MOTW - May13 - May 19 2012 - Heather (HeatherAnne)

Hi friends!

Okay, well... I was born and raised in Erie, Pennsylvania. I have a 10 year old daughter Lindsey.

I was with Lin's father for just under 14 years, married for 9. He is an ex Marine, so we traveled in Bremerton, Washington and 29 Palms, California. I enjoyed both and loved the critters at each.

I will share and write tomorrow, as I had a very long day .

Thanks for reading !

No worries Heather! We all have busy days!

If you want to do a mixed blurb today that works too!

Tuesday, tell us about your amphibians. How you came to keep them, mistakes/learning curves, species kept, breedings, how you found Frog Forum etc....we heard enough about you on Monday, let us hear about them frogs!

Will add a tad more and then write about my frogs.

I finished schooling and became an RN in 1996. I've worked in my local hospital for the last 12 years as a medical/surgical nurse. I had originally wanted to major in marine biology, but at the time my parents did not want me to move far for college. It is still a love of mine. My lifetime wish is still to dive with blacktip reef sharks (my favorite), and swim with dolphins. I love the ocean and could easily spend everyday there, studying and learning. I like all sciences really and math comes easily to me. My favorite courses through college were chemistry, physics, biology, microbiology, pathology, anatomy, and physiology. I'm sure I forgot a few .

We came home from my ex's military tour and he then went to the police academy. We divorced 7 yrs ago, though are still friends and remain close for our daughter. We are both now remarried. I dated my husband Jared for 5 yrs and finally remarried.

I take care of my mother and work weekends and one day midweek,12 hrs shifts, so I can be home with my family. It works out pretty well.

I love the outdoors! And critters of all kinds . We love to go camping, on nature walks, fishing, boating, going to the beach, etc. The peninsula here is full of fun things to do outside, and it's pretty too. Last year Lin and I spent a whole day picnicing by the lagoon watching the turtles and frogs. We had a blast! We're always looking for fun things to do with nature. I love roller blading! I enjoy sports. My daughter plays softball. We love football season ! I enjoy reading. I love a nice sunny day with a cool breeze, with a nice cup of iced caramel mocha, and a good book. I tend to be very optimistic and smiley most days. I try to make the best of everything .

I guess that about sums up my last few years .

Thanks for listening .

My critters...

We had red spotted salamanders about 7 years ago. They were so cute. Moved in slow motion. They loved to swim and would walk on the bottom of the pond sometimes. My ex brought my daughter one home that he found on a golf course. The second one my husband found on the railroad tracks at work. We had them for quite a few years. Unfortunately we housed them with our red bellied toads because I didn't know better back then. They died about 5 years later. Although, they never fought and shared the space well. Too bad they probably passed of toxicity from the fire belly secretions .

We had two brown and two green firebelly toads for about 7 years. They were adorable! Energetic, hopped around a lot, swam a lot. They had such silly demeanors . I eventually traded them in last year when I wanted to get a red eyed tree frog.

We had an American bufo toad named Dumpy several years ago. He grew like a weed! Crazy fast! Lol! We found him one fall and he was about the size of a dime. By spring he was about 3 inches and a solid round little fella . He ate like a champ! He would sit in his food bowl waiting . He was so funny! He would hibernate in the winter and only come out from his deep burrow about once a month to eat. He lived several years, though I never really counted how long.

This past August I found a beautiful red eyed tree frog when browsing at our local pet store . I thought about purchasing her but had no idea how to care for her. I read a bit (not nearly enough though, I came to find out), traded in the firebellies, and set-up her home. She came home with me later that week . She is so pretty. Her colors are so bright. We named her Stickers . She is 2 3/4" and a beautiful lime green most days. Though nocturnal, she has lots of energy and is quite social. She comes to the front of the glass often and just looks around. She has been a pleasure to have . I ended up creating a 55 gallon vivarium for her so I could get her a few friends. She lived in a 29 gallon terrarium prior. I tried to make a waterfall from a pretty picture I found when googling rainforest waterfalls. I ended up making it too big, oops! I'll try again some time. Perhaps when I talk my husband into the awesomely huge tank I found on www.cagesbydesign .

I had several questions about my new Red-Eyed Leaf Frog and started googling for answers. I stumbled across this forum and decided to join. Thank goodness I did because I had so much to learn. I very quickly learned that most of the pet stores had inaccurate guides as to caring for nearly all of their frogs. Thanks to my friends here, now I know . Thanks!!!

After reading so many articles here and asking questions, I thought about getting a pacman frog. On day this past September I was at the mall getting my hair done. I decided to walk around a bit and stopped into the pet store. They had this cute little brown and tan cranwelli sitting on rocks in water in bright lighting with a tiny water dish with algae colored water . The poor little thing. So, I brought her (at the time thought she was a he) home . My great little eater and quite tough...we named her Tank . She is now 4 1/2".

