A Penny Saved, Is One More to Spend on Another Rep - 2008/07/02 06:39In BambooZoo's site, she had a thread on what things we do to save money with our reptiles. I thought that was a wonderful thread topic, so am starting one in here for all of us to share how we pinch our pennies.
My experience is mainly with turtles and tortoises, so most of what I do deals with them.
Pools and Enclosures
Children's plastic wading pools: these can be used for several things. They make great daytime pools for smaller turtles. Add a rock for basking, a pot or something for a hide, add a few water plants and your good to go. Just be sure the water level is low enough, that your turtle can't climb out. Make a few holes in the bottom, add soil (or substrate) a hide, water dish, plants, and turn it into a quickie pen for a small tortoise. Some folks take a second pool, remove the bottom of it and place it upside down upon the first one. Take plastic ties and hook the two pools together. Thus you now have a taller cage. Some will also add screening to provide a covering. Best time to find is early spring. Most stores such as Wal-Mart sell out early in the season. These don't usually hold up for more then a year or two. However, I had one I buried in the ground as a pool, that has lasted for over 6 years now.
Children's Turtle Sandboxes: these are cute to use for hatchling turtles and torts. Best way to get them is to look for freebies in the fall, once it's too cold for local children to be using them. Parents often don't want to keep them over winter. These last for many years, but don't have much height to them.
Bath tubs: These make wonderful pools. The old claw foot ones could be kept on top of the ground, but most need to be buried or have a frame setup around them. They have a nice depth and size for a couple of smaller size turtles. Drain plugs need to be sealed in. I have for years used a small piece of mesh wire for them to climb out with, but the sky is the limit for ramp ideas. Fairly safe against predators, as the sides tend to go pretty much straight down. Best places to find have been the freebie sites, dumps, and setting in people's backyards/alley ways. Am sure remodeling companies, plumbing companies, ect.., would also be good resources.
Hot tubs: This is my personal all time favorite find. Just remove all the old hardware, seal off the open plugs, and bury. Worse part was the huge deep hole we had to dig, but well worth it. Lots of room and lots of depth. With ours, we leave our turtles (Red Eared Sliders and Paints) and fish in it over winter with no problems. Like the bath tubs,you need to create something for them to use to crawl out with. Placing rocks around the edges, softens the straight edge look. Best place to find would be the freebies, the dumps, and try talking to places selling the new tubs.
Making your own free form pool: Here the main money concern is with the pond liner. Try asking at places that install pools. They often have wrong size pool liners that they will give away or sell cheaply.
Miscelaneous thoughts:
Preformed pools found in the garden centers. Watch for sell prices in the fall.
Stock tanks: These are great for both land and water, inside and out. I like the plastic ones made by rubbermaid. Varying sizes and depths depending on your needs.
Chain link dog pens: These make great tortoise pens. May need to add sight barriers at the bottoms and something under them to prevent digging out. Lids are on them or easily made by you. Height is nice on the ones you can stand up in to work around inside.
Cement tubs: make great small tort, small turtle or hatchling pens. Also make good watering areas for larger torts outside.
Car Carriers: Once you drill holes in them, add soil/furnishings, you have yourself a tortoise enclosure. Usually stands up well for years.
Boats: This is a rather unique idea I saw once. Worked well. They drilled holes and created a box turtle home with the boat.
Rabbit/guinea pig cages: especially the ones with the nice plastic pan bottom. The pan is normally tall enough to provide a site barrier.
Bookcase, coffee tables, water bed frames, and even TV cases: All can be gutted, insides coated or lined, and made into enclosures for inside. The old TVs were removed, leaving just the wooden cabnet and "window". The TVs were used for a frog set up and was quite pretty.
A Penny Saved, Is One More to Spend on Another Rep - 2008/07/02 11:29Ah! That's a great idea, Jacquie, kudos (I wish I could add something but who knows soon... )
A Penny Saved, Is One More to Spend on Another Rep - 2008/07/02 12:08Jacque.......so now that you pilfered from mine...very glad you have.....can I also steal yours and put it up in the same section? If possible, with pictures of your own turtles and torts scattered through the text! I will also include a link to these forums. I have been ignoring that section ...since the first day I wrote it.
P.S. I got an old clawfoot in my yard ... it is too far from the electrical box to use with running water but I do intend to do it. And the little kids pools are something I have advised others to do as a penny saving way to take their turtles outside. .....great minds and all that.
I would also ask that if you know of a great site for information on turtles/torts (torts in particular) I would appreciate you passing it along to be placed as a way to go further for the reader.
A Penny Saved, Is One More to Spend on Another Rep - 2008/07/02 15:22Let's see if I can get this second section done this time without the computer crashing when I am almost done with it.
Food Ideas
Buffets: I like taking samples of different foods from the salad bar. With the cost and/or size of most items it's often not cost efffective for items your just trying out for the first time or if you only have one or two animals to feed. For example when I first tried fresh shrimp on my Asians and Homes Hingebacks I took home a couple of shrimps from the local Oriental buffet. A couple of days ago, I ate at a buffet that had blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries offered. Would have loved to take a few home to my citters.
Pumpkins: These are natural wormers and what I like to do is to give some once or twice a month. If you buy them right after Halloween you can get them cheap or even free. Just clean them out, cut them up, and freeze them to use all year long. Seeds can be saved and planted for the vines themselves as a food source. Same as watermelon and cucumber, the vine and blooms are great to feed.
