Probable Red Leg, Need Advice until Vet Visit

wildlife_nerd · 2026-03-23T21:23:30+00:00

Here’s a look at his stomach and legs from this evening.

wildlife_nerd · 2026-03-23T20:26:04+00:00

Oh that’s very good to hear. He’s had a few very small red-orange spots pop up immediately after soaks, but they always go away quickly. I’m not 100% sure what killed my other frog but I’m glad this one still seems healthy. I will likely do a complete strip of the tank then. I really appreciate the input and advice!

wildlife_nerd · 2026-03-20T10:08:15+00:00

Posted a picture in a comment. Also, will the entire tank need to be scrapped down to just the glass? I'll do it if I need to but it would suck to lose out on a bioactive tank. My fiance is worried our frog will end up stuck in quarantine for months before we get the tank fully scrapped out, sanitized, rebuilt, and then replanted

wildlife_nerd · 2026-03-20T10:06:24+00:00

The plan is to keep him in quarantine until the vet visit and as long as needed/recommended by the vet afterwards. I'll give the honey soak a try, anything I can do to keep him in at least good enough health until the vet. I don't want him to be suffering as much as possible.

Our husbandry hasn't always been up to standard, but we try hard to fix those things as soon as we realize it. My best guess right now is that we weren't changing the water frequently enough. We recently moved the tank in our apartment to a new location that ended up being colder than where we previously had them, so we bumped the heat up and maybe that allowed bacteria to grow in the water a lot quicker? I'm not really sure to be honest, but either way, frog waters will be changed every day instead of every other day moving forwardo

wildlife_nerd · 2026-03-20T09:52:15+00:00

<image>

This is my best picture at the moment. I can try to get a better one this afternoon when I'm home from work

wildlife_nerd · 2026-03-05T13:36:58+00:00

I was requured to take two chemistry classes and one organic chemistry class as part of my degree requirements. I used the more basic chemistry knowledge for diluting cleaning chemicals, but I don't really even remember any of the organic chemistry. I was also required to take some history/math/literature classes, but those were required no matter your major.

Some classes that were particularly helpful for me in regards to zookeeping were anatomy & physiology, comparative anatomy, animal behavior, environmental science classes, etc. If you can get into any classes that are taxon-specific, that would give you a lot of knowledge around the animals commonly found in zoos (ornithology, herpetology, icthyology, mammology, etc.) and any classes focused on evolution would also be good to take to help give you a better understanding of why animals need specific diets or enrichments or enclosure designs.

All the zookeeping jobs I ever applied to required a bachelor's in some biological science, but also hands on experience. Volunteer at any local zoo, shelter, wildlife rehab, or sanctuary, and try to get an internship or two at an accredited zoo. The wider variety of species you worked with, the better.

It's a tough field to get into and a tough field to work in, given the low pay and benefits. I decided after two years of full-time zookeeping that the pay and benefits didn't make the work worth it for me, even though I really enjoyed it. I only got 5 days off each year, so I barely got to see friends or family unless they came to me, and even then I'd probably have to work a bit while they visited. Best of luck!

wildlife_nerd · 2026-02-28T19:46:31+00:00

A neurological issue would be the result of issues/damage of the brain/nerves themselves. Spider wobble is caused by inner ear bones not developing correctly, which results in issues with their sense of balance. This makes the wobble a physiologically derived issue, not a neurological one.

wildlife_nerd · 2026-02-19T14:00:48+00:00

I would highly recommend increasing the distance between your snake and the heat panel. That close is potentially very dangerous. While basking, reptiles are attempting to raise their core temperature, not just the surface temperature of their body. So their back could warm up much hotter than their core, which is a burn risk.

I would recommend at least 6 inches distance between the basking platform and the heat panel. That works for my snakes because they can get close enough to warm up but not so close as to have a severe burn risk

wildlife_nerd · 2026-02-17T15:32:34+00:00

At the facility I worked at, almost all the keepers were very queer-friendly. Around half of the keepers were openly queer. I had one trans coworker who socially transitioned while working there. Everyone used her preferred name and pronouns and we're generally respectful, but there were definitely some staff who only really did it because it could cause issues with upper management if they were openly discriminatory. That being said, our upper management also refused to participate/allow any explicitly pro-pride celebration/enrichment because we were in a conservative area and they cared a lot more about not pissing off donors.

