Spotlight on Leopard Geckos

As a child, I was crushed when I found out dinosaurs were extinct. At story time, I always rooted for the dragon instead of the knight, and at the movie theater, I felt sorry for Godzilla. It's no surprise, then, that I fell in love with lizards and other reptiles. There's something magical about having a pet that bears such a striking resemblance to creatures of myth and bygone eras.

Today, a wide variety of lizard species are available, but not all of them are recommended for beginners. Anoles, for example, are adorable and fun to watch, but most if not all of the anoles in the pet trade are wild caught, and their tiny size, agility and flighty temperament make them difficult to handle and easy to lose. Iguanas, on the other hand, are intelligent lizards with big personalities that are fun to interact with. However, they grow extremely large, are difficult to house properly, and can be dangerous if they become aggressive. If you're looking for a lizard that is small enough to live comfortably in a 20 gallon tank, docile enough to be handled, and not prone to leaping out windows or tail whipping house guests, a leopard gecko would be a good choice.

 This is Nimue (pronounced Nim oo way), named after a character from Arthurian legend. I purchased her from a breeder when she was five months old. She just celebrated her seventh "hatch day" in June, so she's an old lady but could potentially live into her teens. Here's a shot of her a few years ago when her spots were still coming in:

Let me address a few common questions. Yes, her tail is supposed to be that fat. Just as camels store fat in their humps, leos, as they're commonly called, store fat in their tails to survive when food is scarce. The only skinny leo is a starved one.

No, I did not feed her a box of crayolas to make her that color. Leos have been selectively bred for many generations and come in an amazing array of patterns. Here are just a few, courtesy of Ron Tremper:

And finally, no she is nothing like the Geico mascot, who is modeled after a day gecko. While day geckos are sleek, diurnal, arboreal rainforest dwellers, leos are chunky, nocturnal, ground-dwelling desert lizards. Despite not having a career in TV commercials, Nimue is still a bit of a ham. Here she is posing with Santa at a SPCA fundraiser and making a Valentine's Day appearance:

Because a gecko's needs are very different from those of a cat or dog, I recommend doing some thorough research before bringing one home. You can find basic care sheets here and here. In addition to the recommendations these breeders make, here are a few things I've learned along the way:

1. Geckos and sand don't mix. Nimue has always lived on paper towel, but I've known other geckos who suffered fatal complications from calci-sand as well as regular play sand. Pet stores and even some books recommend keeping leos on calci-sand because it is a source of calcium. Don't believe it. What the company that sells it fails to mention is that the sand is in no way digestible and can cause intestinal blockage. Leos do need a source of calcium to prevent metabolic bone disease, but it should be given in the form of supplements.

2. Geckos are clumsy. Unlike most of their cousins, leos do not have the ability to walk on vertical surfaces. Their little claws allow them to scramble over a rock or log, but that's the extent of their athletic prowess. Nimue has no concept of heights and will walk right off the edge of my kitchen table if I don't watch her. It's best to handle leos while sitting on the floor so they don't have far to fall.

3. Geckos only eat live bugs. I knew this from the start, but some owners have tried to trick their geckos into eating freeze-dried insects or cat food. That won't cut it, even if you use one of those gimmicky vibrating dishes. Leos need a steady diet of crickets and meal worms who have been fed a nutritious diet themselves. If the thought of wrangling crickets or keeping a tub of hibernating meal worms in your fridge sends shivers up your spine, a leo is not the pet for you.

4. You can lead a gecko to crickets, but you can't make her eat. Nimue once went several months without eating (though her tail was still plump). Improper housing conditions are usually to blame for anorexia, but I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. I dragged her to multiple vets before I discovered she was ovulating. Female leos produce eggs even if they've never been bred. Most are content to lay them in a nesting box, but Nimue always holds onto hers until they reabsorb. If your leo goes on a hunger strike every year between March and June, this may be the cause. Be sure to consult a vet who has experience with exotics to determine the best course of treatment. In Nimue's case, she needs to be syringe fed until she starts eating again.

5. Moisture is important. Most sources will say that leos are desert lizards who need a dry environment and that a box of moist peat moss is all that is necessary. That may be adequate, but if your apartment is particularly dry, your gecko may have trouble shedding her skin. Nimue started having problems recently when she retained the skin on her eyes and couldn't open them. The problem cleared up when I started giving her warm baths twice a week and leaving a moist cloth in her tank.

