2023 Northern Blue Tongue Skinks

Hey friends!

I’ve been quiet online, but incredibly busy in real life. Over the summer we’ve had four litters of Northern Blue Tongue Skinks born, and there’s more than 30 babies now ready for their new homes!

Head over to the Available Page and check them out!

Or scroll through them at random here (better photos and a video will be coming soon):

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Home Sweet Home

Hello friends! I’m back home in Winnipeg now, and wow do I have so much I want to share with you. The CRBE trip was exhausting, exciting, huge, enlightening, inspiring, and so so many more adjectives. I met some of the kindest people and got to see a few friends who I’ve only ever known online. I met a few of my favourite community voices and got to be part of what I hope is a step to bringing the animal-loving community together.

While I wasn’t able to bring any animals to sell, I’ve now received offers on my monkey tails, pink tongues, and most of my blue tongues. That leaves my Peters Banded Skinks, which I suppose will remain here and I will try to upgrade their enclosure again to promote a better breeding result.

Honestly, my biggest regret was that I couldn’t do more. I would have preferred to not have a table myself and instead help at my friends table and have more freedom to wander and do interviews with all the amazing booths that were there. I’m hoping some other YouTubers have better video. If you haven’t already seen the videos I did manage to do, please check out my YouTube!

If YouTube isn’t your thing, I’ll try to post a more complete written account of the event soon, at least regarding what all happened for me and my friends there. It was an adventure for sure.

In regards to sales, I still don’t have a proper platform to post animal sales or merchandise sales. I have some photos of some available skinks to post, probably on my Available page, so check there shortly. Sales still need to go through contact@melsexotics.ca (I’m so sorry this has backed up so badly, I’m swear I’m trying my best, it’s just a struggle atm).

I’m going to try to post my merchandise items on my Buy Me A Coffee! There isn’t really a good “shop” feature there yet, but it does let me give discounts to my BMAC members, so I’m giving it a try. Check under the Extras section, to be updated ASAP.

Umm, what else. I’m going out to the Narcisse Snake Dens tomorrow. If you want to join me on that mini-adventure message me on Discord or Facebook.

Some pics for fun!

Pink Tongue Skinks:

Blue Tongue Skinks:

Keychains:

Stickers:

 

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Tomorrow We Leave for the CRBE

Hey friends,

Tomorrow morning my friends from Fire and Ice Designs and I leave for the Canadian Pet Expo! I can’t update my website while I’m traveling, but I will be posting livestreams to YouTube, and trying to update my social media pages when I can.

I am not taking any live animals to the show, though I am travelling with Gabe, a wonderful poodle. I really, really wish I could have brought some of my skinks, but it just wasn’t feasible this time. I will have some merchandise items at my table, and a quest card that leads to Fire & Ice’s booth with a discount voucher. So please stop by and say hi if you’re at the show!

In regards to sales I know I haven’t been able to get back to emails – I’ve had to pause sales until after the expo, there just wasn’t enough time to respond to everyone; I’m sorry to anyone who’s been waiting for a response from me, I promise I will try to catch up with everyone after the expo.

If you’ll be at the show and are up for helping at a vendor table, please let me know. Ideally each vendor has 2 people at all times for a show like this, with extra team members to trade off for breaks. I have had some friends offer to help me take breaks, but ideally a few folks who could help my friends too can volunteer. In exchange we can offer a day pass (and some food/merch if you’re doing a full day).

The best place to get in touch with me directly right now is through Discord or Facebook. However all sales will have to go through contact@melsexotics.ca, just so I can try to organize it.

If you can’t attend the expo but want some merch I promise I’m working on setting up a better online sales platform. There’s so many really cool things coming because I’m getting the chance to work with some amazing people. I really want to tell you all about it, and I will, but right now I need to go sleep. Goodnight my friends, be well!

