Field Herp Forum

I will have some free time in the middle or end of March, and have always wanted to make a southern Appalachian salamander trip. Is late March a good time of year in Virginia/West Virginia/North Carolina for salamanders? Is it too early for them to be out walking around at night? Will I only be limi...

Nothing from that other pic leads me away from Cyclemys, so Im sticking with it. There are several Cyclemys species that are VERY similar in appearance, and Im not totally up on their individual ranges, so I wont venture a guess as to which species it may be.

Ill take a stab at the turtles. The first I feel pretty good about calling Cuora amboinensis. The second is a guess with Cyclemys sp. Any more pics of that one? Captive turtles can be difficult because they could be from anywhere in the world and often show abnormal growth.

Like Chris said, set it up to take a photo every 30 seconds/minute/few minutes. I watched a time lapse video from a trail cam set up at a timber den and it was pretty neat with some interesting information gathered from it.

Beautiful snake, and nice write up to go with it. I too have definitely learned to appreciate my time in the field even when not finding anything.

That was insane!

I don't plan on being in sidewinder range anytime soon, nor can I help with the original question, but wanted to say the above post was very interesting and informative. Thanks for taking the time to put that together.

Thanks Craig. I appreciate the photos.

I just gave the talk so I do not need anymore if anyone else is reading.

I thought this was discussed before, and it looks like I started it last time! Lol

I too would like a definitive answer to this. I've heard some different things but never anything concrete backed by evidence.

I am going to be giving a presentation on North American box turtles in a couple weeks and am looking for a few more photos. I am specifically looking for ones showing the habitat in the background and showing box turtles only partially exposed, like in their forms. I do not need any more portrait o...

Thanks for that link Bill. Interesting stuff. Its funny how some things just become "fact" and gets repeated by everyone. Maybe the freezer is the best. I also agree that blunt force trauma is humane, and can be a good tool which I have used in certain instances, but a hammer on a small frog could g...

Wow, it looks like you killed it! And your photos are real eye candy. I've been to CR a few times and still hoping to see a Pseustes, and some of the others you saw. Mind sharing some of the places you stayed at? It's always difficult to find places to herp at night.

Great to see updates posted. Wouldn't be a complete story without. Thanks for that. What is a good way to humanely euthanize frogs to use as feeders? I've used benzocaine before, but when they were not being fed to something. I doubt that would be safe. I also don't plan on building a CO2 chamber.

It may not have been the best view, but congratulations on such a cool find! Thanks for sharing

I would also add if you can get him outside, even for short periods, nothing beats the sun. Just make sure to do it safely so he has a place to retreat and not overheat. I have seen it work wonders on sick/injured herps. Here is a plated lizard taking advantage of the South African sun: IMG_6821size...

I agree with Kelly that it looks like an "internal" issue and not something caused by external injury or infection. Is it in both eyes? That would add further evidence to the above.

Looks like a northern dusky. Desmognathus fuscus

Nice trip report. Thanks for sharing. While you may not have seen the species you were after, at least the Everglades are pretty much guaranteed to find something. My first instinct is Island glass lizard as well, but it has been a long time since I thought about them whatsoever, so I could also be ...

Bill, do you have pictures of any of those markets?

Bill, do you keep Spilotes as well? Any luck breeding? Sorry, No. I've caught a few in the field, kept a male, but never kept a pair. If I had, I would have guessed your arrangement would be the thing to do. Those black-breasted leaf turtles are truely amazing. I've seen them only once before in a ...

Thank you Kfen, beautiful Spilotes pair, I love how you treat them. I think its hilarious how the black hides, who are really nice in every way except how tough the lable is to get off, look exactly like ones ive had. Thanks. The picture makes the cage look bigger than it is. Its 3' x2' x 3', and I...

Your posts never disappoint. Thanks for sharing. Excellent report.

This was going to be a longer post but I just spent an hour trying to figure out how to resize images on my new phone. I can't. So I then read lots of reviews and downloaded two different photo editing apps. Anyway, I am excited about this possibility: IMG_20190318_202721700~2-02.jpeg I've had these...

LOL. Seriously, timers are your friends. I haven't manually switched on reptile lights in probably 20 years.

Its interesting you brought up heat mats on the vertical walls, because I was considering trying that out soon. I am in the process of building a 3/4" wooden cage that I wanted to raise the ambient slightly. I did not want to mount anything to the ceiling (lights that give off heat or heat panels) b...

Always great tips from Kelly. I have also found putting lights on a timer can increase the longevity of both cheap fixtures and of the fragile bulbs. Plus there is not reason not to use timers.

I really like the leaf shaped heater idea! Do you put the heat mats on the inside or outside of your vertical enclosure walls? Are they effective in raising the ambient that way? Eheim canister filters come with green tubing, and Ive always thought that was a good idea, in addition to them being gre...

