The reptile specific expo that is in my area is very professional and has breeders and retail stores that sell supplies and animals. There are certainly some shady people in the hobby but that can be said for any hobby. If you ask the right questions you can usually avoid problems. I see a lot of wild caught native reptiles from the United States being offered for sale on American websites and personally I can't stand it. It is illegal to remove animals form the wild in Canada, reptile populations are in enough trouble without people collecting and trying to make a buck off of them to. You can easily order live feeders through the mail but if you live somewhere where it snows in the winter you can obviously run into problems. Just a few minutes of exposure and every one of the crickets will be dead and absolutely useless. Another problem is that by the time you get half way through the pinheads they are no longer pinheads because they have grown. To tell the truth fruit flies are not hard to breed but it can be difficult to get a nice even supply so you have to have a back up plan in place. Your frog sounds like a cross between Epipedobates tricolor and Dendrobates auratus. Who would have known that they would even interbreed? Epipedobates tricolor was the species I was interested in because they are not terribly difficult to keep, they vocalize and are active during the day and they are able to eat larger prey items than some other Dendrobatids.

Hi Everyone, Enjoyed a lovely dinner last night and cards with our dear friends. I ate Shepherd's pie (crustless type), biscuits and ice cream. Yes I went over my daily limit but I am not worried. I do the WW program and actually just used up my weekly freebie points or calories. Today and tomorrow I am in recovery mode to compensate. So what does my day look like? Cottage cheese 1%, home made barley soup loaded with veggies for lunch, apple for snack and dinner will be a full plate of steamed zucchini, squash, onion and a cooked egg. I will literally load that plate and put a spoon of margarine, salt & pepper. Of course water, water, water today. Why am I telling you this? Because you can deal with a meal event. I faithfully logged how much I had last night and noted the points/calorie values. I know where I stand. I am not deterred at all. I continue. Did I have a large serving? Yes, honestly and honestly two biscuits. Today I am quite happily puttering away at little jobs around the house and enjoying my healthy food choices. So don't despair when you have these moments. You dust yourself off and carry on. If you know a meal event is coming - plan a head. Reduce your calories a day or two ahead and then a day or two afterwards. Don't beat yourself up. Don't regret, feel bad - just do your best and keeping putting one foot in front of the other. You can do this. You can persevere through these moments in life. That is part of living a healthy lifestyle. Just be honest with yourself. Over the coming weeks I want to talk about planning ahead and then staying the course. There is a major meal event/weekend coming up in November for those of you in the US and I'd like to open the communication lines on how to deal successfully with it so you can enjoy your friends and family. Focus on the joy of the fall season. We'll get through that time together I promise and you will continue with your goals. That's what I wanted to say today to everyone, even those silent friends we have out there reading but not posting. I'm reaching out to invite you to come back and read our posts, share our journey. You don't have to share on here to be a part of our journey together. Just come back. If we can help you stay true to your dream then that is all I'm trying to achieve. Lets have a wonderful day today and tomorrow. Cheers, Peggy

Sue, I'll ask DH as soon as he's home (he's on a plane) so I'll post it tomorrow. Why he can retain that name but I can't...I don't know. Anyhoo, she's with JH proper verses the area we were in, female (ok that's obvious) african american if I remember right...and a specialist in ped IBD under 5. I owe that woman my life and I don't remember her name! Anyhoo, I won't forget to post it tomorrow. Ehhh screw that I decided to go online and look at all of them and she came up first (she's kind of strikingly gorgeous so I remember her picture LOL). Maria Oliva-Hemker MD Aj's mama...is this aj that's the problem LOL Gad, there's the problem with an older child. This is a tough issue and so hard on a preteen. I assumed immodiam was in use, so if not, do add that. (We couldn't because of my son's age) it's something and it would help a bit, if only to control the violence of a "moment". What to do if he won't cooperate? You're challenged there hun. It's almost easier for me because my son is so small he does not yet know it's suposed to be an embaressment. He has to buy in if you are to get him care. You know your son best, but if you make the appt and then consider leaving him with the doc on his own, he might open up more (cuz the gastro guys are used to this). Your ped is ok in ordering that test...but also insist on the referral. It takes time to get in, and if you son is celiac you'll still need a gastro guy so gettting in line isn't going to hurt. I remember our first ped...since fired. He didn't want to refer. I told him that I wanted to see an expert and he wasn't it. I was going to do so with or without a referral and if he was wrong, could he handle the financial implications in denying the referral. He provided the referral immediately. I don't remember where you are. If you're near Minnapolis I can give you the name of a great doc there (they have a school of gastroenterology). Sue: Here is a link that might be useful: Dr. Oliva-Hemker

When we are the subject of a bully's aggression, we can choose to defend ourselves, either aggressively, or in a reasonable fashion, or lie down and play dead. I've done the "lie down and play dead" part, and don't like it - it belittles me: if you're going to belittle me, most of the time you're going to get a response. I thought that it was appropriate that the bullied person gave a spirited response. The fact that it was a man acting as something of a bullzdozer against a strange women was not lost on me, either, and I was pleased that she gave him back in kind. Bullies need to be confronted in their lairs. it seems to me. The role of the bystander as enabler and the ideas of training them to not just sit back and do nothing is not O.K., but that bystanders should support the one who is being bullied, by telling the bully to treat people fair is important as we grow to be concerned and participatory citizens ... that the kind that it takes to make a democracy fly, isn't it? ole joyful