Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Meet Archimedes!!!

Hey ya'll

Owning a reptile as a pet has always been one of the things that I've always wanted! Since I was a young boy I have asked my parents for various scaly animals I could keep as pets with varying results. I asked, for instance, when I was seven or eight, for a pair of red eared sliders from our local aquarium shop. These were readily given to me by my father who was no doubt reminiscing about his own childhood catching these things in the rivers and lakes in our hometown. When I was twelve it was the Indian Star Tortoise (these were not protected back then so we could get them fairly easily and for really low prices) which was later given to me as a Christmas present. Then, when I was thirteen I asked for an iguana and was refused on the grounds that it was too 'exotic' and I was too young to handle the responsibility of an animal with such diverse needs (I didn't see it then but I see the wisdom of my parent's decision now). And these animals just got wilder and wilder with each year I grew! At fifteen it was a snake (refused), at sixteen I asked for a pair of frilled lizards and a chameleon (refused again on the same grounds as the iguana from four years back), and finally when I was seventeen I tried my luck again for the iguana and quite nearly got one until my mother learnt from the shop assistant that the iguana could eventually grow to several feet long (six feet, was her precise guess) and this was probably a good decision too considering how I cannot even see how we could ever have the space to house a six foot long reptile and continue to fulfill all of its giant-sized needs!!! It began to be clear that perhaps reptiles weren't meant for me after all!!! Or so I thought until... 

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Such a little cutie isn't he!!! I wonder who has lost their pet? Or whose pet has escaped and started reproducing in the wild (though I shudder to think of the environmental implications of this, it is perhaps fortunate that they do not thrive in exceedingly humid environment like the tropical rainforests of Malaysia). Well, whatever it is, he lives with me now and has been christened Archimedes, because of the contemplative look he has when he rests on his log (actually I think he's just being drowsy or sleepy). 


As you may have surmised, Archimedes is my first gecko so any help or tips that you may wish to contribute would be awesome! Right now he lives in a medium sized glass tank in my room (with the screen top and the swinging door from Exoterra), gets access to a heat source on one end of the terrarium (moonlight night heat lamp and thermometer to moniter the temperature from Exoterra also) and is fed daily with water, calcium supplements and mealworms (which are all placed in bowls in a corner of the tank for him to munch at his leisure. I hope I've not left anything important out but if I have, as usual... feel free to send me a shoutout!!! 

Cheers, 
Cyren 

1 comment:

Shadow Wind said...

Cyren, I realize your collection of "exotic" pets is very interesting hahahah exotic not that they are hard to find but because i dont have any other friends who rear them haha!!!!