Keeping a turtle as a pet has come a long way from the plastic palm tree set-ups of old. From the common box turtle to the less-common Ornate Wood Turtle to the extremely rare albino soft shell, there’s a turtle for every lifestyle, budget, and personality. Turtles make fascinating, peaceful pets, but their penchant for longevity means you must be prepared to devote as many as thirty or forty years of care and attention to your new reptilian friend. If you’re ready to share your heart and home with one of nature’s most ancient and mysterious creatures, then read on for some great pet turtle care advice.

The type of care your turtle will require depends, for the most part, on the type of turtle you plan on getting. While you will certainly want to learn as much as you can about the specific breed of turtle you select, there are some basic rules that apply to pet turtle care, and these rules are different for the two main categories of turtles-water turtles and land turtles. To ensure your turtle’s long life and happiness, you should strive to give him a comfortable, home-like environment. For water turtles (such as sliders, coots, and map turtles) this means providing at least 20 gallons of tank space complete with a small “island” for basking, a heat lamp for simulating sunlight, and a UVB light to help the turtle absorb maximum nutrients from his food. Water turtles are graceful, speedy swimmers, so the more swimming room they have, the better! Land turtles (such as box turtles) require plenty of room to roam with hollowed logs or flowerpots to hide in, natural vegetation, a basking area with a heat lamp, and a shallow dish of water for soaking. Many people choose to keep their land turtles outside in specially designed pens. This enables the turtles to not only enjoy the great outdoors, but to hibernate in the winter just as they would in the wild.

While the housing needs of water and land turtles differ dramatically, their diets are actually quite similar. As you learn to take care of a pet turtle, you’ll discover that turtles, like most people, are omnivores. This means you’ll probably be adding some groceries to your list! There are several varieties of pre-made “turtle chow” available at pet stores, but it’s best to use those products sparingly and offer your turtle a wide range of foods. Most land and water turtles alike will happily devour crickets, earthworms, and snails. Water turtles love chasing feeder fish such as minnows and goldfish around their tank and many will also eat cooked chicken, shrimp, and tuna Never feed your turtle hamburger meat, as it’s far too high in fat for your turtle to digest properly. Turtles also enjoy a nice salad or fruit plate from time to time. They’re particularly fond of Romaine lettuces (never feed iceberg or spinach), dandelion greens, carrots, cantaloupe, strawberries, blackberries, tomatoes, and apples. Who knows! Having a turtle might just help you on your way to healthier eating habits (though we probably can’t say the same for exercise).

While you may not feel like a pet turtle care expert right now, you’ll hopefully have many happy years to become one! Caring for a pet turtle can be an experience that is both unique and rewarding in a pet-keeping culture dominated by dog and cat owners. While a turtle may not greet you at the door or curl up purring on your feet, it provides a lower maintenance option for busy people who don’t have time for a dog or cat. At the end of a long, hard day, a turtle’s gentle, peaceful, low-stress personality will surely be a calming influence and inspiring refuge in a speed-driven society. Take some time to relax, munch on a piece of fruit, and enjoy time well spent in the company of your new turtle!

In the days of Good King Freddie the Umteenth, the patron saint and minister for the environment was a noble knight called Cuthbert. Keeping to the ancient traditions, Saint Cuthbert wore a shining suit of burnished steel armour and rode a splendid white stallion. With lance and sword he chased the Welsh dragons and other assorted reptilian megafauna that threatened the peace and tranquillity of old England. These methods had been successful in the past, but times were changing. Even with more helpers under his command, all to a man graduates of the Eton School of Chivalry, Cuthbert knew that he was losing control of the situation. The plague of fire-breathing monsters was reaching epidemic proportions.

There was a time when patron saints and their helpers had been allowed to kill the monsters, if they could catch them, and even destroy their eggs, if they could reach them on the high crags of Snowdonia and the Cairngorms. Now however, since the arrival of the grumpy greens, expelled from France by King Pierre, a law had been passed classifying all incendiary monsters as belonging to endangered species. Conservation was the order of the day. Causing actual bodily harm to an adult flame thrower, or even a juvenile smoke rings puffer, was forbidden by law, at pain of a severe dunking in Freddie’s moat.

