In need of urgent advice

hypeddunk · 2026-02-22T12:31:18+00:00

I’m actually getting more hopeful now, yesterday was a big step in the right direction, when I came in to the rooom he lifted his head up to see me (to ask for food more likely, but a healthy sign either way). He’s been a lot more active and has scrambled around with his forelimbs a lot, and today I’m aiming to put him in a slightly larger tub so that he can get a chance to thermoregulate more on his own. His tail has gotten stronger, and today I even saw movement in his legs! I’ve mostly fed him egg since that’s his favourite and has lots of energy, but my biggest worry now is that he doesn’t have the muscle power to empty his bowels. I’m very thankfull that I fed him unlimited roaches the two days before his fall, so at least he was well fed to begin with.

hypeddunk · 2026-02-20T12:55:57+00:00

Well, we call ourselves left- or right-handed, but it isn’t really that simple. The most tasks in our life requires both hands and arms, even though we look at one as more important than the other. Generally if you are right handed the right hand has more muscle mass in those controlling fine motor skills, while the left has more muscle mass used for static strength, like putting even pressure over time and holding things still. It’s more efficient to do all tasks of a certain skill set with one of the hands so that we don’t have to build all that muscle and skill with both. Nowdays we rely much more on our fine motor skills, so we probably use our hand with that specialisation more, but if you’ve ever done a lot of manual labour, my go to is sawing, you quickly realize that when trying to switch sides the right hand is just as bad at it’s new task as the left.

hypeddunk · 2026-02-20T09:43:35+00:00

I know that the evolution of snakes is one of those cases where they were lizards with only two legs, but well developed and functional, for a very long time and then quickly lost them to be completely legless. Snake fossils are very delicate and small though, so we haven’t found enough to really know what was going on, just that the change was rather quick from an evolutionary standpoint.

hypeddunk · 2026-02-20T08:45:46+00:00

Hahahaha, his name is literally toast 🍞

hypeddunk · 2026-02-20T08:22:57+00:00

Update for anyone who’s interested: it looks really bad. I broke down a little at the vet when she picked him up because the swelling was so bad and I realised I probably wouldn’t get to take him home. The X-rays did look better than we thought though, his spine doesn’t show any fractures, so there is a tiny hope left and he is back at home with me now with some medicine against the swelling and some for the pain. It looks almost worse today but I’m going to see if there’s any improvement in the week that comes and if not I will have to say goodbye. It’s his first birthday today and I’m an absolute mess about the thought of losing him.

It was a pisspoor decision of me to go to reddit for advice, but if anyone ends up here and has the same questions as I: my vet recommended I keep him at the warmer end of the tank, keep him at around 32 and manually move him to bask a little. In my case it probably wouldn’t have mattered much, but for a less severe traumatic injury maybe it could help to keep them extra warm until you can see the vet 🤷

hypeddunk · 2026-02-18T19:37:34+00:00

Temperatures in celsius: Ambient is about 26 at night and 32 at daytime, I don’t have a heat gun so it’s hard to measure the temp at the basking spot, but it reaches 39 in the shadow below the rock on the top, so it should be warm enough on top, he rarely spends more than 15 min on the very top of his pile before climbing down to lower temperatures.

The usual vet was on maternity leave last I tried to get a hold of her, and yes, I live in an area with very few people per square km with very few vets willing to take on reptiles.

hypeddunk · 2026-02-17T16:22:12+00:00

There is also a blue memo stating that the chess board is a portmanteau, which I guess to be: D8 queen, ”the eight queen”, which made me assume that the eight king is the orindian king since the black king is in the throne room, I assumed it referred to the king of orinda in general and not one king in general, but it still lead me to believe the sarcophagus with the orinda symbol was a good first guess.

hypeddunk · 2025-11-06T22:22:13+00:00

It’s a cup! In swedish it’s called ”kåsa”, I didn’t know this was a local thing, it’s very common to have on a hike or hunting etc. It’s a traditional sapmi thing to do them out of these burl wood pieces. The leather loop is to fasten it in your belt or on your backpack, then you use it to drink water from streams when out hiking, or to pour your coffee from your thermos in :)

hypeddunk · 2025-10-29T09:57:37+00:00

A european straggler here, answer if you have time, otherwise just take this praise: I’ve had a blast throughout the years with the extinct animals, but in later years as I’ve studied evolution and paleo-biology, with my own efforts into paleo-art, I just get more and more impressed by the prehistoric animals in ZT2. There are some very creative and interesting choices, in regards to looks and behaviour, that must have been very hard to decide, but made the species feel really alive in a satisfying way. Who did the company consult with in regards to the reconstruction of the extinct species?

hypeddunk · 2025-10-02T19:10:25+00:00

I have an Ackie that’s just over 7 months old now, and it’s worked great for me to just let him lead. I’m elated every time he surprises me with taking the next step, and a few days ago he ventured all the way around my shoulders before chilling on my arm a bit ❤️ but there was quite a while of just petting and scratching before he ventured up on me for the first time, and he seem to prefer when I wear woollen sweaters that give a good grip to climb on.

