Reptiles, arachnids, and other creepy critters thread - Because I know I'm not the only Kiwi into that shit

[The Fraggle Queen]

Aww I love her! They're illegal where I live and I get why (could be invasive), but ngl I'm a little jelly of people who live where they're legal. They're super cute.

They are the most precious things on the world, but I can see why they’re illegal in some places, we only have her for now (no space for a giant tank) but if we got another snail there’d be eggs aplenty and the freezing process to dispose of said eggs is a pain in the backside, one of my childhood friends had two and they were getting rid of eggs every couple weeks to a month.

 

[Coffee Druid]

Not sure if she’d count as a pet for this thread, but meet my pet snail. She’s an albino African Giant land snail, purchased for me as a Christmas gift by Mr Fraggle. I love her to bits and she brings me immense joy.

A friend of mine is a teacher, and she had a couple garden snails as class pets. Well, snails love getting up to hanky panky so she had more and more. I adopted one and named it Havel. He died awhile back, I don’t know from what but I felt bad about it. They’re fun to watch eat.

 

[Android raptor]

They are the most precious things on the world, but I can see why they’re illegal in some places, we only have her for now (no space for a giant tank) but if we got another snail there’d be eggs aplenty and the freezing process to dispose of said eggs is a pain in the backside, one of my childhood friends had two and they were getting rid of eggs every couple weeks to a month.

Is it possibly to feed to eggs to anything? Like would any lizards or fish or whatever eat the snail eggs?

Mollusks seem like they tend to have a shitton of offspring, lord only knows every night tons of slugs come out and eat my plants (being trying to pick them off and toss them in the woods, also gathered some for my friends box turtle).

Images from an event today

 

[Oddjob OTP]

A friend of mine is a teacher, and she had a couple garden snails as class pets. Well, snails love getting up to hanky panky so she had more and more. I adopted one and named it Havel. He died awhile back, I don’t know from what but I felt bad about it. They’re fun to watch eat.

I'm still working on getting some snails to breed for feeders, but they are easy to get to breed (their requirements are soil, moisture, vegetables, cuttlebone and maybe leaf litter) and you can mostly just feed the smaller ones to many lizards freely. BTS are supposed to like them and most arboreal insectivores like Chameleons have snails as a large part of their natural diet. Their shells make them a good source of calcium too. Wild caught snails and slugs have a rather high amount of parasites and slugs in aggregate can be dangerous because unlike snails they don't have armor for protection so they tend to rely on chemical defenses.

 

[Coffee Druid]

I'm still working on getting some snails to breed for feeders, but they are easy to get to breed (their requirements are soil, moisture, vegetables, cuttlebone and maybe leaf litter) and you can mostly just feed the smaller ones to many lizards freely. BTS are supposed to like them and most arboreal insectivores like Chameleons have snails as a large part of their natural diet. Their shells make them a good source of calcium too. Wild caught snails and slugs have a rather high amount of parasites and slugs in aggregate can be dangerous because unlike snails they don't have armor for protection so they tend to rely on chemical defenses.

Yeah, she had so many baby snails she had to get some smaller separate tanks for them. Google tells me chickens can and may enjoy eating snails so maybe I'll try that sometime. My friend's snail "community" has been captive for nearly 2 years so not at much chance of parasites or whatnot compared to wild ones.

We found out that our chickens seem to like minnows too. We got some feeder minnows for our garter snakes and they LOVE them. One in particular can be seen watching the water bowl for awhile, hunting. We threw some excess into a shallow water tub in or chicken coop to see what happens and they were gone a day or two later. I know I can get dried minnows (and shrimps) from a chicken treat company I usually buy from, but fresh ones give some enrichment to both my scaly and feathery kids.

Edit so I don't double-post:
It pisses me off when I see someone post "I just got this cute snake at a reptile expo! Can anyone tell me what kind of tank it needs or any tips on care?" Like, you should have that in mind BEFORE you ever get a snake wth. People kept telling me blood pythons were "hard to take care of and aggressive" before I got mine. But I researched for several months and had an exact idea of what tank to set up and how to feed her before even going to an expo. And she's the most docile snake of all my friends. Hech, it even pisses me off when people think you don't need any preparation to get a dog or a cat.

 

[Oddjob OTP]

I obtained snails, one woke immediately the other after about an hour the third is still sleeping (or dead, but probably not) 12 hours after I unpacked them. The plan is to let these ones breed and feed snails a bit smaller than they are now to my skink

 

[Ribbit]

Beautiful Green Vine Snake

 

[The Fraggle Queen]

Yeah, she had so many baby snails she had to get some smaller separate tanks for them. Google tells me chickens can and may enjoy eating snails so maybe I'll try that sometime. My friend's snail "community" has been captive for nearly 2 years so not at much chance of parasites or whatnot compared to wild ones.

