Chuck Horne: There you go. That was close. Well, they say all good things have to come to an end, and in this case, it’s the summer. It is August 25th, it is a very cool overcast day here in Southeast Virginia. Getting up to about 75 degrees today, yesterday was about the same, maybe a little bit cooler. I think I got about a week and a half, two weeks, before I got to start getting all the animals inside. Here in Virginia, in this part of Virginia anyway, kids will be in shorts come Halloween.
There’s been some Christmases where they’ve been riding bikes in shorts, so the daytime temps will stay warm, probably all the way into December. January, February, March, is when we’re probably at our coldest during the day. It’s the nighttime temps down into the 50s and the low 60s, until winter really sets in that makes it problematic with trying to keep tropical reptiles outside.
Night-time temps have been getting down into the low 70s, maybe the upper 60s. Every enclosure out here has some auxiliary heat. I’m not too worried if it’s in the mid to upper 60s, but anything lower than that, that gives me some pause, and I definitely need to get them in before it starts jumping down into the 50s. Overcast, but here’s my Anolis smallwoodi, two year olds, out here in their enclosure. I just posted a pic to Instagram of them locked up.
That was yesterday, on another cool day, but they were underneath their ceramic heat emitter. Of course, there’s Lucky, and she’s underneath her ceramic heat emitter. She’s okay, nice and warm. [chuckles] She is very, very feisty, and every time I go near that enclosure, she thinks I’m trying to feed her, but she’s got her weight back after laying all those infertile eggs.
Let’s poke our heads in the suncatcher enclosure here, check on Bosque and Tiamat, see how they’re doing. Tiamat had decided that she was going to– She was digging under here, and she was laying in there, and so I had to coax her out yesterday to make sure she could get into the hide. Let’s see, we’ll do this with one hand. In there. I went ahead and blocked it. That’s not good. I put some pieces of wood in there because I didn’t want her getting stuck in there. Now I got to undo what I did, somehow. Come on Chuck, there we go, all right. There they are. There’s Tiamat, up front there, and there’s Bosque in the back, leaned up against the heat pad.
Nice and warm in there, so we’ll let them be. Of course, I dropped the piece of word I was using to block it, so another– Beginning this week is supposed to get back up in the sunny, be the mid-80s, so they’ll be out and about then. Tiamat is looking plump, but I’m not sure if she’s gravid or not. I don’t know if I’m getting eggs from her this year, this season. Here’s Cyril. Hi, pretty girl. Their ceramic heat emitter is on, and there’s Nancy, and Thelma. Yes, there’s my girl, Thelma. Let’s go over here, close this up. Almost time to shut the suncatcher down for the season. My neighbor’s dog is barking.
A lot of you guys know, because you come over from the Kamp Kenan Army, that I do post to that channel. I’m a Patreon supporter of Kamp Kenan, Kenan’s channel, I love it, and you all know that Ogimli here has been treated for the swelling in his throat, and so he’s three weeks into some antibiotics and anti-inflammatories. They do not seem to be working. Mid-September, not mid-September, but the first week of September, I will take him back to the vet, and we will see what is next, as far as them trying to determine what that could be, and how we’re going to treat it. He’s still eating.
I just put some fresh super worms in there, six of them are gone. His girlfriend, or Miss Bella here, she seems to be doing okay, but she’s a little thin. She’s been laying eggs, I’m incubating five eggs. I’ve been syringe feeding her to make sure she’s getting plenty of calcium, and her body can support the production of eggs. I’m going to do a video on that here. I hope that’s showing up when you touch the back of this touch screen. Yes, there she is. I’ll be doing a video here shortly of how I syringe feed them. It’s great for anorexic animals, new animals that are not going on feed. For her, it’s just a precaution to make sure she’s getting plenty of nutrition to produce eggs.
Hey, buddy, a big old fat boy there. I’m going to close this up. This year, I thought having them outside would help kick up production, but haven’t had other than the five eggs that I have. I don’t know if all those are viable for the false chameleons. Nobody else is producing anything. That’s my Anolis baracoae male, looking awesome. Little girls tail’s back here. She’s a much more flighty. There she goes. Dancing around but– All right, but the ceramic heat emitters are on, and they’re doing well, eating all their super meal worms.
Here’s my oldest pair of Anolis smallwoodi. They’re doing awesome. I’ve been posting some videos of these guys eating blueberries. There’s the little female in the log there, there’s my big boy in the back. A whole dish of super worms. I’ve got the misting system turned off right now because I don’t want cool water blowing on them and the cool temperature. It has been raining too, so plenty of moisture is on the bottom of the enclosures for them to go down and drink, so they’re not going to dehydrate or anything. When the temps get up, get a little warmer, starting tomorrow, I’m going to put the misting system back on for them.
There’s my big boy, Sid. You got this big old suck coming at him. I hope you guys can hear that okay, but him and the female– She wasn’t alone, but she came out. Let’s try to get her– See if I can– There she is. She hasn’t produced many eggs. I think what I need to do is swap up, put one of the other three females in here, that I just showed you guys a minute ago. All in all, the outdoor enclosures are doing awesome, but it’s going to be that time where I need to shut them down, bring everybody inside for the cooler months.
One thing I am thinking of doing, because I don’t want to lose all these tropical plants, but I don’t have room for all of them in my house, I’m going to get a little– On Amazon, inexpensive greenhouse to keep them out in the yard. See if that can help keep them alive. We got some pretty expensive pollen plants, and my wife got some plants that we’re not sure if they’re going to last the season or not. These guys over here, so I do want to try to keep as many of them alive for next season as I can. Let’s go check on Indie. Let’s see. I gave her some collard greens, but– There she is. Hey, pretty girl.
She’s got a ceramic heat emitter, and she’s got a heated doghouse that she can get into if it gets cool at night, but she’s doing awesome. Finally, let’s go up here and see how Lana, the Russian tortoise is doing. They can handle the cooler temperatures much better than the other guys can. There she is all nestled in some Timothy hay, and she did eat some collard greens earlier. She’s doing awesome, but I’ll be bringing her in too. Of course, I’ll show you guys the pond. It’s a little cloudy. Got some grief, those koi are awful big, it’s only a 300 gallon Rubbermaid stock tank, I know. I had envisioned building a bigger pond back here, but I don’t think that’s going to happen.
Let me see if I can give Lucky, since she’s out, a hibiscus flower, one handed, without her getting out on me, or getting out on us. All right, here we go. There you go. That was close, that was close. Look at that feeding response. There you go pretty girl, eat it up. So fast [laughs] She’s nice and warm, that’s a 250 watts ceramic heat emitter that she is underneath, so I’m not worried about her not being able to digest that. I haven’t fed Bosque and Tiamat in two days because I don’t think they’re going to be warm enough to properly digest their food. All right, that’s it for today. Until next time, you guys take care.