Whether or not Cuthbert could kill the monsters was purely hypothetical, they could no longer be caught by men on horseback. There had been a time long ago when most species couldn’t fly and were only capable of running at high speed for a short distance. But inevitably, it was the fastest runners and highest hoppers that got away and lived to breed another day. By the process now known as natural selection, the indigenous megafauna developed longer legs and wider wings until the situation came about that was now all too familiar to Cuthbert.

Yes, Cuthbert was a man of the past. A new era had dawned and a new man was needed, with new methods to bring peace to the realm in a more humane and effective way. King Freddie consulted his prime minister, Merlin the Whirlin, but although it was plain to both of them that Cuthbert was no longer up to the job, who could they appoint in his place? Neither yet realised that a new patron saint and minister of the environment was ready to take up the challenge. The time of Saint George had arrived!

Have you ever watched someone get enraged? Have you ever watched them as they became more and more angry, as the anger consumed them and started feeding upon itself, almost like perpetual motion? Many psychologists explain this to be attributed to a “fight or flight” response within the oldest part of the human brains, sometimes referred to as the reptilian part of the brain. Indeed, throughout my life, I have observed this rage and anger build up in various human endeavors.

Perhaps you have too. I’ve seen it is sports, business, politics, and I’ve watched it with addicted personalities who were coming off drugs, alcohol withdrawls, or in the midst of being loaded or under such influence. Indeed, I’ve also talked to abused employees, children, spouse, and watch the effects on pets and animals. It’s truly unfortunate.

In fact, not long ago, I was discussing this fascinating topic with an older lady, who was somewhat bitter, after an abusive marriage to a “rage-aholic” as she termed him. She stated to me; “That energy of pure unadulterated anger is like an addictive high. But it destroys. The person who carries it around, should realize what’s happening, as they see it the most. And it likely eats away at their credibility to – even – their own credibility to themselves.”

Indeed, her comments make sense, don’t they? And she made me think about how this works. Hmm? Well, anger can assist in ramping up brain chemicals, which could become a more preferred state I suppose, which could lead to problems down the road for the individual for instance they might lose their job, get into trouble, or have a hard time with interpersonal relationships. Although, it might also help an individual think because the individual had more brain chemicals flowing, or help them in something like a sporting competition, or with regards to the “fight response” in the brain.

So, what might be an emotional asset in football, it could be the undoing of the individual’s personal life off the field, and when we throw in something like substance abuse, well, that would just make it even worse. Now then, this emotionally damaged woman, also has some other demons in her closet, perhaps due to the toxic relationship she once had.

Nevertheless, it should be a reminder to those with Anger Management Issues, that your actions can effect others in a very serious way. Leaving emotional scars which could last a lifetime, so, with that in mind, I thank you for reading this article.

The tuatara (Sphendon punctatus) is a spectacular reptile that only lives in New Zealand. Often called the living dinosaur, the tuatara has resisted both extinction and change. The tuatara is the only survivor of the reptilian order Sphehodontia. Evolutionary biologists believe that it lived together with early dinosaurs in the Upper Triassic some 200 million years ago.

Recently, researchers found an interesting detail about the tuatara. David Lambert and his colleagues at the Allan Wilson Centre for Molecular Ecology and Evolution analysed DNA sequences they found in the bones of tuatara estimated to be 8000 years old.

They published their findings in the journal Trends in Genetics. As reported by EurekAlert and LiveScience, their discoveries were astounding: they found that the tuatara is the fastest evolving animal. “What we found was that the tuatara has the highest molecular evolutionary rate anyone has measured,” professor Lambert says according to EurekAlert. Lambert’s study suggests that the tuatara has been evolving faster that animals like the cave bear, lion, ox or horse.

So how can an animal that has shown no signs of change for aeons be changing faster than many others? Professor Lambert says, “the rate of molecular evolution was uncoupled from the rate of morphological evolution.” In other words, inner change or change at the molecular level does not correspond to what we see on the outside.

Yet evolutionary theory predicted that slow change or no change would have corresponded to slow change or no change at the molecular level. Far from supporting the neo-Darwinian theory of molecules-to-man evolution, the “living dinosaur” shows that there are grave problems with the view.

