Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i did'nt say he was'nt a nice guy, and i talked to him also and it is a shame that they are being shot. but if thats the case i would be trying to get gravid females so his nobel crusade would be cutting back the population. then he could sell the c.h babies then release the females into a less populated area and provide adults to pepole who such as your self. who i know can have luck with these animals. however most will not land in the hands of skilled keepers but in the hands of someone who wants a big lizard. in witch case a quick death would be a better choice than ending up in a 55gal. tank wasteing away. i my self would buy c.h babies from manny and feel good that maybe i was helping. i just don't want to see any animals suffering. so i hope i did'nt cause any hard feelings and i don't have any towards manny. thank you for posting mark. talk to ya chris

For a long time, since I was 8 to 9 years old I've been visiting this park where the Ig are. There is nothing more awesome than to look at an Ig in the wild. When I was a teenager, I would take two public busses every week end with out my parents knowledge just to go and sit there and look at these lizards. Nobody else was allowed in this section, it was closed to the public.
In 1999 the section of that park was opened up to the public and Dade county has been working on beautifying it since.

Last year an article came out in the paper. It told about the over population of igs in South Florida and how they are tearing up the native Florida habitat. As a result, the Florida Fish and conservation commission came in, captured about 600 and just simply put them on ice. There were thousands out there. You could look and count on every single tree about 30 adults not counting juveniles.

Since I work for Dade County I obtained a permit from the park and we came to the agreement that as long as I'm in there and the park sees a gradual reduction in the poulation, the game and fish department would not be called out as often.

Since then I have taken out about 800 adult greens and an excess of 3000 babies and sub-adults. The over population is so immense that I could still easily collect up to 100 igs in a night.

The similis on the other hand are not as easy to capture. They must be baited and trapped or juveniles can be noosed and they are much smarter than the greens. I am not as worried about the similis at this time since the game and fish department are not as good at catching them since they quickly run into holes, rocks, trees, etc.

I choose to sell the igs since I have to support three children and a wife and spending a whole day or night week after week out catching igs is not an easy thing to do although it's fun.

I think that I have priced them reasonably in order to pay for my time, gas, materials needed to house, feed, and capture them. I've even placed adds with "or best offer" and even given some away localy. Anything to get these igs out of the danger of them being killed off. At least I'm giving them an extra chance.

It is illeagal to release exotics into the wild even if I caught it. I will not jeopordize my licenses nor the South Florida habitat by spreading the population any further.

I am hoping that the animals I sell find good homes with breeders and people that know what they are doing. Most of the adult igs I have sold have gone to people that were going to use them as exhibits and they were housing them in large cages or huge set-ups.

I'm sorry for this post being so long, but if you were to call me or stopped me as so many do in the park, I would talk to you the same.

Some one sent me an e-mail that I should be thrown off of Kingsnake, I tried to respond to your second e-mail but MSN kept sending it back to me undelivered. This is what I wanted to say to you.

Oh by the way, those similis or pectinata what ever they are in the Gasparrilla State Park are next on the list of the conservation commission. There is a study being done right now by the University of Gainsville. I was trying to get a permit for those too.

Don't be sorry, you had to be lengthy to explain yourself fully, and I think you did a good job of it. I also defended what you are doing in a prior post, but you did a better job of it.
I love the similis you sent me. I have been looking for adult females for a long time and those were perfect specimens. Unfortunately one of my males (Grumpy CSM2) didn't like his new mate and bit part of her tail off, so I pulled her out of his enclosure and put her with some other kinder lizards. The other female is doing great with my other male (Red CSM1). I may have you try to get me a large female to put in with grumpy. Someone who can bite back when he acts up. I'm also thinking about getting one of those monster greenies to put in one of my outdoor enclosures.

Maybe this will help. I have some cycluras and when I was going to introduce a new pair into the cage, My female Phyche(si-ki) is extremely aggressive and territorial. She would not give the others a chance. So what I did is that I took her out and put her in another cage for about two or three weeks and let the new ones have " squatters rights" on the cage. When they became comfortable with their enclosure ( they just sit on their new favorite basking spot and do not seem to be trying to escape) I re-introduced the other female. She was just as aggressive, but she had lost her mental picture of the territory. They all get along (somewhat) now. I put a shelf made out of a closet rack with a heavy-duty hide box on it, and the subordinate female lives on top. The male roams the entire cage, and the aggressive female hold territory on the ground. I also have a feeding and watering station on the upper level.

In your case, you have two cages, since you've probably separated the males, simply try switching the males from the cages.

i also have loved and kept reptiles my whole life. and it is a tough spot and i know that there are keepers who can care for these animals. but so many more can't. (sorry abuot the K.S stalker) "not me" i won't say anything else on the matter unless its somthing to help. and in my defense i was only trying to help as well. thanks for posting and hope you post from time to time. chris

that is very interesting. Good luck! I hope you can do some good as I know FL is becoming overrun with exotics. Do you know anything about the blind worm snakes that were introduced from Africa I beleive and now are quite prevalent in the south? I think it is something like rhamphophites or some thing of the sort. Thanks, Tom

Sorry about my angry post, I didnt realize the situation. My attack stems from my dislike for importers and disributers of wildcaught reptiles, It's one of the, if not, the most brutal busineses in the world, probably about 5% of the imports make it to there second year of captivity, a large percent never make it out of the facility (iguanas fair better than others). I have had the pleasure to see in person several facilities, and almost no one can even imagine how pathetic they are, I am tempted to name names but I better keep quiet. I guess the best thing is to advise people to go to their local wholesale herp distributer and check it out. I think a simple law that only allows a max of 25 species for anyone accept zoos would help, people try to have too much with too little room and not enough time for all their animals. I probably pissed some more people off again but maybe I can open some eyes. Bring it on KB

No hard feelings on my end.
I just finished a two day project: Building an 8x8x8 cage so I can hold them better. This is where most of the money goes to. I did it all by myself, nobody helps around here and I’m dead right now.

The cage is 8x8x8. It has a two ft wall on the bottom that keeps the igs from rubbing or slamming themselves and a two ft wall on the top to keep them from rubbing while trying to escape. The cage sits on concrete blocks and the inside will be filled with mulch or beach sand (still debating sand weighs a hell of a lot more than mulch) all the way up to the block's brim. This keeps them from digging out and the mesh is made out of a plastic material that will not cause (hopefully) as much damage when they rub. I will put in branches and numerous hide boxes and pipes.
I am going to also put in shelves on the upper part of the cage so that subordinate lizards will have a place to retreat to. Dominant igs tend to hold their ground so to speak.

When time permits I hope I can help out with questions people may have.
I can’t say I’m proud of it but my years of dealing in the wholesale reptile business has taught me a lot through trial and error as well as with my personal pets and field observations. I think I have some experience that I can pass along.

Looks good. I wish we had your Florida weather.

Manny,

Great post!!! Keep up the excellent work!

Bobby