Mel's Exotics

Hi friends! Super quick update: I’m back in Winnipeg, ID photos are almost complete, and the pre-sale will end in a few days.

I’m still working longer hours this week, but I have more reliable access to internet and will be spending all my free time updating the Available List.

Stay tuned for more photos/updates!

Many thanks,
Mel

So I’ve managed to get ID photos for about half of the skinks here so far, and I figured that means it’s time to post a few just for fun. Unfortunately the weather hasn’t been cooperating for outdoor photos – either it’s way too hot or it’s cloudy. So when I can’t take photos I’m responding to emails and messages. The first few pre-sales are in and things are rolling along here. Enjoy the photos!

DISCLAIMER: The follow are NOT FOR SALE at this time!

Well it had to start sometime, and with the first few litters of 2018 babies just about ready to go it’s time to start working on 2018 sales.

I will admit that sales is actually my least favourite part of breeding, but I am constantly looking for ways to make it run more smoothly. So here’s the plan for 2018:

There will be baby northern and irian jaya (IJ) skinks this year. There are also some remaining yearling IJs and two-year-old northerns that will be available for sale.

My prices are staying consistent this year. Babies will cost $400. The remaining yearling IJs will be $450. The two-year-old northerns will be $500. All those prices are plus exact shipping, which is approximately $100 across Canada.

Starting today I am taking ID photos of all the babies (and remaining juveniles) here, and as a bonus I’ll be posting some of the ID photos here as teasers while I get the Available List up and running.

I will also be responding to emails and messages starting tomorrow, including those waiting for a reply. I’ll be responding to the newest first, so if you sent a message a while back and I didn’t reply, please consider sending another.

Finally, starting today I am accepting pre-sales – up to 15 for baby northerns and 5 for baby IJs. If you know you want a baby, you’re ready to go, and you have the money ready, you can request a pre-sale, we’ll get the money and shipping info all sorted, and you’ll go on the pre-sale list. Once the available animals are listed you’ll get first pick (in order of pre-sales received) and then you just pick a day and I ship.

(If you would like to do a pre-sale for a yearling or two-year-old instead, let me know and we can work it out.)

Once any pre-sales have picked their babies the remaining animals will be listed on the Available Page and sales will continue as normal.

The hope is that by doing some pre-sales there’s less chaos come posting the Available List, and there’s fewer partial-payments and holds and such for me to keep track of (spoilers, I suck at most things that require a memory so have to write everything down).

At this point the earliest possible shipping date would be July 23, but that may be bumped one more week back depending on how well this all goes. High temperature warnings may also impact shipping at times. Updates and most message responses should be expected in the evenings (sorry guys, I’m working rather long hours at my day job). Please continue to have patience (thank you for all you’ve shown so far!) and if you have any questions shoot me an email at MelanieJPratt@gmail.com.

Many thanks,
Mel

This little yankie-loving spitfire was born here July 4 and was immediately ready to take on the world.
Video credit to Sarah Trakalo

Bonus: If you’ve been wondering about baby sales, check back tomorrow! ME is gearing up for a busy shipping season and the older babies are just about ready to go!

Happy Thursday!

Today I wanted to make a quick update about how the 2018 breeding season went here at Mel’s Exotics. In short, it went really well and I’m hoping we’re going to have a good variety of northern and irian jaya litters this year 🙂

Breeding season was extra exciting for me because this was the first year I had a large number of both male and female northerns who seemed interested in breeding, so I was able to create some really interesting new pairings instead of repeating past pairings or having one male breed all my girls. In fact we had six female and six male northerns pair – that means we could possible have six exciting and unrelated litters of northerns!

Northern Pairing 1: Fluke x Saute
This pairing bred Jan 21 & Feb 4, but I’d say it’s about 50/50 whether Fluke is actually pregnant or just scamming for extra food again. She hasn’t really changed size (she was still huge from last year’s scamming) and her behaviour is pretty much normal. But this is a pairing I’m really hoping pans out since both Fluke and Saute are very bright and colourful skinks and I think their babies would be screamers.

Northern Pairing 2: Flambe x Jenga
This pairing bred Jan 21, Feb 4, & Feb 7, and while Flambe didn’t seem to change all that much I think it’s pretty safe to say now that the pairing took (hint: read today’s final line). This pairing is exciting because last year Flambe made some really amazing pale yellow babies that grew into huge, speckly monsters (Yokohama and Dorking are from her 2017 litter with Alrick). Jenga is a caramel northern with basically no black or dark pigments, so these babies could look very neat.

Northern Pairing 3: Alice x Drooly
This pairing bred Feb 4, 7, & 8, and while Alice hasn’t changed size (you can’t get much bigger than she usually is), she has become a hormonal terror. I’m taking it as a good sign (but my gf is hoping she pops soon and goes back to being her sweet self). Alice is a huge northern with very pale colours and lots of speckles. Drooly is likewise pale and speckly. I’m hoping these two make some gorgeous babies to rival some of the white northern lines we see down in the US.

Northern Pairing 4: Evita x Penn
This pairing bred Feb 7 & 8, but it wasn’t until a month later I realized Evita was supposed to have 2018 off (she bred in 2016 & 2017, and I like to give them breaks). She’s an amazing breeder and had recovered so quickly after her last litter I didn’t think to check my records for her (my memory is awful so I have to write everything down). Thankfully she took to being pregnant again like a champ and made it through the 2018 season with her usual grace (*cough* yes she did pop already *cough*). Penn is an extremely dark 2y/o I recently brought in from Diana Mason in the USA, so these babies could be amazingly dark. And now Evita definitely gets 2019 off to enjoy life without any pesky men or kids, lol.

