Tortoise Food Growing Kit

Tortoise food growing kits to grow you own fresh tortoise food. These excellent little kits will give fresh tortoise food all through the growing season (April to September).

Included in the kit is enough edible weed seeds for 4 sowings (more than enough for a years tortoise food), two seed trays to enable cycling of the tortoise food and a propagator top, more than enough compost for four sowings and full instructions.So everything you need to grow nutritious, edible weeds for your tortoise. Simply sow both trays and grow the food. Place one tray in with the tortoise and when it has cropped that one down, replace it with the other one and place the cropped one back in the light to regrow. These grow well in a sunny position indoors or out. Just keep well watered.

The commonest tortoises kept in the UK have similar nutritional requirements. The general feeding information here holds for Horsfield’s, Hermann’s, Mediterranean spur thighed and marginated tortoises. All need a diet that is low in protein and sugars and high in fibre and calcium.

tortoise food

Hermann’s tortoise

 

In the wild the available tortoise food changes over time. In the spring, when they come out of hibernation there is lush growth of fresh shoots. As the year progresses, especially in the more arid parts of their range, the vegetation gets tough as the heat increases and the climate gets dryer and in some parts of the range the tortoises will aestivate through the heat of summer (hide away and become in active). When the rains come again in Autumn, fresh growth occurs and the tortoises feed up ready to hibernate over winter. It is at this time of year they will also eat fallen fruit, so only for a short period do they eat high sugar food. Wild tortoises will selectively feed on a mixture of lush growth and higher fibre coarse growth to maintain a balance of low protein and high fibre in their diet. Wild tortoise food also tends to grow on underlying rock that is high in calcium and they will even eat small pieces of rock from the soil to supplement that taken up by the plants.

A captive tortoise’s diet should represent that of its wild counterpart and the tortoise food growing kit provides part of that varied diet.

tortoise food

To order tortoise food growing kits visit our website or call us on 01452 501882.

Grain Free Dog and Cat Food – New varieties added

Grain free dog and cat foods are fast becoming the most popular way to feed cats and dogs in the UK amongst owners who want the best for their petsAngell Pets excellent range of APL pet foods has now been extended to include more grain free varieties of premium dog and cat food at great value prices.

grain free

 

Dogs are carnivores but most dog food on the market still contains at least some grain. The cheaper the food, generally the more grain it contains, to the point that some foods contain much more grain than meat. Whilst this would be good news for a human it is bad news for a dog. The grain is only there in most cases to provide a cheap filler to keep the price of the food down, not to benefit the dog. With some of the really bad foods, there is so little meat protein present that the grain (in this case wheat, the least desirable grain to use) is actually providing the bulk of the quoted protein content of the food (wheat gluten is a vegetable protein). Grain free dog and cat food on the other hand naturally contains more meat as virtually all the quoted protein content has to come from this source.

Grain Free

Angell Pets have sold high quality, high meat content, grain free foods for years. These provide the optimum diet for your dog. Angell Pets has been able to provide a grain free product of our own (APL grain free range) for some time and we are pleased to add new varieties to our own APL Grain Free, high meat content dog and cat foods. The range so far includes APL Grain Free Turkey, Sweet Potato and Cranberry, APL Grain Free Salmon, Trout, Sweet Potato and Asparagus,  APL  Pork, Sweet Potato and Apple, APL  Lamb, Mint and Sweet Potato,  APL  Duck, Orange and Sweet Potato and APL Puppy Chicken, Sweet Potato, Carrots and Peas. Whilst we make no claim the ingredients are as fresh as say Orijen, we are satisfied that the meat content is now sufficiently high to offer this as a cheaper alternative to premium ranges such as Acana, Orijen and Canagan. In our view Orijen remains the best bagged dog food on the market but at this price ours is now a viable alternative and works out cheaper per day to feed.

We also now do a grain free range of dog and high meat content cat treats to compliment the grain free food.

