Tagged: “reptile”

We Need a New Set of Wheels!

We Need a New Set of Wheels!

Nature’s Edge Wildlife and Reptile Rescue is in desperate need of a new vehicle. To say we put a vehicle through it’s paces is an understatement. The Suburban we have now is a 2005 and has over 230,000 miles on it. The repairs are beyond starting to exceed the value, and will cost too much to make it pass Texas vehicle inspection this month. We use 4 wheel drive on a regular basis, haul stuff (including a trailer), travel to education and adoption events, picking up supplies and animals, and let’s not forget the occasional use as an emergency ladder to get birds out of trees.

Last year we drove more than 13,000 miles picking up animals, supplies, traveling to education programs, reptile expos, etc. About 10,000 miles consisted of transporting animals, over 2,000 miles were driven traveling to education programs and almost 700 miles driven to reptile expos. And that doesn’t even count all the miles driven to and from our vet’s office and that is a 67 mile trip.

We made three trips down to the coast after Hurricane Harvey in August 2017 to pick up wildlife and deliver needed supplies to wildlife rehabilitators. We have driven as far away as New Mexico to pick up animals in need. We drove to Tyler one afternoon just to pick up a western ratsnake that had swallowed three ceramic eggs. We also drove to Kansas one year to meet a college professor that adopted several reptiles for use as education animals.

A reliable vehicle is necessary to help us continue caring for animals in need. Please consider helping us purchase a new used vehicle.

As always, we truly thank each and every one of you for your continued support!

https://www.gofundme.com/wildlife-rescue-needs-a-new-set-of-wheels?fbclid=IwAR3ntD4WGCNQE0db5wLCv0xZIoNgCddhqVTG6BycnLftjymPXi-8xjC2Kfs

Zilla Products are the BEST!

Zilla Products are the BEST!

Open a large package to find this!
Thanks to our friends at Zilla Products for the donation of dehydrated food. Just in time for baby season! To learn more about Zilla and their products, visit their website: https://www.zillarules.com/

Needing a Rescue Vehicle

Needing a Rescue Vehicle

The rescue is in need of a new vehicle. To say we put a vehicle through it’s paces is an understatement. The Suburban we have now is a 2005 and has 230,000 miles on it. The repairs are beyond starting to exceed the value, and will cost too much to make it pass Texas vehicle inspection. We use 4 wheel drive on a regular basis, haul stuff (including a trailer), travel to education and adoption events, picking up supplies and animals, and let’s not forget the occasional use as an emergency ladder to get birds out of trees.
We are hoping one of our followers has an in with a used car dealer in the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex.
We need a large SUV, 4×4, in good shape and trustworthy. And let’s not forget price range. We are not looking to break the bank.

Slow Motion Rattlesnake Rattle Another View

Made another video on just the rattle moving from a few different angles. Enjoy.Mario and Brandi

Posted by Nature's Edge Wildlife and Reptile Rescue on Friday, February 8, 2019

Slow Motion Rattlesnake Rattle

A quick video on a couple of prairie rattlesnakes (Crotalus viridis) we took in today. Enjoy!

Slider Turtles as Pets

Slider Turtles as Pets

We have all seen them. Those cute little red-eared sliders and yellow-bellied sliders being sold either from a roadside stand or one of those gift shops in Florida. Well this is what that cheap little $10 turtle turns into. These are both yellow-bellied turtle (Trachemys scripta scripta). Adult shell vs hatchling. The hatchling was bought and later surrendered, with a second one, when the owner realized how big they get.

Road side sellers love to tell people they will stay small if kept in a small tank. Sure, because they get sick and die before they can reach full suze.
Aquatic turtles need a minimum of 10 gallons of physical water per every inch of shell length. PER TURTLE. The more water the better. Strong filtration is a must to keep their water clean. They also need room to get out of the water and bask, as well as strong UVA/UVB lighting.
So for example, the large one would need a minimum of 160 gallons of water and a 2 foot by 2 foot area to get out and bask.
A varied diet to include live native fish is also a must. Pelleted diets can be lacking the proper nutrition. NO GOLDFISH. They do eat a lot.