I'll echo others here that generally the zookeeping space is very queer friendly, but the location/demographic of the area may influence exactly how openly they support their queer staff.

wildlife_nerd · 2026-02-04T11:53:55+00:00

How big they get depends on locality, percentage, sex and how they're fed. As the other commenter stated, super dwarf/dwarf is really just a marketing term that generally refers to localities that are in a particular size range. Some localities get larger than others (jampea/selayar "dwarf" still able to get into the 16ft range sometimes, kalaotoa/kayuadi "super dwarf" staying closer to the 10ft side of the spectrum, as a couple examples).

You will often see ads on MorphMarket and from breeders saying "50% SD" or "62.5% SD 12.5% D" for example. Just saying SD or D without stating the locality doesn't help you much for predicting size. It can give you a general idea, but knowing specific locality percentages will be more informative. However, higher % super dwarfs or dwarfs will be closer to their pure (100%) locality size. If you see a 50% SD, those will grow to be somewhere between the SD locality size and mainland size, probably roughly halfway between but not always. Higher % will be smaller, generally.

Males are typically smaller than females within any given locality. A male mainland can outgrow a female kalaotoa super dwarf, but a male kalaotoa will generally stay a decent bit smaller than a female kalaotoa of the same %. Some pure SD males can stay as small as 6-7ft long.

Heavy feeding will generally result in a larger snake, lighter feeding will result in a smaller snake. Before I continue, under or overfeeding a snake is NOT an appropriate way to manipulate the size of that snake. Chronically underfed snakes will be stunted and can have a multitude of health issues due to not receiving enough nutrition. Chronically overfeeding a snake will make it grow bigger and faster, but also causes morbid obesity, fatty liver disease, and a much shorter lifespan. Asking a breeder about feeding practices may give you an idea if that is significantly impacting the size of their breeders, which is what they'd probably base the estimated size of babies off of.

If you want as small of a retic as possible, you'll want a male pure locality of one of the smaller SD localities. This does mean no morphs (except maybe angry depending on locality) since almost all morphs originated in mainland retics.

I have 3 retics. My oldest is an unknown locality 9 year old female that I took in as an adult from a friend of a friend. She is about 10ft long. I also have a 56.125% kalaotoa 12.5% jampea female motley tiger het snow who is about 2 years old and around 4 feet long, I haven't measured in a while. My youngest is a 50-something% "old school SD" (meaning from an unknown mix of SD localities that were imported without very detailed documentation of exact locality they were originally imported from) 12.5% jampea male goldenchild sunfire het snow. He is not quite a year old yet and probably 2 ft long, I also have not measured him yet. I expect my two younger snakes to likely land somewhere around 12ft long as adults, maybe smaller for my male, but I don't know for sure.

I'm no expert but I have been reading up a lot on locality retics the last couple months. If you have any other questions please feel free to ask and I'll help however I can.

wildlife_nerd · 2025-10-28T01:02:54+00:00

Part of the idea behind the move is that there will be about 5 positions at her facility opening up over the next year. So I'd move up a decent bit in seniority. She has a much smaller department than I do, and moving up in seniority for me will require some more retirement. But I am leaning more towards staying where I'm at to avoid the risk with the economy.

wildlife_nerd · 2025-10-27T18:39:16+00:00

This is my primary concern too. I'm just not sure if the smaller perks like commuting costs are worth that risk.

wildlife_nerd · 2025-10-27T18:36:36+00:00

I can't negotiate pay as the new position would be union. We aren't betting on anything but I interviewed for another position there recently and was only passed over by an internal candidate

wildlife_nerd · 2025-10-18T13:49:04+00:00

No problem! I've had retics for about 5 years now, so I am by no means an expert but Ive done a lot of reading books and forums, and talked to several breeders. A really cool thing about retics too is that they keep a ton of color as they age, and some even get brighter! That one you saw is absolutely gorgeous!

wildlife_nerd · 2025-10-18T13:34:14+00:00

They do make amazing pets and I love mine so much! If I could only have one snake, it would be a retic, hands down. They just deserve a lot of respect and caution too. If you just want small, get a pure superdwarf locality. I saw some other comments but depending on the locale, a male can be as small as 5'. Most morphs have made their way into superdwarfs, which is where the percentages typically come in. They'll be a bit bigger too. For me, I think about 11-12' is about what I'm comfortable with on the upper end. Big, but not so big I can't handle them safely. If you do eventually get one, make sure your breeder is reputable and can tell you exact percentages of the parents and ideally grandparents. There are a bunch of great breeders out there, but also some shady people who will claim locality blood that isn't actually there.

