Well, I know for a fact that some of you did as I’ve had plenty of messages telling me so and it’s very nice to know that you care J. The blog actually takes some time to write and I like to get it checked over by a family member as I would hate to offend anyone, it is quite an undertaking to write it weekly but I will give it my best shot. I still think it is rather self-indulgent and even I think I moan way too much but it certainly gives an insight into my life with the bugs (plus a bit of everything else in my life too) and people seem to like it.
I just have to start with a major moan this week. What is going on? When did it become acceptable to place an order and then casually cancel it or tell me they want it on a certain day or forget it and refund. I am not Amazon and my bugs are live creatures and not something that sits on a shelf to be packed and sent out in a nanosecond. Honestly it is pretty recent but getting worse, people are continually deciding to cancel their order, almost always over a weekend (when I have everything checked, set aside, fed, taken off the site, taken of my stock list and basically ready to go on Monday). The people who do this are not my regular customers, many are not customers at all as they have never ordered previously and they never order again. It causes me so much trouble and upset, I don’t want to go on about it too much but I have been forced to put new information in my terms and also on the order info that I send out by email. I don’t think it looks very friendly but it is absolutely necessary for my sanity. Oh, the joys of the internet world! Most of my customers are lovely people and I really enjoy reading the super reviews that I receive each month. I had written more on this subject but my husband vetoed it (probably for the best).
Now to nicer things, have you seen my new baby on Facebook? He is a beautiful Rainbow Bearded Dragon and I have named him Barney. I’m sure he will be a big hit with my Ginny’s Jungle experiences and as he grows I intend to let him out in my bug room for him to eat all the escaped crickets, cockroaches etc. that are always running around the floor. He is eating so many bugs that I think I should have named him Dyson (do you know I might change his name, what do you think?).
The bugs and beasties are all going well, I have cut right down on stick insects (love them but too few sales). Tarantula sales are right up so I will be restocking this month, expect to see lots of new species soon. I still have plenty of my home bred Indian Violet and Haitian Brown spiderlings – going cheap, hint, hint! Millipedes are another big seller and I am very pleased with myself this year as I have bred many of them. I love scorpions and hope to get more species soon but I’m not so successful with them, I think there is still a lot to learn, certainly for me anyway.
I have always liked cockroaches, if people take the time to really look at them they are very cute (honestly, perhaps you are not looking close enough J). I now have a large number of cockroach species, they are quite different to look at and also in their requirements. Even after all these years I am still learning new things all the time. The biggest problem in my bug room is that there is never enough space! I would dearly love to have proper rows of vivariums but most of my cockroaches are kept in large plastic boxes. I probably worry too much as they generally thrive. Some species like the Porcelain, Hissing and Green Banana breed prolifically but others are not so easy. I have two Giant Australian Rhinoceros cockroaches, I have had them for years and I keep hoping that I will find babies when I feed them each week but sadly there have been none so far. They are very big but I can’t actually be sure they are adults yet. I intend to set them up in a new tank with a light on during the day, it might just speed things up a bit (they are definitely both sexes, if not I really would be wasting my time).
The reason that space in the bug room has been such an issue this week is because Barney is living in a 4’ tank! He has pretty much taken up half the back wall. I intended to put him in one of my snake tanks in the dining room but I was worried that during the winter we would really struggle to maintain the high temperatures that he needs. I know so much about keeping bugs but it seems that I knew nothing about keeping a Bearded Dragon. It has certainly been a very expensive lesson, I bought things that I didn’t need and then ended up buying more and more things that I did need. My cute little lizard has cost a fortune.
That’s it, I’m off, things to do, people to see, animals to feed etc. etc. etc. Hope everyone has a good weekend. I’m up in London tomorrow for one of my competitions club, quarterly meetings. Hopefully I will get inspiration to enter more competitions but the thing I really need as always is more time J
I really enjoyed your Blog - you did make me smile about the name Dyson. A friend of mine had a very small dog she fondly called Laptop - because that is where he spent most of his time and she was a newly minted Silver Surfer at the time! When her doggie decided he had been ignored long enough he jumped up onto her knee and refused to move - thus changing one laptop for another. She also had a stray cat she adopted from hiding at the top of her drive. She called him Bentley - because she had always wanted one on her driveway. Great fun!
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