Northern Pairing 5: Tiberius x Alrick
This pairing bred Feb 4 & 7, and while these skinks are fairly classic looking northerns (though Tiberius is a caramel northern), I think this is my most insane pairing of 2018. If you recall, last year Tiberius had serious medical issues that required emergency surgery to her guts. Her survival alone was miraculous, and at the time I was pretty certain she would never be a breeder after that. And since her and her brother Taz are all I have left of their mom Trouble, and Taz hates everything including all other skinks, I was pretty bummed. I had actually been trying to find a pet-only home for her for a while now.

And yet after a winter where she was medically cleared (all her insides seemed normal), she came into breeding season. And her behaviour totally changed – aggressive twit into a sweet, receptive lady. So I decided (with medical professional input) to give her the chance to breed. Originally I hoped to use Taz (trying to line breed to get more with Taz’s glow), but again, Taz is a hateful skink, so Alrick was brought in – his colours are a lovely complement to hers. I’ve been watching her grow fat this spring with my heart in my throat. And because no one else deserves to stress out about whether she could safely deliver – she did it!!! There will be more about the babies in another post, but Tiberius and her babies are healthy and there are no words for how relieved and ecstatic I am.

Northern Pairing 6: Bomber x Wasp
This pairing bred Feb 7 & 8, and for the first time in her life Bomber has actually bulked up. This is a pairing I’ve been trying to achieve for years, and the fact that they not only locked but that she seem likely pregnant is incredibly exciting! For some history, Bomber is actually a baby who was born here in 2011 (my first year breeding) to Fluke and Wasp. Bomber was the runt of her litter and looks unlike any of her relatives. She’s always been a smaller than average skink, and I’ve received several offers for her from people who want to see if her size/looks are genetic and can be passed on.

I had originally hoped Bomber was a male – it’s safer for smaller males to breed than smaller females, and a single male can pass his traits on to multiple litters each year. Unfortunately not only is she a she, she has also been completely uninterested in breeding until this year. She’s been paired back to her father in the hopes that he also carries whatever genes make her so unique (this is called line-breeding). If she does have any babies I will likely hold back most/all of the litter for future breeding projects. I have all my fingers and toes crossed for this pairing 😀

For my irian jayas I unfortunately only have one male at the moment, so he bred two females – one completely unrelated new pairing and one repeat of last year.

Irian Jaya Pairing 1: Izuru x Musashi
This pairing bred Jan 21 & Feb 4, and as of today Izuru looks insanely huge. She’s definitely got something brewing in there, and I’m hoping it’s a big healthy litter of babies. I have had Izuru for many, many years, but she has only ever bred once before and she only produced a single single baby at the time. We’ve tried her again many times, but every other year she’s had no interest in any male. Here’s to hoping 2018 is her year to shine 😀

Irian Jaya Pairing 2: Toriyama x Musashi
This pairing bred later than everyone else, on Mar 11, and I’m cautiously optimistic that Tori is pregnant – she hasn’t grown much but she is acting like a preggo. This is a pairing I did last year and they produced 7 beautiful babies in 2017. This isn’t an ideal pairing in my mind as Tori and Mushi are siblings, and since Mushi is the father to all my IJ litters in 2017 and 2018 all the babies are related. They are still gorgeous, healthy animals, they just aren’t as genetically diverse as I would prefer. One of my big goals for 2018 is to find some unrelated bloodlines of irian jayas to diversify my bloodlines.

There are a few other skinks here who could possibly produce this year, but it’s unlikely I will have merauke, tanimbar, or indonesian BTS babies in 2018. The above are my most likely litters.

And I’m happy to say a few are so likely there’s already some tiny new faces here 😀 But that’s a post for another day, my friends (soon, I promise!).

Happy Wednesday friends,

I just wanted to give a quick update here and introduce one of the new faces here at ME.

Update: I am, as of this moment, caught up on all my emails and the available page is up to date. I’m sure my nice clean inbox won’t last long, but it’s a nice feeling for the moment. If you have emailed me and I didn’t reply please email me again, as I did not receive it.

And now, introducing:

Leech!

Unfortunately I only have terrible basement photos of him right now, but I still wanted to share. This is Leech, my new Blood Python. I have wanted a blood for a while now, and when Leech came available (as a tame adult male) I jumped at the chance. He arrived last month (pictures of him in the tank) but was in shed, and then he had to eat and digest, so Monday was the first day I got to take him out for some handling. We’re still getting to know each other of course, but he enjoyed some time checking out my basement, and I enjoyed snapping some pictures of him. I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I enjoy having him here 🙂

As promised, today’s photoshoot was for the yearling blue tongues living here. Again, some are available (see the available page), some are my personal holdbacks, and one is a a new animal to join my breeding group.

Tomorrow I may post some of the new, non-blue-tongue additions that have joined the ME family recently.

Mel

Diddy

Goku

Mojo Jojo

Tatara

Howler

Macaque

Rhesus

Rolloway

Penny

Good evening friends,

After a bout of illness and a week long work trip, I’m back with some new baby skink photos. I took photos of every 2017 blue tongue living here – some are available (see the available page), some are on hold, and some are my personal holdbacks/pickups. Tomorrow I will be taking pictures of the yearlings as well.

I will be answering emails tonight and tomorrow morning. To be honest I think most skinks are probably spoken for at this point, but I will try to update the available page tomorrow. I will also note that I have 2-3 more work trips happening in the next month, so updates and responses may continue to be sporadic. I apologize in advance. If I haven’t replied in a couple of days, feel free to send another email.

Many thanks,
Mel

Cearc

Hoender

Calis

Manok

Pullum

Pule

Araucana

Plymouth

Dorking

Yokohama

Pocono

Tex