APL GRAIN FREE FOOD IS NOW AVAIALBLE IN STORE OR ON LINE IN 2KG AND 12 KG BAGS and 2kg bags of grain free cat food. FOR MORE INFORMATION CALL THE SHOP, DROP US A LINE OR POP IN A VISIT US AT ANGELL PETS.

Exo Terra Approved Supplier

Exo Terra, along with all the other Hagen brands such as Fluval, Marina, Glo, VivExotic etc. was starting to suffer from poor after sales support from some of the on line sellers of their products. The brand recently took the decision to regain control over who could sell their products to ensure buyers could be confident the seller knew what they were selling, could give advice where needed and provided after sales support and of course, actually held their products in stock.

Angell Pets have been through Hagen’s (Exo Terra parent brand) rigorous approval process and have obtained approved supplier status. This is because we stock the products, have access through a number of routes to replacement stock, have qualified staff that are able to give advice both on the products and the animals associated with them and are able (and willing!) to give after sales support to customers that use our on line web store and our “real” shop in Gloucester.

You can tell if a supplier is approved and therefore able to sell and support Exo Terra products because they will display the logo. If this logo is not displayed, don’t buy from that “supplier” as the products have not come through the official channels.

exo terra

The Exo Terra range is a well known and respected brand within the hobby and is constantly being reviewed, updated and improved. This is why we are proud to be listed as approved Exo Terra (and other Hagen brands) stockists.

Exo Terra

If you wish to buy an Exo Terra product you can go on line to our web store and order that way, call us on 01452 501882 or drop by the shop in Gloucester. If you have any questions regarding Exo Terra products or keeping any animal do feel free to contact us by any of the above means or using the contact form on this site.

exo terra

 

The Exo Terra range is quite large (the full Hagen brands range absolutely huge!) and we do not claim to have every product in stock at all times. Those we do not currently have are only a few days away at most however so if you need an Exo Terra product that you cannot see on our web site just call us and we will order it in for you.

 

Don’t forget, local Exo Terra customers also benefit from Angell Pets’ FREE LOCAL DELIVERY service on all purchases.

The Angell Pets Team

 

Pet Shop Gloucester tips on general snake handling

Pet Shop Gloucester tips. Just a brief post on 5 top tips on handling NON VENOMOUS snakes from your favourite Gloucester pet shop.

  • If your snake has just fed, DON’T HANDLE IT. Handling a snake after it has just fed can be at best unpleasant and at worst dangerous. Snakes swallow their food whole and rely on strong stomach acids to break it down. Whilst this happens relatively quickly, for the first 24 – 48 hours the snake has a large, hard object in a small, confined space. In the wild they would lay up during this period and allow the acids to do their work. Handling causes the snake to move around and this puts pressure on its stomach (or in the case of inexperienced handlers they may actually squeeze the area). This action can make the snake regurgitate the meal (if it hasn’t already as a threat response), bringing up the very strong stomach acid with it, which can cause damage. Even worse, if the snake doesn’t regurgitate and the meal is still undigested other internal organs can be damaged by the pressure, if handled roughly (or dropped). Then of course there is the risk to you. Even a docile snake may strike when it has just been fed or is digesting its meal. It knows you shouldn’t be picking it up even if you don’t.
  • pet shop gloucester reptile boarding

    One Of Our Reptile Boarders Being Fed

For more advice on feeding snakes come and see us in our pet shop Gloucester.

  • If your snake is shedding, DON’T HANDLE IT. It’s not so much that it dangerous for the snake (although it may lead to incomplete shedding) but with its eyes clouded over it can’t see. Would you be in good mood if you suddenly had one of your senses taken away? The snake still has other, very accurate senses, so it can and will tag you.

For more advice on problem shedding come and see us in our pet shop Gloucester.