Aquatic turtles as a whole can make great display pets. But they must be set up properly. Red-eared sliders and yellow-bellied sliders are the number one surrendered pet to reptile rescues. A lot of rescues have even stopped taking them in due to already having way to many of them. And no, they can not just be returned to the wild or dumped in your neighborhood pond. It is illegal to do so for a few different reasons.

Red Iguana Rescue

Red Iguana Rescue

We recently took in a young red iguana that was super bloated and would not eat. It had been attacked by another iguana in the past and thought it might have been something from that. Turned out she was egg bound. 8 eggs total. 2 were slugs, 6 seem like they might be good. This girl is way too young and small to have been bred. Yes it was an accident as the owners thought they had two males. Which is still a no no due to fighting which is how this one lost part of her tail.
Now to trim up those nails and get some weight back on her.
And yes, those are her eggs in one of our Baby Warm incubators since it currently has no animals in it.

Reptiles Dumped at Local PetCo

Reptiles Dumped at Local PetCo

We received a call from a local Petco that when they came into work they found somebody had dumped three snakes in tubs in front of the store sometime before they got there.
The three snakes turned out to be a prairie kingsnake (Lampropeltis calligaster), a western ratsnake (Pantherolhis obsoletus) and an eastern ratsnake (Pantherophis alleghaniensis) (formerly known as a yellow ratsnake).
All were in tubs that smelled horrible due to soaking wet bedding, had mold and fungus, dead and decaying rodents, flies and maggots. Tubs went immediately into the trash and snakes were bathed and cleaned up. 
The western ratsnake has some mouth rot issues (see pictures) and part of the upper lip area is gone. She will go on antibiotics immediately with cleanings of the area every day.
The eastern ratsnake definitely is thin and needs a couple of good meals.
The prairie king actually looks good considering.
All were placed in quarantine for parasites after being cleaned up and examined.
All 3 are native to the US, the eastern rat being the only one not native to Texas. None can be released so they will join our education team when healthy enough to do so.

The Truth about Wildlife Rehab

Okay I can not believe I even need to talk about this, but, due to recent phone calls and conversations I feel I must.
First off, rehabbing animals is NOT our job. Let me explain. Helping animals is what we do, but nobody pays us to do this. We actually pay for the privilege to help animals. We pay for the permits, food, medical supplies, heating, electricity, water, etc… Saying it’s a job would mean that somebody pays us to do this. There is no reimbursement from the state or feds for what we do. In fact, most rehabbers work a regular job besides rehabbing so that they can continue to rehab animals.
Second, we operate out of our home. Most rehabbers do. We can not afford a big rehab center. Wish we could. Most places that do have had said centers donated to them to operate out of. Operating out of ones home when it comes to caring for sick, injured, and orphaned wildlife has it’s own unique set of challenges.
So to summarize, we operate off of our own back pockets, in kind donations, and sometimes we find small grants and other small projects such as education events to help offset costs.
So next time you call a rehabber and demand they come out to save an animal because “it’s their job”, please remember it’s not a job. It’s a passion to help animals in need due to human interactions. Don’t get mad at the rehabber and start yelling at them about how horrible of a person they are because they can not stop either working a job, helping somebody else with an injured animal, or caring for the animals already in their possession, to come and pick up an injured animal right in front of you.

Scentsy Fundraiser

Scentsy Fundraiser

There are still 8 days left to order Scentsy in support of NEWRR!

You can get your significant other an awesome Valentine’s Day gift AND contribute to the wildlife rescue cause, all at the same time!

20% of your order goes directly to NEWRR AND for every $25 you spend, your name will be entered into a drawing for a free bar!

To order, use this link:
https://meagangray.scentsy.us/party/10299994