Where Do I Begin?

It has been a while since I posted on this blog, I figured it was HIGH TIME I made another post! Not sure where to begin though. lol  I guess I will start by posting pictures and telling you about what's going on in each.  We have had some pretty interesting creatures in our lives recently! 

I guess first of all I should say that today is the one year anniversary of our puppy, Astrix.  He was a tri-colour toy chihuahua.  He was born the first of September 2009, and died December 6th 2009 of a birth defect.  We were unaware of the birth defect, but he was a smart charming little dog, and he was so quick to learn!  he already knew the command to sit! 

See?  what a gorgeous little puppy!  We still miss him so much!  Because it was a birth defect the breeder offered us another puppy.  His female was due mid February, and he said he would save us a boy.  So, months later we went to see this breeder again, and he had only one puppy left, a boy, just like he promised.  He was an ugly little puppy, small droopy ears and  eyes too big for his head he looked more like a mutt than a chihuahua!  But we brought him home and loved him just the same!  We named him Cash.  Here is a picture of cash when he was an ugly mutt-puppy.

 Thankfully he grew into a very handsome chihuahua!  Here is what he look like now! 

  In other furry non reptile related news, We have a new cat.  She came in the window, found the cat food and wont leave. lol  Her name is Suki.  In this pic she is curled up on the top step leading to the basement.  At first she would not let us near her, but now we can walk up and pet her, still cant pick her up though.  Her and Wednesday seem to get along just fine.

Wednesday is our other cat.  Wednesday went into heat for the first time the day the stray come in the house.We were worried that this was a boy cat, because Wednesday isn't fixed.  We couldn't get near enough to tell, but as it turns out Suki is a girl.  Here is a picture of Wednesday. 

Best pic i have of her right now, lol she looks mad. 


In other more reptile related news, since the last post we went to the reptile show in Abbotsford.  We went TO the reptile show with an empty car, and returned with a very full one. lol  We got a couple geckos, a few corn snakes, a couple of king snakes an iguana, an albino ball python, a few het albinos (male and female) a whole lot of frozen rats and mice.  Here pics of some of them. 

Can't seem to find pics of the rest, but here is a pic of me with the iguana.   I think I was trying to figure out what he was looking at, lol. 

We recently acquired some scorpions to sell.  Here are a few pictures of them, and their home. 

I did not know how COOL scorpions were until we put one under a black light!  Seriously, if that's not cool, then I'm Santa clause!  here is their new home. 

Well, it is late and now I need to go to bed.  I shall post more pics sooner than later of all our new family members.  

later!

Building Racks and More!

I wanted to come up with a much more clever blog post title, but I am sick, and my brain is protesting.  I am sure Derek could come up with something clever, but he is sleeping because he is on graveyards tonight. I probably should be in bed too.  lol  

With the reptile show coming up, and knowing we cant leave a reptile show without a "few" more reptiles, we decided that it is high time we build some more racks.  After a flurry of unpacking and digging for all our tools and supplies, we make the trip into town and pick up the wood we will need.  We had already ordered heat tape and a thermometer from The Bean Farm, so our snakes will be nice and warm.   Once we get all the supplies home we start building away!  Here is a pretty crappy picture of me putting screws in to hold the shelves in place. 

And here is a picture of the heat tape we bought.  Derek wired it all up and installed it on the back panel of the rack.  He did a pretty wicked job too! 

We built 2 racks, they turned out beautifully!  Here is a picture of the completed racks. 

You can even see the snakes in there, checking out thier new apartments! lol  Lots of room left for more snakes!  Eventually I want to put the racks on castors, but it's not really a priority at the moment.

On the 26th of October we decided to go check out the Colorado game at the bar, wearing our Colorado jerseys in a canuck-friendly bar...lol   While we were there we got a call from a reptile rescue begging us to take in their iguana.  So of course, beyond all reason and sense, we agree. lol  So we gotta build some more!  First thing we have to figure out is how big we are gonna make the iguanas enclosure.  Iguanas can get big, but this one is 5 feet long!   Then we have to figure out what kind of window we are going to put in and where we are going to get it.  We don't want to spend a fortune buying supplies, but we also want good quality. 

Once we decide on measurements, and find a window, which Derek's dad just happened to have one we could use, we build the frame.  Unfortunately I had to go to work and we had to put the project on hold.  I really didn't want to go to work because I wanted to get this thing built! 

Derek was working graveyards, and so i figured he would be sleeping while I was at work.  After work I stopped and picked up some fake plants we had stored at the warehouse so We could decorate the enclosure.  I get a call from Derek wondering if I had been home yet, of course I hadn't because I stopped at the warehouse.  I told him i was heading home and he said he would call me back in 15 minutes.  I thought it was odd, but whatever, Home I went!  

