Rex – garyrice.co.uk

Rex gets a second camera

Today I installed the second IP Camera in with Rex. As she is in a bigger vivarium now one camera doesn’t cover it.

As per normal with trying to fit things into places where they normally don’t go it was a hell of a job. I had to bodge a circuit board on a metal bracket held on with Velcro fixings!

For the love of god, why is nothing ever bloody simple?

At least they are in and working wirelessly, I just need to get some connectors and make up a longer cable so I can mount the main circuit board on the back of the viv.

Have a look at Rex and the second camera at http://www.rexcam.co.uk

Rex has a new vivarium

Today was the day that me and H moved Rex into her new vivarium.

It was also the day that I changed the god awful Axis IP Camera in with her to something that was a lot better and cheaper! You would think that an expensive make of IP Camera such as Axis would be top quality, but as I found out I was wrong.
So, like Yodacam, I purchased some cheap IP Cameras – Tenvis Mini319w. Yodacam`s Orite IP Cameras have lasted well over 10 years with no problems, except 1 blown power supply. Hopefully the Mini319w IP Cameras will last just as well.

After spending ages taking the Mini319w apart and fixing it to a custom bracket in the top of Rex`s new vivarium, it was ready to go. As it is wireless it saved on adding more structured cabling or extra switches to my network infrastructure!

Along with new IP camera was a new moss hut and hide as Rex has out grown her current ones.

We left her to explore for a few hours and then fed her a large rat as it was feeding time. That was pounced on and swallowed with no problems.

Rex`s new vivarium	Rex`s new vivarium
Rex`s new vivarium	Rex`s new vivarium

This new vivarium should see her for a good few years and with the addition of a few branches and decoration we hope to see her doing a bit more.

Rexcam, like Yodacam but with a snake called Rex

I’ve had yodacam running for nearly 10 years now, recently I added a few pages for Rex, H`s corn snake so people could see them both, and for H to record shedding and feeding as a bit of a project.

He kept asking me when it would be going live so he could tell everyone, which got me thinking about adding a webcam in with Rex.

I got out all my IP Webcams out and got the smallest one I could find, made some authentication adjustments to the .Net code that pulls the image and put it in the corner of rex`s vivarium.

I then decided to buy rexcam.co.uk so that Rex could have her own bit of web space, and H had more to tell people – for a few quid and an infrastructure that was already pretty much set up, a new logo, a quick copy, paste, ctrl-h and replace all, Rex had her own website ready to go.

There is currently one webcam in with her and I’m working on adding a second, i just need her vivarium to be a bit bigger so that i can put the webcam somewhere out of sight or somewhere that is not that obvious.

But for the time being, H is happy and he gets to show of his snake to everyone, and I guess that its all about making your kids happy isn’t it?

Rex strikes

Today was supposed to be feed time for Rex, seeing as it has been 5 days since her last feed.

However, H had not written down the last time that he fed her, so came a bit unstuck. Instead of feeding her we got her out for a bit of handling!

Now, I’ve told H plenty of times to keep his fingers together and away from her head as they look a little bit like a pinky, but as per normal he didn’t listen to me, and as soon as he put his pinky fingers in front of her she went for them thinking they were food. She clamped her jaws down on the end of his middle finger and then rapidly curled herself round his hand a few times constricting nice and tight.

Now, H was a bit surprised by this and a bit taken a back, so I told him to sit down and keep still and calm and see if she let go. Any other time she would of gone for his arm and soon let go when she realised that it was far too big for her to eat.

But no sign of and kind of let up, in fact she started to work her way down his finger. But this time , no matter how much I has told him to not panic and keep calm, he was starting to worry and get a bit upset.

Off we went to the bathroom where I tricked a bit of cold water over her head. It didn’t seem to make much of a difference, but then H was moving his arm around far too much which only made her want to constrict on it more. By this time he was proper upset and crying, saying that she was going to eat his finger. I had to laugh a bit as the thought of her eating his finger did seem rather funny, only to me it would seem though.

So again I tried the cold water, this time running the tap and putting her under it, this time she soon let go and coughed his finger up. He was relieved to say the least and couldn’t wait to let go of her.

Back to his room we went where I told him to hold her again for a bit just to show him that she wasn’t going to bite again. After a few minutes of handling her we put her back in her tank and we had a little chat about feeding and handling her. He couldn’t wait to tell mum what she had done to his finger 🙂

Rex – the new pet

Today we went to get H his birthday present from one of his Granddad’s.

He asked him if he could have a snake, and granddad was only too willing to get him one. Unfortunately granddad could not be with us when we went to get it, and needless to say he wasn’t there either to pay!

So, we had a look at a few snakes and settled for a nice quiet corn snake that H was able to pick up and hold with no real issues, I didn’t see the point getting one that he couldn’t hold or one that was too big, as it might be a bit daunting for his to start with.

We picked a nice stylish vivarium for her and a few things to go in it along with some fluffs for her to eat. All that set me back just over £180!! Some contrast to when we got Yoda all those years back as a rescue case from the RSPCA man that we knew.

We get her home and set everything up in H`s bedroom, laying down the law about what he can and can’t do. He decided to call her Rex, after Commander Rex out of Start Wars! I guess we need to get her sexed as soon and she is old enough to make she we have the right name for her – but then I guess once we have called her something we can’t go back on it.

I can see that Rex is going to be interesting, the wife won’t go anywhere near her or help us with her, so I guess it’s me and H doing it all.