Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Just curious... what do you do about all of your animals (I have sometimes as many as 150-200 leos) if/when you go on vacation? The last vacation I had was a week in the hospital, and I really need to go somewhere and have some R&R!
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Marcia McGuiness
Golden Gate Geckos
www.goldengategeckos.com

The key to vacationing with a large colony of leopards is to get them on mealies! Using glass ashtrays I simply let my leopards help themselves to their food. Put a few pieces of small carrots in with the mealies and it works quite well. Just make sure you have clean cages before you leave and really there is nothing to it. A few times I have had to leave fresh hatchlings with my father so he could give them that TLC they sometimes need. Hope this helps.

how long do you plan on going for vacation?

A week isnt that long anyway... water is really your only priority you need to worry about.

Good luck,

M.N

I was out of town for a week and a half at the end of april thru the begining of may. I had my mom my sis and my aunt come by on rotating days. I had them all over on different occasions to talk them thru everything that needed to be done. Also wrote it all down for them and put a dry erase board near my racks and incubator for them to leave notes for each other. I had alot of eggs ready to hatch and was a nervous nelly. I had 6 new hatchling when I got haome with no troubles. I would try to think of someone local and obviously trustworthy. I can suggest that you get your R&R during the slow season. This way whoever your choice is they are not overwhelmed. Sorry I couldn't help more. I hope you can find someone to count on. I'm sure you could use a break.
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It's a sad,sad day in cubbytown!!!!
Just my thoughts and opinions based on my experiences.
Jeremy Letkey
jletkey@yahoo.com

we had a friend of ours take care of them, she does not keep reptiles and doesnt even really care for them but while we were gone she fed (crix because i didnt expect her to pick mealies hehe) and watered all of the geckos made sure all the snakes had water (even though she is afraid of snakes)( we fed then the snakes before we left and when we got back). we went over everything with her and she worked with us with them before we left. i gave her phone numbers of some friends who keep reptiles and the vet and taught her how to check the temps and even taughter her what to do incase she found eggs, luckily none we laid while we were away but we did have some hatch. i had a huge list of info and stuff to check reminders and whatnot. the copperheads we took to a friends place who has years of experience with them. and my friend also took care of our dogs and cats. we paid her 100 bucks . she didnt want it but we made her keep it. the best thing to do is ask someone you trust to help care for them while you are away. we were very fortunate she was willing to do this for us... i suspect the only reason she was willing to do it is because of the fact our vacation was our honeymoon LOL because like i said earlier she doesnt care for reptiles and is downright afraid of snakes, hey but ya never know!!!! if we go to daytona again this next year we might just ask her again LOLOL
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-robin struck
Geckoheads And Geeks

. . . I turn down the heat on my racks slightly - to a little higher than your night drop - but I don't think it matters that much.

I feed them, make sure they have a good water supply and go. They will do just fine. Sure, you will have cleaning to do when you get back - but they won't be worse for wear.

That's the beauty of herps.

Take some time off. If you feel like you need it, you probably do.
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Monte Meyer
Powergeckos
Email

No Fru-Fru morphs in the herp room

A good friend of ours out here is a herptology major and he thoroughly enjoys it when we go out of town
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