!Calling all Parents that have Reptiles!

[Night10gail]

So my husband and I have officially started family planning. All of this year (2015) is our prep time before we actually start trying. So this year is all about gathering baby supplies, reading parenting books, meeting with doctors, getting some health things in line, getting use to the new insurance, paying off some bills, building better credit, and finishing reptile setups. This year is all about making some necessary changes and learning as much as we can. I know during pregnancy things will get hard for me to do in the last trimester and perhaps even from the beginning, as all the woman in my family have had bad morning sickness. Then postpartum there will be the extra chaos of caring for an infant that will later turn into chasing around a toddler that may be hard to entertain.

I want to hear from parents that have reptiles how you kept up with your normal things like cooking, cleaning, as well as your reptiles' care while handling morning sickness, being off balance in the 3rd trimester and caring for a child. Any tips, tricks, suggestions?

My husband is on board with helping me with MY reptiles but he doesn't know too much about them as I'm the only reptile person in either side of the family. My best friend knows quite a deal about each of my animals and has already volunteered to help out. I have specific methods to meet each animal's individual personality, preferences, and needs. I am writing up a go to care manual in case we use a pet sitter at any point, and so my husband can get answers to questions he has while taking care of the reptiles while I'm out of the house. I think I should note that I don't use basic caging or rack systems; I have mainly display caging and that I know can make care harder for myself or a caretaker. I find display caging adds an element of joy to keeping reptiles for me and I don't want to give that up unless for emergency.

I don't have a spare room I can move all the reptiles to, so I'm switching the large snakes and pricier reptiles to cages with locks to prevent kids from getting in at them or letting them escape. I figured at some point during pregnancy I'm going to need to sit on a stool and use a snake hook to remove the snakes in the lower cages and to do basic maintenance in those cages.

 

[Helenthereef]

Well, I'm not a parent, but I do travel a lot and have to leave my snakes alone for periods of time, so maybe this one little tip might be of interest:

To cut down on the need for regular water bowl changes - as well as their regular bathing /drinking bowls, get some bird drinkers - just plastic domes with bowls that automatically refill the bowl. I find that the bowl is too small for my snakes to actually climb in and mess up, but big enough for them to get their heads in for a drink.

I got mine at a regular pet store, and they have solved the headache of leaving the water bowls a few more days between changes than normal.

 

[CreatureFreak]

I am pregnant now expecting a second child. I work six days a week at two jobs so taking care of the animals as well as having free time is a challenge! Usually if I'm at work and my boyfriend is home I give him tasks to do with the snakes or lizards. He does a handful each day so when I come home I help take care of any sick animals and other feedings for around an hour.
We usually try to do feedings every three days or so in order not to get overwhelmed with tasks. Use paper towel bedding, it's alot cleaner and quicker to change. If you feel you don't have enough time for all your animals, sell some in order to devote enough attention to the ones you have. On my ONE day off I try to set aside at least an hour if not more for any other building, reorganizing tasks, problem animals etc. plan ahead early in the week to do fun things with your significant other or spouse and sleep in when you can, because sleep is going to become non-existant for a while!
-Jordyn

 

[CreatureFreak]

My boyfriend doesn't know alot about animals either. After showing him what to do several times he will understand it. Just make sure to stress hygine procedures and if he's not sure of something don't make him try it without you there. Show your husband how to feed the reptiles and make charts. This helps alot with keeping track of things for us. All the snakes have ID numbers and descriptions of their markings along with their information, so we don't get them mixed up.
I favor display systems too, but am currently switching to a rack system for now with a rotation on fancy cages for the bigger animals. It has become to overwhelming to clean all the cages, so I would suggest at least getting a small rack even if it isn't long term, just for when the baby arrives. My daughter loves playing with the animals and at 1 1/2 already knows how to open cages very quickly and sneakily, so the rack system will be a better fit to keep the animals safe from her wandering hands!

 

[Night10gail]

Jordyn Pietroske thanks for all the in put. My husband already knows each animal by name and which ones are most likely to bite you if you're not careful enough. Each animal has been introduced to him so they're comfortable being handled by him. My husband knows I feed them in separate tubs, which day I feed them, how each prefers their mouse, and how I de-chlorinate my water. He's never done it or had me show him but I'm sure he's gotten the gist by now since I'm always talking about my pets and he's watched me feed them on multiple occasions. It's a good starting ground at least. I'm typing up a go to care sheet he can reference if he forgets which animal gets what while I'm not at home or reachable via phone. Maybe I'll put him in charge mostly of the feeder insects as they require a little more time than my reptiles believe it or not. Gotta pick out the dead mealworms and not forget to give them a dried off carrot for water or the whole colony will spoil.

I actually find substrate quicker and easier to clean than paper towel. I can never wait until the quarantine period is over so I can stop using paper towels and switch to a pretty setup. With paper towels I'd have to take EVERYTHING out of the cage to roll up the paper towel just to find they some how managed to get poop stuck on the bottom of the cage anyway, so then I have to scrub that up with a wet paper towel. With substrate I hold the animal in one hand, pick up the poop in the other hand, throw away the soiled substrate and throw a fist full of fresh substrate over the bare spot. Makes for some vacuuming though, but eh. The substrate soaks up most of the moisture confining it to one spot and preventing the animal from smearing it on themselves.

I'd think racks would be easier for a toddler to open. My husband can't even get the screen clips off my tanks. Now I'm sure one of those cages with the sliding screen tops, or a sliding front door cage or bolted cage a toddler would figure out quick. That's why I'm putting key locks on my Exo Terra terrariums so they can't be pulled open. I'm also planing to really reinforcing to not touch without asking.

