Okay so I am going to go off a whim here and talk about lizards today. Only because this just came up recently. So i have two leopard geckos and I love them. They are very dear to me. They both live in about a 40 gallon tank together and have seem perfectly content with each other, and that is because I have two females. Now if I had two males that would be a different story. Now you may be wondering how can you tell a male gecko apart from a female. Well it is actually fairly simple. Leopard geckos are as many may know dessert geckos. They live out in the Afghanistan areas and in parts of Asia. They do have tails that can come off when they feel threatened or stressed. So I warn you before you try seeing if your gecko is male or female make sure it is comfortable with being handled. Male leopard geckos will simply have preanal pores (there is a link at the bottom of the article to a useful website for further images). These pores are much, much harder to see on females if seen at all. The males will also have two bigger lumps in the postanal section (so where their tail and anal groove meet). These preanal pores are there for territorial purposes. A male leaves his scent to attract females and to alert other males that he is around and that he gets all the ladies. The bulges at the base of tails on males contain sexual organs most lizards have called, hemipenes (these bulges would sometimes be called hemipenal bulges). Leopard geckos are fascinating little land geckos. One interesting fact about them is that their gender is sometimes impacted when they are being incubated. Lower temps of incubation will lead to more females. Where as higher temps will lead to males. For details on this I will also provide a link.

Here is a picture of one of my females. notice if you look carefully you can see her "V" shaped preanal scales but no apparent pores, and she does not have as big as lumps (hemipenal bulges) below her anal like most males would.

Here are the links:

http://www.reptilecare.com/leopardgender.htm

http://www.geckodaddy.com/blogs/news/1727752-sexing-leopard-geckos

Many lizards are similar when it comes to identifying male or female, but here are a few explanations for other lizards just in case you know a friend or someone who may be interested.
(So maybe you have a bearded dragon or some other type of lizard you would like sexed well here is some advice.)

Bearded Dragons: many say that males tend to only flash a black beard. Well that way may work for some but the best way to see if it is actually a male or a female is to gently lift its tail and on its tail you will see either two bumps, one bump, or no bulge at all. If you see two bumps then your looking at two hemipenal bulges so you have a male. If you see one small bulge at the very base of the tale or none at all then you have a female
Monitors: once again a big give away is the hemipenal pores on males. for some species like the Savannah monitor, red dots are around the preanal area on females. Males also tend to distribute more territorial actions from time to time.
Chameleons:The males will within a few months of growth have a hemipenal bulge at the base of the tail. Females will be smooth. For most species males tend to be larger and most males contain tarsal spurs on their hinds legs ( look like barbs)
Iguanas: these guys have femoral pores on their hind legs and the males are very easy to tell apart from the females. They males contain very strong muscular jaws and they also contain several fat deposits in the head. Both of these factors add to the males bulkiness and size. opposed to the females who have a more narrow and lean head and body. Of course the females femoral pores are not near as significant as the males.
Chinese Water Dragons: So similar to the iguanas the males have more protruding femoral pores (similar to preanal pores only located in the hind legs.) the males on a chinese waterdragon, when fully grown, will have nice beautiful long spikes down their spine and have an easily seen bony, cartilage like vertebrae that should be easily seen. The females do not have as apparent vertebrae. Males a broader and bulkier look.
Other geckos: most geckos have sexual characteristics related to each other, such as the preanal pores and hemipenal bulges as i mentioned before. Many kinds of geckos have barbs that assist in breeding as well. Of course the males will have bigger barbs then the females. Males bodies and head are stouter and bulkier in shape and size
Hope the information helps all you lizard lovers out there! I have links at the bottom of the page where I obtained some of my information. So look for those hemipenal bulges they're the biggest give away, and feel free too comment below if you have any questions. I would be interested to know what kind of lizard you have and if I helped you identify it at all! Thanks feel free to follow and subscribe!

http://animals.mom.me/tell-difference-between-boy-girl-geckos-6735.html
http://www.triciaswaterdragon.com/sex.htm
http://www.greenigsociety.org/malefemale.htm
http://www.wikihow.com/Tell-if-a-Chameleon-Is-Male-or-Female
http://animals.mom.me/savannah-monitor-boy-girl-10592.html
https://www.beardeddragon.org/articles/sexing/

Okay so I promised some pictures of my western hognose set up today. Keep in mind, prepare your hognose about a week in advanced with as least stress as possible. For instance I keep my hognose in a dark enclosure. Not all the time but just for a week before I feed it.

