6 1/2 months later...

She finally ate! One of my female ball pythons has been fasting for over 6 months. Apparently she got into breeding mode (even though she was too young) and so didn't want to eat.
The slut! ;)
As a warm-blooded human, voluntarily going without food for that long is just something I can't relate too. I get cranky if I miss breakfast!

I'm so glad she finally ate. Maybe now she will be big enough to breed this winter.

Little wigglers

Here's some pics of the babies out of the eggs and all cleaned off. They have "Cheerios" on their backs. ;)



I think I got 4 females and 2 males. I'll have to check again just to make sure. I'm not the best at sexing them yet.


~

Lo and Behold

Last night (day 53 for my eggs) I was checking in on them every hour and nothing new. Just before bed I thought I would take one more look. I look in...totally expecting to see nothing different...lo and behold look what I found!
Two little heads poking out!!!! Whooo hooo!



My first ever clutch! I even got to see one slit the egg right before my eyes! That was so cool.



This morning 5 pipped! At 3:45 pm the 6th on decided to join the party.


They will stay in the egg for 1-3 days as they metabolize their yolks. The left one on the bottom had her head stuck. She couldn't pull it back in the egg. So I cut the hole bigger for her. That was nerve racking! Trying to cut the egg without hitting her or veins on the inside of the egg. Can't wait to see if they look like mom or dad.
They do have moms cute star head pattern.

8 more days...

8 days until (hopefully) my snake eggs start to hatch!!!!!! I'm getting really excited.
AND I've finally got my video camera back from the shop. It was out of commission for almost a whole year! That's a whole other story I'm not going to bore you with. The short of it is...it's back! I'm going to try and catch them in the act and then post some video of the hatching for you all to see.

Stay tuned!! :)



Here's my incubator.

Snake Tails

So...do snakes have tails? They do!
This is my "butter" corn snakes' tail. You can see how she uses it to hold on. Her tail is really quite long. It starts about where the very tip of her tail is touching her body.



Snake tails start right after the snakes' cloaca. This is the opening used to excrete waste, for mating and also where the eggs or baby snakes come out. Having one opening is pretty efficient...or gross depending on your point of view.

Here is a ball python tail. The pink circle shows where his cloaca is, that's where his tail starts. He also has spurs. Those are all that's left over from when they used to have legs...way back when.


Ferdinand was having a bad shed day. See his loose skin? He usually sheds very nicely. I recently moved him into a larger home and now he needs a bigger water bowl to keep the humidity a bit higher.



This is him after a nice soak. No more old shed. All spiffy and handsome. ;)



This is another of Tigerlily...sleeping off her first big meal since she broke her fast.



:)

More Tigerliy pics

This was last summer on an outside photoshoot. :)



Here she is with her partner. She's the bigger one. Male ball pythons can't be insecure about their size...they are always smaller than the females.

3 month fast

Yea! Last night, Tigerlily (my snake mom) ate her first meal in three months. That means she is no longer in the maternal mode and is back to normal. I find it fascinating that they don't eat for that long and can be pregnant=making babies! Amazing! I gave her a smaller than normal meal (frozen, thawed mouse) just to ease her digestive tract back in the swing of eating.

You may have noticed that countdown I put up in the left corner of my blog. When that is down to zero the babies should be cutting the eggs and looking out into the world. Can't wait! :)

This is her when I first got her.

Egg Candling

So just what the heck is egg candling? Here's a picture to give you a better idea.


I'm holding a flashlight up to the egg. If there are red veins present, which there are, that means it is fertile. The black "x" that I've marked on the eggs signifies "this side up". Reptile eggs are not like bird eggs...where the parents turn the eggs to keep the embryo from sticking. You don't want to rotate snake eggs, it could kill the developing baby inside.

SHE did it...my first EGGS.

Went down to my snake room this morning and this is what I saw!


I spy something in there! I am so happy it happened today. She was a bit overdue...so this helps my mood a lot.



Here's her giving me "the look" You know the one I mean..."Don't mess with me."


