Wichita Falls Reptile Rescue

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Check back soon, as we still have more interesting animals to list.

Almost all of our pets here started as injured or orphaned rescues, adoptions, unwanted pets of others, or captive bred. Please adopt an unwanted or needy previous pet, or captive bred animal if you are looking for a pet. Thank You 

Above: This is Dwarfy. Dwarfy is a young male, captive bred box turtle. He is a Three-Toed/Ornate hybrid ( his mother was a Three-Toed and his father an Ornate box turtle ). Dwarfy is a little over 4 years old, and is highly intelligent. He was born indoors and has always known people, therfore, he is highly social and inquisitive when around humans. He always knows right where the camera is! Dwarfy can differentiate shapes and colors of different food containers, and will do tricks like standing up and balancing on his hind end to get a treat.   

[photo coming soon]

Above: This is Moira. Moira is a mature and nice sized female Ornate box turtle. She was also a former pet who was dropped off at Petco without history. Moira is great with other turtles, and pretty good with people, though sometimes she will get in a mood and nip, but not very often.

Above: This is Speckles, a female Ornate box turtle. She has great coloration and a gentle temperament.

Above: This is Wiley, a male Ornate box turtle. He is a bit wiley in temperament, but even when he threatens to bite, he never really does. He does so in slow motion and seemingly, intentionally bites short so he doesn't hurt anyone. Appropriately enough, he was found on Wiley Rd. just north of the city dump, yards away from where Speckles was found the day before. Both were dehydrated and underweight from the severe drought of '06. 

Above: This is Precious. She is an old female Three Toed box turtle. She is 20+ years old, and very docile towards people. She never tries to bite, no matter what you do to her. Precious was found last year in an open field, at a park near Lake Wichita. She had a severed rear foot, where a predator had likely tried to kill her, and was suffering from a shell infection. She was also being stung by fireants when found, and just appeared to be giving up. She was just sitting there exhausted and not moving. She was taken in and had her wounds cleaned up, and she was treated with antibiotics and antiparasitics. She also got plenty of good turtle eats. She has been doing very well and gaining weight since last year. She hibernated briefly this past winter without problems, but we are continuing to watch and treat her stubborn shell problems, which might have resulted from frostbite in a previous year, and maybe a little damage from apparently being chewed on by a predator also.

Above: This is Saguaro. He was our male Regal Horned Lizard from the Sonora desert of Az. Sadly, Saguaro died of an unknown illness and several varied medical treatments failed to save him. Saguaro was very calm, and always aware, and he would eat from our hands. He will be missed.

 Bask in Peace '04? - 6/16/07 

 As a baby

Above: This is Solace. She is Saguaro's mate, and is also from the Sonora desert. She came to us the Fall of '06, emaciated/dehydrated and at 20grams, she was half the weight of Saguaro, eventhough she was also an adult. After several weeks of guarded care she began to put on weight at increasing rate. She now weighs over 90 grams and is safely in hibernation for the winter.

Solace (top) and Saguaro

Hatchling

Nearly a year old

Above: Our baby female Regal Horned Lizard, Soyalita. She was hatched last year and is legally captive bred from Az. Her name is from the "Soyal" celebration of the Hopi. Soyal celebrates the winter solstice as the departing of winter and welcoming back of the sun. At Soyal, the sun is symbolically, ceremonially, turned back, thus renewing life for all of the world.

Above: This is Eco ( eh-ko ), our California Kingsnake. Eco is usually unseen all through the winter, but warmer temps have kept him up a bit. He was injured during a recent escape from his tank and is being treated. [Update 3/05/08] Eco has recovered from his injuries without infection or other apparent complication. Though he lost about an inch of his tail, it healed back nice and tapered, and it looks quite normal.

Above: This is Bali, our Brazilian Rainbow Boa. She is another escape artist. On her last escape earlier this year, she returned home on her own later the same night.

Arthur and Camille ( foreground ), our Leopard Geckos. They have been together since they were babies, 10 years ago. Very hardy and docile lizards. Sometimes Camille gets in a mood though, and kicks Aurthur out of the cave for a few days...therefore we keep a guest cave available for Aurthur just in case.   

Andre is our rescued Golden Retriever. He was found lying on the side of 287 near Jolly truck stop, emaciated, dehydrated, weak, coat matted with tar and debris, and suffering with skin abscesses. He was thought to be road kill at first glance. The vet recommended putting him down, but he was still thumping his tail in appreciation of attention. His coat had to be shaved off just to start over. He now weighs 30 pounds more than he did the day he was found, and he's still a bit skinny even at that. He was named Andre, after Andre Agassi, the famous tennis player, because the dog has an undying and sometimes annoying love for tennis balls and all things round and bouncy; including rabbits, which though  he does not harm - come out slobbery when he's done grooming them.

Denahli ( Nahli or Nah~lita for short ) is our 10 year old Tabby/Siamese mix. She is a very sweet cat who was found as a young kitten with several siblings in a feral nest after her Siamese mother was killed by a car on a nearby street. She has been tolerant of numerous animals and shows no interest in harming many of them, and she is actually scared of our squirrels ( for good reason )...though she can't quite be trusted near the bird.  

Above: This is Grumman, our male Budgerigar. He was Bing's flock mate. Grumman also has been trained to fly to us, the same as Bing had been. His favorite toy is a string of small round Christmas jingle bells. He loves them and will follow them anywhere. He so refuses to leave this toy, that we are almost certain he could be taken outside without flying away, or be called back to us by rattling the bells. We may even attempt to test this theory soon. First with a tether or harness.   

In Memory of....

Above: This is Bing. He was someone else's disposeable pet who was dropped off at Petco because they were moving, and apparently did not feel enough of an attachment to this bird to take him with them. They were also so inconsiderate that they left absolutely no history on him, no housing, no toys for him, not even so much as his name. Just dropped him off at a store. We took him in right away and gave him a nice big cage full of toys and treats. He got his name because he loved bells, and performed a bell mimic so realistic, that you could not tell which was him and which was the bell "binging". This loving bird took to us so gratefully, that within days he was flying out of his open cage to alight on my hand and shoulder. It took little more than a week and he would come flying out of his cage when called. He also liked to sit on our shoulders and preen us or make warbling sound in our ears. He loved his toy rattle ball, and loved to play with it on the floor with people by pushing it to you. Bing also loved the shower very much and would sing when he heard running water.

Sadly, Bing was killed one day when something spooked him from his perch in the shower and the cat ( Angelina ) made a fluke grab under the bathroom door. It took only seconds, and he was mortally wounded before we could get the door open. Bing always perched high above the floor when something startled him from a perch, and usually flew back when called. This day for some reason he ended up inches away from the door, on the floor. The doors had always been religiously closed off before the birds were taken out of thier cage, but it wasn't enough that day.  

Unfortunately, though this cat had been a part of the home for many years and was a rescue herself, after being found in a dumpster as a newborn kitten, she had to be removed from this household. Most of the animals we work to rescue here pose little to no danger to the other animals if they get lose; be they squirrel, turtle, bird, or lizard. We just could not have such a cat as a free roaming hunter in the house anymore. Even closed doors were not enough protection to the other animals from her.

 Bing tries to get box turtles to play

Below: Bing comes out of his cage to land on my hand when called. This was before we got our new camera, and I really wish the quality was better...