MOTW-May 20-May 26 2012-Lynn (flybyferns)

Monday, tell us all about you! We know you obviously like amphibians, but we want to know about the rest of your life.

Details about you, your life, hobbies, families, past times, favorite colors, poems you have written etc etc....just use this post to brag/boast/bore us how you please.

Originally Posted by frogluver

Monday, tell us all about you! We know you obviously like amphibians, but we want to know about the rest of your life.

Details about you, your life, hobbies, families, past times, favorite colors, poems you have written etc etc....just use this post to brag/boast/bore us how you please.

Good Morning FF Friends,
Well here I go, I have not had my coffee, so bear with me.

I am flattered to have been nominated for MOTW. After all, this is Frog Forum. I have enjoyed everyone’s company since joining in Sept of 2011. I am a newbie here. There are so many knowledgeable members. You have all taught me so much !!! I will use this opportunity to say Thank You !

I will try my best:

I was born on Long Island, NY on March 31, a long time ago ! That’s all the information I will be disclosing about that !!!!! I have lived here all my life. I am a homebody, but an adventurous one. My elderly parents are here, as well as my 4 siblings. I am 2 of 5. I am a Registered Nurse since 1979 and have specialized in caring for people with diabetes since 1986. I married my high school sweetheart in 1981. We have one wonderful, wonderful son who is 24 years old who fills or lives with ongoing delight!

I am a very busy person and never really sit much:
- I love gardening. I have a special area in my garden I have devoted to plants for raising Monarch butterflies of which I have done every summer for many years. I have released hundreds over the years!
-I like to sew and create beaded jewelry.
-I have collected dolls and teddy bears all my life. I sew and crochet for dolls, and in fact sell doll clothes on eBay made by myself, my older sister, and my Mom. Check it out , if you would like to see what we do: Helen Kish Doll Clothes - Handmade Doll Clothes for Riley Kish and Friends . The site needs my updating though. There will be a link there to the current and weekly items for sale on eBay.

When I was a little girl I always wanted to be a vet. I don’t recall how I ended up going nursing school ?
I am a novice naturalist. I love animals and creatures of all kinds. You know, one of those people that does not step on a spider or who catches the moth in the house and throws it back out the door. It was very, very difficult for me to feed crickets to my frogs !!!! Once in a while I save one !!! If it looks really cute to me - I release it . Since childhood, I have probably owned every domestic pet a person could. You name it. I’ve had it. ! I don’t know how my parents put up with it ! I used to sneak them into the house. Here’s a story: I was about 12 years old. I spent the winter feeding a stray cat. She was solid white and deaf. I named her “Cloudy”. During the cold nights I used to sneak her into my room at night through the window. One night, when the weather started getting warmer, she was really persistent about my taking her into the house with me. Smart cat! Yes, she had kittens that night in the bottom drawer of my dresser. Boy was I in trouble. I spent months standing in front of a local supermarket trying to find homes for her 4 kittens. I got to keep ‘Cloudy”, of course.

I have always had cats. Cats are my favorite. No, frogs are my favorite. No, I guess cats. We have two Burmese now, a sable and a blue. I also have a hamster, a Russian Tortoise and two fish tanks with Discus.

I spent my summers as a child in the Catskills in upstate NY since I was 10 years old after my parents had purchased property from a farmer. There are many acres of mixed deciduous forests, pines , beautiful fields, a bog, and a 2 acre pond. I cherish the still pristine property there. Talk about frogs! I have seen huge bull frogs near the edges of the bog. We used to fill a bath tub with the common green frogs from the pond! I think I may have held every reptile and amphibian native to New York? Well maybe not all of them? I have never, never taken an animal from the wild as I am very much against it ! As I child we were always allowed to collect them and but had to release them by the end of the day.

I believe that all of us that love animals have to be “good” people. One of my favorite things to do after
a long week is to wind down with my family and pets. I only hope kindness is felt day to day by those I love and in my work as a nurse as well.

Whoops , I almost forgot.
My favorite color is green.
And, I do not like cold weather. I like it 80 and humid ..............like a Red Eyed Tree Frog!!

Well, by for now

It's great learning more about you Lynn
I like the story about Cloudy! It's so cute.
The dolls clothes you and your family make are amazing, your really talented!

Jerrod-

Hi Lynn.

Its good to learn more about you.

