13 Aug 03
Well, I have been lurking for a while......actually tried to post a week or so ago, but found that I wasn't really subscribed even though I was receiving the messages. Well all is fixed now, so here goes.
My name is Dixie Mahaffie and I live in Western Washington along with John and Jennifer, who came to visit me this weekend. I have a major in science (shh! I don't want the school district I work for to know, LOL) and I have always been interested in crawly things. My mom use to make me go through my clothes before she would wash them because I was always carrying worms, caterpillers etc. in my pockets. She use to say, "I wanted a little girl to wear dresses and her hair up with bows, not one that wears her brother's old overalls and crawls around in the dirt and climbs trees. I had two boys for that!" I grew up to be somewhat weird by normal standards. I have always liked bugs, snakes and birds. And that is exactly what I have, along with a blind dog and four cats; and my frogs of course.
I am really new at keeping dart frogs, although I have always been fascinated with them. After a couple of months researching and learning I dove in. I got some fly cultures from Erin and Dave at Ed's Fly Meat and now I have about 20 cultures going, along with flour beatles and mealworms, even some cockroaches. I am not sure the frogs will eat the mealworms or the cockroaches, but my finch will eat the mealworms and my tarantulas and mantids will eat the cockroaches. I will be getting some termites soon from the mossman JP who I have seen on this list as well.
I got my tanks all setup with false bottoms. This was after trying a couple of other ways determined that I wasn't going to have unsightly false bottoms in my vivariums. But the results did not please me. The false bottoms were so highly recommend by so many experienced and successful froggers (hey, I use to love to play the arcade game "Frogger", should have known it was a
omen!) I decided that it was the best way to do it. Now I am looking for a way to hide the false bottom. I am thinking about getting some wide black tape and taping around the front and two sides, leaving the back bare so I can see in.
I did some trading with John and Jennifer for an adult trio of leucomelas (I love these frogs, they are really bold and like to sit on the plants), four froglet D. azureus (these guys are pretty bold as well, they are always out and foraging), 3 froglet Green and Bronze (love the colors, although they hide a bit). In addition I have two juvi cobalts, two juvi powder blues (from Erin and Dave), two juvi black and green. My next goal is to set up a really cool large vivarium, although don't ask me where I will put it........hang it from the ceiling as my husband would say!
I am excited about being part of this list and I have already learned a great deal! Thanks for letting me join.
Dixie
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I can't believe I forgot to mention that I have 47 cornsnakes. I hope to be selling about 29 of them soon, my snake stand will only hold 18 adult size snakes. Even though most of mine are juveniles, they are growing fast.
Dixie
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