Ferry - Rhacodactylus Chahoua (Chewie)

[dakski]

Ferry is just too darn cute. His nightly ritual is killing me.

First of all, he's gotten more active when I take him out at night. He begs, calmly, to come out, with those big Chewie eyes. Then I take him out and it's run up my arm, around my neck and shoulders, down the other arm, hand over hand, up the arm, down the other arm, etc.

After a few minutes of this and and down the back and around the chest, etc. He calms down and is sweet as pie. Of course, if I take him out during the day to say hello, he's just the calm the part. However, does he beg to come out and play during the day? NO! He only begs when HE wants to play!

Secondly, I think he's really comfortable and settled. He's eating his bugs and his gel. He's all over his tank. Also, his colors are super rich and he's a handsome guy.

I have video and pictures below.

Finally, it's gotten a little chilly in the house here as it's almost winter here in Connecticut, USA. Just in case you didn't know it wasn't winter, the weather could have fooled me! It's dry and very cold. Teens at night.

Anyway, Ezzy (Leachie) has been less active, but still eating, and it's been high 60's at night and lows 70's during the day. Rhacodactylus like it about 72-77F. Over 80F is too hot for comfort and over 85F can be lethal. Colder is better as they can adjust and just slow their bodies and metabolisms down.

I called Steve from Leapin' Leachies today and he said not to worry about it getting too cold. He gets his Leachies down to 55F in the winter and they barely eat, but it's good for them and gets them ready to breed.

I asked about getting a better tank, with better insulation and an RHP, and also, maybe a little bigger, for both Ferry and Ezzy (maybe stacked) and he said that would be fine, but act actually cooling them down a little in the winter is a good thing. He emphasized what I already knew, which is that humidity is key and way more important than temps with these guys. Humidity must always be over 55% and 65%-75% is the sweet spot. Too low causes issues and fast.

So, I called Jeff Ronne at Boaphile Plastics, as he has a newish line of arboreal tanks and is building one for Yafe as we speak.

They have PVC pipe(s) going across them, but they can removed or not put in, but they are taller and come in different sizes than the main cages he's made for years and are 3X2' plus.

He makes a tank size that would be perfect for both Ezzy and Ferry and we could stack them, with an RHP (very small RHP - never need to get over 77F in a room that would never be below 66-67F and when that cold, would be set to 72F - more on that in a second), and use on thermostat for both tanks.

We spoke at length today and I asked him about his 2FT wide X 1.5FT deep X 2FT high tank. I think that would be perfect. Ezzy is currently in a 20"X20"X20" and Ferry is in a 16"X16"X20".

Then Jeff blew my mind a little and said, you can also get any size tank and put it on it's side. So, I could get 2'X2'1.5', but put it on it's side, and I have a side opening door instead of a top to bottom opening door, and the tank would be 2FT tall, 2FT deep, and 1 1/2 feet wide. Either way, it sounds pretty cool, and we could stack them pretty easy, either in my office, Katie's office, or in the reptile area, and then everyone would be in one place. That takes the fun out of having them in our offices, but makes things a little easier in other ways. 6 of one and 1/2 dozen of another.

I could keep the tanks 72F at the top/near the RHP in the winter (probably 68-70F below and ambient) and 77F in the summer (probably 73-74F ambient).

Anyway, food for thought. I brought it up with Katie, but she was tired, and we didn't go over pictures etc.

I'll update on that another day.

In the meantime, here are two videos of the Epic Cuteness that is Ferry, as well as a few pictures. Enjoy!

Video link to "Come out and play!" https://streamable.com/ncr5n

Video link to "Chill Ferry." https://streamable.com/dmkn4


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