 

[CreatureFreak]

Looks like you already have a pretty good handle on things! Just remember the amount of easy work now will be very tiring in later months of pregnancy and the more feedings can be done by other people/ your husband the better. Mostly because you're not going to want to keep bending into the tank/ transferring into the feeding tub. At six months along I'm doing it now and it's a bit annoying, but I'm sure you know, still enjoyable.
The only other thing I can say is the better detailed your care sheets are the better! I like to keep track of the exact date every animal eats and how much so (others) know how much to feed and if that animal can be skipped for a feeding, plus then I know which animals are at risk for losing weight or might be sick. You may be right about the rubs except that I plan on having some higher up ones. Yup the sliding lid is the problem! They're very good for the snakes but not so much for toddlers. Husband proof clips haha. Yeah clips sometimes like to attack fingers. My daughter understands she's not supposed to touch and she's very smart but the attraction and curiosity of the animals doesn't stop her from suddenly ripping a lid off when i grad a kleenex from the bathroom or something. Only happened once! Now she can't be in the room for even 30 seconds alone haha! She loves the bearded dragon so much. Do you breed your animals or just collect?

 

[AbsoluteApril]

For tracking, you might want to check out iherp.com, it's an online tracking system where you set up your animals and keep track online of who fed, what they ate, shed, cleaned, etc and using the 'dashboard' function it will show you how long ago someone ate so you (or your husband/bfs) can easily see who needs to be fed next. Not sure if it's easier or more time consuming than keeping paper charts but personally I prefer it over all those spiral bound notebooks I used to have.
Good luck!!

 

[nickolasanastasiou]

I use Excel since I already have the MS Office suite.

 

[Dahliasmom2012]

I have a 3 year old daughter and a husband who thinks washing dishes is all he ever needs to do and he will get extra points if I see him doing them when I get home. *insert eyeroll*
You learn to prioritize and cut corners. Clutter will happen. It goes with the best childhoods.
My snakes are in tanks with clips and velcro. Dahlia leaves them be but she will open the bird cage and let the cockatiels out if we don't keep an eye on her and she has taken it upon herself to open and feed my pet gerbils. Thankfully she drops the lid back after and so far no escapes.
Having someone else that can help with cleaning and feeding will be a huge help. I forced my husband home twice during my labor (it was a loooooong labor)to feed my lorikeet. When I got home with her we had nursing problems and I was an exhausted mess that was either nursing, pumping or washing out everything only to start over. I wouldn't have been coherent in those days enough to do much else. If not for the husband doing some critter care I would have probably stuck a gerbil in the birds bowl and a bottle in a beak.

 

[Night10gail]

Jordyn I don't breed my animals. They're just a small collection of very varied pets and I want to do educational show for kids with them. I may breed a few in the future but nothing is decided there.

Yup seen what my friend's toddler does in 30sec of her mom turning around. That's why I opted for locks so there's no way those doors or coming off/opening. LOL. Gonna have bubble wrap at the ready if my kid(s) goes through a throwing everything phase. I'm also exploring having a baby gate custom made to actually gate off the entire reptile wall so the kid(s) can't even get at the cages. I already moved some equipment into one of those plastic draw units because my friend's toddler loved shaking my vitamin powder and carrying around the tongs.

 

[Night10gail]

For tracking, you might want to check out iherp.com, it's an online tracking system where you set up your animals and keep track online of who fed, what they ate, shed, cleaned, etc and using the 'dashboard' function it will show you how long ago someone ate so you (or your husband/bfs) can easily see who needs to be fed next. Not sure if it's easier or more time consuming than keeping paper charts but personally I prefer it over all those spiral bound notebooks I used to have.
Good luck!!

I use Excel since I already have the MS Office suite.

I love both of those ideas. Not sure how well my husband would understand using either or remember to use it for that matter. I was thinking a big dry erase board to mark cleaning/eating on for each animal or pulling a note out of breeder's books and attaching an index card to each cage and you just write down the date of each cleaning/feeding.

 

[enoreg]

I have been in this situation before and learned a few tricks that made things easier. Bulk bulk bulk, food and supplies for at least 4-6 months, that way if things get difficult for a while you don't run out. Boil a few gallons of water and store them in airtight containers. Tupperware is your friend. Keep a few extra large tubs with locking lids to use as temp cages. This way if there is a big mess and you don't have time to clean a cage, just move the snake, make the hubby clean it when he gets home lol Or you can when you have time. Same thing for water bowls. Preparedness makes all the difference in the world when you have maximum unpredictablity with a baby. If things are set up this way you can handle emergencies and family/friends can help with everything else when they are there. I am sure you thought of most of this already.

 

[Night10gail]

Gerone Chandler, Yup already got most of that. I only buy f/t mice/rats in bulk because for one it's cheaper anyway as well as more convenient and I got a container separating system in my freezer that I use to store them by size and in the quantity needed each week so you just open the container with the size you need, grab a pre counted bag, and throw it on the counter to thaw. Can't do this with crickets but everything else I use as food I breed myself or pick up at a show in bulk with the f/t mice/rats. I'm always picking up cheap second hand equipment (heat mats, dishes, hides, plants) to store away in case something breaks or I get an unplanned ahead new reptile say as a rescue or rare expo find. I have several tubs around to use as feeder boxes, transport boxes, or temp cages again for unplanned ahead new reptiles. I de-chlorinate my water by letting it sit open for at least 24 hours and I have a plan on how to rearrange how I do this so I can have more water ready to go at a single moment. The big boa and python cages will take up the place where the Gatorade water bottles are currently sitting anyway so after the boa's quarantined is up it's temp Exo Terra w/stand will be moving to the snake wall then I'll keep tall flat juice bottles of water inside the stand and move the substrate bag currently in there to another plastic draw storage unit (gonna get another one like what I have to stack on top of the one I have the tongs, calcium powder, feeder worms, etc in currently so it's all away from wondering hands).