Novas Birthday

[Akrix]

Yesterday was Novas first birthday! Unfortunately she was in an extremely foul mood since she's mid shed. She got her favorite food (snails) and promptly went back into a hide poking her head out to glower at me.

First image was a few days ago that I had to share of her soaking. (Probably prepping for shed) Sorry for the blurry image.


She's gotten so big <3


Here you can see the shed rolling off.


I've had a great time with this beautiful creature and hope to spend at least the next 20 years with her
Btw I'm still operating under the assumption female, if you happen to think she is actually a he please let me know.

[DianaBlueTongue]

Aw! Nova is just beautiful! Thanks for sharing! Where did you get her if you don't mind me asking?

[DianaBlueTongue]

Oh! And happy birthday Nova!

[AquaaAllure]

Happy Birthday Nova! Very pretty~

[Akrix]

Thank you I got her from a breeder in Florida, Bonita Galas. She was a hold back that became available in January and was part of my christmas/birthday gift from my husband

[sacs4010]

I love the first photo. lol Where did you get the hide she ended up chilling on?

[jdheff1982]

Holy cow! I just realized my guy is over 1 year old now! His BDay was 6/27. Yikes... I feel bad for not remembering.

Happy BDay to Nova!

Here's a comparison from the day Rosco arrived to now:

October 2013:

WP_20131001_002.jpg

July 2014:

WP_20140719_15_51_54_Pro.jpg

[JoshChimera]

Very nice look Northern, happy birthday Nova.

[Akrix]

The hide on the left (that the water bowl is on) is a single sterillite drawer with the drawer removed. One of these:

It's her leave me alone hide.
The big platform on the right I made myself using this method:http://www.lizard-landscapes.com/Fake-rock-wall-beginner.html
When I first got Nova:


Edit to change pic of the plastic hide. Was on phone and didn't notice that one was all open sides hers is only open on one side.

[sacs4010]

I am no expect by any means, but isn't your cage a bit small?

[Susann]

Cage size seems perfectly fine, especially since there are two levels that span nearly the whole length.

[Akrix]

It's the exo-terra large/wide 36x18x18. And like Susann said I made sure I had the 2 levels. That's why I went custom with the big platform. I wanted it big enough for her to move around on not just crawl up and bask and get off. The floor level is 90% (at least) completely open, the only thing blocking floor space is the stairs up the platform and the legs holding it up. Benefits of the legs/stairs is she uses it to help rub off shed. The water bowl is also elevated on the drawer that is closed on 3 sides, it has an open bottom so if I need to get her out I just pick up the drawer off of her (haven't had to do that yet but I figured it was a feature worth having). Plus having an elevated water bowl means hardly any substrate in the water (woohoo!). The substrate is usually only an inch or so lower than the platform but I finished off my bag of aspen so I didn't have enough to fill it to where it normally is. She's never fallen off the platform and even if she were to roll off (pretty much the only way she could fall) there's about 5-7 inches of aspen to cushion her. I love my little one and I try to do as much as I can for her including at least weekly romps outside in the grass (weather permitting) and numerous explorations in various areas of the house. Wow that's a wall of text lol sorry.

[joan]

Lovely skink! I have the same tank. Great idea on the sterilite box hide! That's what I need to switch to.