As you can see it get pretty dark in its tank when covered.

Now since western hognose's have a basic diet of small amphibians. I usually scent mine with gecko or toad. You can get these sources usually online or from a local pet store. (I will add a link to an online source at the bottom). My Western hognose is very alert and active after being in the dark for awhile, and her territorial senses trigger when i open her tank. She will his and maybe even strike at the mouse when I put it in, which is a good sign. As long as she gets her mouth around it she will most likely eat.

As you can see she was very alert and intuitive right when I opened her tank.

So I did make her tank by myself with some wood and plexi glass so I will show you a picture of that below. Keep in mind im not saying this will work for any snake or any western hognose. This worked for me and I wouldnt be surprised if it worked for you. I struggled awhile before I finally found this technique. I was to the point where i was considering force feeding, but thankfully I found this technique. If you continue to have problems with a snake not eating and nothing you do works please see a vet or someone with experience! Especially before you try force feeding! You do not want to accidently harm your snake. Thanks for reading dont forget to check out that link below on some scented food supplies. Feel free to subscribe! 

http://www.backwaterreptiles.com/feeder-lizards-for-sale.html

Here is by self made tank every side is enclosed except for one, which is a glass slide out door.

Just something that was crossing my mind today. You see im just a nature fanatic in general. So I saw the skies were clear tonight, so i went star gazing. While I was out i saw the big dipper and Orion and some other constellations. What amazes me to think is just how idely dispersed the stars are. I mean to us they seem like no big deal, just stars, but next time you look at the sky just think about it. These stars are light years away from each other. Some of these stars are so far out that we could never reach them if we went on a voyage into space. It would take us so long to reach them that our bodies would physically not be able to last. For instance the North Star is about 323 light-years away. Meaning that we would be long dead before you even reach half the length of getting there. The massive gas balls are way out into oblivion, and its amazing to think how great and broad our universe is. The Milky Way now is about 100,000 light years across so we are talking just massive distances. There is an estimated 100 billion - 400 billion stars in the Milky Way. So lets put this to scale. So I read up some articles obviously I didnt get this info by doing all these calculations, because honestly im no astronomer. Calculations have been made, however that in comparison if the earth was a grain of salt the Milky Way would be about 5.1 MILLION miles! just baffeling! I ask you check out the links on where I obtained some info. My full respect goes out to the astronomers and their amazing work. The galaxy and all it contents is an amazing thing. Feel free to comment or subscribe!

https://www.spaceandintelligence.com/index.php/space-exploration/188-milky-way-s-central-bar-stirs-in-stars-like-a-candy-floss-mixer

(Image Credit: The COBE Project, DIRBE, NASA) http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/features/cosmic/milkyway_info.html

https://blogs.nrao.edu/askanastronomer/2012/09/09/relative-sizes-of-the-earth-and-the-milky-way-galaxy/
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/12/121204-north-star-distance-closer-solar-system-space-science/
http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/features/cosmic/milkyway_info.html
http://asd.gsfc.nasa.gov/blueshift/index.php/2015/07/22/how-many-stars-in-the-milky-way/

First things first welcome to my blog, and thank you for reading. This is my first blog and i dont have to much time to write right now so let me get straight to the point. Western hognose snakes is the subject mainly because i own one and have had some issues with mine. Dont get me wrong shes a sweet heart but like many western hognose snakes she was shy on eating. So heres some info if you have a shy snake give them time to get used to their knew enclosure if they are in one and try to make their knew enclosure as least stressful as possible. For example i put my hognose in complete darkness for about a week before feeding her. This relaxes her but also helps her develop a more territorial trait that can be found in almost any snake. So after about a week of darkness for my snake ill open up her tank and put a dead mouse in along with some scent of a toad or gecko. (Western hognoses eat toads in the wild).Well i have to go hope this post may be helpful for those snake lovers out there! I will post some pictures of my western hognose set up tomorrow! thanks for reading! Feel free to ask me any questions and subscribe!