Rescuing Reptiles: October Reflections

As the leaves fall and temperatures begin to drop, autumn presents unique challenges for the rescue.

Animals Birthday

Did you share a birthday with anyone below?

4th October – River the River Rusk Rump. River arrived in 2023 and is of an unconfirmed age on arrival. She was believed to be over five, and we only say female due to her still going strong. River arrived with three other spiders from a family home that was downsizing its collection. As she was the oldest in the collection, we decided to make her rescue her forever home. We are very happy to be celebrating River's second year with ourselves. Their name was not only chosen because of being a River Rusk Rump, but also because of River Song from Doctor Who.

4th October – Merlot the Corn Snake. Merlot arrived in 2023 and was of unknown age; it arrived with River for the same reason. Merlot is quite a shy snake; however, they do like to explore their viv. Merlot once escaped from their viv in our shed, but they didn’t go too far and remained in the shed. However, it was quite fun trying to locate and catch them in a small space where we couldn’t move much. We have noticed that due to Merlot's unknown age, shyness and being a snake, they are often overlooked. They are still waiting to find their forever home.

9th October – Newton the White Tree Frog. Newton arrived in 2021 after a person brought a viv with décor and then discovered him asleep in the leaves. They contacted the seller, who did not want him, and they didn’t think it was an issue selling him with the viv without their awareness, as he was a free animal. The person had never owned frogs and had already planned a home for a different animal, so they contacted us. On arrival, he was housed by himself and kept reacting to our other male white tree frog song; he would also sleep as close to the door. After the quarantine, Newton joined the Frogwarts family, along with Nevvie, Niffie, and Norbert. Due to this, we called Newton to go with the N theme.

11th October – Sandy the Bearded Dragon. Sandy arrived in 2023. We were quite busy that month. Sandy was just over a year old and is a scaleless dragon, requiring slightly more care than the scaled ones. Her previous owners, however, were not warned about this before they went to collect her; they thought they were collecting a normal scale dragon in need of a new home. Instead, they were met with Sandy, who had old and new injuries. They called their local vet, who didn’t have a reptile specialist, and were directed to the nearest shop that sold reptiles. Unfortunately, they were given incorrect advice on how to care for her, and they decided that Sandy needed a more experienced owner; as a result, they asked us to rehome her. Sandy had lost part of her tail, which was still sore at the end, and she had also lost a few claws and was on the thin side. Two years later, it is hard to believe Sandy was ever that little; she has an attitude and knows how adorable she is. We named her Sandy as we travelled halfway to collect her, this happened to be a town called Sandy.

12th October – Yakko, Wakko and Dot the White Tree Frogs arrive in 2023. They were all of an unknown age. Another rescue contacted us and asked if we could take on three frogs from a collection of animals they had collected. We had a spare viv and space, so we made room for the triple trouble. After a few nights, we confirmed that Yakko and Wakko were males and Dot was female. We learnt this by playing a video of other male tree frogs calling, and Yakko and Wakko joined straight in. Another way to confirm sex in size, however, Yakko and Dot were quite similar, which soon changed as Dot continued to grow. White tree frogs, on average, live up to ten years; due to this and their unknown age, we debated for a while what would be best for the three. In the end, we decided they could join Frogwarts, which was done with lots of monitoring. Dot soon sat with our other female at the top of Frogwarts, it almost looked like they were holding council over the boys. Their names come from the cartoon Animaniacs.

Adoptions This month, we celebrated the successful adoption of,

4th October – Banna Bean the Crested Gecko. Banna Beana was one to two years old when they arrived. They were pretty shy but genuinely sweet gecko who didn’t mind being handled. He arrived in November 2024, so we were over the moon that he was adopted before he celebrated a year in the rescue.

4th October – TD the Bearded Dragon. TD, or to give his full name, The Darkness, was a cheeky, lovable chap. He was rehomed to the rescue when his owner sadly passed away, and we quickly realised how loved and spoiled he had been. He loved being the centre of attention and demanded cuddles. We were very happy when a family expressed interest in adopting him, meaning TD would have multiple owners and people to cuddle.

 Animals who came into the rescue: After a few adoptions last month, we were left with a few empty vivariums, which were quickly filled. We offered these to the animals that we had previously turned away due to space. If we received no response within 24 hours, we moved on to the next one, as there is always a message requesting help. 

