Christina's Reptile & Animal Sanctuary

06/16/2026

This unit of 5 years old came in today. Currently 20.6 pounds. This is Lil Zilla, an alligator snapping turtle. He will be quarantined and fostered and up for adoption afterwards. A larger indoor and outdoor pond will be required for him as well as experience in this species. As you can see; he is not overly fond of handling lol. Adoption location is Palmerton Pa; no shipping.

06/16/2026

These two painted turtles one 20 years and the other roughly 10 years came in today. Meet Buddy and Bitty. They will be transported to another sanctuary.

06/16/2026

06/16/2026

This applies to ALL rescue...wildlife, domestic, exotics, farm...

Rescues are not paid or funded. We have full time jobs, children, our own pets, we get sick, we deal with unbelievably rude people via Facebook & from the individuals that contact us.

Rescue is financially, emotionally, & physically draining.

Just because we rescue for free doesn't mean we are not professionals. Many of us take continuing education classes at our expense. We work with vet staff, biologists, & some of us are vet staff & biologists with years of experience working with animals.

And then people wonder why some licensed rehabilitators do not answer messages, or why they stop rehabilitating all together.

To my fellow rescuers, YOU ARE AMAZING!!!
Wishing you all lots of donations, support from those around you, happy release days for rehabilitators, & tons of adoptions to those that rescue farm, exotics, & domestic pets.

We are tired....please be kind in general! 💜

06/14/2026

Had a blast at the Palmerton 250th; thank you to everyone who stopped in and said hello to us and the reptiles as well as Palmerton Area Chamber of Commerce for having us there to celebrate.

06/13/2026

Check out our friends page the Backyard tortoise. Amazing people that have such great turtle/tortoise set ups. Maybe you’d like some inspiration? Check them out.

06/13/2026

We had posted an update on a friends three toed box turtle they had adopted from us a while ago, the other day; and many were very impressed with the enclosure outdoors for her. He sent me these pictures to post in case anyone wanted to see the progress of the build. Enjoy!

Here are his specs he gave me: Size of the water feature in 12ft long, 2 feet wide at the widest and a foot deep at the ends.
Entire habitat is 25 feet
approximately x 10 feet. Could absolutely be done smaller

06/13/2026

Banana being all snoopy lol

06/13/2026

There are a lot of different brand enclosures out there to choose from; unless of course you’d rather build your own, which is completely fine (and for certain larger species, a necessity). There is one brand in particular to just be weary of when it comes to some species of reptiles requiring a lot of lighting apparatus.

The eco flex enclosure can be great for species not requiring much lighting/heating apparatus above; however with certain species such as the bearded dragon, to quickly name one; it can be very tricky. The problem is this brand has molding that goes inward over the screen at the top, making it extremely difficult, to impossible, to have all the lighting on top as needed. Ideally you are looking at usually needing two 8.5 inch diameter domes for heating; a 24 inch linear uv lamp parallel to the heat lamps, as well as a possible LED light to boost lux levels. We mention 8.5 inch diameter domes vs the double domes as the larger diameter will not constrict your heat beam not overheat your sockets as the double domes also can “overheat” the apparatus due to the amount of close proximity heat inside the domes produced. So while those may save some space; they generally are not preferred for larger species ect.

Eco flex is one of the cheaper enclosures for their size options; however we just want to make sure people are aware that this can definitely be an issue with lighting depending on the species you plan on housing in it. The more lighting needed, the less room you will have with this brand over the screen due to the molding. Can you mount lighting inside? Sure; but anytime you mount lighting inside; you are taking away more room for that animal inside the enclosure; unless it is large enough to accommodate their space needs. So ideally, smaller enclosures; it’s not advised to mount lighting inside. Plus you need to account for safe lighting distances that are required for proper uv index (usually around 14-16 inches if mounted inside from the basking surface), as well as safe distance with your heating.

Below are some stock photos of the eco flex in two different sizes for those who may not be aware of this, as well as our graphs that show four different proper lighting arrangements (some of the lighting may be different depending on species of course). So just keep this in mind; while you may spend less money (not by much), you may be sacrificing the reptiles lighting/heating needs 😉

06/13/2026

These two red ear sliders just came in. Meet Shelly and Braxton around 7-8 years old.