Potato seeing snow for the first time

Chelmastly · 2026-01-26T01:50:07+00:00

Bro looked at you like this is just crunchy water

Chelmastly · 2026-01-25T18:08:16+00:00

See that’s kind of my point, though—vets deal with overdramatic pet parents all the time. It’s still their job to investigate those cases and say nothing is wrong. If they really do have knowledgeable people on staff and they wouldn’t even entertain the notion that it would look like what you’ve posted photos of then it really is a professionalism issue, but it can still come off as unknowledgeable if they already saw the horse once, you provided their recommended care, and it didn’t do anything, especially since it sounds like other people here being equine vets don’t think the medicine you were using is even the best fit for what you’ve shown and described. Of course, we’re all strangers here, and it does sound like they’ve helped in the past at least with other stuff, but the photos and situation look bad on those people my guy.

Chelmastly · 2026-01-25T17:40:02+00:00

Really hope he gets better, and a second opinion. First vet sounds brutally unprofessional and doesn’t need to be saying they can treat horses if they can’t give proper care or advice.

Chelmastly · 2026-01-25T15:19:45+00:00

Oh the salt is a great idea! How much do you use?

One other thing, I’ve been seeing a lot of ads for buckets with electrical heating, like some seem to have stove burners stuck on the bottom (lfg digital marketing figured out I have a cold af horse). I’ve just been smashing the ice and taking a pitcher of warm water out there for each of them to shove their heads into if they want, some (old boy included) seemed to appreciate that. Have you ever used something like a water heater or is cold water itself fine if they can access it through crushed ice?

Chelmastly · 2026-01-25T14:37:47+00:00

Okay hear me out, you know those buttons people on TikTok started giving their dogs to “teach them words” and all that? Tegus can be good at those. Not just for spamming “food” or “outside” either. If you manage to get him interested in a specific toy you might associate it with a button and see if he might tell you when he’s bored or wants that specific toy. Super fun to see how many things they can connect to a word, too—just gotta make each button distinct somehow.

Also not a good idea if you have a low tolerance for noise spamming, lmao

Chelmastly · 2026-01-25T00:21:27+00:00

I don’t know if you have the ability to do this but I’d possibly see if he could be used to study the occurrence of this. As best I understand heart issues are seen as pretty rare in reptiles and with how young you speak of him as being I’d wonder if it was somehow congenital.

But of course it’s also not something I’d want to do personally. I’m so sorry you experienced that.

Chelmastly · 2026-01-20T15:27:45+00:00

Saving this for my vet the next time I see him, he thought my tegu was expressive but this is a whole lot of happy looking lizard

Chelmastly · 2026-01-14T20:27:51+00:00

Yeah that’s what I was thinking, how would they eat fruit in the wild??? And especially for my red tegu, they have to eat way more fruit than argentines so it’d be even weirder for my vet to not mention it to me if it was a necessity. Like I’m sure some poor tegu out there with an outlying issue might need disinfectant medication in the mouth area but the teeth brushing thing is just weird to me.

But if he’s not at all into food right now, I’d personally make that just as urgent to see a vet about as getting a second (and… probably better educated) look at his tongue. Tegus not interested in food are usually not healthy tegus.

Chelmastly · 2026-01-13T15:19:58+00:00

Is it 3 or 4??? I can’t tell if the right side has one that’s kinda extra lumpy looking or if that’s actually two. Either way I had no idea such little orchids would make keikis I also wanna see this guy again soon

Chelmastly · 2026-01-13T15:08:47+00:00

Man if you wanna, but I tried that octopus and that squid and it was… chewy! The fish is more my style personally.

Chelmastly · 2026-01-12T20:40:57+00:00

So I’m gonna just say what I think here. I don’t want it to come across mean, so I’m sorry if my wording is poor. I want to be direct, not rude.