I loved reading about you & your family. You can definitely tell you're an animal lover. You've been a blessing to this forum .

Originally Posted by Kristen

It's great learning more about you Lynn
I like the story about Cloudy! It's so cute.
The dolls clothes you and your family make are amazing, your really talented!

Thanks Kristen !
I hope you enjoyed the dolly gallery !

Originally Posted by GrifTheGreat

Jerrod-

Hi Lynn.

Its good to learn more about you.

Jerrod !
Thank You
Grifs ' have been great company !
Especially on our "Trouble in the Enclosure" tread .

By the way I have an important trap question. I will PM you later.

Originally Posted by Heatheranne

I loved reading about you & your family. You can definitely tell you're an animal lover. You've been a blessing to this forum .

Heather,
Again, thank you for all your kind and caring comment! It always helps !
Nurses are kind of a BIG deal! Right ! With out us just think what would happen ! Yikes

Lol! Always here to lend an ear to my good friends .

P.S. Your doll clothes are so cute! Of course, now my daughter wants some . I told her maybe after she does her chores .

Originally Posted by flybyferns

Jerrod !
Thank You
Grifs ' have been great company !
Especially on our "Trouble in the Enclosure" tread .

By the way I have an important trap question. I will PM you later.

No problem. just let me know.

I am a newbie and am thrilled to get to know you better. I have read many of your postings and have learned so much from everyone in the short time I've been here. Congrats on being MOTW.

It's really nice to hear more about you, I too hate the cold weather

Nice to hear more about you Lynn !!! I had fun reading your post!

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!

Originally Posted by mshine1217

I am a newbie and am thrilled to get to know you better. I have read many of your postings and have learned so much from everyone in the short time I've been here. Congrats on being MOTW.

Hello,
Welcome to FF.

Originally Posted by frogluver

Nice to hear more about you Lynn !!! I had fun reading your post!

Thank You ! Autumn

Originally Posted by Froggiefressh

It's really nice to hear more about you, I too hate the cold weather

Greg,
Thank You !
Burrrrrrrrrrrrrr............Makes me think of that terrible winter here in NY 2 years ago ! I think we had 50 ft of snow !

Originally Posted by frogluver

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!

Hello,

I keep tree frogs:
I have never bred frogs
Discus and angle fish , but never frogs.

How did I decide I was going to keep a frog?
-As, mentioned in yesterday’s post, I have a Russian Tortoise. I have had him for many years. He is an old man! So, I have attended lots of reptile and amphibian shows after I rescued him from the 12’’x12’’ cage he was in at a pet store many years ago. Since then he has lived in a great homemade tortoise table with lots of space to roam. At the shows, dart frogs really intrigued me; from there my interests grew.

My frogs:
(0.1.0) black-eyed tree frog-agalychnis moreletii ("Boggie" 11/2009)
(2.0.0) red-eyed tree frogs- agalychnis callidryas ("Ruby" & "Cricket" 8/2009)
(1.0.0) red-eyed tree frogs- agalychnis callidryas ("Monkie" 3/2010)
rescued -spent 6 months in quarantine
(1.1.0) albino red-eyed tree frogs- agalychnis callidryas ("Comet" & "Luna" 8/9/2011)

I decided that my first frog should be our little “poster child” the Red Eyed Tree Frog. I purchased 2 sub adults (“Ruby” and “Cricket”) from a Herp shop in August of 2009. See, so I really am a newbie compared to the rest of you !!! They were housed in a 20 gallon/high enclosure, which then became a 40 gallon “critter Keper” to create a larger space for them. I created a conventional layered bottom w/ hydro/screen mesh , tropical soil, cork bark for planters, cork background, and natural wood suspended for them to climb on etc. . I hated it !!!!! It was really pretty, but I hated all the muck! I hated changing the soil, I worried it was going to make them sick , the crickets were getting lost in the substrate, and they were looking thin. It just was not my thing. I had put so much work into it. I was so disappointed. So, I yanked my 2 frogs and put them back into the 20 high, disassembled the 40, and cleaned it. Spit clean ! They went back into the 40 gallon critter keeper w/ paper towel substrate, and I was hooked!!!

A few months later I purchased my black eye (A. moreletii ) aka “Boggie “ in Nov 2009 . I was told she could “live w/ the red eyes “. No reason to dwell on the controversy regarding this advice of which I still believe she would have been just fine there. I really don’t think I had to move her. As many of you know she stopped eating after the move in March. I have been working really hard to save her.