Many thanks,
Mel

 

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Mel’s Exotics at the 2022 CRBE

Hello friends! On the 17th and 18th of this month I’ll be a vendor at the Canadian Reptile Breeders Expo in Mississauga, Ontario!

Did you know the CRBE isn’t ONLY a huge reptile show? The Canadian Pet Expo and Canadian Aquatic Expo are there too, all part of one huge event. Definitely the biggest expo I’ve ever been to.

I might get to meet up with some friends I’ve known online for over a decade, and see some of the businesses and YouTubers I’ve followed for years. It’s honestly kind of overwhelming. If you’ll be at the show, please come visit me at table 313 in Hall 1 (CRBE).

And I’m excited to add that I won’t be travelling alone. My friends Fire & Ice Designs will be vending too!

If you saw my table at the spring MRBE, you may have seen a display of buttons being sold. The artists doing my re-branding create adorable animal art, and I wanted to show off their critter-themed designs. And they were pretty popular! So when F&I heard I was heading for the CRBE, they decided to give it a shot too.

Fire & Ice’s booth is 913 in Hall 2 (CPE), right by the grooming show. Nothing would make me happier than them doing well at the show – please visit them if you’re there!

((Psst, visit me first! We might be planning a quest!))

I’m going to end here for today, but I plan to post more about it soon. And don’t forget you can find my various social media’s through my LinkTree. I’m kind of all over the place lately.

Be safe and well!

Many thanks,
Mel

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RIP Beyonce

Hey friends. I’m sad to announce that on Sunday Aug 28 my Monkey Tail Skink Beyonce passed away. I’m going to tell her story here because I need to get it out of my head.

This post will discuss medical issues, death, and bodies. Please don’t read if that will upset you.

I purchased Beyonce in July of 2021. She was sold as a pregnant female, vouched for by friends who knew MTS better than I do. She arrived bright eyed and immediate started winning over everyone who met her. Outgoing and gentle. She would be anyone’s friend for a pothos leaf.

I knew something wasn’t right though. First off she seemed to be rather skinny. I thought, ok, maybe the baby is taking all her reserves, just gotta bulk her up. The seller agreed and had been trying as well. And it did seem to be working, she started gaining some weight, though not much.

Not long afterwards I brought home a family unit of 4 more MTS. Not as friendly as Beyonce, but awesome animals, and maybe I could add Beyonce to the family in the future. Except… Beyonce looked a lot more like the male than the other female MTS. Suspicious. We were joking about changing Beyonce’s name to Elton, but I still didn’t trust my sexing abilities, so we stuck with Beyonce (and I continued to hope she’d start showing a baby belly any day).

Of course she never did have a baby. Instead she continued to struggle to hold her weight over the winter, and come spring she crashed (as in one day she was climbing around acting like herself, the next day I just found her looking like a living mummy, curled up on the ground. Yet somehow still alive. We rushed to the vet, couldn’t find an obvious issue aside from extreme dehydration/anemia, so we treated with a broad dewormer, antibiotic, and with fluid therapy. We also took a blood sample, but it would be days to get the results there. I think she weighed something like 220g that day – she looked insanely bad. We didn’t have much hope.

The next day she was holding on, but there was no fight to her.

The vet called the day after and I got to report something amazing – Beyonce was suddenly bright eyed, active, and her old self. Pictures were sent. Weight was taken. She’d doubled her weight in 2 days. Something was working.

The blood results came back. They found a single blood parasite in the sample, but they couldn’t really tell much about it. We decided to continue the current meds and then test again to see if the parasite would still show.

We maintained the fluid therapy for a while longer, though it got much harder to do once she was fighting back each treatment. She was however drinking and eating willingly again, so we started trying to reduce the frequency of fluid treatments. And then she crashed again. Back to daily treatments, but now we’re wondering why she’s not staying hydrated despite eating veggies and drinking water. With the treatments (fluids injected under the skin) she was solid. Stop it and she’d crash, though less of a crash each time.