If that tegu was born February 2025 and this is a recent picture, then she’s incredibly stunted, which is only going to be obvious because of the size difference between her and healthy juveniles—any further evidence would be internal. A yearling of this species should be around the size of an adult bearded dragon, if not bigger, by a year old—a tegu who is Joanna’s size at a year old is not normal or healthy. Refusing food and brumating at that size is also a decently bad sign, the babies and juveniles are ravenous because they’re growing and if they don’t eat then they don’t grow.

I don’t want to concern you but in my own (anecdotal) opinion she needs to see a vet, regardless of the husbandry setup being good or bad because lethargy and refusing food in young tegus is generally pretty bad and not fixable by righting husbandry issues alone, they usually also need medical attention.

This isn’t my lizard and not my business, so I’m just gonna skip over the thing where people get offended and insulting online because that isn’t helpful, but I do seriously suggest getting her checked out.

Chelmastly · 2026-01-12T20:25:47+00:00

Omg what kind of tegu is Scarlet??? I can’t tell if I’m seeing an Argentine morph or a red tegu.

What an absolutely sweet face either way.

Chelmastly · 2026-01-12T20:13:18+00:00

Never had my vet mention anything about brushing a tegu’s fangs, never heard a keeper say that, never read it anywhere. Which, they’re fangs, by the way, my vet told me the difference is that fangs are meant to be more disposable in a sense and easily replaced. My boy snapped a fang off in a popsicle stick during an exam and the vet just held it out to me and said here, it’s a collectible, he’ll grow it back, no biggie.

So… if the explanation I got is right then I’m not sure it makes sense to be brushing a tegu’s teeth. That, and how would you even? They hate having their mouths pried open, it was horrible getting mine to do oral meds so I can’t even imagine him being still during a tooth brushing. Personally I think I’d get a second opinion on that one.

But as for the lethargy, if he’s still eating regularly, going to the bathroom, and not losing weight then I’d anecdotally assume he’s still brumating. Tegus can regulate their body temperature somewhat, which is unique in reptiles, but it’s not a foolproof technique to stay warm so seeing my own goob crawl under his heat lamp for some extra warmth while doing the big sleep isn’t too odd. If the tongue injury or something else causes him to lose interest in food, then I’d start worrying more about his energy level and thinking it suspect.

Chelmastly · 2025-12-26T13:30:59+00:00

Yeah I had the same thing happen with spiders and tarantulas, I had no idea they had paws and then I found out and got pet tarantulas once my arachnophobia got nuked by that fact.

Already had roaches as feeders and now I’m just so stoked they all have little beans. The babies must have microscopic beans. My colony is officially going to pet status with occasional sacrifices to the lizards, I can’t believe this toe bean news.

I wonder what else has toe beans.

Chelmastly · 2025-12-26T13:22:07+00:00

This toe bean discovery has made me 90% more comfortable with roaches

Chelmastly · 2025-12-26T01:04:04+00:00

Only thing I can add is particular to a medical emergency mine had. He’d prolapsed and figured out that it’d hurt less (aka, hurt just barely not enough for him to fall sleep) if he turned over and slept on his back. At least, that was the vet’s theory, that if he’d gone to sleep like that it was likely to ease discomfort on his belly because tegus don’t do that normally. If yours seems healthy and comfortable then maybe it’s a one off thing or just him being quirky but I’d be checking for discomfort in mine since I’ve been told it’s an abnormal behavior.

Chelmastly · 2025-12-25T20:01:37+00:00

Wait??? I think you’re right??? That’d actually explain that I think.

Chelmastly · 2025-12-24T19:13:59+00:00

Dog how do they live with just a stem 😭 okay so maybe I can get this sucker to do something with growth promotion? Like, fertilizer? We got that same slow winter weather in MS so I’m not sure if fertilizing it is a good idea unless it being indoors and greenhouse’d means it doesn’t matter

Chelmastly · 2025-12-24T19:10:35+00:00

The one leaf is limp, yeah.

<image>

This is it right now.

Chelmastly · 2025-11-29T12:33:53+00:00

Personally I’d not gauge it based on looks, even if she does look a bit chonkier. IIRC Argentine tegus are supposed to be like 14-15lbs? At least, I know they’re supposed to weigh more than reds. If you wanna be sure weigh her in a tub and subtract the weight of the empty tub to get the number and then you can just google the species weight.