  • So assuming your snake is not shedding and has not been fed within the last 48 hours the most important things is to BE CONFIDENT. Most people who keep snakes will tell you the snake can sense it if you’re nervous. I don’t think they have any ability to sense nerves in you at all, however they can pick up on your body language. If you go in with a hesitant hand, that’s shaking or moving in then pulling back etc. the poor old snake doesn’t know what is going on. When they are unsure of a situation they naturally get defensive and may well strike. I can and have, on several occasions, demonstrated this in the shop where I can simulate a nervous owner and get even a cornsnake to strike or conversely, be confident with a rather nippy kingsnake and not get tagged. In fact someone once brought such a kingsnake into the shop, complete with viv. (as they couldn’t get the snake out, it was so aggressive). The snake was hissing and striking at the glass. I opened the viv. picked the snake straight up and it was quite calm. The owner then hesitantly took the snake off me and promptly got bitten on the neck. Which takes us to the next point.

For more advice or demonstrations on snake handling come and see us in our pet shop Gloucester.

  • Keep the snake away from your face. If a snake does bite it should only be able, at worst, to get your hand. If it gets anywhere else, guess what? That was your fault. Staring up close into the face of a snake is a bad idea. Snakes are carnivores, their senses for the most part are binocular and forward facing in order to judge direction, distance and to strike accurately. This means they are particularly sensitive to anything immediately in front of them that moves. If you wave your hand about in front of your snakes head, or worse your nose (especially if it’s as big as mine) you are much more likely to get tagged. Also all reptiles can carry salmonella. Letting a snake touch your face near your mouth (i.e. kissing it!!) is really a bad idea.

For more advice on being bitten by snakes (especially if the snake won’t let go !!) call us at our pet shop Gloucester.

  • Wash your hands afterwards. As stated, snakes can carry salmonella. This bacterium is quite likely to be found on the snakes skin. They poop in the viv and move around – it will transfer bacteria onto its skin. You will be letting the snake run through your hands, you will touch it near its cloaca (vent) where the poop comes out so you will get bacteria on your hands. If you don’t wash your hands immediately you will be transferring bacteria everywhere you touch. Salmonella is a dangerous infection, potentially fatal in infants, the elderly and immune suppressed individuals. If you are fit and healthy you will survive but you will never want to get it again. I have had the disease. It is unpleasant, debilitating, incredibly painful and will take some time to recover from. All you have to do to avoid getting it, or giving it to your family, is wash your hands, preferably with an anti bacterial hand wash. We sell them, so you have no excuse. Also some snakes carry diseases that can be passed onto other snakes, the one that springs to mind is IBD (inclusion body disease) that can infect boids (pythons and boas). It is highly contagious and always fatal to the snake. Always disinfect when moving from one boid viv. to another or any other enclosure for that matter. Cross contamination by the owner is the commonest vector for the spread of mites, for example. An alcohol hand wash will kill any eggs on your skin (it dehydrates them) as well as any bacteria and the mechanical action also helps lift dirt that is harbouring other pathogens.

For more advice on reptile hygiene contact us at our pet shop Gloucester 

I hope these tips are of use. If you have any more questions or need more advanced help with anything just get in touch with our pet shop Gloucester and we will try to help.

Site hacked but now up and running again

Unfortunately this site was recently hacked by someone who considers it hilarious to redirect visitors (many of them children on these pages!) to porn sites. Oh, how every one laughed and I am sure the hacker’s kudos amongst his peer group went up no end when they saw how wonderfully witty he was. Obviously it could have been the porn sites themselves or someone working for them but I don’t think that makes them a better person really.

However just because he spends all his time surfing for porn, it doesn’t mean the rest of us want to. So we have removed the spam redirects and cleaned up the pages, restored our own content and brought the site back on line with some additional security features to try to prevent a re-occurrence. That’s probably impossible, these hackers seem to have much more time on their hands than I do (yes I am aware that the “work” is done by programmes that scan the web for sites to attack), I’m too busy trying to make an honest living but we will do our best.

It will probably take a couple of weeks for the Google warning “This site has been hacked” to come off our listing but the review process is in hand.

If these morons would spend as much time trying to create something worthwhile, rather than destroying someone else’s work I am sure the world would be a better place but then you can’t cure stupid.

The Angell Pets Team