6. Consider using UV. Some lizards get their vitamin D from sunlight, so they require a UV light when kept indoors. Because leos are nocturnal, they need to get their vitamin D from their food. Recent research, however, has shown that leos may benefit from UV light, so I decided to add a light fixture. So far, Nimue seems completely indifferent.

I hope you enjoyed learning about my baby. I'd love to hear from other exotic pet lovers out there.

Pet Spotlight

I'm an equal opportunity animal lover. In other words, I react in the same sappy way to a tarantula as I do to a puppy ("Awww, look at your little furry legs!"). Even the most cold-blooded creature warms the cockles of my heart. In the past seven years, I've been owned by a green anole, a leopard gecko, a Russian tortoise, a Syrian hamster, six mice, two hairless rats, two Chinese button quail, three hermit crabs, two bettas, two African dwarf frogs, two Oriental firebelly toads, a fiddler crab, an apple snail, a ghost shrimp, three Madagascar hissing cockroaches, a banana slug, and a medicinal leech (the partridge in a pear tree is still on back order.) Perhaps the only thing they all have in common is that they are all small, caged critters who fit easily into a one-bedroom apartment where more traditional pets are not always allowed.

Many of my pets lived to their maximum lifespan, while some were the victims of random catastrophes, a previous owner's neglect, my own ignorance, or simply a lack of available information. In this series of posts, I'll be sharing both my successes and my failures, in the hopes of educating others.

As much as I love pets, I spend a lot of time trying to convince people not to buy them. When I walk into a pet store and hear an employee giving customers misleading information or outright lies in order to sell them the most expensive and exotic creature in their inventory, I can't help but speak up. I've been banned from more than one store just for revealing what an animal really eats or how big an animal will actually get.

Pet ownership raises no shortage of ethical issues. I certainly don't have all the answers, but here are a few basic principles I follow:

1. I no longer remove animals from the wild or purchase them from people who do. I say "no longer" because my first pet was a green anole, whom I thought was captive bred but turned out not to be. I won't be making that mistake again. I've taken in injured or displaced wild animals occasionally but only to place them in the care of a wildlife rehabilitator. I've also taken in rescues that were originally wild caught but had been in captivity so long that they could not be released back into their natural habitat.

2. I don't purchase animals from pet stores or anyone who breeds for profit. Responsible breeding, where the welfare of the animals and the improvement of the species are the top priorities, is expensive, time-consuming, and rarely more than a hobby. With the exception of the aforementioned anole, who was purchased at a fair (not recommended), all of my pets were either rescues or purchased from small private breeders.

3. I don't breed my pets. Procreation may be natural but that doesn't mean it's necessary, and taking simple steps to prevent critters from multiplying can actually increase their lifespan. There are plenty of experienced breeders out there and countless unwanted pets who need homes, so I have no desire to join the ranks of the former or contribute to the latter. To be honest, I feel the same way about breeding humans, but that's another post.

The Thyroid Solution

One in ten Americans has a thyroid disorder, but few people understand exactly how this gland functions in the body, and most are not aware that depression, anxiety, and memory loss can be symptoms of a thyroid imbalance. The Thyroid Solution presents a groundbreaking mind-body approach to identifying and curing thyroid disease. 

Dr. Ridha Arem, a leading authority in the field of thyroid research explains:

• What the thyroid is and what it does
• How thyroid hormones affect mood, emotions, and behavior
• The difference between hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism and why both conditions are often misdiagnosed
• The connection between the thyroid, weight gain, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome
• The role that stress management and diet play in correcting a thyroid imbalance
• The benefits of antioxidants, essential fatty acids, and other supplements
• What every woman should know about the thyroid's involvement in reproductive health
• How thyroid treatment can help depression when antidepressants have failed

For more information on this revolutionary program, click on the link to the right of this post.

Fibromyalgia: the Bad, the Worse, and the Ugly

In a previous post, I mentioned that I have a chronic illness that limits the kind of work I can do and the hours when I can do it. I suffer from depression, generalized anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, chronic fatigue, and fibromyalgia, but it's actually the last two that are the most troublesome. For a brief overview of fibromyalgia, go here.

