Mel's Exotics

Well it looks like my last 2012 blue tongue is reserved and will be heading to her new forever home soon. So now I’ll be spending all my time staring at my possibly pregnant girls trying to guess who will pop and when 🙂

In 2013 there are four possible litters to be born. Trouble is looking very obviously pregnant, Hank seems likely pregnant, and the other two I’m not too sure about. I have my fingers and toes crossed for all of them.
Hank the classic northern:

Izuru the irian jaya:

Trouble the caramel northern:

Wocket the silver tanimbar:

In addition to taking photos of the preggo skinks, I also took photos and weights of my geckos during cleaning time. They’re big pigs and are slowly growing bigger and bigger.

Hello skink-friends. It’s been a while since I posted anything. Life here is busy, but really there’s not a lot going on with the critters. Breeding season is long over, so now it’s just a waiting game. I’m quite sure at least one lass is pregnant here (Trouble the Caramel Northern) and hopefully the others are too. I have my fingers and toes crossed. Babies aren’t due until June/July, so still a little ways away.

The reason I remembered that I needed to update today is because I just found half a dozen new e-mails in my spam folder. I’m not sure why this is happening again (it happened a few months ago so I changed my filters) but I will reply to these e-mails now. I apologize for this. I’m planning to create a new e-mail that’s specifically for ME, but for right now if I don’t reply within a few days please try again, give me a call, or send me a PM on the bluetongueskinks.net forum. Again, sorry to anyone who’s not got a reply.

There is only one 2012 northern still available here – Edith. She’s getting bigger by the day and is a real looker. Her personality is really just top-notch, so I’m not sure why she’s still here. I don’t mind though – we’re buddies and she’s a great ambassador when we go out.
Edith:

For anyone wondering about my dog, Snoopy, she’s doing good now. We had a few issues, and for a while it was really scary, but after a few days at the vets she’s back home and thankfully back to her completely stupid self. She just got her summer haircut on the weekend and I’m looking forward to having her help babysitting the baby skinks outside again this summer 🙂

Oh, and some exciting behind-the-scenes news: I’m getting a new skink. Not sure when I’ll receive it (it was only born 2 weeks ago) but I’ve got my fingers crossed that it may end up being a good match for my oddball northern Bomber 🙂

Thank you for checking out ME! I’ll post more pictures soon, I promise.

It’s been a while since my last update. If you’re wondering where I’ve been, ask this little devil:

This is Snoopy. She’s my 10 y/o puppy who was diagnosed with cushings this year. The past few months have been really rough, with constant tests and medicine changes, and then recently the poor mutt went badly downhill. She’d stopped eating, had lost a lot of weight, and had the energy level of a narcoleptic slug. A week ago we took her to the vet expecting the worst…

And yet here she is today, bright-eyed and back to begging at the table for steak-scraps. She’s back on her daily meds, and while she doesn’t quite have her normal appetite back she’s doing really well 🙂 There are no words for how much I love this stupid, stupid puppy <3

I will be around more now, though I’m taking a few evening classes in addition to my full-time job and caring for the critters here. I’ll do my best to get back to everyone as quickly as I can.

There are only two 2012 babies left available – Edith and Erin, and both have had some inquiries about them. I won’t make any guesses on which of the girls here are preggo, but hopefully there will be some more babies popping this summer. I’ll try to get some new photos up this weekend 🙂

Many thanks,
Melanie

Tonight, as I prepared baby Esmerelda for her cross-Canada journey, I decided to take some photos to show just how the skinks travel.
First, I gather my shipping supplies:

Lovely Esmerelda goes for a warm soak while I prepare her travel accommodations:

The box is put together and the styrofoam is put into place:

The inside is lined with newspaper:

More newspaper is folded up to provide insulation and cushioning:

The first layer goes on the bottom of the box:

The cloth bag is stuffed with some crumpled paper towel; a cozy skink-hide for the trip:

Esmerelda gets some after-bath cuddles:

Then makes her way into the snug cloth bag:

Which is then secured:

And placed into the box, with more newspaper around it:

The original layer of paper is folded over the whole piece, and a top layer is added:

Then the lid is put on. She’s all snug and ready for the long trip:

Soon, she’ll arrive at her new home, and she’ll peek out and come face-to-face with her new, loving family:

Since this was just the pre-shipping prep, you don’t get to see a few additional steps:
– The cloth bag is sealed with a zip-tie for security.
– The heat-packs are pre-warmed the next morning, then one is attached to the top-inside of the box, and the other is attached, inside, on the opposite side.
– Only when the delivery person arrives is the box fully closed up and taped. The shipping label goes into the baggie on the top of the box (the label is scanned regularly for tracking updates), and the extra stickers are added to the box.
– Then she’s handed over, goes on a journey, and the next day she arrives at her new home.

Sam at Reptile Express makes shipping these babies easy, and nothing makes me smile more than to know my babies are safe in their new homes, being spoiled rotten.

Safe trip Esmerelda! And to all my babies who make these journeys 🙂

Amazingly, it’s already breeding season here at Mel’s Exotics. The year has absolutely flown by.

I’m not really putting much effort into breeding this year (some of my girls are getting the year off and many reptiles here aren’t old enough to breed yet), but so far I’ve had successful pairings of my Irian Jaya pair, a classic Northern pair, and most excitingly my caramel Northern pair! My Tanimbars are still holding out on me (read running around peeing when they see each other), but you never know.

Fingers are crossed that I’ll have a few new babies available in the summer of 2013 😀 I just hope the litters stay reasonable this year (no more 17 babies from one mom please!), lol.

More pictures, as promised 🙂

Erica – available

Erin – available

Esmerelda – Reserved

Esther – available

Ask and you shall receive. I’ve gone a bit picture-happy now, so enjoy some new photos of my remaining 2012 babies 🙂

Edith – available

Elsa – not for sale

Emerald – available

Emily – available

Felicia – RESERVED

Size comparison of giant Felicia to tiny Emily:

Part 2 will come tomorrow 🙂 Stay tuned!