Like other living fossils such as the crocodile, army ant, cockroach, Coelacanth and horseshoe crab, the tuatara is evidence for resistance to the type of change that Darwinian evolution desperately needs.

Some animal species have a history of incredible change. The dog (Canis lupus familiaris), which according to Linnean classification belongs to the same species as the gray wolf (Canis lupus), is capable of an enormous amount of variety, brought about by artificial selection. But this is not the kind of change that evolution in its neo-Darwinian sense requires.

And neither is the variety evident in the DNA of a reptile that has resisted change for a very long time.

Okay. So you did something wrong. Maybe you made a social blunder; maybe you carried out some task and failed. In short: You messed up.

For people with low confidence, failure can be downright devastating.

I know. Because I used to be ashamed of things I did or said. All the time.

And I’m not talking about calmly realizing one’s wrongdoing and immediately learning from it. I’m talking an involuntary panic-anxiety-attack-like-muscle-spasms-complete-with-grinding-teeth-and-making-noises sorta sensation.

With an inner voice going like: “Screw you! You messed up, and you’re useless! You’re unable to do anything right, and you should be locked away! You messed up, and that’s all you’re ever gonna do!”

Every day, several times.

And it doesn’t even have to be something big. It could be a misused word, a social faux pas… anything.

When non-fident people react drastically to making any kind of mistake, it’s because non-fidence is often accompanied by low self-esteem, perfectionism, and insecurity.

When we have low self-esteem, we tend to judge ourselves more vigorously than we would our peers. If we don’t like ourselves, we’re hard on ourselves. Simple as that.

But moreover, if we don’t allow for ourselves to make mistakes, we develop perfectionism. Which, in turn, makes it seem so much worse to us when we do make a mistake. – Or even do something in a manner less than “perfect”. (Which, as I’ve written about before, is a BS notion.)

And then there’s the insecurity, which doesn’t allow for much space for mistakes, nor for even trying. This is governed by the amygdala – the reptilian part of our brain – most commonly known for our “fight or flight” mechanism.

See, amongst our primitive ancestors, social identity was way more important than today. Dangers were all around. If you messed up something, it could get you expelled from your tribe and thrown out into the wilderness on your own.

All of this perfectly illustrates the dangerous downward spiral of non-fidence. If we have low regard for ourselves we make less space for ourselves to make mistakes. This, in turn, causes making mistakes to be even more likely, which, then, will only lead to much more self-loathing and shame.

Because we DO make mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes. We know this perfectly well, yet tend to act like we’re the only flawed person alive.

But here’s the kicker:

Confident people make WAY many more mistakes than less confident people.

The more confident you are, the less regard you give to other people’s opinion about you. The higher you think of yourself, the less you worry about making mistakes. You know perfectly well that your rights outnumber your wrongs. You know perfectly well that you’re able to learn from your mistakes.

Indeed, if you don’t make mistakes, you can never learn. And if you don’t learn, you don’t grow.

In other words:

For every time you messed up something in life, you had the opportunity to learn, grow, and prevent yourself from making the same mistake again.

So get out there and mess up. Badly. Learn, improve, repeat. And as you learn and grow, watch as your confidence grows with you.

ACTION ITEM:

The next time you’re embarrassed about something, use the following method:

1. Stop what you’re doing.
2. Breathe. Ten long, deep breaths.
3. Think. Realize that whatever negative response on your part are merely thoughts, and that they’re not necessarily true, constructive or favourable.
4. Choose how you want to feel about what happened. Do you genuinely want to be ashamed? Or would you rather accept, learn, and grow?

The choice is yours.

The leopard gecko is member of the reptilian class of animals and is also one of the smallest known reptiles in existence. Some tiny geckos have been known to only grow to reach a length of 0.6 in (or 1.6 cm). An adult leopard geckos can however, grow to reach lengths of 8 to 12 inches long and weigh as much as 60 to over 100 grams.

They originated from different parts of India, Afghanistan and Pakistan where they inhabited dry, rocky and dessert like environments.

The Leopard gecko has already become one of the most commonly bred lizards in Asia, The U.S. and Europe and is growing in popularity as a household pet.

Even though they are big headed, hard bodied reptilians they are considered to be very good natured creatures and they are pretty easy to care for.