I walked in the door and I almost fell over in shock!  Derek hadn't been sleeping at all, he finished building the whole enclosure!  Well, all I had to do was hang the door and clean up the windows.  But WOW! was I ever impressed!  That was a LOT of work!  plus the window is very thick and heavy!  I hung the door and cleaned up the windows.  Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of what it looked like that day, but here is a picture of it all done with the Iguana in it. 

Pretty impressive!  We need to get some substrate and a few minor finishing touches, but he seems to really like it in there!  Now if the dog would quit barking at him...

After all that building we started looking at a few of our other snakes enclosures.  Some of them were lacking, one was falling apart and we needed 2 for some amazon tree boas.  So, back to the ideas stage! 


One of the enclosures we got from a guy in yaletown Vancouver was getting pretty beat up, it has gotten some moisture in it at once point and the board swelled up and we had some tape on it holding it together.  The snake could have gotten out at any time if he had only tried! 

The other enclosure we had to replace we built as a temporary enclosure for a snake that we took in.  He wasn't happy in the temporary enclosure, it was made of an odd mix of 2x4s,  melamine, and osb.  Not a pretty enclosure to be sure!

We got a great deal on the supplies and so it didn't cost us much, and we were able to re use the windows from one of the enclosures.  Here is what we came up with!

Its the white ones in the middle that we made.  Well, we made the black one on the bottom as well, but that was when we still lived in Chilliwack.  They turned out really well!  The more things Derek and I build the better we get!  We went looking for any spare building supplies at the warehouse to build enclosures for the tree boas.  Well, there wasn't much left in the way of building supplies, but we did find some ready made cabinets, all we had to do was make a door.  So we managed to somehow load an 8 foot piano hinge, a 6 foot dowel, 2 cabinets and a glass tank into the truck, i mean cavalier.  lol  You have no idea what we have managed to haul in our cars before, its...interesting. lol  At times, its even gravity-defying!  well, almost...

Pretty damn sweet, eh?!?!?! The boas are pretty happy about them as well, you can see them a little, they aren't camera shy so much as they are camera angry??  lol  they have some attitude that's for sure. 

Now that all the snakes were happy we had some very unhappy turtles in a Rubbermaid bin that needed a new home.  They used to live in a bottle cap kiddie pool, but that wasn't very feasible in our new home.  So, we managed to get a pond.  I cleaned it up and Derek and I briefly discussed ideas of what to do with it because you cant just leave a pond unsupported in your house.  I had to go to work again, and so I figured I could think of ideas while I worked.  When Derek picked me up from work he told me that the dog had left me a "surprise" in the spare room.  So, feeling a bit miffed that I have to clean dog poop up AGAIN because he refuses to use the pee-mats, I walked into the spare room and almost fell over in shock!  actually it was more like wonder and amazement at the amazing handiwork my super-awesome boyfriend did while I was at work.  He was a buys boy!!!   Here is what I came home to.

Now is that not awesome or what?!?!   

Well that is all for this blog post, I have more news to post but I have to take a bunch more pictures.  :) 

First Babies! Happy Birthday Little Ones!

OK, today is MY birthday, the little ones birthday was yesterday. I heard a lot of squeaking coming from the rat rack yesterday, but I just assumed that they were gettin' it on, so I didn't look too closely, Just made sure they had food and water. lol  When Derek and I got home from work Derek noticed right away that there were a litter of baby rats in the rack!  So we took the other female out and out her into her own bin so she can have her babies.  She looks about ready to give birth, she is getting pretty big!  Anyway, here is a picture of mommy nursing the babies.

Not the greatest picture, but it will do! lol  little rat pinkies!  Momma looks proud, doesn't she? 

In other Forked Exotics News, we have a new place.  Its a 3 bedroom and den on 10 acres.  Plenty of room for all our animals.  There is a stable, shop, chicken coop, pig pen, tons of room for snowmobiling, a large carport and our own little beach type area by the river.  We are getting everyone settled in still, so pictures will be in a later blog post. 

Have a great day!

Pixie

Rat rack, the first!

Given the price of feeding a large number of reptiles, we have decided to breed ALL our food.  ALL.  so, Derek found us this awesome site with step by step instructions for building a rat rack on it.  It's arb reptiles.  There is a lot of great info there, and we are already thinking of what project to tackle next! 

We ordered some of the correct size bins from home hardware.  Derek spend hours at several stores trying find what we needed.  the hardest and most expensive part was the hardware cloth(which isn't cloth at all) and the bins.  Now you remember a previous post mentioning that we went on vacation to Wetaskiwin Alberta.  The bins we ordered had a sticker on them stating that they were shopped to Grand Forks form Wetaskiwin!  LOL  I was going to take a picture of the label, but I forgot.  I will have to add it later.

