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I stumbled across the Dino Pet on another website. Of course, it was sold out there, so I hit Amazon and found that it was being sold on Amazon.
A quick note about shipping on this item...it comes from the actual manufacturer of the product, not Amazon or even the external seller (in my case it was Brookstone). So, I basically paid Amazon, for a product from Brookstone, that ws then shipped to me from BioPop directly. It took it a bit longer to actually ship, but once it did it arrived in two days. Be sure to open your package immediately, as if you get one from here it's going to come with the living dinoflagellates in the box that should be put into the dinosaur right away.
Anyways...on to the product.
On a recent trip to the Cayman Islands, we went on a kayaking tour of a bioluminescent bay. This bay was home to millions and millions of these tiny living beings called dinoflagellates. They would light up when agitated in the sea. Very cool. You could see them light up as the kayak paddle passed through the water, or as you dangled your feet in the water. Unfortunately, our kayaking trip was cut a bit short because of pretty terrible weather. My parents were with my wife and I on this trip, and they had been really looking forward to this kayaking trip, so they were a bit bummed out by having it cut short.
Shortly after the trip, I found the Dino Pet online and thought that it would make a GREAT gift for my parents, something to let them have a bit of that bioluminescent bay with them all the time. I ordered it from Amazon, and found out about the shipping when it didn't ship by the expected date and I sent a message to the seller.
When it did arrive, I thought that I had purchased the set that came with the gift certificate for the living creatures, so I just set the shipping box in the pile of gifts that I would need to end up wrapping.
I opened it about six days later to find, to my terror, that the dinoflagellates had been in the box the whole time. A quick read of the instructions had me worried that they may have died, as it says to put them into the acrylic dinosaur immediately after receiving them, because they need light to survive. In the box, they of course hadn't been getting any light at all. So, I put them in the dinosaur and hoped for the best.
I did this in the early afternoon, so they had a few hours of light left before it was dark. When it got dark, I gently shook the dinosaur, and noticed a few small flashes. I didn't know if this was a good sign or a bad one...it was good because there were flashes, but bad because there weren't very many.
The next day they had the whole day to be in the light...and that night, the light show was on!!! They were all alive and well, and the results in the little dinosaur were absolutely stunning. I left only a little bit of air in the dinosaur, which made it so that when you shake it you get a subtle glow throughout almost the entire inside of the dinosaur.
I left it to do it's thing for the next few days before putting it back in it's box to be given to my parents as a Christmas gift.
They absolutely loved it. My mother has told me that when they wake up in the early morning (it's still dark) the dinoflagellates are always very bright. They keep it right in the main living area of their house, so it's getting a good 10 hours of daylight or so every day, which is a pretty good amount of light.
As another reviewer mentioned, these are living creatures, so they will need food from time to time. The initial package comes with enough food to give you the initial feeding and a second feeding. You can buy more from the manufacturer when you need it. From what I understand, if you feed them when they need it, the colony will sustain for a very long time.
I also wanted to note that the light that I perceive from these creatures is different than the light that shows up in the photos of them. The light in the photos is a very aqua or teal blue type color, but the light that I see from them is more white or light blue. I believe this to be a function of the way that cameras capture these creatures, as the images from the kayaking trip that we took shows the exact same color, but down there I noticed more white type light than the blue-ish in the images.
Overall, I think this is a really cool product. The gift went over amazingly well, and I couldn't have asked for a better thing to give my parents.
If you're at all interested, give this product a go...it's a really neat thing.
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The Dino Pet
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The DinoPet is a Pet like the name says. I dont know why this surprises so many people. If you do not want to care for a pet then I would recommend buying a LED flashlight instead. If you do have patience and are willing to learn something new then the DinoPet will be a wonderful experience. It is not FOOL proof and not for the inherently angry or constantly complaining types. Dino has a 90 day guarantee and the folks at DinoPop are happy to help if anything happens in transit or while you are on the learning curve. We took our Dino to Death Valley and he lit up like the stars.
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