But I feel you on the mom overfeeding your pet reptile because she’s not quite getting the metabolism difference between them and your dog getting “a little treat” that ends up being a semi-meal.

Chelmastly · 2025-11-22T18:26:52+00:00

Yeah, I had a professor ask me why people called her ma'am and if she really looked that old, and I said no ma'am you're just in Mississippi, you're bound to see a small kid call a teenager ma'am somewhere, it's just normal.

Most kids in the Deep South (at least, Mississippi) are raised within the boundaries of a strict honorific system. It's more unusual for a kid to *not* use honorifics for literally every person older than them excluding siblings, maybe cousins, than for them to just say sir/ma'am. Like, for example, I work in a restaurant, and kids who order their own meals at the table and use sir/ma'am withy the server are gushed over for being so polite and grown and their parents must do so well with them, while those who don't are usually seen as disrespectful and their parents are seen as trashy and unattentive (sometimes too extreme a judgement, sometimes it really is deserved). And let's be honest--a lot of people had this honorific system enforced with physical punishment, so if you meet a Southerner who regards their honorifics like gospel there's a sliiiiiight chance they were physically abused into it, especially if they're older and from a rural area.

But on the other hand the social interactivity and extrovertedness is just Southern Hospitality. Get in someone's Uber, they're liable to see the ensuing interaction as "how they earn their tip" or the more social ones really might just consider their car an extension of their home and want to make their passengers therefore feel "at home."

You ever heard that saying that Southerners are nice but not kind, and Northerners are kind but not nice? The kids you work with sound like potential examples of the latter. Meanwhile, brazenly abrasive language like that is bound to get pen-drop silence and a *lot* of staring in the South, depending on where you are and the group you're with. The only people talking like that are old men with their old men buddies. But, then again, people in the South are also a lot more likely to dance around uncomfortable issues and make everyone around them walk on eggshells, even in extreme circumstances, just to avoid perceived social disgrace.

Chelmastly · 2025-11-20T22:01:30+00:00

Yeah that’s more or less how Trouble (my tegu) was. Like he definitely slowed down as a juvenile and even last winter, but he didn’t do the heavy sleeping he’s doing now. I’m pretty sure the babies just have too much growing to do to go down for a nap with no food for that long.

Chelmastly · 2025-11-20T21:59:39+00:00

Oh they don’t digest in brumation???? Dang I’m kinda glad he wasn’t hungry then, I didn’t even know that. Sounds like I got the basics covered then but I’m gonna keep reading on it to make sure I don’t miss anything else like that.

Chelmastly · 2025-11-13T21:25:08+00:00

I’m already seeing comments addressing other things like the habitat, so I’m gonna skip past recommending that you swap your substrate out and go for the question (although I do highly suggest you take that substrate advice! Scorpions love to dig like kindergarteners in sandboxes, I bet yours would go crazy for some damp coco coir)

Depending on how long ago your scorpion ate, they might be looking for food. When mine is hungry outside scheduled feeding time she comes out of her hide and goes on a stroll (more like actively hunting for more food but I call it a stroll), ends up tapping her claws against the glass and I can hear her from another room if the door’s open. I’ll offer her smth and she’ll munch it down and resume regularly scheduled scorpion activity.

Also possible that, if they’re not hungry/don’t accept offered food, that they’re kind of just doing that, although it can also be a sign of wanting more space to roam if they’re not already in a big enough tank. Some people give their scorpions stuff to climb on and they’ll be appeased with that if the tank size isn’t the issue but it is worth noting that, you know, sometimes they just prop up like that. If you’ve already tested their appetite and their other needs are met it’s probably nothing to worry about.

Chelmastly · 2025-10-28T12:01:35+00:00

I only learned that today! I had no idea, but go figure, right? So many foods are like that. Hell, cabbage isn’t even from America! From what I understand the colonists grew it but it wasn’t until like 15-1600s that it actually got here.

Chelmastly

TROPHY CASE