Later last fall I ordered a baby Red-Eyed Leaf Frog friend for my Stickers. He came through the mail. I opened the container to find a little 1 1/4" little peanut . My daughter named him Bubbles because of his cute "bubble" eyes, so she said. He is more of a minty green than Sticker's lime. And his blue has a more purplish hue. He was in quarantine fir 3 months because he was so small. He ate flightless fruit flies and pinhead crickets. He finally grew large enough to live with Stickers in the big tank.

I ended up rescuing another Red-Eyed Leaf Frog sometime after. He was living in a tank with geckos and was all scratched up and very thin. I've healed all his wounds, though he still has blue scars. He still has no desire to eat on his own. After quarantine and healing I tried placing him in the big viv with Stickers and Bubbles. He would stay close with them, but still never ate. I had to put him into his own rank again because I had trouble finding him in the plants to remove and feed him. He now lives in his exo terra all alone . I'm hoping someday he'll start eating again and can live with them again. Every now and then I leave him be and let him try. No luck. He is gently force fed daily. He's become my special little guy. Though lots of work, I love him just the same.

Since then I purchased my first fantasy frog. Her name is Chomper. She LOVES to bite! She was the worst hunter. So clumsy and with bad aim. She'd try to bite anything that moved in front of her. I finger fed her for a bit until she became more coordinated. I don't think that helped the biting situation much though, because she seems to still associate fingers with food. Oops! Lol! She started off looking like a fantasy with pretty orange and green markings. She has drastically changed to a light tan and the cornuta in her is quite evident. She has the cutest "cheek" bones which make her look like she has chubby cheeks . She is now 3 1/2".

Lastly, just a week ago I found the cutest male fantasy frog. I was so happy to find a male that would croak . I knew right away because he has perfectly visible nuptial pads. Yay! He has such beautiful colorings of orange, orange-red, brown, green, and subtle highlights of yellow. His eyes are nicely peaked and close together. So cute! The morning after I brought him home he started croaking ! He is a biter also , and has bad aim hunting like Chomper did. I currently feed him in a small cricket-keeper container so it's easy for him. He will also finger feed. He is doing well, though has a few problems. His back feet twitch and have drifts. I believe he has electrolyte deficiencies. I am working to correct this for him. He seems to be doing well in every other aspect, so I will continue to replace his nutrients and see if it passes. He is currently 2". We are still working on a name for him. Lindsey wants to name him Muncher, lol! We'll see.

I do also have 3 green anoles and 2 long-tailed lizards. My daughter has named them her friends' names Abbey, Madeline, Katelyn, Georgia, and I forget the last one. I'll have to ask her again tonight.

Mistakes I've made.... Not knowing enough before I purchased them. It is best to have everything set-up and ready and to have a few frog basic aid supplies on hand. I've found that having extra heat bulbs and even warm packs are good to have around in case of emergencies. We lost power one day and the heat drops quickly. I had to use the thermal heat packs to keep my tanks warm.

You definitely need to do some research and be ready to care for your frogs. It's not about tossing a bit of dirt in with some water, and a few bugs, which I would have thought years ago. Herping is definitely more of a hobby and you have to maintain their natural environments as best you can, or they will become sick and could die.

On the other hand, they are very rewarding . Some beautiful, some unique, some energetic, some docile, some social, some living alone. Even throughout the same species they have different personalities.

I love my frogs and have enjoyed sharing them with everyone here and likewise have enjoyed sharing yours!

Thanks!

( Oh, btw....you can just call me Heather or Heath when writing. No need to write out Heatheranne. It was the available name when I joined, haha! )

Great Posts Heather !!



I'll be taking over for Jenna for the rest of this week and am going to go ahead and post this for tomorrow as I don't think I'll be on later....

Wednesday, show and tell.

Wow us with your pictures/videos/sound clips!

Will do . I might post a few that I have in the past, but I'll look for some new ones too. Thanks!

Awesome!!

Go ahead and make your entries for Wednesday and Thursday when you have a chance Heather

Thursday, answer any questions posted to you regarding your threads on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
Other members can use this opportunity to pick your brain. (All questions must be appropriate and related to topics of discussion.)

Here's mine: What inspired you to become a nurse?

Hi Autumn!

Worked a 12-hour night shift so I'm a little off kilter, but I'll add some pics now. Never went to sleep when I got home , lol! I'm feeling a tad delirious from sleep deprivation, haha!

I answer your question first .

I love helping people. I've always been the one to try and make people smile. I love the sciences. It just came naturally. I am quite energetic and am a great multi-tasker. I love excitement. There's never a boring day as a med/surg nurse . Though some days I wouldn't mind a bit less stress, ha ha! Nursing is a great career...so many options .

I'll*

Family...


Fun in the sun...


A few things I've made...

A few of my tanks...

And a few of my frogs...

Tank...


Chomper...


Bruiser...

Stickers... My beautiful princess


Twiggy, my rescue baby...

When we brought him home...

To healing...

To pedialyte soaks and feeds...

To now...

But forever with his blue scars thanks to the people who housed him with geckos..


Bubbles... My baby boy

A few pets from our past...

Dumpy ...





Can't currently find any of our firebelly toads...

Our crazy anoles...


And our long-tailed lizards...

You have a beautiful family Heather and wonderful pets!!!

Thanks!