Over the last week we managed to collect all the materials needed, as well as all the tools needed.  The table saw we got is very....ghetto.  lol  It is basically a black and Decker skill saw mounted upsidown on a makeshift table.  It did the trick though!

 I forgot to bring the camera to snap pics of the whole process, but I have a picture of the finished product.  Here is a picture of Derek putting the food and water in for the rats. 

We have 2 males and 3 females so far.  we are getting another female in a week, we just have to wait until she is finished nursing her babies.  We have a big bag of dog food for them to eat, and we managed to get a great deal of water dispensers for the rats.  Here is a full picture of the rat rack. 

We only have rats in 2 of the bins to start, but we hope they are getting busy!  More rats the better!  Of course, it will take a while before we have a well established colony.  There is quite a call for it in Grand Forks.  The more we talk about out breeding project, the more reptile owners we discover.  People are beginning to approach me at work and ask about our feeders and reptiles.  We literally have a line up of people wanting to buy snakes rats mice and geckos.  Also, we have had requests for specific reptiles. 

These are the rats.  Aren't they cute?  They are a skittish bunch, Maybe they smell the snakes. lol  They are pretty happy about the food, the first thing they did was pig out. It didn't take them long at all to figure out the food and water situation!    Anyway, I am very excited about this breeding season.  Thankfully rodents don't have to wait till a certain season to breed.  If there is a season going on, they'll get funky! lol! 

Anyway, that is all I have for now, I will see about some more pictures in better light tomorrow. 


Stay frosty!

Wow!

In just a few days on Facebook, We now have over 60 friends! Seven of them just in the last hour! I am pretty excited about this venture, and I ma happy to have so much support!

In case you don't know, in addition to the facebook page and this blog, you can also follow us on twitter @forkedexotics and @forkedexotics2 (the second one is me, the other is Derek)

Have a great week everyone!!!

Forked Exotics in Grand Forks.

So, it's been a while since we posted.  We went on a mini vacation to Edmonton.  We got VIP tickets to the Sonic Boom festival at Northlands park.  We set out on Wednesday right after work.  We were on the road just after 4.  We made a quick stop in Castlegar and bought a king snake that we had out on hold.  No idea exactly how old she is.

Isn't she cute?!  Once we Got the snake, we continued on our way to Edmonton with the plan that we would stop for the night in Fernie.  Of course, we were so excited for the show and visiting my family (Derek's first time meeting most of them) that we decided we were good and we kept driving.  By the time we got to Calgary we were pretty sleepy.  They were working on the deerfoot trail over night so there were lights and workers everywhere.  They didn't put up any signs warning poor unsuspecting drivers where the bumps were, and we ended up hitting one of the bumps so hard the car stalled and the cover came off the airbag!  Hit that bump any harder and I would have had a new pillow.... 

We started looking for a spot to "camp."  and by camp, I mean rearranging stuff in the car so that we could sleep half in and half out of the trunk...  Its confusing, I know, and not too comfy!  However, we didn't end up stopping in Calgary, we stopped in Didsbury.  We found an empty lot, parked the car and settled in.  We found out shortly thereafter that we had parked next to a train crossing.  Nice.  well, we did sleep a few minutes at a time here and there, so by the time we gave up trying it was light out.  We gassed up and headed to Wetaskiwin to hang out with my sister, and her family.  Here is where I would insert a picture, but we have 2 cameras, and I can only find one!  grr....anyway, that night we just had a couple drinks with my brother sister, and a few of thier friends.  A girl I used to babysit was there, she is my sister's best friend.  It sure was great to see everyone again!  I was pretty excited about Derek meeting my family.

The next day we drove around wetaskiwin a bit and I showed Derek where I grew up, pointed out a few of my old haunts, and told a few stories of my childhood.  It didn't take long, its a small town and I was a boring kid. LOL  On one of Derek's searches through the local online classifieds, he came across someone selling a young savanna monitor for dirt cheap.  50 dollars for it!  Of course we were all over that, we met them at southgate all and they also gave us a few bug tubs full of crickets.  Later on though, we realized that the savanna wasn't doing so well, upon further inspection we realized he was so dehydrated that he wasnt moving, and his tail was very discoloured.  A simple purchase turned into a rescue.  Poor little guy!  He is recovering and improving daily.  That night we went to my other sisters house for a potluck dinner.  She made a roast with rice and cheeeesy broccoli!   LOVE cheesy broccoli!  Jo is a far better cook that she thinks she is!  She is always telling me what a terrible cook she is, but she isn't! (Derek and I both LOVED the cheese sauce!)  My darling mother made one of my all time favourite desserts, Raspberry souffle.  I ate till my tummy hurt, then had more souffle...  I could go for a bowl now actually...  *drools*