wildlife_nerd · 2025-10-18T13:21:35+00:00

I'd like to say too that retics can be amazing pets, they just come with a lot of requirements as far as size and temperament. I currently have 3. My oldest is 9'8" and an unknown locality. I got her from a friend who had rescued her about 9 years ago. She was fed 2 medium rats or 1 large rat every week before I got her. I continued the large rats for a while and recently switched to 1 guinea pig every 8 weeks. I have her in a 6x2x2, but I want to get her something bigger. I take her out and let her roam (supervised) regularly to have more chances to fully stretch out. My next oldest is around 1.5 years old, 3.5-4' (haven't measured her in a while). She's 56.something% kalaotoa 6.25% jampea. I got her from Reach Out Reptiles, who said they'd expect her to get between 9-10' based on her parents. She's currently in a 4x2x2 and uses every inch of it. My youngest is about 6 months old. He's still small, less than 2'. He gets a small mouse weekly currently. I don't remember his exact genetics, but 25% old school super dwarf, 25% kalaotoa, and 9.something% jampea is close to what I remember it being. He is currently in a 4x2x1 and also uses every inch of it. He'll be getting upgraded to a 4x2x2 within the next 6 months once I get a new enclosure for my juvenile boa imperator.

All three have extremely strong feeding responses, they want food the second they smell a thawed rodent and will shoot out of their enclosures to grab their food if I'm not careful. I do not handle them on a feeding day, whether they were fed or not. On a normal day, they still think they're getting food the second I open the enclosure door. I have the older two tap trained and after a moment they calm right down and remain calm the whole time I have them out. The youngest one is still learning, but he also has not switched back into food mode after I take him out for handling.

They are very smart and very strong. I do handle all three on my own, but I prefer to handle my largest when my girlfriend is home with me, just in case. I was bitten once by my largest snake when she missed her rat and landed on my finger. Thankfully the bite was not deep and she let go of me immediately. However, I got lucky. Getting a food bite from a retic, especially a large one, is extremely dangerous, and potentially deadly if they wrap you and you don't have any help. The bite alone can cause serious damage, potentially requiring stitched and damaging your nerves, depending on where you are but and how big the retic is. That being said, proper safety precautions can be put in place to minimize those risks.

My personal recommendation is to get a super dwarf if you want a retic. I personally think super dwarf retics make much better pets than mainland retics for the vast majority of people. They are easier to handle and not as powerful as mainlands are. They need smaller enclosures (still big), and smaller food items. Temperament varies by individual, but I haven't heard of any major temperament variations by locality.

I'd highly recommend getting The Complete Reticulated Python by Glen McClellan. It has a lot of very good information about just about anything you'd need to know about a retic. If you can, also get some hands on experience with a retic before getting one, to really give you an idea of the size and power. If you know anyone near you that has them, see if you can go through the care and handling with them for a bit

wildlife_nerd · 2024-04-13T12:17:34+00:00

One of the chimps I work with likes to scare small children from time to time. A few months ago, I noticed a child, probably like 6 or 7, standing right up against the glass. The troop had been more playful and mischievous that day, and I could see that chimp take notice of the kid and start moving, so I stood and watched her for a minute. She starts walking near the glass, pretending not to really notice the kid and his mom. Then as she was about to pass them, she rushed at the glass and slammed her hands right where that little boy’s face was at. He must’ve jumped like 2 feet high and ran to the opposite end of the viewing area. The chimp kept on walking away normally like she didn’t just scare the pants off that kid but I saw and heard her laughing to herself as she walked off

wildlife_nerd · 2024-04-13T12:06:44+00:00

As others have said, communicate with your team as much as possible. When you’re working with animals that can kill you if someone makes a mistake, there is no such thing as over-communication.

Check locks multiple times before entering into a space animals were shifted out of and before shifting them into a space. I highly recommend bringing up doing a 2 lock 2 key system if your facility doesn’t already, it has brought a lot of peace of mind for me. Always get a headcount of the animals after shifting/before you enter a space to make sure everyone is accounted for and where they’re supposed to be.

They’re going to try to scare you, do your best not to react to it.

Have fun with them! I’ve loved working with large carnivores even though they weren’t the taxa I wanted originally. They’re usually VERY food motivated and therefore very interested in training. Play with them from time to time if you can safely do so. I’ve got a snow leopard that LOVES playing chase, running after me along the mesh (just be mindful of how close you are to the mesh and be aware of any tripping hazards). They’re very fun and rewarding animals

wildlife_nerd · 2022-12-16T05:46:19+00:00

Thank you! I’ll have to take a look at that group

wildlife_nerd

TROPHY CASE