10th October – Atlas the Bearded Dragon, who is around eight months old. Atlas was not eating and actively losing weight, so his owner decided he needed a more experienced home. Atlas is currently on critical care food and is being weighed weekly. We have managed to feed him a few bugs, but he is not overkeen on hunting them for himself. We have ordered a parasite test and are working with vets to ensure that his not eating isn't anything more serious.

25th October – Scorponok, the Asian Forest Scorpion, is around three years old. His previous owner was moving to a new home and needed to downsize their collection. We have checked and confirmed that they are male. They are quite active and love digging. Scorpions don’t have a long life span, but we know whoever adopts them after quarantine will be getting a great scorpion.

25th October – Hamish the Crested Gecko is around ten years old. His previous owner went to university, and their parents took over their main care. However, after a few years and a discussion with their child, they decided it was time to find him a new home. We went and collected Hamish from Cambridge, and he was a cheeky yet sweet gecko. Cresties live up to fifteen to twenty years, so they are getting on in age, but will be looking for their retirement home after quarantine.

25th October – Rango the Bearded Dragon was around fourteen years old. His previous owners had inherited him and knew he was in a bad way, but as they never owned a Beardie, they decided he needed a more experienced owner. We were informed he had mobility issues, and with his age, we prepared his viv accordingly, ready to make his retirement home with us at the rescue.  We're no strangers to animals arriving in poor condition, but this one was a bit too much, even for us. After two days with us, we took him to the vet and decided that it was kinder to put him to sleep. Rango had a third of his tail missing (apparently from poor shedding), a patch on his tail with no scales at all, a lump in his left eye, discharge from his right, dental disease, pale gums, fused hips (he had almost no back end mobility) potential gout in his forelimbs, neurological issues, dehydration, malnourishment, and very clear MBD as confirmed by X-ray (bone density was very weak, even for a beardie his age. Our only consolation is that he is no longer suffering and hopefully experienced comfort and safety while with us.

Animals we were asked to take in, but we had to turn away due to space. We have been asked to rehome 137 animals this month, and this is minus the ones we have already taken in. This also includes animals we offered to take in.

·       55 Snakes

·       9 Turtles

·       8 Leopard Geckos

·       10 Bearded Dragon

·       5 Tortoise 

·       45 Geckos, a mix of Crested and Chahoua

·       2 Flying Geckos

·       3 Tarantulas

Reptile of the Month:

Each month, we will feature one of our residents to help raise awareness about the diversity and beauty of reptiles.

October’s resident is Ally, an Axolotl. Ally arrived on 04/08/2024, and they were rehomed with three other Axolotls. Ally was bullied by one of the other Axolotls, so when the others went, Ally stayed. It was fascinating to watch her heal, and soon you couldn't tell she had ever been injured. Due to the time Ally needed to heal, we kept her at the rescue and then made her a resident.  

·       Species: Ambystoma mexicanum

·       Diet: Carnivore, their diet can include earthworms, bloodworms, tubifex worms, other frozen fish foods, and commercial fish pellets. Ally really likes earthworms.

·       Fun fact: Axolotls are nocturnal creatures; however, they are also crepuscular, meaning that they are very active at dawn and dusk (twilight hours), which is a great time to feed your axolotl.

Events

This month, we attended the following events.

On the 4th October, we attended All Saints Autumn Fayre and took Hades the blind Beardie with us. We had a tombola and handmade resin for sale. It was lovely meeting locals and sharing with them who we are and what we do. We raised a total of £65, which was used to help pay veterinary bills.

Events

 If you'd like to support reptile rescue efforts this October, here are a few ways to get involved.

1. Donate: Heating, lighting, and medical care can be expensive—every contribution helps.

2. Adopt Responsibly: If considering a reptile as a pet, do your research and consider adopting.

3. Spread Awareness: Share our rescue and information about responsible reptile ownership with your community.

Animals available for adoption

Snakes	Lizards	Tortoise	Other
Colin – King Snake, 3 years old.	Daffodil – Leopard Gecko, around 10 years old.	Cyril - 11 years old	Clone Army - Musk turtles’ range of age.
Merlot - Corn Snake Unknown age.	Heafty - Giant Day Gecko around 3 years old.	Donald - 11 years old
Angelina - Corn Snake 8 years old	Petrie – Crested Gecko, 3 years old.	George - 12 years old
	Gary  – Crested Gecko, 4 years old.