Prepackaged seeds: Right after the early spring planting season they put the seeds on sale. Stores will often put the packages down to 10 cents. Many of these plants also have a fall planting season or need a shorter growing time since we may not need them to grow to normal maturity. Turnips for the greens, pumpkins/watermelon/cucumbers for just the vine or blooms or just a few examples.
Discounted older friuts and veggies are often offered for a lower price. This is especially nice since many animals prefer their fruits at the older stage. Also nice because you can also feed them ones you bought for your own use, but failed to eat them. Check out nearby growers for plants not deemed visually suitable for sale.
A Penny Saved, Is One More to Spend on Another Rep - 2008/07/02 15:36Excellent info.......especially on the pumpkin flesh as I have been asking on another forum...there has been a study in the U.K. on it but I wasnt coming up with an answer....yet. Good to know someone is using it.
A Penny Saved, Is One More to Spend on Another Rep - 2008/07/02 15:37PLANTS
Weeds: These plants come with the right price tag...free! Just be sure nothing has been fertilized or chemicals used on them. Most weeds are safe to feed, but any you question, be sure to check out if they are safe. My favorites are dandelions, clover, plantain, and creeping charlie.
Plant flowers and veggies that are safe for food sources for your animals along with being pleasing to your eyes. Many flowers are safe for feeding along with being common favorites. Add in a few greens even. Many of them actually come in colors and amke a great addiction to your flower pots.
My favorite way to get these plants are folks giving you starters from their plants. Check with friends, family, and even check out neighbors as you drive by their yards. Often are also offered on the freebies sites. End of season sales are great too.
Prennials are a favorite because you only have to plant them once and they will normally come up every year after. My favorites are the hostas and daylilies.
Think bushes, trees, and vines too. Mulberry trees offer a great leaf supply. Grape vines have lots of leaves to feed too. Rose blooms make wonderful food items.
Hibiscus plants fall under both perennial and annual. These are one of the best plants ever. The blooms come in many wonderfully colored large blooms. You enjoy the bloom for the day and then feed the fading bloom to the critters. Leaves are also able to be fed.
In the summer months, most all of my torts and dragon are feed almost entirely from plants grown in my yard. My neighbors see a colorful yard, I see turtle/tortoise habitats and an almost endless food supply. I really hate it when frost time comes.
Re:A Penny Saved, Is One More to Spend on Another Rep - 2008/07/02 15:47BambooZoo wrote: Excellent info.......especially on the pumpkin flesh as I have been asking on another forum...there has been a study in the U.K. on it but I wasnt coming up with an answer....yet. Good to know someone is using it.
Pat
It won't kill the worms like the chemical wormers, so first if you have a heavy parasite load, you still need to do a "real" worming. The pumkin will however then do a good job of keeping them under control naturally.
They like the pumpkin (flavor and color) and it is just another nice side product that it helps with worms. It falls under squash for use.
If you use the canned pumpkin, be really careful. Most canned pumpkin is not really made from pumpkins.
Re:A Penny Saved, Is One More to Spend on Another Rep - 2008/07/02 16:44Feed and water dishes:
My favorite is to use the clay plant water catchers. The clay is rough enough that it gives the added benefit of helping to keep beaks trimmed. The weight is good for not getting knocked around so much. I use the plastic ones more often for the water dishes. Like not having to worry about breaking them.
The heavy ceramic dog water/feed bowls are my favorite for the snakes. Nice and heavy. Nice depth normally too.
Paint rolling pans make good water pans for torts/turtles. Easy for them to be able to crawl in and out. Plastic ones are often only around 50 cents.
Cement mixing pans are another good one for bigger animals or for boxies so they can actually swim a little.
Enclosure items:
Rocks are nice for them to crawl over, dig under, and flat ones are good break files if you feed on them. I tend to pick up odd ones on travels. Add great visual appeal, especially around pools. Use small flat rocks around feed dishes too. It helps prevent bringing substrate into the food.
Logs are used for climbing on, hiding under, plus they also attract bugs for box turtles/redfoots and such. Hollow logs make wonderful hides with usually just a touch of cleanup work first. Logs and branches also help make the enclosure look more natural. Just remember, they may carry unwanted life forms. Also many states don't allow interstate movement of wood so know your laws before picking up that great log and bringing it home from vacation.
Flower pots on their sides make good hides. Broken clay ones can be trimmed to make safe to use and normally are very cheap (sometimes free!). Can also cut the pots into two halves and double the pot usage.
Take and place grass cuttings/leaves in a corner. This mini compost site attracts bugs, plus makes a wonderful hiding zone for box turtles especially.
Re:A Penny Saved, Is One More to Spend on Another Rep - 2008/07/02 16:58Older refrigerators can be turned into incubators or used for hibernation.
If you allow your animals outside time, especially entire summers living outside, you won't need to keep them on the UV lights all winter. Nice not to have to buy the expensive bulbs or electricity. Plus especially the turtles and torts, seem to do better being outside.
I like keeping a couple of the children's wading pools with just water plants like the water hyacinths. In the spring I buy a few starters plants and place in these pools. They quickly grow and spread. I can then thin them out to harvest them for food. Once placed in almost any of my turtle pools, they are gone in less than a day.
When I have turtles inside, especially hatchlings with no water filtration systems, I like to use basters (used to bast turkeys) to suck up the solid waste between water changes. Ever notice like cats with their litter boxes, turtles always use their new water immediately as a tiolet?
We bought a tong made for turning things on the grill for feeding our snakes. Was much cheaper then using ones sold for snakes. Plus we can find them locally.
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That's a great idea, Jacquie, kudos 
.....great minds and all that. 
LOL! BBL!