Frackin' lizards.
There is a definite feeling of satisfaction that I get when I'm caring for my animals. However, I have had MORE than enough of cleaning/rearranging/messing with the lizards tanks and vivarium. Last Monday I completely changed out the bedding (rabbit pellets) in the beardies' tank and cleaned all of their "furnishings", and wiped it off inside and out. Marie helped me to move the tank into the bedroom from the dining room where it's been residing since Calvin and I went to Maine. And then there was the messing with the lights and heat sources since I had to unplug them all and plug them in again. While I was doing this I stuck Cheeto and Lucy in the bathtub to hang out.
I also cleaned out the water dragon's vivarium (who also hung out in the bathtub... not at the same time as the beardies), which includes dragging the shop vac out of the garage, sucking all of the water out of the pond, filling the pond back up, sucking out the water again, filling it up again... seven or eight times until the water runs clear, then filling it up to the top. I usually have to empty out the shop vac once or twice in the process. I also vacuum out all of the misplaced bedding and poo, and wipe off the three-sided plexiglass walls of the enclosure - inside and out. Finally, I refill the water in the humidifier used to keep the environment tropical inside the vivarium. All in all, cleaning the vivarium takes me over an hour - both of them combined was a good two hours.
Today we are preparing to move Marie's ball python, Kali, into the vivarium. We have decided we want to keep Kali ourselves and have therefore snake-napped her, in a manner of speaking, in that Marie didn't take her with her when she moved out. So now she is ours, and she's getting a more spacious home. Meanwhile the water dragon, who is tiny, is trading spaces with her into a much more size-appropriate tank. This tank will sit on the stand underneath the tank holding the beardies.
This tank swapping business means that I have to completely sterilize the vivarium and Kali's tank, because the detritus of different reptile species do not mix well with one another. Kali and the water dragon could get sick from one another's cooties if I just put them in each other's tanks without cleaning them first. Today I shop-vac'ed much of the bedding out of the vivarium, sucked out all of the water and removed the rocks from the pond, scrubbed the pond basin with soap and water, rinsed and cleaned the rocks and replaced them, vacuumed out the nooks and crannies of the bark lining the back of the vivarium, scrubbed off the three "rock" shelves, and wiped down the interior and exterior plexiglass.
Finally I sprayed the interior down with disinfectant. This of course means that the tank has to sit open for a while to air out. Which, in turn, means that I had to deal with some logistics in order to make the water dragon comfy. He (she? we still don't know) couldn't very well stay in the bathtub all day. SO! I had to set up an interim tank in the bedroom. This involved dragging the tank that was hanging around out back into the bedroom, cleaning it inside and out, dumping some bark in the bottom, finding a pan and filling it with water and putting it in the bottom, arranging various furnishings and silk plants, finding covers, a UV lamp, and a heat lamp and arranging those, then soaking everything down in order to create enough humidity before finally putting the water dragon in it.
This evening Calvin and I are going to the pet store to buy a few more things that we need, then we'll put Kali in her new home. THEN I get to remove all of the bedding in Kali's tank, clean and disinfect it, put the water dragon in the bathtub, move all of the stuff from the temporary tank to the permanent one, set the wrought-iron stand up in the bedroom with the water dragon's new tank on bottom and the beardies' tank on top, and FINALLY put the water dragon back in her (his?) new home.
At which point all of the animals in this house had BETTER be damned happy.
I also cleaned out the water dragon's vivarium (who also hung out in the bathtub... not at the same time as the beardies), which includes dragging the shop vac out of the garage, sucking all of the water out of the pond, filling the pond back up, sucking out the water again, filling it up again... seven or eight times until the water runs clear, then filling it up to the top. I usually have to empty out the shop vac once or twice in the process. I also vacuum out all of the misplaced bedding and poo, and wipe off the three-sided plexiglass walls of the enclosure - inside and out. Finally, I refill the water in the humidifier used to keep the environment tropical inside the vivarium. All in all, cleaning the vivarium takes me over an hour - both of them combined was a good two hours.
Today we are preparing to move Marie's ball python, Kali, into the vivarium. We have decided we want to keep Kali ourselves and have therefore snake-napped her, in a manner of speaking, in that Marie didn't take her with her when she moved out. So now she is ours, and she's getting a more spacious home. Meanwhile the water dragon, who is tiny, is trading spaces with her into a much more size-appropriate tank. This tank will sit on the stand underneath the tank holding the beardies.
This tank swapping business means that I have to completely sterilize the vivarium and Kali's tank, because the detritus of different reptile species do not mix well with one another. Kali and the water dragon could get sick from one another's cooties if I just put them in each other's tanks without cleaning them first. Today I shop-vac'ed much of the bedding out of the vivarium, sucked out all of the water and removed the rocks from the pond, scrubbed the pond basin with soap and water, rinsed and cleaned the rocks and replaced them, vacuumed out the nooks and crannies of the bark lining the back of the vivarium, scrubbed off the three "rock" shelves, and wiped down the interior and exterior plexiglass.
Finally I sprayed the interior down with disinfectant. This of course means that the tank has to sit open for a while to air out. Which, in turn, means that I had to deal with some logistics in order to make the water dragon comfy. He (she? we still don't know) couldn't very well stay in the bathtub all day. SO! I had to set up an interim tank in the bedroom. This involved dragging the tank that was hanging around out back into the bedroom, cleaning it inside and out, dumping some bark in the bottom, finding a pan and filling it with water and putting it in the bottom, arranging various furnishings and silk plants, finding covers, a UV lamp, and a heat lamp and arranging those, then soaking everything down in order to create enough humidity before finally putting the water dragon in it.
This evening Calvin and I are going to the pet store to buy a few more things that we need, then we'll put Kali in her new home. THEN I get to remove all of the bedding in Kali's tank, clean and disinfect it, put the water dragon in the bathtub, move all of the stuff from the temporary tank to the permanent one, set the wrought-iron stand up in the bedroom with the water dragon's new tank on bottom and the beardies' tank on top, and FINALLY put the water dragon back in her (his?) new home.
At which point all of the animals in this house had BETTER be damned happy.
You just made me very glad that all I have to do is clean a cat box and pick up dog stuff out of the yard. Hee!
Posted by
Heather |
7:29 PM