At this time my personal life took over due to a health scare with my fiance. Beyonce was stable, but I failed to complete the course of the dewormer or antibiotic, and I didn’t get her back in for the re-check when intended.

Once my personal life stabilized, I got in touch with the vet again. We went for a re-check and to start the forgotten meds over again (it’s not good to stop meds part way). I can’t recall if it was that visit or the follow-up, but we did another blood test too.

This test came back with extreme anemia. As in the blood was basically water there was so few blood cells. The vet wasn’t sure if this was a contaminated sample (it happens sometimes) or a legit issue – remember that Beyonce is all bright and alert at this time, she doesn’t seem anemic at all. I can’t recall for sure, but I think we saw signs of the blood parasite again too.

We made plans. I was saving up to have blood tests done on all my monkey tails – Beyonce to recheck, and the others to compare the results against (there’s not much info out there on MTS health unfortunately). And my vet was making plans to try an experimental treatment for the blood parasite (it had been tried in turtles before, but not lizards).

Sadly, last week Beyonce seemed a bit slow and grumpy, which was unusual. And then on Sunday I found her dead. I’d been out Saturday evening, and found her Sunday mid-day. I’m not sure how long she’d been gone for, but her body was… unusual. Very sunken in a way I’ve not seen before.

On Monday I talked to my vet, and we decided to have a partial necropsy done. We weren’t really looking for the cause, and there’s probably nothing we could really get useful samples of now, but maybe we’d learn something. Who knows, maybe something from Beyonce’s life and death can help other skinks in the future.

Today I picked up Beyonce’s remains. My friend Steve will be helping me skeletize them, for use as an educational display. I’m also going to skeletize Pooch and some other animals I’ve been holding onto the remains of.

Oh, and the necropsy confirmed Beyonce should have been Elton. My “pregnant female” was a sick male who never really had a chance. I wish so many things could have gone differently, but I’m also so thankful for the time we had. I know he touched a lot of lives in his short time with ME, mine especially.

RIP Beyonce. You are missed.

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I’m trying to do a YouTube Live Stream

Stream (hopefully) launching in 25 minutes:
https://youtu.be/UZCJvA-oycM

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Get a Sticker of Chibi-Pryce!

I’ve added a new “Extra” to my BMAC page – an adorable sticker of Chibi-Pryce!
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/melsexotics/e/87556

This is my first attempt using BMAC to sell anything, so I’m not sure it’s set up correctly. If you buy one I need your address for shipping, but I’m not sure if BMAC has that setting, so the first purchases may be a bit wonky.

If this goes well we have some really adorable merchandise coming in courtesy of Fire & Ice Designs. More on those coming soon! My goal is to be able to send something each month to BMAC members, but also to have it available as a one-off purchase for those who want to control what they’re getting.

And BMAC members, I need your addresses to ship you a present too as a thank you!

PS: If anyone is a BMAC whiz, lmk. Thx!

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Shipping Tomorrow

Hey friends,

Tomorrow is my first “big” shipping day of the year. I’ve only got 5 shipping kits on hand (the others are already shipped to me but haven’t arrived yet), so tomorrow I can send up to 5 babies to their new homes. As soon as the additional kits arrive I can send out the rest too.

Shipping animals across Canada is always stressful for me, but I want to take a moment and give thanks to the company that makes it possible: Reptile Express. Sam and his team work really hard to make sure every animal I send out gets safely to it’s new owners, and they’ve made it very convenient too. Having services like this available means a ton to me <3

I’m working on basic shipping video to show how I use Reptile Express’s products and services; keep an eye out for it on my YouTube channel in the coming days:
https://linktr.ee/melsexotics

Many thanks,
Mel

 

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Babies in the Sun

Hey friends! Yesterday we had some sunshine here and most of the babies had shed recently, so of course I did a mini-photoshoot. Enjoy!

