"OK, shortly. Hop on and I'll show you around the place."
This is Pokey, and Eloise.
They are both Testudo horsfieldii tortoises from Russia. These are both wild caught specimens, and are both males. There are several successfully breeders of this species in the US. They are very personable, and will become quite hardy once they adapt to their environment.
Uromastyx Maliensis - is commonly referred to as a Mali Uromastyx. They come from the Sudan Desert in Africa. This is the yet nameless Male, and shares the habit with a Female. They are both two years old, and will hopefully become a future breeding project.
With those eyes it was a simple task to give this unique Gecko it's name.."Lucifer". The scientific name is Goniurosaurus luii. It lives in the high mountains of China and Indo China where it is cool and damp. It's shy nocturnal behavior kept this beautiful animal a secret until the mid nineteen nineties. With so little known of this species of Gecko it is amazing that you are looking at a captive bred young male that is third generation already!. The similarity of body shape, and juvenile stripping to the Leopard Gecko is immediately noticed when they are compared. Even their behavior is similar. Those eyes, however give this creature a look all its' own.
Geochelone paradalis babcocki; commonly called the Leopard Tortoise. Younger specimens, like "Speedy", here often show incredible patterns, and color. Unfortunately, as they grow older they tend to lose these striking patterns, and the bright coloration. While "Speedy" is now ten years old, it will be another five to ten years before he nears his adult size of sixteen to twenty inches in diameter, and thirty to fifty pounds. With a healthy environment and proper diet maybe he will be able to hold onto that beautiful pattern for many more years to come. I hatched him from an egg. His parents are also captive bred, and live in southern California in a free roaming environment. The weather there is perfect for this central African Tortoise. While a desert dweller in its' native habitat, it seems to be readily adaptable to one that resembles a Savannah.
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Geochelone carbonaria - This commonly referred to Red Foot Tortoise, is an active, personable animal. This male is captive bred, and won't get as big as his friend the Leopard Tortoise. He will grow to be twelve to fifteen inches in length. A vegetarian, like the others that share his Vivarium, knows when the food arrives. All these Tortoises have a very keen sense of smell, and a great appetite.
Uromastyx benti, or Mountain Rainbow Benti, as they are commonly referred to, have only been imported in the last few years.. I was fortunate in that early this year when a long awaited shipment of this species of Uromastyx was imported from Yemen largely by the efforts of Douglas Dix, I was able to acquire an adult pair of these beautiful animals.
Below is the female checking me out as I snap her picture.
Here is the Male. What a couple of beauties they are! They are housed in environment that I hoped would let them acclimate quickly. The diet was worked on right away finding out their favorite mix of vegetables, while trying to coax them to eat what was best for them. They have remained healthy now for three years on a diet of frozen mixed vegetables, with extra beans of various types added into the mixed vegetables.
While mating has been viewed a number of times since acquiring these animals, no eggs have been laid yet. This species of Uromastyx is just now begriming to enjoy some successful breeding efforts in captivity.
In order to insure successful breeding a larger enclosure would have to be utilized. Due to our space constrictions that is a project that will have to wait.
While cool temperatures would be the assumed best climate, they do very well at a variety of temperatures. We maintain ours with in a range of 70 degrees to 80 degrees during the daytime with the night time temperature dropping only slightly. Moisture is kept at 70 % plus as can been seen in the above picture with the moisture causing some distortion in the photo. they are aggressive eaters that do well on dusted crickets as their main diet.
Not to be outdone by the Benti's the Female Mali is taking a moonlight stroll. She is caught out as the lights go out looking for some of those vegetables she just saw me place right near the tunnel entrance.
Nice close up, and those vegetables are to your right.