One thing that makes Leopard and Fat-tail geckos different from most other geckos is that they have well developed eyelids along with toes that do not have expanded toe tips (or webs), most other geckos lack these two features.

One of the things that makes the gecko so popular with those interested in the world of lizards is the vast and diverse amount of different and vibrant colors available with these animals. through generations of breeding a wide variety of new and unique colors and patterns have been created over the years.

There are at least twenty different varieties (or morphs) of the leopard gecko that are available commercially.

Some of the many different leopard gecko morphs include the las vegas (rainwater) albino, bell albino, tremper albino, tangerine, carrot-tail, stripe, reverse stripe, red stripe, giant, jungle, APTOR, mack snow, line bred snow, patternless, enigma, eclipse, and blizzards just to name a few.

The Leopard geckos are nocturnal creatures meaning that they are most active at night. They are also terrestrial animals which means they prefer to live on dry land.

With good care from their owners geckos can live up to 20 years in a proper environment. But in order to keep them healthy and happy, you should make sure you provide them with a few basic things. They shed their skin habitually. For this they need a humid type of habitat which aids in them being able to properly shed their skin.

Getting a shed box for your pet gecko is a get way to help accommodate your pet. A shed box is essentially a hide box with damp sphagnum moss. This aids the leopard gecko in the shedding process. They also must maintain a good diet. They store the extra fat within their tails. This helps to ensure that they don’t starve in times of scarcity.

A leopard gecko with a fat tail is in fact a healthy gecko. They should also be provided with a source of light and heat. It is also important to provide a temperature gradient for your gecko. A temperature gradient is basically having a warm end and a cool end of the enclosure that will allow your gecko to regulate its own body temperature.

Like many reptiles all geckos are possible carriers of salmonella and other infectious diseases. Owners must always wash your hands before and after handling your leopard gecko and/or the habitat contents to help prevent the potential of spread of these diseases.

As time goes on geckos are gaining in popularity and will continue to be one of the most kept reptiles in captivity. As their popularity grows breeders will continue to breed ever more unique and interesting specimens.

To learn more about this very unique and love-able please visit my website at http://leopardgeckoscenter.com

In all of Seventh Hell, a morbid hyper
-natural habitat, human remnants
live with sluggish plant life,
sharing each other's parts in sub-animal
thought and activity-: with gull and boldness
in one heap of an anomalous horticulture
of turpitude, and iniquities.

All parts being ennui: forked with ears, and tongues,
Noses, thews, sways and boles; to an onlooker
this world would be thaumaturgy, for
its wondrous weirdness, beyond redemption.

Inside this pocketed loamy uninterred furrow,
in its oubliettes, devil like dwarfs do
their grafting of plant and corpse and even
live human organisms, assembling
fetus parts-sanguine-found in graves, purchased
at practicums, clinics; suture one to another,
amid repugnant odors, and ordure.

Deep in Seventh Hell, deep in its arcane
grotto, resides the Syrinx-the genii
of it all, once a river-nymph, changed into
a reed, and the reed into pieces of
decreasing lengths, fastened together with wax,
her skin incrustation of bark, her teeth
erudite and spiked, forked. Reptilian tongue.
Head like a fairy, wings like a bat-
seducer of the dwarfs, who suck the
yellowish-red Ichor-as if from the
old ones, the Titans, cursed into the plants,
taken out by forming incisions,
into human torsos or stems of a harsh wound!

Beneath this loamy pocket of earth the
demon dwarf lair in ennui, await the
new and immense emergence of the surface's
new diabolical age. The age of
seethed fear, pandemonium, of debauch
menaces, no longer halcyon, inimical
their hair tresses, just waiting, waiting … to
enter the surface, waiting ten-thousand
years. Their dwarf demonic eyes spin in orbits
of stooped pleasures to be, still ennui from
this halt, their muscles knotted up from the stoop
within their lair; yet all with demoniac steadfastness.

So, on they wait, the final long night, the
last hour, midway between cobra-like activation,
and a door closed behind them to drag in
humanity's muffled tribulation.

Arms hanging like apes, per near touching the
ground, waiting for man to sour with God and
for God's last wielding break, with humanity
as it is, thus, they are ready for their
victims. Those who have cursed God's will,
closed hearted, indifferent to man,
yet burden themselves with cats and dogs
and hold no emotions for their neighbors:
mongrels and mutts among men; for politicians
they have the rusty coffin-hinge, ready.

