A Sticky situation.

On a pouring wet afternoon last November, I drove home with a tiny parcel of baby Giant Spiny stick insects on my passenger seat. They were quite an unexpected addition and we fell in love with them instantly. Even as hatchlings they had a fantastic array of colours amongst them, especially the tiny lady pictured here.

Luckily we had some small glass tanks readily available to house the new babies, plus a soaking wet British afternoon makes the perfect time to go bramble hunting!

Of course, they've changed a little since then. Here's the same lady three months later and still growing.Suddenly our small glass tanks appeared to be shrinking. At present we have four large females and five medium sized males plus our resident matriarch, known endearingly as Granny Stick, who comes out to all our Animal Encounter events and is an incredible two years old!  A new tank was in order.

All the stick insects seem happy in their new extended home. Even Granny has given it her seal of approval by ovipositing continually these past few days.

 

This week's project is going to be slightly more involved - creating a suitable new home for our rescued baby Bosc monitor.

Frogs get Mods!

Let the creativity commence! This has to be the most exciting part of any venture. A blank slate with no holds barred! For several days we've been itching to build a new home for one of our lovely White's Tree Frogs, Clarabel.  Despite the name, this somewhat elusive creature is probably a male and has been bullied incessantly by the resident females (so only fair to make his case a priority).

We added Sphagnum moss for humidity and cork bark for climbing, though of course the Bromeliad also provides plenty of nooks and crannies for young Mr. Clarabel to investigate..see photo below! At a later date, more branches will be added to enrich the Viv. Nature provides a wealth of suitable material (provided they are properly sterilised and prepared for vivarium use).

The most important aspect must always be to create a functional environment where the frog will thrive and display natural behaviour.
We chose a fabulous vivid scarlet Bromeliad to provide hiding places and also to enhance the humidity. With such an array of amazing plants available to choose from, (and also being a closet botanist) restraint had to be exercised regarding the hardiness, usefulness and potential toxicity of any choices.

Having said all of that, I now sit typing this nocturnal journal to the backdrop of a small troupe of locusts, (Mr. Clarabel's evening meal), furtively devouring the verdant foliage...
How lucky we were today to get sunshine for these pics!

So now we have our basic environment, complete with correct ranges of temperature (with two thermostatically controlled heat pads; one behind and one beneath) and humidity (between 40-60%), sufficient hiding places, exploratory areas, vantage points for hunting, clean water for drinking and bathing and, of course, one happy frog.

The trouble is, one creative venture is never enough. It's contagious...there's always something left over, a  handful of moss, a vase somewhere, maybe a desperate houseplant? A little outbreak of 'terrarium fever'.

Tomorrow is the Spiny Stick Insect enclosure!

Small World Creations

Some of the Minibeasts are now getting too big for their enclosures!

We are in the process of getting three tanks made for us and so construction of the new habitats should begin on Thursday.

We'll be following the progress of the Stick Insect tanks, Tree frog vivarium and Royal Python vivarium on here.