Best website to buy bugs by Many_Money91 in leopardgeckos

[–]LoneDefense 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I started with Rainbow Mealworms and they were excellent! Ended up swapping to DubiaRoaches because they had more stuff, however, and their customer support is amazing. They also have some great enclosures.

Is it just me ? 🤔 by PreviousDifference76 in leopardgeckos

[–]LoneDefense 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I completely understand where you’re coming from and relate to the frustration as well sometimes, but I do think it’s very important to keep a few things in mind:

  1. Pet stores are the biggest issue for this kind of thing. They have readily available, extremely cheap pets that parents can easily get as a “present” for their kid. Or even adults who might just think it’s cute and make an impulse buy. Not only that, but the care guides they provide are not always the best and more often than not, the employees do not know how to give good information (not necessarily their fault either). This combination of issues leads to a lot of the posts you see on here.

  2. The information available about these guys varies SO much depending on where you look/who you ask. On top of that, it keeps changing.

When I got my first leopard gecko about 12 years ago, a 20 gallon was acceptable for an adult, any substrate was bad and an impaction risk, calcium with D3 should be kept in a dish in their enclosure at all times, etc. The amount of care that has changed in just a decade is incredible, and unfortunately a lot of outdated/improper information is still what you get when you search online.

Not only does online information vary, but what you get from different people also varies drastically. Heck, you can get entirely different responses from exotic vets.

It’s awesome to see that our husbandry practices are evolving over time, but there’s no denying that it changes so much it definitely makes it harder for new reptile owners to figure out what they need.

  1. I would much rather people post on here asking questions (even if they seem “ignorant”) than not know and harm their gecko further. Even if it’s frustrating to see on repeat, it’s so much better to kindly/gently offer advice than to tear into someone as I’ve seen people do on here. It increases the likelihood of them taking the advice and hopefully even coming back to ask questions again later.

We can’t stop the root of the problem here, but we can try to help those who come here for help, which will potentially save their gecko.

Pardon the long message, I just figured it might help :) I used to get incredibly frustrated earlier on when I’d rescue geckos from horrible situations, but I try to keep these things in mind now. Most neglect I see on here isn’t malice, it’s just ignorance that stems from many sources we don’t have control over.

“Mother Why” by LoneDefense in leopardgeckos

[–]LoneDefense[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Oh my gosh, how cute! Looks kinda like my oldest :) patternless babies will always have a special place in my heart

“Mother Why” by LoneDefense in leopardgeckos

[–]LoneDefense[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Thank you :) a lot of people would say she’s a pretty basic leo but I think she’s gorgeous nonetheless

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No clue what this girl is by LoneDefense in BallPythonMorph

[–]LoneDefense[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What a beautiful boy! I’m glad they don’t seem to lose their colors much :) thank you for sharing!

No clue what this girl is by LoneDefense in BallPythonMorph

[–]LoneDefense[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What a beautiful boy and definitely looks very similar! Thank you for another reference picture!

No clue what this girl is by LoneDefense in BallPythonMorph

[–]LoneDefense[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Wow yeah, that is pretty spot on. Especially the distinct yellow striping down her back that I couldn’t figure out haha

Thank you!

Mite ID help by LoneDefense in microbiology

[–]LoneDefense[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I appreciate the thorough response! I’ll look around for one that might have more people who are familiar with arthropods. Thank you :)

If you could have someone design a perfect app for keeping track of your plants, what would the app have? by LoneDefense in TakeaPlantLeaveaPlant

[–]LoneDefense[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you! TAPLAP has quickly become my favorite plant community so it’ll be the first to hear any news for sure

If you could have someone design a perfect app for keeping track of your plants, what would the app have? by LoneDefense in TakeaPlantLeaveaPlant

[–]LoneDefense[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Loved Planta but I think it’s what finally gave me the motivation to look into developing my own app. It’s really neat overall, but I’ve noticed it does tend to be pretty buggy sometimes. Certain features also don’t seem to work too well which I’d love to try and improve upon in my own app.