"They will fall like the falling of the gargoyles
from a cathedral "whispers the chief dwarf
fiend, to the incrustation barked Syrinx,
who will guide the dwarfs out of the fleapit
out of Seventh Hell's loam, for earth's doom.

And now she screams: "We come, we come with
our heated, and frenzied breath of crimson
hell, – out of our hell-born labyrinth! "
No longer bored, hesitated, or doubtful.
To slay or be slain, with waxing heat, growing!
An arboreal masquerade, of flesh and stem:
of demon and mythological goddess.
Human scions hid behind leafage, mantles.
They change shapes like instant deliriums.

The Syrinx's Un-decorous Demise

The Syrinx, with squandering horror to spill
upon the human race, her repulsive
hate to all of mankind's lot, she threatened
the world that would listen, her cruel with
exigency, to take the devil's pledge
of the mark of 666 (the mark of
he Beast, and Satan being that very
metamorphoses, -like to the Syrinx's
transubstantiation, or transgenic …)
save, should you not, only to be fated
by and by, to a hopeless life, and lack.

And she built for herself a ghoul-god temple.
In an idle saunter, she paced its marble
stone floors, held her rituals and worship: and
thus came the priesthood of dwarf-fiends whom
had introduced much gloom to mankind in
her name: the provider of provender of the
Titan gods, of long ago. Yet she too
was an impersonal force akin to the
elements, of the supernatural, cosmos;
Thus, subject to dark ebon ambiguities.

No one knew the manner of her evaporation;
feasibly her death, her execution-
Perchance, brought to an even lower order
of subterranean earth-entities,
by Satan for her temple blasphemies. And
thus fed, and lived, with the devourers dead.

It is not simply heresy, but true, not a mere
hieratic figment, that once you join Satan's
lot, he wants to rivals, and hence, the livid
Syrinx, must have forgotten, was disavowed
with satanic pious reprobation, by Lucifer.
She had formed no conscious plan, to make
haste but dared to reconnoiter its restraints
for want of habituated worship and fame.

# 5250 / 5-26 & 27-2016

A healthy diet for any reptile is imperative for their survival and a long life. Not only does the right food selection important but lighting and warmth are key as well because they are both necessary for absorption of nutrients and minerals. Lighting is important for bone formation and the warmth or heat aids in skin shedding and a healthy digestion for the reptiles.

Unlike a pet that is warm blooded, reptiles like snakes, lizards and turtles usually require their food to be alive. When feeding your reptile, you must know which type of reptile you have as well as what the diet restrictions are. There are several types of reptiles that indicate what their diet should consist of. These types include insectivores, herbivores, omnivores and carnivores. This will give you an idea of what to feed your reptile as well as what not to feed them. Snakes for example are a certain kind of reptile that is a carnivore, meaning that it will most likely benefit from eating a warm blooded diet. Mice and rats can be a meal that satisfies a snake and can be done on a weekly basis.

Most likely, any reptile that you are feeding will benefit from eating gray crickets or even meal worms. Since most crickets and worms can be rich with calcium, they are both great to give to reptiles. Check to see if your reptile is restricted from consuming animal or insect proteins as it could potentially lead to internal malfunctions. For example, green iguanas, which are more strictly vegetarian should not eat insect proteins as it could cause kidney disease and renal failure. It is a good idea to find out if your reptile can eat animal or insect proteins.

Though there are some restrictions to reptilian diets, most reptiles can eat similar vegetables and fruits that are eaten by people. Proportions however should not be excessive and should really be carefully monitored during the eating period. Certain calcium rich vegetables should be given to your reptilian pet at a minimum of twice daily. These vegetables full of calcium include, turnip greens, dandelion greens, and kale and collard greens. Other vegetables that are rich in minerals consist of peas, zucchini, squash and green beans. If you wish to offer your reptile some fruits, bananas, berries and apples should make up part of the diet.

