Oh, I should ask, is there any other snake/lizard/reptile related stuff that anyone is curious about? I have a lot of stuff stored up lmao.
Went to NWRE on Saturday and came home with a new little buddy. I've been thinking for a while that I needed to add ghost into my projects somewhere, but I knew it had to come in the right combo. Apparently the right combo was a pewter ghost. Picked this little guy up from Priceless Pythons. He's TINY, only 69 grams, and apparently he and the boy next to him at the table were twins! He's my first male too. We've named him Riddle at my spouse's suggestion (because ghost snake).
I wanted to get him fed yesterday since I had no idea when the last time he ate was. Except he's on live rn, and every store that sells live feeders was out of mouse hoppers or rat pups; the size I wanted to feed him. After the third store I gave up and got the smallest adult mouse I could find. It was still huge; I wanted to give him something the size of my thumb but ended up with a mouse about a third bigger than that. Riddle was so freaking tiny compared to it. Apparently, Riddle is either not aware of his size or he was really really hungry, because he was on it like a fly on stink. I was worried right until he got a good strike and coil because a mouse that size can do some damage is it gets a chance to use its teeth or claws, but he got a perfect strike position and had it dispatched in seconds. But then he still had to eat it. And he did. But the whole time I'm watching him thinking "Wow, really?" This was absolutely the maximum limit of mouse, he was so stretched out there were gaps in his scales! He hoovered the thing though, and now I have a kind of football shaped snake.
I haven't taken a lot of pics of my new girl because she's in quarantine with a mild case of mites, but I got a vanilla pastel het ghost girl. Her name is Bean, and she's kind of jumpy and snappy, but still cute and sweet once I give her a minute to calm down. I ALSO put a down payment on this little guy! He's a super pastel mojave that's het for ghost and clown! Button should be paid off by the end of November (though I doubt weather will allow shipping until February at least). Fake edit: not actually naming him button, his name is going to be Arcade :D
I BRING YOU SNEK (I'd add Serket to the photo op, but my camera's battery is dying and idk where the charger is rn OTL) Fake Edit: AND ONCE AGAIN, NO SERKET IN THE UPDATE!
Cross posting this from my tumblr because I need to scream about this more. I’m buying at least three and potentially 6 new snakes when this tax return drops, all of them for planned breeding projects (except one girl, but she’s so dang pretty, and she fits in pretty much anywhere potentially, so). And while I’ve been thinking about the fact that, by this time in 2017 I will have the first of those breeding projects underway (fingers crossed), and I don’t expect baby snakes until spring of 2018, the realization just kind of hit me this week that this is it. This is the final count down to the beginning, but I don’t have the luxury of waiting around for it. I’m not going to be sitting around for another year twiddling my thumbs, I’ve got to start building racks, and upgrading equipment to run more enclosures, and modifying my old coke fridge into an incubator, and, and…. This is it, this is really, really it! I have been internally screaming all week. Good, happy screaming of delight, but screaming none the less.
I don't have any personal experience with corn snakes, but they're considered a beginners snake as they are much more forgiving of husbandry errors and almost never skip a meal. They're native to the US, despite the variation that's been developed in color mutations (morphs) giving some of them a more exotic look, so they like a temperature range closer to that of their own home; about 70F ambient with a 85F hotspot. Babies can start out in a tub, but an adult can easily use the space in a 40 gal, and they don't get stressed by large spaces the same way ball pythons do, so you're better off providing as much space as possible and just cluttering the area up for smaller snakes. They don't like it very humid and misting can cause mold, so if you have a snake that has problems shedding, offering a humid hide is the best solution. They don't require any special lighting like UV, and adults eat about every 7-10 days. So over all, pretty simple!
Arcade came home last week. He ate on Saturday. Here he is being cute! He's got a little key on his back XD
:O so many snek!!! v good snek!!! have you decided to buy any more in the near future/are you expecting some new bbies? afaik rn you have a lesser bee girl (Serket), a cinnamon pinstripe girl (Strudel), enchi pied girl (Eclair), pewter ghost boy (Riddle), vanilla pastel het ghost girl (Bean), super pastel mojave het ghost het clown boy (Arcade), lesser het clown girl (name?), and leopard het clown girl (also name?)... did I get those right? are there any other noodle puppies? do the last two girls have names?? aaaahhhh this is so exciting so many snek also, do you mind giving me a rundown of your proposed breeding project? I can't say I'm a BP expert (or even an amateur), but I have read this thread very attentively, and I am excited about snek genetics!! pls infodump!!!
I am going to need names for the two het clown girls! And you are bang on with the current snakes, you can look at them all here. Other two girls I need to grab this weekend are a pastel enchi calico (Chiffon) and a GHI yellow belly pastel (still undecided on name but tentatively Latula since she's going to be paired up eventually with a male mojave bee hold back out of the Serket/Arcade paring that I have preemptively named Mituna). I also need to get a banana het pied boy (I keep thinking of Pudding for a banana name lol). Pairing this year will be Arcade to Serket and Strudel. No real goal for the clutch out of Strudel other than just seeing what the odds will roll for me, but, as above, my fingers are crossed for a Mojave bee boy from Serket. Next year will be Riddle and Bean, maybe also repeating Serket with either Riddle or Arcade depending on if I got my hold back boy. Banana het pied will be paired to Eclair. Year after that depends on hold backs and growth rates for everyone. I want to pair Mituna with Chiffon and Latula, Arcade to the het clown girls, hold back an enchi banana pied (if I get one) from Pudding and Eclair to pair to Strudel, and Riddle idk for that year. The ghost project isn't so much planned as fate seems to be steering me in that direction. Year four, banana enchi cinnamon pied goes back to Eclair hopefully to produce an enchi cinnamon banana pied, possibly a worlds first if no one beats me to it. A that point is a big ol shruggo. I know I want to get into lightning pieds and dreamsicles so I will probably pick up a firefly pied male (Mal) and a lavender albino and axanthic girl both het pied (Saffron and Inara). Riddle will go into the clown project since Arcade is already het for ghost and I'll prove out if he passed that down to any of his daughters or grand daughters. And then everything is gonna get all mixed up because all of those genes work well in nearly any combo with each other and idk what else will be around by then (I want to add in sunset and bamboo when they're affordable at some point). Most small breeders tend to be successful bu just picking a few morphs they like and focusing on the quality, so that's my plan.
Girls I purchased this week (everyone ships to me on the 21st and I pick them up on the 22nd): and the breeder sent me this pic for her the other day ahaha
Had Arcade out to clean his tub (he pooped) and he was chill for a bit but then he got tired and noped.