here is where I would post a picture of us visiting family and enjoying great food

but those pics are on the other camera. :(

We were going to stay at Jo's, but last minute we decided to go back to Carmen's house and stay there.  There were some places in Leduc that we wanted to visit...you know, pet stores and the like...  We visited the Wetaskiwin pet store, and the Leduc pet store.  The leduc pet store was pretty cool.  The owner breeds his own snakes and he has a couple spiders,  and a bunch of normals.  They were so young, they hadn't even eaten 3 times!  So tiny!  We didn't have much time to stay in Leduc, we had to be at the Northlands in only 30 minutes!  The gates to the show opened at 11, we got there at about half past.  We saw the HUGE lineup and assumed that it was general admission, but it turns out they sold so many VIP tickets that the only real perk was a neat laminated pass you could wear on your neck.  That and flush toilets rather than porta potties.  However, a few chicks couldn't handle their beer, and puked all over the place, so out of 6, there were 3 usable toilets, resulting in LOOOOOOONG lineups.  What a stink!  

We spent most of the time in the general admission part because the VIP section had a very crappy view of the stage.  

                                 

 It was pretty crowded, and I hate being in crowds.  I just hate strangers touching me, or being too close. We wound up being squished to the front, and Derek was in front of me, which was OK, I would MUCH rather be pressed against my man, than some creepy stranger.  It was bad enough that the fat guy next to me was sweating profusely, and smelled bad.  ewww!

Anyway, we didn't take a ton of pictures of the show, but here are a couple of bad religion, and City and Colour.  

 

                                   

                               

Weezer put on a pretty great show too, they covered poker face by Lady Gaga.  LOL After the show my brother invited us to go see him at his haunt, Rocky's bar and grill in the millwoods area of Edmonton.  It seemed like a good idea, but it was karaoke night, and we were so sore and tired from being squished into a thousand other people, having so many people land on our heads, that we just had a drink and a shot and went home.

The next day we went to West Edmonton Mall.  Derek had never been, so I thought it would be fun!  First thing we did was bee-line for hooters.  They shut down Hooters in BC, so we had to check it out!  There were a lot of hooters... We had fried pickles, I had a Cesar wrap, and Derek had a burger.

Hooters on Bourbon st, in WEM

There was a lot we wanted to do but didn't get a chance to.  For example we didn't go on any rides, we just did a brief walk about through galaxy land, and peeked in the windows at the water park.  We did go to the "undersea caverns"  We saw there was a reptile show, and of course we were all over that!  For 21 dollars we both saw the reptile show, and got front row seats for the sea lion show.  The reptile show consisted of an iguana, a gecko(we have 18), 2 boas(we have 12)a carpet python(we have one), 3 caiman's, and frog.   we have WAAAAAAY more reptiles than that, but we did get to see some sharks, giant turtles, and stingrays.

Next is the picture we got taken tourist style with the sea lion. PSST!  I think there is something in my hair!

I just LOVE that colour on Derek!  We did a bit of shopping, Derek needed some new jeans, we got him some from Urban Behaviour.  3 pairs for 62 bux total!  yay for Alberta taxes! or lack thereof...  I got an awesome new t-shirt, I would wear it much more often, but then I'd wear it out completely. |LOL  I love it, it is my new favourite shirt.  Its pink and black with a chainsaw across the front.  *whispers*don't tell Derek I a posting this, but his butt looks sooooooo good in his new jeans! *giggles*

Since it was Sunday the mall closed early, so we headed over to y brothers house for some of his own style cooking...aka he bought a couple roast chickens and a cheese cake. LOL  we had a shrimp ring and some odd tasting store bought salad as well. :p  All in all it was good times!

We got up insanely early the next day for the trip home. We decided to take the scenic route through nelson via the Balfour ferry.  Such a beautiful drive!  Of course, being the reptile collectors we are, we picked up a baby tegu and a het albino ball (female) in Calgary.  We were supposed to have a new corn snake as well, but that one escaped the night before.

Here is a picture of us on the Balfour Ferry.  I was going to have a coffee cus I was very tired, but a small one cost 2 dollars! Here is a picture of the ferry.

We got home at about 6pm, got our new reptiles into their new home, said hello to our furry friends, and collapsed into bed....


Can't wait till our Next trip!

Snake food part 2

I got up this morning to make breakfast and pack Dereks lunch, lo and behold, the mommie mouse was caught in a trap on the counter in front of the microwave!  Poor little mouse!