RC1 – Unclaimed:

RC2 – Sold to SP:

RC3 – Sold to AF:

RC4 – Sold to AH:

RC5 – Unclaimed:

RC6 – Unclaimed:
 

RC7 – Unclaimed:

RC8 – Unclaimed:

RC9 – Sold to AS:

RC10 – Unclaimed:

RC11 – Sold to RM:

RC12 – Sold to CJ:

RC13 – Unclaimed:

Rajah – Unclaimed:

Tony – Sold to SC:

Tigger – Unclaimed:

Hobbes – Sold to MD:

Roar – Sold to DN:

Some were in shed, sorry. Once they’ve shed out if they’re still here I’ll get updated photos. But most of the babies will be leaving next week (shipping supplies are en route to me!) to their new homes. If you’re one of the folks getting a baby, please consider sending me updates sometime. I’m loving the look of the babies and can’t wait to see how they grow 🙂

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I may have overreacted

Hey friends!

I figured I’d better follow up yesterday’s odd post with a new post today. I just finished a very helpful therapy appointment, I’m pretty sure I’ll be financially ok for at least a few months, and best of all, my partner’s doctor called and she has a clean bill of health!

I’m still open to selling/rehoming some animals, but I’m not going to panic-sell my whole collection at least. So yay. I’m going to take this week to take stock of everything and see what is still possible for me to achieve in 2022.

I’m still hoping to visit the CRBE in September, but whether I’ll be able to film/vend/transport/etc. depends on funds and whether I can get some helpers. My friends at Fire & Ice Designs will be there, so I absolutely want to do some promos for their amazing art.

I would love to attend other expos, but unfortunately don’t have the funds for that. If anyone is going and wants a travel buddy, let me know 🙂

Umm. I still don’t know what to do about Beyonce. Still waiting on vet to confirm if treatment is even available. She’s herself at the moment, but I’m not comfortable with her condition. She needs more supportive care for sure, so I guess I’ll focus on that while we wait for more news.

My family of Monkey Tails is doing great, but needs a new enclosure. I don’t have the funds for that, so I’ve put them up for sale for $1k each. Ideally I’d like the trio at least to stay together. If I manage to find a better enclosure before they sell, I’ll keep them.

My Peters Banded Skinks include a cohabbed group of 7 and an individual that need some supportive care. I’ve listed the group for 300 each. I was hoping to sell them all as a group to someone who would try to breed this species, but I’m open to selling them individually. Keeping them would require an enclosure upgrade and I don’t think I can afford that unfortunately. So if you want to get into this incredible species let me know.

I have 3 yearling pink tongue skinks looking for new homes. All European imports, said to be unrelated lines. Priced at $500 each plus shipping.

For blue tongues I’ll make them their own post, but I will say I have the opportunity to buy another litter of northern babies wholesale from another Canadian breeder. Right now I can’t afford it, but if there’s enough demand I can bring them in with my severance pay. I just don’t want to have more mouths to feed if I don’t have a new job in a couple months.

If you’re interested in buying an animal, please email contact@melsexotics.ca.
For videos (I’m working on a new one about Shipping right now!) check out my YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpVkgO0dtLfCSwr6Ds0CP_A.
If you want to chat, join me on my discord: https://discord.gg/zPSnM3rZdx

And if you want to send some financial support I have a Buy Me A Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/melsexotics.
It’s new and I’m trying to figure out how to add member perks and maybe merch options. Right now I’m looking at stickers, calendars, rings, and even things like “animal sponsorships”.

One thing I wanted to do this year was a handle-the-animals event. Have people come visit and spend time actually interacting with the animals. The animals love having people over to engage with them, and I love spending time with other animal nerds. So I’m going to try to set that up since I guess I have some time right now. I’ll have to come up with a plan, so stay tuned for that.

This has been another long run-on post, sorry. Writing this out is helping me organize my thoughts and hold myself accountable. I’m going to end here for now. I’m going to go make KD for my fiance and I, and then I think Thindra is coming over and we can do some critter chores together.

Be well, my friends.

Many thanks,
Mel

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