wire enclosure.. i have read and been told to give them at least 8 hours a week in the natural light but i give them much more. even an overcast day will give them 'rays'. the outside enclosure has huge hollow logs that go right to the top and a resident blue tongued skink i put a bit of banana out for sometimes, they lay there outside the cage watching each other.
its all fun ..
bye from Svee
::looking at length of post:: um verbal runoff.
i am a pog