I joined a few forums at this point but never really felt at ease talking to members. But FF was different! I found it to be much more welcoming. I go back to one of these other forums now and then just to check things out. I am keeping in touch with a breeder that may have Xanthic red eye morphs? So pretty !!

After the black eye was quarantined she joined the red eyes in the 40 gallon critter keeper with the paper towel substrate. Now there were three !!
I purchased my exo terra 36’ x36” X 18 shortly thereafter for all of them. NOW there was lots of space , still paper towel substrate , and room for more !

Then came my rescue, “Monkey” in March of 2010. OMG, talk about unprepared. He was near death! The shop was a dump, disgusting and dirty ! He lived with a gecko, had infected scratches, and parasites! I really learned how to take care of a very sick frog. I paid 20$ for him , and ran ! Hundreds of dollars later ---he made it !!!! He lived in a quarantine tank for at least 6 months. He is my most beautiful frog ! His colors are brighter and stripes are different than the others ; more purple. He loves to call and is my most vocal male. I have a sneaking suspicion that this adult A. callidryas was wild caught. His coloring is quite different which would support this assumption.

Well, you know how it goes! Then two more for a total of six . Two ,very small albino, Red Eyed froglets joined my little crowd in August of 2011. ( “Comet” and “Luna”) Comet is my only female. ( poor thing ) Luna is named after a family Christmas cookie recipe! It’s a little round lemon cookie. Luna looks just like the cookie. He is as wide as she is long ! He had a little MBD when I got him. So he has a little gimp in his stride. Luna is my best eater! He would probably like to live in the cricket bin, little piggy !! They were not put w/ the others until Nov. of 2011, having been quarantined for almost four months.

So currently I have four tanks.
-the 36’ H X 36” w X18 exo-terra for my A. callidryas
-the 40 gallon ( 36” H X 18 x 18” ) “critter keeper” that I recently converted to a vertical (where my moreletii “Boggie” now resides)
(As mentioned, after I moved her into her own enclosure in March , she stopped eating. She has been under vet’s care. She is getting better)

And two - - 10 gallon vertical - quarantine / nursery tanks.

The exterior of all the enclosures are hand painted on the outside of the glass to create the background and privacy for them.
I have replaced my paper towel substrate and continue to use an alternative substrate It is fleece fabric cut to fit in the bottom of the enclosures ( washed many times before it is used ) , dampened with de-chlorinated water-- it hold a ton of water !!!. It's like the exo-terra carpet( which is too rough) , but nice and soft and never pills or ravels !!! Fabric care: hot water wash and rinse in the washer ( a speck of bleach) and clothes dryer. I have froggy laundry!! The potted plants (4" pots w/ tropical soil) are hung on the back and sides of the glass w/ plant holders by 'Pet-tech Products', creating the interior and background. A plant list is in the “description area” in an album here on FF . The temperature and humidity is monitored w/ probe devices. I use a 'Mist King' misting system. Humidity and ventilation is adjusted by a Azoo Cooling Fan w/ a 15 min interval timer. I run the fan all winter as well, as I believe the ventilation is very important. I use a ceramic heat emitters hung near the sides and back of enclosures to maintain the desirable temperature. My tanks are in my basement. I feed my frogs, mainly crickets in feeding bowls. I keep the bins separated for each enclosure. Since “Boggie” has been ill I think it best not to put a cricket that has been in her enclosure, into the red eye’s enclosure. I have recently let wax worms pupate and experimenting with the moths. Luna has eaten ALL of the of course! Just what he needs !

So why do I have 2 quarantine tanks ?
One is for emergencies and one for incoming!

Today ---Three A. moreletii babies will arrive via FedEx from Michael Novy. (Thank goodness for Novy ! I do not know what I would do without him !!! He has helped me, so much, with "Boggie". ) The nursery/quarantine is ready to go. Pin head and various small crickets have been in a separate bin for them and feeding since friday. I will start a thread so we can all watch them grow together! Toward the end of the summer they will join “Boggie” ( God willing ) assuming she continues to hunt for her own food and when I get the go-ahead from the vet. I’ll post baby photos as soon as I can. Watch for a new thread?

Wonderful news, Lynn . I hope She loves her new friends.

Can't wait to see pictures of all of them .