The reason why someone may want Bufo Alvarius toads may surprise you. It is to milk them. Perhaps the idea of milking a toad may seem like a joke. You may even have already thought that the punch line to the “how do you milk a toad?” joke would be “First you get a very small stool.” But you may be assured this is no joke. People actually do milk Bufo Alvarius toads.

What is toad venom used for? The milky white venom of the Bufo Alvarius toad contains the alkaloid 5- methoxy- N,N- dimethyltryptamine (5-MEO-DMT) which has very powerful hallucinogenic properties. Although there have been rumors and urban legends about people licking toads to get high, those who use toad venom do not actually ingest it. Rather, they have been known to dry the venom and then smoke precisely measured quantities of it.

How do you get one of these remarkable toads? If you live in or wish to visit the southwest United States, the toad, known both as the Colorado River toad and the Sonoran Desert toad, is found mainly in the Sonoran Desert. Their known range reaches from the south east of California into lowland Arizona and extreme southwestern New Mexico, at elevations that vary from sea level all the way up to over 1500 meters.

Once you get to this area, you will want to know what to look for. The Bufo Alvarius is a large toad, the largest species native to North America. Their leathery skin coloration varies from olive brown to black, with warts colored pale orange and a beige colored undercarriage. It is remarkable for the large, unique oval to sausage-shaped glands on the upper sides of its arms and legs and on its neck. These are the glands that are milked for their venom.

A nocturnal amphibian, Bufo Alvarius spends most of the day under the ground and away from the bright sun and high temperatures of the Sonoran Desert. As darkness falls, they move outside and hang around moist areas near rivers and irrigation ditches. The best time to find them is during the breeding season, from May through July. Toad hunters should equip themselves with a cloth carrying sack and a good flashlight.

For someone who is interested in owning a Bufo Alvarius toad, whether for the purpose of milking its hallucinogenic venom or simply to have a fascinating and unusual pet, there is an alternative to making a trek to the Sonoran Desert and splashing around irrigation ditches with a flashlight after dark. That option is to purchase one, or perhaps a male and female pair of adult Colorado River toads. One company that offers these toads for sale, along with other ethnobotanical products, is Bounding Bear Botanicals. The company is based in Lawrence, Kansas, not the Sonoran Desert, but they have a convenient on-line system that allows customers to make purchases via the Internet. It should be noted that Bufo Alvarius toads are sold with the caution that they are poisonous, and should be kept away from children and animals.

Robert Scheer is a freelance journalist and consultant for the Bufo Alvarius Report web site. For more information visit http://www.bufoalvariusreport.com

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Many times people get a beardie and just love the creature but unfortunately the animal dies in a couple of weeks or months. In fact, statistics show that more than 70% of beardies die in their first year of life, if they live together with a new owner.

So, when you want to get a Bearded Dragon, you should look it over carefully. Some things you should notice right away is how alert and active the Dragon is. Do not buy a Beardie which looks to be lethargic and is unable to lift its head.

Before deciding which Beardie to buy, do ensure that you check them for sores, burns, external parasites or any deformities. One of the most important things is to look at the size of the Beardie. If too young, bearded dragons can be very fragile and more apt to become ill or overly stressed. It is much easier to care for a more developed Bearded Dragon. If you are a beginner owner it is highly recommended to start with a juvenile rather than a hatchling.

Good signs

When buying a dragon, look for good signs. This is a good start. If the dragon can claim these signs, then you might have found your new pet:

1. No missing toes or tail nip

2. A tail curled up towards the head

3. An active animal or basking

4. Eyes are clear and open.

Bad signs

Also, check for these bad signs:

1. Lethargy

2. Any form of excretions around the eyes

3. Missing toes, tail nip

4. No movement

5. Depressions in back of head

You should also pay attention where the dragon is kept. If the place claims poor conditions, there is a good chance you’ll get an animal with a poor health.

Florian Ross is a freelancer and small lizard expert. For more tips on raising Bearded Dragons Lizards and having them live 3 times longer, go to http://www.pets-lovers.com/bd/beardeddragons.htm

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Beardies require a temperature gradient in their enclosures because they can’t regulate their body temperatures like. They have to thermo regulate, which means that they have to move between areas of differing temperatures in order to regulate their internal temperature. To produce heat and a basking spot in your enclosure, you can use either a ceramic heat emitter, a reptile basking light (red, blue or white) or just a plain old household light bulb.

