I went to one of the local aquarium/reptile shops yesterday to purchase some food for my collection of reptiles and inverts, now,, i specifically went to this particular shop as my wife had visited it and said they had some T's for sale, with of course the prospect of buying another T along with some food. I walked into the shop feeling a little excited, sure as eggs is eggs there was an OBT, Chilean rose, and T Blondi, i could feel the cash melting right through my pocket...i had a good look at them and noted that the T Blondi wasn't looking so good and was £103...eeek i thought this was a little expensive given it didn’t look so good..
Ok before i go down on a rescue mission, if i could describe what i saw i hope that my description may be enough to give you all an idea if its worth trying to bring it back to good health...
The tank
its glass about 1ft cubed with a wire mesh on top, i couldn't see a heat mat, i am thinking it may be underneath...the substrate was sphagnum moss but looked dry, there was no facility for the T to burrow or hide and the substrate was no way deep enough to anyway, there was no hygrometer or temperature sensors of any kind,, from what i could tell there was not adequate humidity as i could see no water condensing on the glass...
The T Blondi
Ok, first, it looked active but i believe this was because it was trying to find some where to hide it kept trying to climb the glass, the T is approx 4", it hadn’t eaten for three weeks, which was when it emerged from its last molt according to the lady who was working in the shop, she said “it just isn’t interested in food” ...now...the abdomen was going very bald, the skin was very pink on the baldest parts but the boundary where the hair was falling out seem quite red and irritated, even slightly flaky. I would say about 65% of the abdomen was bald however the rest of the T didn’t seem to exhibit the same problem....and this is only three weeks after its molt....apparently it was bald before the molt.....the other two Ts did look well enough although the set-up was much the same I.e. for display purposes and shop owners didnt seem to have a clue about this condition
i know the set-up is incorrect but From my description does anybody have any ideas why its in the condition that it is ?? could it be some kind of mite? is it because of the environment? could it be stress? any help would be most appreciated as i would like to give it a good home along side my T Stirmi.....with a price negotiation of course....
Manythanks
Ok before i go down on a rescue mission, if i could describe what i saw i hope that my description may be enough to give you all an idea if its worth trying to bring it back to good health...
The tank
its glass about 1ft cubed with a wire mesh on top, i couldn't see a heat mat, i am thinking it may be underneath...the substrate was sphagnum moss but looked dry, there was no facility for the T to burrow or hide and the substrate was no way deep enough to anyway, there was no hygrometer or temperature sensors of any kind,, from what i could tell there was not adequate humidity as i could see no water condensing on the glass...
The T Blondi
Ok, first, it looked active but i believe this was because it was trying to find some where to hide it kept trying to climb the glass, the T is approx 4", it hadn’t eaten for three weeks, which was when it emerged from its last molt according to the lady who was working in the shop, she said “it just isn’t interested in food” ...now...the abdomen was going very bald, the skin was very pink on the baldest parts but the boundary where the hair was falling out seem quite red and irritated, even slightly flaky. I would say about 65% of the abdomen was bald however the rest of the T didn’t seem to exhibit the same problem....and this is only three weeks after its molt....apparently it was bald before the molt.....the other two Ts did look well enough although the set-up was much the same I.e. for display purposes and shop owners didnt seem to have a clue about this condition
i know the set-up is incorrect but From my description does anybody have any ideas why its in the condition that it is ?? could it be some kind of mite? is it because of the environment? could it be stress? any help would be most appreciated as i would like to give it a good home along side my T Stirmi.....with a price negotiation of course....
Manythanks
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