Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello everyone!

My boyfriend and I will be going back to New England for a week to visit his family. Of course I love to travel and I especially love spending time in New England unfortunately I can't bring the rest of the "family" which consists of - 1 dog, 1 cat, 2 alligator lizards, 2 leopard geckos, now 3 brown anoles, 1 ball python, 1 brazilian rainbow boa, and 2 chinese water dragons! Luckily we have two roommates who are going to help take care of our "kids" but they're also going to be gone part of the time too. Ugghhh...so now I have to figure out the least amount of work for my roommates... I'm not going to worry about feeding the snakes, I'll just have them keep an eye on the temperature and make sure they have water. I usually take my lizzies out of their cage to feed them but I think I'll just have my roommates feed them at the halfway mark. And then there's my dog who needs a pill twice a day and of course our cat who is pure evil and determined to kill some of our other pets...

Any of you have to deal with traveling issues? How do you work it out?

reptiles are easy. Just make sure they have enough water to last a week. Timers are great for lamps and heating elements. Dogs and cats are a different story. Try to get family to petsit for you. If you are going to be gone for longer than a week, then I don't know what to tell you. There are professional pet sitters that come to your house and care for ALL of your pets in your absence, but can be pricy. I know there are some on craigslist, but be careful and ask for references!!..good luck.

As your dog needs to be medicated, you may have to arrange for him to be with somebody who can give him his pills daily, as well as take care of a dog's other needs.

The snakes can handle being two weeks off food, as long as they have fresh water. Most lizards need feeding every day, so you will need to arrange for somebody to do this for you. Other lizards are fine if they are fed for a few times a week, or once a week...though this I wouldn't recommend for a very long period. If your roommates are only going to be gone a week or less, your reptiles will be fine with them. The dog will need daily care so should be with somebody who can provided for the duration of your trip.

As for the cat, they need a little less care, but still need access to fresh water and food daily, not to mention a clean litterbox.
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PHLdyPayne

The dog definitely leads the high maintenance list followed by the lizards and then the cat and then the snakes. I'm going to talk to the vet to see how damaging it would be to my dog's health if she missed a pill here or there for a few days. I don't think it will be that big of a deal since she's been on them for quite. I usually feed my water dragons every day and the other lizards every other day. I'll have to corner my roommates and ask them if they can feed my dog and the lizzies. Since one of my roommates also has a cat it won't be an issue to take care of our cat while we're away. I'm mainly concerned with our cat not being left unsupervised in our room. All of our cages have lids that are firmly attached but our damn cat managed to pull a tank off a shelf once so I never leave her alone in the room!

I have never ever been on vacation since I started breeding snakes and rodents this time around...20 years,....
the closest thing was one night in FL to fly down and drive my kid home ......and 4 days /nights at Daytona in 2002....wife fed mice.....

.....you have a bunch of kids....you are stuck at home....

...so......

eat the cat snakes are fine , liz....give away?....and the dog...well...he is either going along or .......poof....

LOL..

have a happy time....!,.....merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!
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Ha! I thought you might recommend putting the food chain in order, the snakes eat the lizards, the cat eats the snake, and then the dog eats the cat, and then I only have one pet to deal with!

The snakes are the easy part, it's why I love having them as pets. It's my boyfriend who loves lizards. I would be perfectly happy giving away the alligator lizards and anoles. I admit I do adore my leopard geckos and I really love my chinese water dragons. I've always wanted an iguana but I think I've satisfied my cravings with the water dragons. The only problem is they're high maintenance. And now my boyfriend wants to get a bearded dragon...ugh...I told him that if he gets a beardie then I get a pair of Dumeril Boas!