A busy week

A busy week with lots of new animals coming in and mountains of emails to answer. I bought in some lovely Chile scorpions, they are not large but most look like they may be pregnant. Still had no luck with my Imperial scorpions or Flat Rock but I certainly have plenty of Asian Black Forest scorpion babies. I bought in some new Desert Hairy scorpions, they are a lovely species and because they were cheaper than my last ones I have put them on special offer. Talking of offers, I set up another 10% discount code last weekend, I'm sure it has brought in more orders but it is due to finish quite soon.

I spoke to my website guy yesterday, he has been working away from home and not been able to finish the upgrade on my site. I'm sure he will get it finished soon, there were a number of modifications that I had asked him to make so I think it has been a lot more complicated than he had anticipated. I received my winter supply of heat packs this week. I haven't had to use any yet but I'm sure it won't be long until I am once again using them in my parcels. I had to make a decision on the postal charges issue, I have decided to just put the postage up by 45p, far less than the cost of a heat pack and all the extra postal costs that I incur during the colder months but I really don't want to lose custom. I had talked about charging full price for a heat pack and making it an added extra, rather than compulsory but the idea fell flat when I realised that I would then have to send out animals with no additional heating. Most would survive (I don't think that Royal Mail parcels are ever far from people and people like to be kept warm) but I couldn't bear the thought of anything perishing in the post. I haven't increased the European rate because it is already a little higher and I don't tend to send many orders abroad during the winter anyway.

I have had fun and games with the baby snakes this week. I have spent ages trying to coax them to take their first meal and yesterday came success at last! The first baby to hatch took a pinkie and I expect the others to follow shortly. I now need to find homes for them all! I will put them on my website today but as I cannot post them, anyone interested would need to come and collect. I am also not sure how much to ask for them as I don't deal in reptiles. I cannot just give them away as I have already put a lot of work into them, plus I bought 100 pinkie mice and new boxes to house them all this week. They are showing some lovely patterns and are far more colourful now that they have all moulted. They are not plain 'boring' ones anymore. I'm told they are probably 'Motley', their dad is a Motley Caramel and mum is a Ghost Corn. I had an absolute panic a couple of days ago. I was concentrating on feeding the snakes and forgot to put the lid back on one of the boxes. When I realised, of course it was gone. I had two searches of the bug room and found nothing but then I decided to start at one end of the room and work my way around. I finally found the little snake curled up on top of a plastic box under the shelving at the far side of the bug room. They are very fast at this stage and can get quite far in a short amount of time. I was just so relieved to find him/her. I knew it would be worth all that effort to completely seal the room. I must admit though that I did look at the sink and think the baby snake could easily have fitted down the plug hole but all's well that ends well.

I seem to be doing ok with all my fruit beetles. I bought in some more larvae this week and I have other species arriving in the next few weeks. Practice makes perfect and I do seem to be getting better at creating the correct environment for them. I have had problems in the past with the cocoons becoming too damp and rotting. I am now keeping them in airier conditions and having much more success. I am also trying not to disturb them too much when the larvae are pupating. The adults seem to love banana and the larvae all feed on rotten wood and leaf litter.

I was thinking of getting rid of my large mixed stick insect cage before the winter but I just can't do it! I love stick insects and they may not be particularly popular at the moment but I will just cut down and try not to keep too many. I wouldn't be me without all the bramble thorns in my hands from collecting food for them.

No news about the large number of African bugs that I have on order. I haven't heard anything so I am wondering 'if' rather than 'when' they are going to turn up. I am attending a show next month so I should get some more tarantula species but then I think I need to cut back on new stock and concentrate on all the amazing bugs and beasties that I already have. It would be great to find some time to put more photos and information on the site, to look at restarting my Facebook account, YouTube videos and the list goes on ................