Text 12327, 50 rader
Skriven 2007-02-25 21:58:00 av JIM WELLER (1:123/140)
Ärende: a new pet
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Neekha and I are now the proud joint owners of a small Leopard Gecko.
(Glen, I know they run around for free in Darwin and Indonesia but they
cost $80 a head here!) He (she?) is tentatively named "Buddy" (her
choice) or Tyrannosaurus Gex (my choice).

After the last deceased mouse was given a colourful but dignified burial
ceremony, I cleaned out the terrarium and redecorated it with an
electric hot rock, a sun lamp, a ceramic flower pot laid on its side
(the cave), a water dish and a food dish.

Geckos eat insects and worms; the pet store sells live crickets and meal
worms. They also sell frozen ones cheaper, which of course cannot escape
and infest the house, but geckos won't eat food unless it's moving. So
the pet store also sells vibrating food bowls.

I went with live meal worms as the cheapest alternative and hope to
breed my own. Apparently all you do is put them in a container of
oatmeal in a warm place (with a good lid) and wait a month for beetles
to emerge, lay eggs and start a new round of worms.

Right now I have a dozen worms in the food dish along with a dozen
grains of oatmeal and a single carrot peeling (moisture source). They
are pigging out on their food and I suspect there will be a few
less surviving worms come morning. Neekha has gone home but expects a
census by e-mail before school starts. She is worried that her gecko
lost its appetite in the traumatic move in the cold from the store to
our house.

Next summer we are looking forward to foraging gecko food in the back
yard and giving Buddy some arctic tidbits.

As a side note Neekha is studying Australia this month in both geography
and science. They also talked about Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter. I
asked her if she knew he was dead and how she died. She did. "He was a
very, very, VERY stupid man. You have to have respect for wild animals."
She also adds a note for the Aussies, "G'day Myte. I speak English,
French and Stine now."


Cheers

Jim, in Yellowknife




... Caterpallor: color you turn after finding half a worm in your fruit
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