For those that have diet restrictions for their reptile pets, there are some alternatives to live insects that could still keep them healthy. Sometimes owners of reptiles can benefit from feeding their pets canned reptile food much like people would feed cats or dogs. Often canned alternatives can be silkworms and crickets. It is an interesting and safer alternative to live worms and crickets. Sometimes there are dry roasted crickets to offer reptiles that are filled with calcium. Reptile feeding is as simple as feeding any other kind of pet. They require a bit of attention and detail in their diet as well as lighting and heat to keep them healthy.

You’ve probably heard about the gray cricket or have encountered it at some point, either inside of your house chirping or outside in your yard. For some people the gray cricket is an excellent food source for their reptilian pets and will either choose to raise the crickets or buy them from a store. Here you will find some history about the gray cricket as well as their nutritional content provided for reptiles and other pets that eat them.

History

Gray crickets, also known as house crickets or acheta domesticus, are commonly found throughout the United States and are often found in pet and bait shops around the country. The average life cycle of these insects usually lasts from two to three months depending on their climate. Gray crickets usually need a warm environment in order to grow and live, ranging from 80 degrees Fahrenheit to 90 degrees. They grow to approximately 16 to 20 millimeters long and will vary in color, but mostly will be gray, brown or yellow. Often times their wings will cover up their abdomens and they have a chirping noise characteristic to their species.

The gray cricket or acheta domesticus female will lay eggs from 50 to 100 and grow to be known as nymphs. It will usually take the crickets around 8 to 12 weeks in order to reach their full maturity levels. When pet stores, and bait shops raise crickets, they will generally give them warmth, food, water and a good place for them to lay their eggs. Crickets can be bred in shops but also maintained at homes of reptile pet owners.

Nutritional Content

As a part of a varied diet for most reptiles and even amphibians such as frogs and turtles, crickets are an excellent staple for food. Most commonly, crickets are found in pet stores, bait shops and also through online stores that breed and sell them as food for reptile pets. Most stores will gut load or feed their crickets with high calcium each day before selling them to others to distribute to their pets. There are also calcium powders or dust that can be sprinkled on top of the crickets before consumption. These powders or dust can also be bought from the stores that sell the gray crickets for reptile diets.

Most of the nutritional content that crickets provide depends on what they are fed themselves. Generally, the gray cricket contains a large about of moisture, protein, fat and carbohydrates. Of course when crickets are subjected to a calcium diet, they provide around 21 milligrams of calcium. Since one concern that most reptiles and amphibian owners can have is making sure to feed their pets a diet that is rich in calcium and also lower in phosphorous, crickets are great ways to make sure the diet is sustained. What typically goes into the acheta domesticus.

When it comes to pain, an important question to ask is: How are we relating to pain? The way that we relate to pain decides whether pain is sucking the life out of us or whether it’s fuel for our healing.

The basic way that we tend to relate to pain is to try to avoid it. If we want to turn pain into fuel for our healing we’ve got to relate to it differently and that’s no small task. First of all, the primitive parts of our brain (the reptilian brain, or the back brain) are wired to avoid pain. In this way we’re not that different from our reptile counterparts. Second of all, the avoidance of pain is something that has been reinforced over and over by the people around us throughout our lives. Thirdly the avoidance of pain is what’s being supported by the majority of the healthcare world. Most people that you go to for help, even alternative healthcare professionals, want to help you avoid pain.

You may have heard it said that insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results. Well, if you’ve been relating to the pain in the same way and nothing’s changing, you might want to think about taking a different route. The solution is to go towards the pain. How do you go towards the pain? Bring your attention to it. Where is it exactly? Notice the boundaries. Are they clear or fuzzy? Jagged or smooth? Does the pain end abruptly somewhere or does it radiate out? Does it have volume? Shape? Texture? Maybe it’s heavy and solid like brick, or maybe it’s a viscous fluid like chocolate pudding. Maybe it has color?

When you bring your attention to pain in this way, you might notice that something changes. Maybe the pain moves to some other part of your body. Maybe it decreases in intensity, or maybe it increases in intensity. Maybe you start to feel really angry or sad. Maybe there’s some story that comes to the surface: you find yourself arguing in your head with your dad or your boss.

Now let go of that and just notice how you feel. Do you feel different? I bet you do. Any change that you can notice at all, even if the pain got worse, means progress. That might go against convention wisdom but like they used to say on Scooby Doo, “It’s so crazy, it just might work.”