mistressofmuses (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mistressofmuses) wrote2024-03-11 10:35 pm
mistressofmuses) wrote2024-03-11 10:35 pm
It's my birfday!
Had a nice day. We went out to breakfast, which was good.
After that, went up to a particular liquor store that carries a cider that Taylor and my mom keep telling me I should try, lol. (Turns out, it is in fact, really good! "Original Sin: Black Widow" which is blackberry apple cider and I am very much liking it.)
We also stopped by a local exotic pet store (mainly reptiles.) My hope was to find a new fire-bellied toad, but they did not have any.
Turns out... kinda nobody does. It's a pretty common complaint online when I started looking. They used to be pretty ubiquitous - the "goldfish of amphibians" as someone put it - and were super common even in chain pet stores. (They also used to be like, $10, tops.) Over the last few years... no one seems to have them.
Almost all of the suppliers online I could find were sold out, and nowhere local seems to ever have them. From comments online, even going to reptile expos and such seems to be a strike out.
No exact answer as to why, but sounds like the import of them was banned, even prior to Covid. That's mostly good - imports were likely a mix of farmed and wild-caught, and it's a GOOD thing to limit wild catching (plus it limits spread of things like fungal infections, which can devastate amphibians). Buuuut, since they've so long had the reputation for being boring starter-pets, no one in the US has seemed very interested in breeding them either.
I did find one place that has their own captive-bred in-stock, but they'd have to be shipped, which would have to wait until we aren't hitting freezing temps. They're also like $50 now, but apparently now they're rare(r). His are yellow rather than red, which he says is due to the captive breeding, though I haven't seen that claim anywhere else.
There's also someone I'm friended to on FB who will maybe be starting breeding programs with his, because he likes them and thinks it's a shame that more people don't appreciate them, ha.
After striking out on the pet front, we went to the store and picked up some groceries for dinner.
We went over to my mom's house for a bit. She made me a peach pie. <3 She and Taylor bought me a few books I'd asked for: Aftermarket Afterlife, Mislaid in Parts Half-Known, and Never Say You Can't Survive.
Then we came home, and Alex made me dinner: salmon and some spinach ravioli. So good!
Tomorrow is probably the boring stuff day: trip to the laundromat, plus catching up on stuff that's fallen behind in the last few days. We'll see if I can knock stuff out!
After that, went up to a particular liquor store that carries a cider that Taylor and my mom keep telling me I should try, lol. (Turns out, it is in fact, really good! "Original Sin: Black Widow" which is blackberry apple cider and I am very much liking it.)
We also stopped by a local exotic pet store (mainly reptiles.) My hope was to find a new fire-bellied toad, but they did not have any.
Turns out... kinda nobody does. It's a pretty common complaint online when I started looking. They used to be pretty ubiquitous - the "goldfish of amphibians" as someone put it - and were super common even in chain pet stores. (They also used to be like, $10, tops.) Over the last few years... no one seems to have them.
Almost all of the suppliers online I could find were sold out, and nowhere local seems to ever have them. From comments online, even going to reptile expos and such seems to be a strike out.
No exact answer as to why, but sounds like the import of them was banned, even prior to Covid. That's mostly good - imports were likely a mix of farmed and wild-caught, and it's a GOOD thing to limit wild catching (plus it limits spread of things like fungal infections, which can devastate amphibians). Buuuut, since they've so long had the reputation for being boring starter-pets, no one in the US has seemed very interested in breeding them either.
I did find one place that has their own captive-bred in-stock, but they'd have to be shipped, which would have to wait until we aren't hitting freezing temps. They're also like $50 now, but apparently now they're rare(r). His are yellow rather than red, which he says is due to the captive breeding, though I haven't seen that claim anywhere else.
There's also someone I'm friended to on FB who will maybe be starting breeding programs with his, because he likes them and thinks it's a shame that more people don't appreciate them, ha.
After striking out on the pet front, we went to the store and picked up some groceries for dinner.
We went over to my mom's house for a bit. She made me a peach pie. <3 She and Taylor bought me a few books I'd asked for: Aftermarket Afterlife, Mislaid in Parts Half-Known, and Never Say You Can't Survive.
Then we came home, and Alex made me dinner: salmon and some spinach ravioli. So good!
Tomorrow is probably the boring stuff day: trip to the laundromat, plus catching up on stuff that's fallen behind in the last few days. We'll see if I can knock stuff out!