Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Here are a couple pictures of Dill, taken this morning.
As you can see by her tail, it looks as though she spent last night crawling around in her DINNER!
Once she wakes up, it'll be a trip to the "spa" for her to soak.
She's just SO cute!!

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Kim

jrbl

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Kim

Cute face---
So tell me about your climbing apparatus in there- it that PVC wrapped with anti-slide carpet padding or something like that? It looks pretty snazzy...
how is her bad toe doing?
Cheers, Jess b

Hi Jess...

yes, that's exactly what that is. I bought 2-6 foot lengths of 2" diameter PVC tubing. I cut it down to the lengths that I needed to create a (wo)man made tree. Wrapped it with rubberized shelf liner to provide traction and stuck it down with silicone. I then wrapped it with silk vines.
The actual tree branches you can see in the background I have left natural. Dill doesn't seem to have any difficulty climbing them.
Coming up from the bottom of her cage I have a 1/2" thick x 4" wide plank covered in the rubberized shelf liner as well. Dill zips up and down that like no tomorrow! That's her preferred route when travelling up and down inside her cage, rather than the tree branches.

Her toe is doing about the same. No better, no worse. When I was removing the band of skin during her last shed, it bled a tiny bit. But, there has been no recurrence of the swelling, thankfully, and it seems to have healed up nicely. I'm not sure where the blood originates from...meaning...she doesn't bleed from any other site when she's shedding...so I'm not sure why THAT part of her bleeds. I can't see any open wounds, it's just a littly ooze of blood, then it's gone again.

She's a real sweetie! I got lucky when she stole my heart!
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Kim

Leonardo asked me to tell you he also thinks she is a beauty!

I really like that idea, and next time I redesign or build a new enclosure (or when we move and I get a skink atrium- one can always hope), I will try that. Does yours come apart easily? It would be neat to have a PVC tree that could easily come apart and be cleaned. I have trouble cleaning my semi-permanent climbing apparatus sometimes- things are nailed and bolted to shelves for security...
cheers, Jess b

Yes, it does come apart rather easily. The individual peices are not glued together, but the fit together quite tightly. so there is not worry about them falling apart while Dill is climbing on them, but when I'm cleaning, or adding/removing things from her cage, they are easy enough to dimantle.

What I'd like to know is where can I get a hold of some of that really thick rope you have in your cages?
I've searched all over the place here and can't seem to find it.
Do I have to go to a marine supply store to get it? I want cotton rather than the nylon (too many little picky peices sticking out)

Thanks for the compliments Jess!
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Kim

the rope is a natural fiber rope (sisal I think), I have no idea where it came from originally- it was in the garage! It doesn't look very marine quality to me, but I bet you can find something similar if you do an intenet search and order online.
I will ask my husband if he bought it somewhere or scavenged it.
cheers, jess

thanks for that information Jess.

And I apologize for the number of typo's in that last post!! I was embarassed when I re-read it! I guess that's what happenes when you post from work in the middle of the night, in a sleep deprived state!

I'll do an online search for sisal rope and see what I can find. I did do a "marine supply" search as I couldn't think of any other search topic.

Thanks again!
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Kim

How sweet. I can see why you love her so much.
I just got a BTS that is the sweetest thing. I was surprised at how much personality skinks have.