Wow! Thanks for putting that post together for us. It was quite enjoyable. How long were you there for?

I will actually be in Silver Springs FL from Feb 13-18. I will have from about 9-5 to do some herping on that Thurs, Fri, and Mon. I have already gotten a few tips (Thanks Bill!) but will welcome any more for that area or within a reasonable driving distance. I was also curious if anyone wanted to m...

One day several years ago (like everyone else's story starts) I was hiking up a mountain side in northern NJ looking for prospective timber rattlesnake dens. I was in an area with some open canopy so there was a good amount of grasses growing on the forest floor. I caught some movement waving around...

Really neat shots of the lizards and sidewinders partially buried in the sand. You must have some good eyes. How many of those did you find because of tracks or disturbance in the sand? Thanks for sharing

Approaching from below is often helpful. This can across taxa. When getting baby terrestrial turtles to eat off tongs, they are much more receptive at first when the prey is on the ground rather than "magically" hanging in the air. You may wonder why I feed baby turtles from tongs. The answer is so...

I have never attempted to maintain any snakes on mouse tails, I have never given more than two. I think it works by either triggering their digestive system and appetite or by showing the snake that mice are in fact a food source. If it doesn't work the first one or two times, I move onto a differen...

Bill,
I totally forgot to mention the braining part, I do that as well and can definitely be successful. I have never tried boiling a pinky, interesting idea. Some species are just easy, 90% of my coxi eat f/t without any tricks.

Like Kelly, I have never been able to get a non-eating snake to eat by tease feeding. They strike the pinky for sure, but never ever hold on for me. I do have a friend that currently has to tease feed his rhino rat exactly like Bill wrote about. My schedule trying to feed hatchlings (I currently onl...

Wow!! That is exciting stuff. Its too bad its December and I live in CT because all I want to do is go out in the field right now.

One of the concerns or arguments for not providing water is that they could knock over the bowl and dampen the bedding. I check all of my animals every three days or more during this time, so that would not be an issue. I would simply replace the bedding. Isnt the easy solution to the above to use ...

My wife will be going to Ocala in February for work for a few days. I am trying to figure out if it is worth me going as well. Are there any herps to be found that time of year near there? If I go, I will have the days to myself so will need to occupy my time. I have been to south FL many times duri...

Lots of great tips already mentioned. The only thing I have to add is all the national parks close EARLY. That means no night hiking there. So either plan on roadcruising or plan on staying at a lodge/hotel/camp with their own property. National Parks also don't like hooks.

As far as i know, there were no abnormal signs that my friend saw before death. Tortoise was eating and acting as usual. Thats why I immediately questioned the fatty liver diagnosis. I did send him a link, not sure if he read it yet. Would be better if he joined this discussion.

Again, all great thoughts and responses. The liver was white. I'll send a link to this thread to my friend and see if he wants to chime in. Im not really sure why I haven't already. Jimi, you brought up something that I thought about when I was typing my last response: pesticides. Some store bought ...

Thanks for your input. Jimi, he knew the risks going with a non-herp vet. He has a close relationship with her and got it done for free, within 24 hours, and was involved. And I wouldn't mind your "ignorant" speculation, because I doubt it would be ignorant at all. I am open minded and like to hear ...

A friend of mine just recently had a spider tortoise die. He had it necropsied by a vet who does not have much experience with reptiles. She determined the cause of death to be fatty liver. My friend was there and the liver was fatty and discolored. I am skeptical if that was the true cause of death...

Is Hydrogen peroxide better at disinfecting than chlorhexidine? I use chlorhexidine pretty regularly to clean enclosures and water bowls. I have used it to soak a snake and turtles directly before so it seems safe.

When I used to work at a pet shop, I made a paludarium with a 55 gallon that housed green tree frogs, anoles, and fire belly toads pretty successfully. I think we may have even had a few newts in there occasionally. We were conscious of feeding both during the day and after all the lights were out. ...

Thanks Kelly for your always present good advice. I will definitely stay on top of them. I will be getting some hatchling henkeli in the near future, and don't want to have to worry about them if I go away for a few days. (Also hoping to hatch my own sikorae this year). One of the perks of keeping r...

Does anyone here have experience with misting systems? I want to use it for Uroplatus and I have a few questions: What is your preferred brand? From a little bit of searching it seems like MistKing gets the most attention Can I use regular tap water through it? My water is kind of hard. I know every...

A cheap alternative to thermostats are dimmer switches that you can plug something into. They are under $15 at the big box stores. They have to be monitored more closely than a traditional thermostat, but I have had good luck with them as long as the room temp doesn't swing too much. I am sure every...

I have been way less active lately, but not because of other media, because of personal time. I just wanted to say I actually like the posts NOT from my area better. Living vicariously. Why would I look at pictures of herps that I can go and look at in real life? I prefer the pics of the ones that I...