We found out that our chickens seem to like minnows too. We got some feeder minnows for our garter snakes and they LOVE them. One in particular can be seen watching the water bowl for awhile, hunting. We threw some excess into a shallow water tub in or chicken coop to see what happens and they were gone a day or two later. I know I can get dried minnows (and shrimps) from a chicken treat company I usually buy from, but fresh ones give some enrichment to both my scaly and feathery kids.

Edit so I don't double-post:
It pisses me off when I see someone post "I just got this cute snake at a reptile expo! Can anyone tell me what kind of tank it needs or any tips on care?" Like, you should have that in mind BEFORE you ever get a snake wth. People kept telling me blood pythons were "hard to take care of and aggressive" before I got mine. But I researched for several months and had an exact idea of what tank to set up and how to feed her before even going to an expo. And she's the most docile snake of all my friends. Hech, it even pisses me off when people think you don't need any preparation to get a dog or a cat.

People who don’t do research before getting a pet are assholes. I have an axolotl as well as my snail and I spent ages researching what he needed for his tank/size requirements/what I needed to give him the best life. Someone I know just bought one and stuck it in a tiny tank and it straight up died. Pet stores/expos should try and ensure people know their stuff before going in.

 

[Coffee Druid]

I may need to rethink how I give our garter snakes minnows. The last few times, we tossed 6 into each of their water tubs as enrichment and “passive feedings” in between meals of worms and pinky mice (cut into bite sized pieces). They ate a couple minnows a day. Last feeding they ate half in one day. Yesterday they ate ALL their pinky pieces and all the minnows. We’re probably going to just use minnows as another main feeding item since they’ve gotten so damn good at fishing.

Here’s some of the fatso noodles (we have two tanks with two garters each right now).

 

[Android raptor]

I may need to rethink how I give our garter snakes minnows. The last few times, we tossed 6 into each of their water tubs as enrichment and “passive feedings” in between meals of worms and pinky mice (cut into bite sized pieces). They ate a couple minnows a day. Last feeding they ate half in one day. Yesterday they ate ALL their pinky pieces and all the minnows. We’re probably going to just use minnows as another main feeding item since they’ve gotten so damn good at fishing.

Here’s some of the fatso noodles (we have two tanks with two garters each right now).
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Yeah my friend who has garters and ribbon snakes just uses guppies as meals for the snakes and alternates between that and rodents. Garters are wild, fun dudes full of surprises.

I know box turtles not only eat slugs, but apparently they're one of their favorite foods. Few weeks ago I gave a bunch I gathered to keep away from my plants to give to her boxes. Idk what else can eat them safely tho.

Isnt there a snake species that eats snails exclusively? I wanna say it's one of those weird little african colubrids. I know caiman lizards also like them a lot.

 

[Ribbit]

 

[Banana Cat]

Anyone else like Huntsmen? I haven't seen one in a while. I miss these spiderbros.

 

[naaaaiiiiillllll!!!]

IDK if these count as creepy crawlers, but I don’t care. I’ve researched saltwater aquaria for over a decade andI WILL have these little dudes in my life (Lionfish are badass mofos and I can ramble on about how awesome they are):

 

[Ribbit]

Blue Insularis - Beautiful, but venomous.

 

[SCSI]

IDK if these count as creepy crawlers, but I don’t care. I’ve researched saltwater aquaria for over a decade andI WILL have these little dudes in my life (Lionfish are badass mofos and I can ramble on about how awesome they are):

Agreed, lionfish are the absolute best. Random funfact, they change colors to an extent to camouflage with their environment (stripes turn brown or red), and also to convey mood (very pale == fear/stress). They also stand on their heads with their dorsal spines facing threats if they're frightened.

Also, a fine ball python.

 

[Ribbit]

Don't bug me!

 

[Exuvia]

Here's a candy leafhopper and a giant fucking moth I found the other day.

 

[MerriedxReldnahc]

Our educational snake at the wildlife clinic- because of the whole apocalypse thing he doesn't get taken out much anymore for talks so I've been handling him for a bit every day I come in. He's a good noodle boi

I don't own a snake (though I would love to!) but I have a spider friend that has lived in my window for maybe a year now. I named her Yolanda.

 

[Ribbit]

 

[Android raptor]

Friendly eyebrow spotted last night