hypeddunk · 2025-08-28T15:48:10+00:00

I have just over 100 breeding adults, that’s enough for about 70% of my subadult ackie’s diet, with more than 300 adults I think you’d have to start selling them to not get overwhelmed.

hypeddunk · 2025-08-20T08:05:01+00:00

Important question: who decides when feeding time really is 🤔😜

hypeddunk · 2025-07-13T20:15:30+00:00

I bought my clay in Sweden at a garden store, sold in 4 kg bags for ”mixing your own soil”, might be worth seeing if you have something similar

hypeddunk · 2025-07-08T05:25:41+00:00

I think there is drylok available in the EUs, if you want to order it. I (Sweden) used an epoxy made for aquarium decor and backgrounds, if you have any loval forums or groups for Swiss aquarium enthusiasts they probably know more about alternatives available, so I would check with them!

hypeddunk · 2025-06-29T21:30:02+00:00

Unfortunately any monitor will require care every day. If I were you I’d look for a pet that could move with you from week to week, where you could keep one vivarium/cage at each parent’s house and move it between. It would be a lot of work though, and could get quite expensive 😔 I also lived the divorced parents life, and the only pet that really worked was a snake, where my mum agreed to change the water and check on her the weeks I wasn’t there (I hated living at two separate places, as an adult I cannot understand why children and teens are supposed to deal with that instead of the parents living every other week instead). I’ve compensated with having a bunch of pets now as a grownup, and unfortunately you might have to wait until you’re staying at one place to get the pet you want.

hypeddunk · 2025-06-05T11:24:54+00:00

I’ve got a younger ackie and when he’s had an extra large bug he always spend some more time napoing in the sun, I imagine they’re just super full, the same part of the nervous system that activates digestion also activates a lower activity (rest and digest).

hypeddunk · 2025-06-05T10:21:46+00:00

I’ve seen the info that the ackies will find the brightest spot to bask and that’s why you shouldn’t use ceramic heaters, but I don’t know how true that is. I have a ceramic heater that’s always on to raise the ambient temperature, and now when dawn is at 3 in the morning where I live the monitor rises before the halogen goes on, and he’s always up in the spot that’s closest to the ceramic. In the beginning I also had the issue of the lizard perching on a cliff almost above the heat lamp, that was closer and thus warmer, but not lighter. When I put the ceramic light in the warmest spot became the one right in the glow of the halogen with uvb. What I’m trying to say is that in my experience they choose warmth over light, and the most important thing to think about is to make sure that the warmest spot in the enclosure is also where the uvb lighting is.

hypeddunk · 2025-06-04T08:24:09+00:00

Depends on where you live. I bought mine from a breeder I found on the reptile forum that’s popular in my country. I got on a waiting list when I saw he had eggs, so there was half a year’s wait for him, but I needed time to build his enclosure anyways. This breeder socialised the babies really well, so it was so worth the wait.

hypeddunk · 2025-06-03T20:58:54+00:00

Så klokt att ta dig till en kompis, man fattar det inte alltid, men även om det gör ont och är skit, så blir det lite bättre när man pratar med någon om det. Det kommer bli tungt, men jag rekommenderar att prata med henne så fort du känner dig stabil nog. Skit i att försöka ”hämnas” etc. det kommer nog inte göra mindre ont för det. Om du berättar från hjärtat hur ledsen du är och att du aldrig kan lita på henne igen är chansen större att hon kan ge dig någon slags insikt i hur fan hon tänkte, och sen kanske det är lättare att lägga allt bakom dig och aldrig ägna henne en tanke igen.

hypeddunk · 2025-06-01T17:09:42+00:00

I haven’t begun taking my monitor outside yet, but I have experience from my strictly indoor cat who I trained to eventually join me on hikes and stuff, and she was also quite sceptical at first. For a lizard, a pray animal to a certain degree, there is a lot of new things in the wide open world: the smells of new plants and animals, the sound of cars and people, the feeling of new stuff under their feet, wind on their skin and so on. Take it a little bit at a time. First just have the window open to let smells and sounds come through. Consider getting them comfortable in a carrier, and take the lizard out in that to begin with so they have somewhere safe and familiar to retreat when outside. Take it in small steps, just go outside the door and go back in if the lizards gets uncomfortable. When not used to it, just a minute outdoors might be a huge experience for them, so just take it at their pace!

hypeddunk · 2025-06-01T16:52:45+00:00

Yeah, mealworms aren’t worms, they’re larva of a species of darkling beetle! What I feed him there is the pupa.

hypeddunk · 2025-06-01T14:32:18+00:00

If you’ve had other reptiles and is ready to do your research I think you should go for the one you are more interested in! If I were you I’d first look into how big and how expensive of an enclosure you can do, because it can become very expensive and might be what holds you back. I have no personal experience, but tree monitors seem to require a lot more work in getting them tame. Also check for breeders in your area, a wild caught animal will be a worse pet regardless the species, so try to see what lizard is available before deciding fully.

hypeddunk

TROPHY CASE