RIP blue racer

Trying to get back in the groove here.
So let's get the horror story out of the way.

blue racer aka chubby
western fence lizard

A couple months ago the kids auntie Lisa found a lizard out by their horses,
and brought it too the kids.
We're renters so haven't been too pet friendly,
so this was a good opportunity to test how the kids could handle taking care of something.

lizard condo

Well everything went fine for a while.
It was an easy pet to take care of,
just needed crickets and water.

We figured it was an older one,
as it was really lazy.
It would have been easily picked off by a hawk,
or washed out in the rains.
But that would have been a better fate for the poor guy.

lizard grave

I've been way preoccupied lately and wasn't paying attention to it.
It looked really sickly over the weekend.
I was a little shocked as I had just seen it eat days before.
After taking a closer look,
I got those creepy shivers you get when something's not right.
There were all these little red mites on it's body.
Woops.
I searched online and found a bunch of info,
which was kinda crummy to find out a little too late.

Basically since it was a wild animal,
it had brought a couple mites with it.
Well what happens in the wild is they'll get scratched and fall off,
so only a few will remain attached.

In a terrarium,
the mites fall off,
but they just hop right back on,
over and over again,
creating a breeding ground.

RIP little guy

Unfortunately we caught it too late.
The mites have an anticoagulant that poisons the blood,
and removing them with water was just as harsh on the lizard.

A rude awakening for us all.
The kids now know the bitter ending for most pets.

TP