MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

From all here at The Rural Jungle a very merry Christmas and a happy new year to you all!!!!

Photo Shoot

We had a very good friend the ever so talented Helenka from MWS photography over to the jungle this afternoon for a shoot with some of the animals. Her work is second to none and if your in need of a photographer she's your girl. You can find her at http://www.mwsphotography.co.uk/. She has an incredible eye for detail and some awesome digital flair. Check out some of her work:

Dendrobates Tinctorius Cobalt Male:

 Adelphobates Galactonus Male:

Chamaeleo Calyptratus Male:

 Chamaeleo Calyptratus Female:

Chamaeleo Calyptratus Female:

Dendrobates Tinctorius cobalt female

Python Regius Female:

 Iguana Iguana Male:

 Big ginger cat, Ambrose

Little minxy cat, Bella

As promised a great big update

Well its been a bonkers month here at the rural jungle. First of all I put together a new viv for the recently acquired Hyloxalus (Cryptophyllobates) azureiventris. These frogs are from Northern San Martin, Peru, near Tarapoto. They are shy in the wild and live in and around rock piles. It's a simple set-up as they are very young frogs. The picture quality is bad as it very hard to photograph these frogs at the moment as they hide as soon as they notice you.

I used polystyrene to build up a bit more of the landscape than usual.

Once this was covered in eco earth I got some basic planting done.

I decided to cover 99% of the floor with moss hoping this would keep such tiny frogs from damaging limbs while exploring.

I had tried to keep this as simple as possible so that I can easily observe the frogs as they grow. Being as small as they are I don't want to lose any in any nooks and crannies. I will improve the planting as they grow and hopefully being that I have 8 there should be at least 1 pair in there and breeding will occur when they are ready.
They are a bit bigger now though and I have removed some of the moss and started adding a few rocks to make it feel more like home.

They eat like pigs but are still refusing to be seen for longer than a few fleeting glances here and there.

In other RJ news another show in Kidderminster proved to be very successful, a lot of surplus stock was moved and I managed to purchase a pair of frogs from the top of my wish list. This is a 1.1 pair of adelphobates galactonotus or 'splash back' poison dart frog:

The Female:                                               The Male:

The Female exploring the vivarium:

These frogs are Endemic to Brazil. In the wild they live in subtropical or moist lowland forests and sometimes freshwater marshes. Hopefully obtaining a pair means we can start some breeding conditioning and see if they feel up to breeding. Here's a shot of their tank:

And a quick video of them both relaxing last night:

We now have 19 of the 24 Tricolor tadpoles out and healthy. They are being reared in two groups of 6 and one group of 7 in the rearing tubs from a previous post. All are seemingly eating well but they are growing slowly in comparison to the bigger frogs.

Here's a shot of the smaller of the two Citronella:

The last piece of news to share is that our middle Female Chameleon "Gaia" was seen to go off her food and started floor walking the viv:

A couple of days later , she started digging and at around midnight last night she had laid her eggs and started to cover them back over. There were 41 in total, they don't look too good and could probably be infertile. I'll incubate them just in case

I hope you enjoyed this update and there will be more to come when I have the chance.

2000 hits yay!!!!

A great big thank you to all those that keep on clicking. Just over 2000 hits now and hopefully I'll have a great big update for you all soon. Keep sharing this page and lets get more folks reading.

They're out!!!!!!!

The first Tricolor tadpole has emerged and seem to be ok I'm so thrilled to finally have a baby frog after all the trials of the last few years and I can see a couple more that should be out any minute. Here's the first little guy or girl having a look about:

 And here is the shelf that was thrown together yesterday ready for the new frogs. There will be 6 tubs in total all approximately the size of a shoe box with double vented lids. The shelf is heated by a single heat strip connected to a thermostat and seems to hold a very comfortable temperature of 24.5°C. The lighting is provided by a single T8 tube, more for my benefit than the frogs.

I'll keep you posted as they grow and I think it will be exciting to see how many more make it to the land successfully.

Tadpoles day 36.... we have legs!!!!

Had a rather pleasant surprise this morning when I found that at least two of the tricolor tadpoles had developed healthy front legs!! here are some pictures sorry they are poor but its very hard to take a picture of something so small under water.

We are so close to having baby frogs now, only a few more days to go

Tadpoles day 33

I managed to get a couple of shots shots showing some of the detail on the tricolor tadpoles you can see the back legs are more or less here and the tadpoles are nice and big

All 24 tadpoles are happy and seemingly healthy and eating like there's no tomorrow. They have been getting fed a diet of tropical fish flake, spirulina flake, nutrobal, and bloodworm.
Only a little while longer and we'll hopefully have some froglets!!!

Its been a while but small successes....

I know I haven't posted anything in nearly a month but it's been rather busy around here. First off I recieved 2 job offers that were both very good and I've had to take them and every aspect of them into consideration. Secondly with the downturn in weather we once again find ourselves struggling to keep some of the warmer vivariums as warm as I would like them, so we have been busy adding and upgrading some of the heating equipment to get things straight.
In frog related news things are coming on in leaps and bounds. I have recently aquired 2 tinctorius citronella babies who are growing well so far and also 8 yes thats right 8 Hyloxalus (Cryptophyllobates) azureiventris babies again all growing on nicely.
I'm also pleased to report that the tricolour tadpoles have now started to develop their back legs and will soon be froglets. I'm preparing for them by getting rearing tubs sorted.
And now onto the small successes..... So far In the last few weeks the cobalts have laid a total of 14 eggs, 5 of which could be doing something,
And at last after months of calling the leucomelas have started laying by leaving 1 lonely egg in a petri dish under a coconut hut. This egg sadly did not make it but fingers crossed they go from strength to strength.

Hopefully I'll be attending shows in the future with some of these frogs on offer =)

Meet Osiris

We have another new addition to the chameleons today. A nice Boy that we have named Osiris, he is about 3 months old and has some really nice colouration. Hopefully he can be an active part of the breeding project for next year. Here's a couple of phone camera shots, I didn't want to use my camera as I didn't want to spook him with the flash.

Tadpoles day 7

The Tricolor tadpoles are growing at an amazing rate and are readily eating nearly all of the food that I provide, here are a few shots from this morning:

As you can see they are coming along brilliantly and so far we haven't had a single loss here's hoping we get some happy little froggies soon!!! I'll keep you posted on their progress.
In other Ruraljungle news I'm pleased to report that as members of the south western herptological society Kelly and myself took part in Shaldon Zoo's open day again yesterday. The numbers were up from the summer and we all had a great day... Even Titch our 7 foot long common boa constrictor enjoyed herself  and as usual Soloman was there meeting and greeting people. Another great turn out from the herp society meant we had a great selection of animals again this time. Here's hoping they get better and better.

Tadpoles!!!

I've finally acquired some tricolor tadpoles so that I can  hopefully learn a bit more about tadpole rearing techniques. I've not had the greatest of success with tadpoles in the past and am hopefully going to get some positive results now that I have a lot more experience. There are around 20 tadpoles from the same clutch and I have set them up in my tadpole box and I'm keeping them at a pretty steady 24°C. They are in a mix of 'tadpole tea' which is simply red bush tea and de-chlorinated tap water and have a few stalks of elodea densa (pond weed) floating about in there for cover. I'm going to feed them a mix of spirulina flakes, tetramin fish food, nutrobal and some dried bloodworm. I'll keep you all updated on their progress and fingers crossed we see some baby frogs here at The Rural Jungle.
** A quick update with a few photo's