Telos Exotics

Happy Friday!

Yesterday we had two very sad goodbyes for our little zoo.

Our panther chameleon Skittles came to us a year ago as an older boy with one working eye, and had a wonderful final year of basking in the sun in our yard with us. He had a steep decline over the past week, and we helped him pass yesterday. My heart hurts thinking of how long our daughter will point at “his” plant in the yard and shout “Skittles!” hoping that she’ll still spot him there.

Particularly difficult was the decision to help our single remaining (and shameless favorite) long-eared hedgehog pass. Cap had a mass on his foot that we and our vet had been monitoring anxiously, because Cap also had a heart condition that meant surgery would be especially risky. Despite the mass growing and becoming increasingly inconvenient for him, Cap kept his active, curious disposition. It isn’t easy to choose to help an animal pass when you can still envision good days ahead, but we knew his foot bothered him, and would only continue to get worse. Our vet helped ease our uncertainty when Cap didn’t do well under sedation before euthanasia - despite wishing we could attempt surgical removal, he likely would not have survived the procedure. I’m glad that we were able to make the tough call to say goodbye while he was still happy, rather than putting it off until his suffering was impossible to ignore.

This seems like a fair place to remind everyone that many small exotic pets hide their illnesses and pain very well, and it can be easy to miss (or dismiss) health concerns when they are otherwise acting normal. I wish every pet could pass peacefully at home, but realistically the kindest thing is often to bring them to your vet for a peaceful, painless passing. If in doubt, please don’t leave them waiting for their body to completely fail. Often the kindest decision we can make is to gently let them go. ❤️‍🩹

We planned our Saturday around a hedgehog meet & greet appointment which unfortunately no-showed on us. At least it meant that several of our adoptable rescue hedgies could have an impromptu photo shoot! This girl Clio is looking so much better than when she arrived here. ❤️

All of our current hedgie babies have been reserved for their new families! We're expecting our next babies in about 2 weeks - including a repeat of the pairing that produced our gorgeous girl Raven (pictured) at the beginning of the year. 🥰

Friendly reminder that applicants who have placed a deposit with us have priority for choosing who to reserve before babies are posted publicly.

Tomorrow is one of our biggest expos of the year! Come see us at the Nebraska Reptile Breeder's Expo. We'll have lots of baby snakes (rosy boas and Kenyan sand boas), plus fire-bellied toads, emerald tree skinks, cat geckos, a rescue ball python, lots of isopod species, bioactive-ready plants, and more!

Preorders: If you'd like to pick up any dubia feeders from us, let me know by 6pm tonight so I can be sure to get them packed for you! Our stock is low enough that we're not bringing any extras for sale.

Hedgehogs: There are no live mammals at this show, so we won't have any ambassador hedgehogs to meet - but we'll have some of our Hedgehog Precision staple diets available for our local customers who attend the show!

Happy Saturday! 🦔 It has been a hot, busy summer around here in Omaha. Here are two of our current hedgie babies - we'll get them and their siblings listed on the site in a week or two! Plus some new baby toads, skinks, and snakes. 💕

The "masks" on these siamese brothers molting into their points are so cute! They'll be back to looking normal in a few days. 🐁

A fierce predator lurks in the shadows... 🐆

"Hang in there! The weekend is just around the corner."

- Tapia

We're so grateful to already have a few people interested in adopting from the group of six senior hedgies we took in recently! We've had our hands full here but will post who is available once we get through our current contacts. We also took in a darling baby ball python who should be ready for adoption in a month or so! He's doing great so far, but we want to get a little weight on him and ensure he's eating frozen thawed meals reliably before finding him a loving home.

Happy Monday! It's almost summer - here's a 10/10 model for inspiration if you're working on your beach bod. 😘🐢