Summer Stories: July Monthly Blog

Summer is in full swing, and with warmer weather comes more active animals. It also brings the challenges of the food, both greens and live, not lasting as long.

Animals Birthday

This month we had some personal and rescue birthdays. Do you share a birthday with anyone below?

6^th July – Eskie the Leopard Gecko. In 2022, Matt arrived home with two eggs, as it wasn’t clear if they were fertile or not. Both eggs were placed in a home-built incubator, but one broke down because it was not fertile. However, on 06/07/2022, Eskie was born. Due to this, we decided to make her our own pet as we had never tried this before. Eskie is an amazing Leo who loves to climb and hunt bugs down. Eskie was named after Eskel, a character in The Witcher. We are big fans of the games and enjoy the books.

7^th July – Boba the Blue Tongue Skink. We are hobbyists as well as rescuers and have a few animals of our own. Boba is one of them. We brought Boba on 07/07/2023, as we had always wanted a Skink and fell in love with him. Boba has attitude, is very clever and loves blueberries. Boba was named after Boba Fett in Star Wars.

14^th July – Nevvie the White Tree Frog. Nevvie was found abandoned in a garage. The people who found her got in touch with the owner, who was a family member, but they didn’t want her and thought she had passed away. They went to the shop Matt works at, looking for the best way to care for the frog and meet Matt, who gave them the advice he knew and the best places to get things. They went home and thought about it all, but decided it was too much, so they returned to the shop and asked Matt if he would take it on. Nevvie arrived on 14/07/2018 at an unknown age. White Tree frogs typically live 7-10 years in captivity, so Nevvie is an older female and is starting to show her age. Nevvie name is a mixture of a few things to the point we are not fully sure how we got to it now.

18^th July – Harley the Turtle. Harley arrived on 18/07/2022. She was a family pet, but her owners were moving back abroad and could not take her with them. Unfortunately, Harley was housed in the incorrect environment, and her aquarium was not upgraded. On arrival, we put her in an aquarium much more suitable for her, and she quickly grew and needed another upgrade. Due to Harley's unknown age and her environmental needs, she will remain at the rescue. Harley was named after both Harlequins and Harley Quinn, a favourite of Shelly’s.

28^th July – Matt, the owner, and Ryuk, the black cat. Matt loves that he shares his birthday with one of our cats, who was rescued as a five-week-old kitten. Matt is one of the owners and creators of Raven’s Reptile Rescue. He works in a local pet shop in Peterborough, and most people know him as the green-haired man. Ryuk is now 14 years old. He arrived at the door with his sister Midnight, and they were both covered with fleas. They had not had the best start to life, and Ryuk took many years to stop being wary of people and is now the official door greeter most of the time. Unfortunately, his sister Midnight passed away last year, and he missed her company. Now, he has a new friend in our rescue cat Kiki, whom he is teaching how to steal all the fuss. Fun fact Matts brother picked his name from a choice of two while Ryuk was named after Ryuk in Death Note.

29^th July – Kiichi the Giant Day Gecko. Kiichi is another personal animal of ours. For a birthday treat in 2021, we visited a centre an hour away that combined a garden centre with a reptile and fish centre. While looking around and buying some new equipment for the animals, we got to meet many of them. While we were chatting with the colleagues, we saw a giant day gecko and fell in love. Due to our knowledge, the shop would have been happy for us to take the item home the same day, but we wanted to ensure her new home was ready and perfect for her. We returned the following day and brought Kiichi. Kiichi was named after Matthew K Heafy from the band Trivium. If you ever wonder what the K meant, know you know.

AdoptionsThis month, we celebrated the successful adoption of,

17th July – Odin the Corn Snake arrived at the rescue as a frightened snake, but over time, he transformed into a friendly companion who would come over to say hello. We were thrilled to see him find a wonderful home where we know he will be well taken care of and spoiled.

Animals reserved

·       Macaroni (Royal Python) is still reserved

·       Lucy (Crested Gecko) is still reserved

Animals who came into the rescue:

After a few adoptions last month and Odin's rehoming, 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. 

4^th July – Hades the Bearded Dragon is approximately five years old. His previous owners went through a relationship breakdown, which led to their homelessness and a subsequent move in with family. Hades has either lost his sight or has very limited vision; the vets have not been able to confirm which. As a result, he needs to be hand-fed. His vivarium has been specially set up to accommodate his needs, and because of this, the rescue will remain his forever home.

23^rd July – Sid the Corn Snake is approximately sixteen years old and has been at our reserve since February. Unfortunately, we haven’t had space to take him in until now. Sid is showing signs of ageing, and as a result, the rescue will serve as his retirement home.

29^th July – The Darkness (TD), the Bearded Dragon. TD is around a year and a half, but is a big dragon. Unfortunately, his owner passed away, and the family took the dragon on but decided to find him a place where he could find a loving forever home. TD is an incredible dragon in excellent health and has a very friendly temperament. We don't expect him to stay with us for long after his quarantine, as he is genuinely one of the best dragons we have had in a while. We don't expect him to be here for long after his quarantine, as he's genuinely one of the best dragons we have had in a while.

Other animals we were asked to take in, but we had to turn away due to space.

We have been asked to rehome 36 animals this month and this is minus the ones we took in.

·       11 Snakes

·       6 Turtles

·       6 Leopard Geckos

·       2 Bearded Dragon

·       3 Rankins

·       1 Ackie Monitor

·       3 Tortoise 

·       2 Tarantulas

·       1 Chameleon

·       1 Crested Gecko

Reptile of the Month:

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

July resident is Sandy, a scaleless Bearded Dragon. Sandy arrived on 11^th October 2023, her owner found her on a pet site for sale, they were told she was around a year old, healthy and a normal dragon, so they were surprised when they went to collect the Dragon and got Sandy. They had a bearded dragon before; however, this felt out of their depth, especially as she had lost part of her tail. We went to collect her in Sandy, which is how she got her name. After a vet visit, we discovered that she also had missing claws. Sandy has issues shedding and needs specialist care.

·       Species: Pogona vitticeps

·       Diet: Omnivorous, so aside from munching a variety of vegetation, they also enjoy insects, like Hoppers and Dubia roaches.

·       Fun fact: They have a third (parietal) eye on top of their head for detecting predators.

Animals available for adoption

Snakes	Lizards	Tortoise	Other
Gnocchi - Royal Python 3 years old	Ducky - Crested Gecko 3 years old,	Cyril - 11 years old	Clone Army - Musk turtles’ range of age.
Lucozade – Corn Snake 4 years old.	Banana Bean - Crested Gecko 2 years old	Donald - 11 years old
Angelina - Corn Snake 8 years old	Perdy – Leopard Gecko 6 years old.	George - 12 years old
Merlot - Corn Snake Unknown age.	Ozzy – Bearded Dragon 2 and a half years old.
Colin – King Snake 3 years old.	Daffodil – Leopard Gecko, around 10 years old.
Sebastian – Corn Snake, 5 months old.