Forgotten Friend Reptile Sanctuary

I love getting Happy Ending updates like this one. How many of you guys like to play with your reptiles throughout the day, in addition to keeping them in their normal cage environments? Hi Jesse, I wanted to send you some pictures and update you on the bearded dragon we adopted from you on Sept 4. He’s doing really great with us. My kids have a good time playing with him everyday. Thanks for trusting us to take care of him! -Jenn, beardie adopter

Congratulations to The Tree House of Lititz inclusive playground on their grand opening today at the Lititz Church of the Brethren!

When it’s warm during the day (70s) and just a little chilly at night (close to 60) we just let em sleep in the shed They are always so curious to go in there anyway when we are mowing and picking up .

Here's a sulcata tortoise available for adoption directly from the owner, in Western NY. Make sure to check out our community posts for more reptiles that are adoptable directly from their owners.

Join us VIRTUALLY tonight, along with our friends at Lancaster Herpetological Society, fo a presentation about exotic amphibians and reptiles of the United States, by Dr. Walt Meshaka. You will need to email LHS to obtain the zoom link for the meeting. Attendance is limited to 100 screens.

Bacon keeps playing by the hose during today’s water change

Getting ready for a virtual science assembly for Octorara Elementary this afternoon. After 16 years, Casper nearly packs himself up for the show!

We get a lot of pet owners like this guy who are mad at us, because we don’t immediately say yes when they want to unload their reptiles. Unfortunately saying no is a regular part of our job, because we have limited resources and must prioritize animals with the greatest needs. This person was mad that we didn’t take their beardies, and that we instead asked them to post them for adoption on our FB page. Here’s our response to them. Would you have said something different...? Does anyone wanna donate a million dollar budget to us?? *** Hi [name], Thanks for the feedback. I can't speak for the other rescues you contacted, but I can tell you that ours gets many requests like yours every day. As much as we'd like to say "yes" to all of them, the reality is that we have limited time, space, and money. In the warmer months, our setup includes an expanded outdoor space. But we are an exotic animal rescue in Pennsylvania, so from October through April, everything is moved indoors from the cold, limiting our space further. We would be overcrowded in a matter of days if we said yes to everything, and then our rescue would need to be "rescued". Most reptile rescues like ours are home-based and 100% volunteer, so our goal is not to make money. Our goal is to help the animals that need THE MOST HELP. We take owner-surrender cases occasionally, but those animals are already in capable homes, so they are not our first priority. Our primary focus is rescuing animals that are not in caring homes, like a cruelty confiscation we recently took in, with two dozen turtles, or a call we recently got for an abandoned alligator, or a python we took in who was discovered in a backyard. Hopefully one day we'll have a million dollar budget and a commercial facility with full-time staff. But until then, please understand that these are our priorities based on our volunteer staff, home-based facility, and our modest budget: 1. Caring for the 100+ animals we already have 2. Answering emergency calls for homeless animals 3. Assisting owner surrenders, on occasion, as time and space allows These rescue priorities are also balanced against our educational outreach work. So we simply can't say "yes" to every owner who wants to surrender his or her pets to us. I appreciate your understanding.

What could possibly go wrong??

We got a call from a camp about FOURTEEN SNAKES inside one cabin! We went to investigate, and what we found was better than I had hoped! When cabins sit vacant during the coronavirus, animals take over! Please subscribe to our youtube channel at YouTube.com/ForgottenFriendReptileTV

Thanks to Kevin from Boll HVAC for installing a mini-split unit in our rainforest studio today, so we can broadcast virtual reptile shows all winter long!

We are excited to offer VIRTUAL reptile shows to schools NATIONWIDE! We currently have 45 mini-grants left to help bring our virtual shows into more classrooms and homeschool groups this year! Email [email protected] to reserve your date, and apply for mini-grant funds at forgottenfriend.org/scholarship until the funds run out. We'd love to make your classroom GO WILD! Please SHARE this video with your teacher and homeschool friends :-)