The best fixture for any of these choices is a porcelain dome light fixture. This type of fixture is a must with a ceramic heat emitter due to the amount of heat they produce. The temperature for this basking spot you created should be around 110oF for juveniles and can be around 95oF for adults.

Your Beardie will also need an area to cool down if he gets too warm. At the opposite end of the tank, you should try to keep the temp around 75-85oF. A few degrees within this temperature are just fine. Night time temps shouldn’t be allowed to drop below 60oF, whereas 70-75oF is more comfortable for them. Don’t guess on temps - you could cook or freeze your Beardie! Use a good thermometer, one on the cool side and another near the basking site.

A thermometer on the hot part and another on the cool part of the enclosure will make sure that your temps are in the range they should be in. Do not use hot rocks as they are potentially dangerous! Dragons don’t sense heat well with their tummies, and can be lethally scorched without realizing.

A good heat source for night time is a ceramic heating element (CHE). CHE’s are non-light emitting heating units. They get very hot but disperse heat over a very narrow (15″ in diameter) and shallow area. The range for a 60 watt CHE is 8″ down, the range for a 100 watt CHE is 10″ down, the range for a 150 watt CHE is 12″ down, and the range for 250 watts is 14″ down.

CHE’s are not effective in heating large enclosures and a rheostat or dimmer switch may be used for small enclosures so it doesn’t get too hot. It is very important that CHE’s only be used in porcelain/ceramic light sockets as the amount of heat that they produce is enough to melt regular plastic light sockets.

Florian Ross developed comprehensive guides to help people succeed with their bearded dragon pet. Find out more tips about raising a Bearded Dragon and how to have your bearded dragon lizard live two times longer with his popular free ecourse .

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Many times baby horses are born with imperfections, particularly in the leg and foot areas. A problem arises all too often when Farriers come along and try to correct things. Many of the imperfections will improve as the baby grows up and out of them.

A client of mine raised a baby that was born with a leg so short it wouldn’t touch the ground, didn’t even come close. Today you would never know such was the case, the horse walks and runs without so much as a limp.

Often babies are born with either pigeon toes or toed out conditions where the feet are not pointing straight ahead. The problem arises when Farriers come along and exercise what was taught them in the schools and textbooks by the Industry Standards how to fix these conditions. The schools and textbooks teach Farriers to shorten one side of the baby’s foot to correct these conditions. This is a poor idea. This is misinformation at its height, and it ruins horses.

Given time as a baby’s chest fills with muscle development often the feet will point more outward where they should, things self correct. The big error of the industry is trimming baby’s feet to force them into the right direction. This forces bone development that is not desirable and will render the horse less than optimal as an adult and prone to blown joints tendons and ligaments. By forcing twist into the bones and joints and developing bone growth while in these twisted positions in essence you are ruining the horse.

Proper joint movement is not accomplished by the above practices. Shortening one side of the foot as taught by Farrier schools and textbooks is what ruins horses. Once the baby’s bones have been forced to grow in this manner you’re stuck with a ruined horse. The joints will never line up correctly and your horse will be forever at serious risk.

Just keep in mind, if you force bone growth based on an external visual concepts there’s no going back, whereas if you just let the baby grow out naturally at least his or her joints will not be twisted and developed into this twisted condition but you will still be able to address any misalignments through proper shoeing. There are really no alternatives.

The only problem left to talk about here is the correct shoeing. You won’t find the right answers in textbooks or at the Farrier schools. It’s just not taught. If it were taught there the textbooks and schools wouldn’t be teaching how to ruin horses and babies in the first place by the faulty practices explained above. So to get this done right and do what’s right for your horse the only place I know of where to direct you to the proper information and how to safeguard yourself from disaster is by going to the website stated below in the author bio .

This method has a 100% track record – not one single lame horse in 16 years. Approved by veterinarians.

reprint rights allowed providing nothing is changed

Author Bio: John Silveira. San Mateo native and resident, shoeing horses for 16 years in the greater Bay Area. Discovering a method of shoeing not taught in the Industry Farrier schools or textbooks. http://Care4Horses.com http://Farrieritis.Care4Horses.com

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