When my chronic pain began about five years ago, my doctor said I needed to lose weight. He was right; I'm 5'6'' and weighed 280 lbs. Over the course of three years, I've lost about 100 lbs and continue to work my way toward a healthy weight. With every positive change I've made in my lifestyle, however, the pain has gotten worse, not better. What began as a stiff neck has developed into constant pain in my neck, shoulders, chest back, pelvis, hips, and legs, with periodic pain in my hands, arms, feet, head, face, jaw, and abdomen. In other words, I hurt all over, all the time.

The activities that aggravate the pain seem to defy logic: I can walk for an hour on flat ground, but struggle to trudge up a hill or a single flight of stairs and can't stand for more than 10 minutes. I can do moderate free weights and yoga, but carrying a light back pack on my shoulders or a grocery bag by my side is excruciating. My friends always know when I'm approaching because they hear the rumble of the giant wheeled suitcase I drag behind me, and strangers on campus sometimes leap out of my way, assuming the noise is a skateboard.

The first time I saw the word "fibromyalgia" was when I looked at the diagnoses listed on a medical bill. My doctor had never told me what he thought was wrong with me. When I asked him about it, he said it was just a word for pain that won't go away and that he hadn't brought it up because there was nothing that could be done about it. I've dedicated the last four years of my life to improving my health and proving him wrong. Stay tuned for future posts where I discuss what I've been doing about fibro.

One of the most challenging parts of this condition is that any number of related illnesses accompany the pain. Thyroid disease is a prime example. While no one knows whether hypothyroidism is a symptom of fibro or the cause of it, it's important to understand the role that the thyroid gland plays in our health, which is the subject of my next commercial post.

How (Not) to Earn Money Online, Pt. 1

From Fall to Spring, I'm a full-time student and part-time graduate teaching assistant at the University of Cincinnati, where I'm fortunate enough to have a full scholarship and a stipend. Being paid to study what you love and share knowledge with others is a sweet deal. Summer job opportunities, however, are limited and when all of my prospects fell through, I decided to explore what else people might be willing to pay me to do. Due to health issues, I'm not capable of working a regular 9-5 job, so I was interested mainly in work I could do from home at any hour of the day.

Google "work from home" and you'll find no shortage of enticing offers. I learned I could be paid to fill out marketing surveys. All I had to do was sign up with a bunch of survey sites and offers would be emailed to me each day. Most sites claim I can earn up to $75 per survey, just by telling companies what I think. Over the past month, I have indeed earned money filling out surveys. I've also wasted a lot of time. Here are a few things I've learned along the way:

1. A $75 survey may exist, but you will likely never see one. More often than not, a 10-minute survey will earn you 50 cents.

2. Most survey sites don't pay cash. Some of them award points that can be redeemed in cash, but quite a few offer points that you can only use to buy things you don't want or enter sweepstakes that you will never win. Sites also have a minimum pay out, so you might have to earn at least $50 before you see a cent.

3. Not all surveys are just questions to answer. Many ask you to evaluate a web site, which means you have to sign up for whatever that site is offering, whether it's a credit score report, quotes on car insurance, or a book of the month club. You'll usually be asked to sign up for a free trial, but only if you hand over your credit card info so they can start charging you monthly fees when you forget to cancel it. And canceling almost always requires a phone call and a lengthy conversation with someone from Pakistan, so add cell phone minutes and frustration to the equation.

4. You might not qualify for a large percentage of the surveys you are sent. For example, if you happen to be a 29-year-old childless white female who doesn't own a TV, doesn't play computer games, doesn't suffer from acid reflux, and has never been on a cruise, prepare yourself for rejection.

Can you earn money taking surveys? Absolutely. I've earned roughly $180, but it took me a month, not a day, and I've yet to reach the cash out limit on two of the sites. Do those trial offers have some benefits? Sure. I'm now paying less for car insurance and know that my credit score is "good." But the opportunities to sign up for something you actually want are few and far between.

If you're looking for sites that pay cash with minimal red tape, there are two I can recommend:

Send Earnings

InboxDollars

Both these sites send me emails each day and pay me 10 cents or more just to click on them, which only takes seconds out of my day. Occasionally when I get an offer for a survey that is $5.00 or more and worth my time, I do it. They also have a referral program where I get paid if anyone signs up using the links above or the ads to the left, so if you're interested, by all means click away!

