Reptile Queen! (I've Been Called Worse)

     Laura and I have a lot of things in common, and she probably has these traits because I raised her and she's just a good old-fashioned Mommy's girl. I don't know, but what I do know is that she played trumpet, and I bought one to learn alongside her, so when she got a horse, I did that too. This time, she got a skink because I got a skink, and because they were Schneider skinks, and being sold at a ridiculously good price, I got one too.

    Truth is, she's been rehabbing and rehoming lizards now like she used to rehab and rehome horses. I will say, it's far cheaper to do the lizard thing; even if you end up buying a bunch of enclosures, fixtures, sand, substrate, hides, fake foliage, bowls, and lights...and yes, crickets!  You can't forget the twice-a-week run to the pet store to get 100 crickets; that's fun too.  Crickets are cheaper than hay, oats, and feed! Geckos, bearded dragons, and skinks don't cost $$$$$ to stall and be maintained. They don't have the vet bills either, but the #1 reason they're better to own than horses, is that horse people suck! 

    We don't have to deal with lizard parents; you just tune them out, or ignore their "advice", which, yes, is annoying as heck. No one does things the same way -- you live, you learn. I listen to the experts and shut out the others. HOWEVER, that being said, I didn't listen to the experts when it came to ordering the Schneider skinks and you'd think I would; but since the best place to buy them online (Backwater Reptiles) was out of the Schneider skink, I went with a company that didn't have the best reviews.

    I won't tell you their name, but I wouldn't buy another "American Reptile" if I had to.  The comments alone should have told me to stay away, but most of the bad reviews were about customer service, not the animals. Apparently, the owners had gotten into trouble over shipping tortoises from places or to places, I don't know. We ordered two Schneiders and they were shipped quickly. They were shipped overnight with FedEx and were only in their little box for about 13 hours; so that's cool.  It's the backstory that is unbelievable.

    Transparency is EVERYTHING to me. I used to tell my kids that I could take the ugly truth, but a pretty lie or omission was not how to handle things.  With the skinks, they came in one box rather than two, but that's understandable since it saves money. However, they put them in the SAME mesh bag with only paper and paper towels to separate them. Granted, Schneider skinks can be housed together, but one is definitely male and one is definitely female. I really do hope nothing too serious was taking place under those coverings.

    When we unboxed them, we videoed - and it's a good thing we did too. The top one was mine, Avalon. She's a younger adult, maybe about a year old. She's dark on top with yellow and orange flecks, but right on top of her head, she has a big ugly already-healed gouge where apparently she was once picked up by a bird of prey; but she managed to get away. It has healed on its own, and the discoloring around the wound proves she wasn't given treatment of any kind. Granted, these were advertised as being wild-caught, but no one said they'd be beaten and battered.

    But wait, there's more.   Laura's lizard, the second one, is a little bigger. It's a boy, and a little thicker than Avalon as well. He's darker on top and has fewer spots. He's missing his entire left hand! You can't know the shock we had when at first we thought Avalon had attacked him in the box. When we couldn't find the hand in the bag, and there was no blood, it was apparent that the lizard was like that when it was shipped. 

    OK, we're good with disabled animals - you may or may not remember why - but it would have been GREAT if they had just told us what to expect. MAYBE that's why they were as cheap as they were. They were only $39.00 a piece. Shipping them was $49.00, and that's very good for a Schneider (Berber) skink. I wrote to the place and let them know, telling them that they didn't need to omit the truth. They could have been forthcoming, and we would have still been OK with them. As long as they're happy and good-natured, which they are.  It's really hard to find a rude or mean skink; just so you know.

    I went online and bought Avalon her own enclosure, and we did the whole party thing at the house where we swap out tanks and enclosures to accommodate our various reptiles. We now have 2 cats, 4 dogs, and 6 reptiles -- Laura's three reptiles are all disabled in one way or the other. One has no left hand, the other two were missing their tails when she got them. PetSmart hunts her down to give her critters that they can't sell. She's a good disabled pet owner for sure.

    Well, that's about it. We have too many lizards now, but at least my office space will remain warm enough with all the lamps turned on during the day.  We were going to house the two Schneiders together, but nope...not if they're gonna be making babies! I draw the line at breeding. I know, I'm really mean like that, but you never know exactly how her guy Zuko could have lost his left hand - could have been because he got a little too frisky with another lizard back in Egypt, where they came from.  It's weird to think that these guys came from way over on that side of the world, but they did.

    Since Avalon is about a year old, I'll give her March 1 as her birthday. She'll be happy and love her new place for many good, fun-loving, basking years to come.

Photo Credit: Me.  This is Avalon the Schneider skink.