A New Pet

A few weeks ago, our class began talking about getting a critter friend to keep in our room. After checking with Mrs. McHugh, it was determined that we could have a hairless, furless pet. And so the search began!


Andy suggested that we get a bearded dragon. It was a great idea! The lady at the pet store explained that bearded dragons are not nocturnal, so they would be awake during school hours and they are easy to maintain. I just about had the little guy out the door until she mentioned that bearded dragons can grow to be 2-3 feet long. That was a deal breaker!


Fortunately, she had a lovely leopard gecko that she said would make a great classroom pet. Although they are nocturnal, the gecko would adjust itself to our schedule and after two or three weeks, it would start to be awake more during the day. Leopard geckos also stay at a reasonable size, only growing to a maximum length of 9-10 inches. 

Needless to say, the class was ecstatic when they came in on Monday and saw our new friend. We all crowded around her tank in our classroom library and talked about how to take care of a leopard gecko. Eva and Sam, having owned and handled lizards before, became the class experts and have helped us learn even more about how to best treat our new pet. On the first day, everybody who wanted to got to touch the lizard and some lucky people even got to hold it! We watched, fascinated, as it ate some crickets and worms for lunch. 

 

Andy is shaking the insects in a calcium powder. 

Munching!

Our only problem was that our lizard needed a name. And that created a bigger problem because we didn't know the its gender. Luckily, our leopard gecko owner's manual showed how to determine the gender by looking for a series of ridges at the base of the tail. Since our gecko didn't have those ridges, we decided that it must be a girl. Each student then contributed a name suggestion. Some popular ones were Scylla, Serquet, Monty, and Bella. In the end, Scylla won. Scylla is the name of a monster from the story of Odysseus. As he sailed by Scylla's cave, each of her six heads shot down and ate sailors from Odysseus's ship. While watching our Scylla eat, Andy said it reminded him of how Scylla ate those sailors. 

Today we gave Scylla a shed box filled with damp moss. This little container will help the process of shedding go smoothly and ensure that no pieces of skin are left stuck to her.  If that were to happen, layers of skin would build up and possibly cut off blood flow in places like the toes. 

Check out this (blurry and shaky) video of Scylla eating!

Thanks for the picture, Andy!