How many of you have experience with paid surveys? Are they as profitable as you expected or nothing more than a scam? How much can you realistically earn? What tricks of the trade help you earn more? I'd love to hear from you.

Human Anatomy & Physiology Study Course

In my last post, I talked about my love for science and my fond memories of high school anatomy class. These days, studying the human body is more of a hobby for me than an academic requirement. No one really cares if a composition instructor knows what purkinje fibers do (for the curious, they carry the electrical signal that makes the heart muscle contract). In many professions, however, having a comprehensive understanding of anatomy and physiology is essential.

Whether you're studying to become a paramedic, a physical therapist, a personal trainer, or even a personal injury lawyer, memorizing every bone, muscle, blood vessel, and connective tissue in the body, as well as its function, is no picnic. Fortunately, there are tools to make it easier.

The Human Anatomy & Physiology Study Course created by Dr. James Ross covers everything you need to know to ace the dreaded exam. This CD set features :

• More than 3000 pages of material, complete with detailed illustrations, quizzes and their solutions. 
• Simple explanations of key concepts
• Idiot Proof coverage of every system in the body, down to the molecular level
• No prior medical knowledge required
• PC and Mac compatible with printable pdfs
• Proven methods that will save you years of studying 

To find out more about this innovative course, Click Here

Blood and Guts: The Poetics of Science

Long before I wrote my first poem, science was my first love. As a kid, I enjoyed catching bugs, collecting rocks, and watching nature shows. When I got older, I was captivated by microscope slides, punnett squares, and molecules. Although I now oppose vivisection for ethical reasons, I see nothing aesthetically icky about dissecting earthworms, crayfish, and frogs. In my high school anatomy class, I was the one who helped the teacher demonstrate how to pry the entrails from a fetal pig. Some girls shrieked. One boy fainted. But I was in heaven.

What does a fetal pig have to do with writing poetry, you ask? For me, a great deal. My cure for writer's block has always been paging through a magazine at the doctor's office, on the lookout for scientific factoids. For example, one journal featured articles about carbon monoxide poisoning, the mating rituals of a preying mantis, and a man whose overconsumption of supplements turned his skin permanently blue. These details found their way into my writing in a variety of ways. I wrote a poem about unstable people who steal from others to feel complete, much like unstable CO molecules steal electrons. I created a speaker with the desire to bite off her husband's head, mantis-style. And in a series on chronic illness, I explored how the things that sustain and improve our health also have the potential to destroy it.

My love for science and my love for poetry are really one and the same. At its most basic level, science seeks to understand the nature of life by isolating, observing, and categorizing its basic components and determining their functions. Poetry does the same with language, a defining feature of our species. Whether we study cells and genes or words and sounds, we are exploring how our world is put together. Whether we analyze electrocardiograms or iambic pentameter, we are learning the patterns and rhythms of life.

For the poets (and other writers) out there, what role, if any, does science play in your writing? Does anatomy and physiology have a poetry all its own? Do you see the sciences and the humanities as diametrically opposed or just variations on a theme?

Speaking of themes and variations, my next post, and quite a few in the future, will be more commercial in nature but not to worry. My goal is to choose products to promote that relate to my personal musings, and this one fits the bill.

Welcome

My blog takes its name from a line in W.B. Yeats' "The Lake Isle of Innisfree":

I WILL arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honey bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.
And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,	5
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.
I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;	10
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.

The poem is "about" many things, but chief among them is the conflict between the speaker's desire to escape society, connect with nature, and live life on his own terms and his recognition that this process is only possible in his imagination. On the one hand, the poem's message is uplifting; even as we are trapped in an urban jungle of gray pavement, our minds are free to go elsewhere. On the other hand, Yeats reminds us that we carry the burdens of society with us even as we try to distance ourselves from it. We seek solace in the bee-loud glade, but quickly turn it into a construction site and confine the bees to an artificial hive.

This blog is my way of exploring these kinds of contradictions. I'm a poet whose work remains largely unpublished, a country girl living in the city, an animal lover who still eats meat from time to time, a teacher who grades student papers yet would prefer to see all grades abolished, a health-conscious individual who nevertheless suffers from chronic illness, and a socialist who, lacking summer employment, has delved into the world of pay per click, marketing surveys, paid reviews, and other trappings of Internet capitalism. I'll explore all of these topics here from time to time.