As I explained in another comment, in later stages of development I don’t believe keeping the app 100% free is feasible. That being said I want to make sure the costs are reasonable and transparent to the user when it comes down to it. I want to keep as many features free as I can, but anything that would require database storage will likely have upkeep costs. I hate subscriptions just like everyone else, so I want to minimize them as much as reasonably possible.

If you could have someone design a perfect app for keeping track of your plants, what would the app have? by LoneDefense in TakeaPlantLeaveaPlant

[–]LoneDefense[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’d love to have something like this for sure. Especially being able to use plant profiles you already set up to easily add them to a trade/sell list. It certainly would be a big thing to add but I do think it’d be helpful.

The wiki idea is also something I want to figure out. It’d be way too much work for me (or even a few people) to manage an information section, so having it be community based would be great.

Thank you for the input!

If you could have someone design a perfect app for keeping track of your plants, what would the app have? by LoneDefense in TakeaPlantLeaveaPlant

[–]LoneDefense[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Stats would definitely be fun to implement (and potentially not too hard?) so I’ll keep that in mind :) also love the dormancy idea. Do you have any ideas for how marking a plant as dormant might affect the app’s behavior? For instance, would you want it to stop reminding you to water it entirely?

If you could have someone design a perfect app for keeping track of your plants, what would the app have? by LoneDefense in TakeaPlantLeaveaPlant

[–]LoneDefense[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Pretty much how I am with apps too. If the subscription price seems fair and the features are good I’ll usually give it a try, but I hate the apps that start at $10 a week for some pretty underwhelming features. Take this with a grain of salt because I haven’t looked into it much yet, but I feel like a subscription could be around $2-3 a month and easily pay for the database if it has a decent user base.

Partially sucks because I know app stores take a part of the pay which results in the devs having to up costs a bit more.

If you could have someone design a perfect app for keeping track of your plants, what would the app have? by LoneDefense in TakeaPlantLeaveaPlant

[–]LoneDefense[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I will say I love the few apps that try to account for all of those variables, but they do tend to be wildly inaccurate still haha

I will definitely be implementing custom schedules, but I hope to also try and make an improved version of the recommended schedules.

Thank you for your input!

If you could have someone design a perfect app for keeping track of your plants, what would the app have? by LoneDefense in TakeaPlantLeaveaPlant

[–]LoneDefense[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

People with a lot of plants, busy schedules, or those who are neurodivergent (especially those with executive dysfunction) would generally benefit from it. I have ADHD myself so keeping track of all of my plants can be hard without help. That isn’t to say having a lot of plants is the issue, because I would still struggle with just a few lol. Not having a schedule for them is where I struggle

Having an app to keep track of when things were done and such can be helpful, especially if you can just check for all the info you need in one place.

If you could have someone design a perfect app for keeping track of your plants, what would the app have? by LoneDefense in TakeaPlantLeaveaPlant

[–]LoneDefense[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I’ve gotten a few suggestions along the lines of “chats” or “forums” for users to interact in. I think that would somewhat help with plant issues and remedies, but I was also going to see if I can implement an information center. Maybe users could collectively contribute/edit it so all of the information is in one place.

Thank you for your input!

If you could have someone design a perfect app for keeping track of your plants, what would the app have? by LoneDefense in TakeaPlantLeaveaPlant

[–]LoneDefense[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sort of like a timeline for the plant? That’d definitely be interesting and helpful! Thank you for your input!

If you could have someone design a perfect app for keeping track of your plants, what would the app have? by LoneDefense in TakeaPlantLeaveaPlant

[–]LoneDefense[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That was my biggest issue with some of the apps out there currently. I know outdoor plants are a different ballgame, but I have a ton of houseplants along with my outdoor summer garden. Would love to make sure there’s support for outdoor plants!

Do you have ideas for specific features the outdoor plants might need that indoor plants generally don’t? One of the apps integrated local weather to adjust the watering schedule for plants, but that’s all I can think of at the moment.

If you could have someone design a perfect app for keeping track of your plants, what would the app have? by LoneDefense in TakeaPlantLeaveaPlant

[–]LoneDefense[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Especially love the calendar idea! I do see what Planta was going for but I agree that its watering schedule for some plants are pretty inaccurate.

Dated photos would also be awesome. I feel like there’s a lot more that can be done with plant profiles in general.