6 gorgeous eggs! Very exciting! She would have cared for the eggs for the next 2 months but I've got an incubator. So, I took the eggs out.


The clutch weighed in at 624 grams. 5 candled good. The 6th is underneath and I couldn't get to it.


One problem. When trying to snap the top on the egg container the bunch of eggs was too tall so it doesn't sit tight. I'll have to figure something out today.


This is the mom after her tub is all cleaned. She was very thirsty. Drank for awhile. Now I want her to start eatting again. She's been fasting for 3 months.

My very first ball python eggs.

I visited a friends' place the other day and brought home three new snakes. I was planing on getting one. Opps! They were all captive bred (not taken from the wild) and born fall 08.

If you were a West African farmer, you would hold the ball python in the highest regard, as they help preserve your crops for you and your family, not the rodents that could destroy your pantry and your livelihood. Plus they stay pretty small, so are not a danger to your pets or your children. An African farmers' best friend.

It's speculated that some people don't like snakes (even harmless ones) simply because they seem so alien. A big part of that speculation is the fact that they don't have eyelids. Humans are very turned into the eyes. So their unblinking eyes may tap into some part of us that feels threatened by an unblinking stare. I'm not sure I agree with that but it's an interesting theory.

Anywho...

for all you genetics fans...

The first picture is a male pastel 66% het for Ghost. His name is Arturo.

The second one is Athena. She's also a pastel 66% het for Ghost.

Third pic is a portrait of Athena. She has beautiful eyes but no lids. ha ha.

The last image is Goof Ball. You can tell why they are called Ball pythons in this picture. That's what they do when they are afraid and want to protect themselves. They don't bite like a mammal would...they "ball-up". She's not totally afraid so you can still see her head in the center.

She 'shows' the normal wild coloring but she's 100% het Ghost. For all you who hate genetics talk...that means she's got a fun recessive gene. Put her with a male with that same recessive gene and some of their offspring will look a lot different and in my opinion prettier.

Finally New DSLR Camera!!!

I've been saving for a new Nikon DSLR camera for a while now and it arrived in the mail last week!! My first Nikon! Got two lenses too--a wide to normal lens and a telephoto lens.
WHOPPIE!!!

I'm selling my beloved Pentax film camera with it's 3 lens on ebay. I really loved that camera. I still love the look of film. After many years of processing my own pictures and working in a corporate professional photo lab, I was really glad to leave all the chemicals and water waste behind--don't want to go back.

Haven't had a chance to learn the manual setting or how to capture RAW uncompressed images yet. That will come with the new year.

Here are some tests pictures with my zoom lens--on all automatic settings.

Once I get the hang of the manual settings I'll be in business again!! I'm stoked!

Snake Sex

Warning: For the non-reptile people out there - just skip this post. ;)

I'm very excited! I got my first lock on Friday! (that's snake sex) . For those of you who are new to my blog...I have snakes. Ever since I was a kid I've been an animal lover but not just our furry friends. I was a kid snake catcher, frog lover, turtle picker upper. I've also had a fascination with genetics since High School Biology.

This season I wanted to breed one of my ball pythons. I've only got one female big enough, but that's enough for me to start. At least 'till I know what I'm doing. The female is the larger one in the picture. Females snakes are usually larger than the males.

Ball Pythons are a very docile python and only get to be about 4 feet in length. They eat once every 7 days. (Can you imagine doing that!) Are native to Africa and spend 85-90% of their lives in a burrow. They must know how to meditate better than me.

My female hadn't eaten in 6 weeks. That's not unusual in breeding season. Still I gave them a brake on Sunday--and low and behold snake sex makes you hungry! She ate like a champ. He'll go back in with her as soon as she digests.

Any of you near the Madison, WI area?

Are you a closet reptile enthusiast?
Even if you are not...

I invite you to come to the Monona Reptile Expo this Saturday Nov 8th
I'll be there with all kinds photo art--puppies and mandalas too.

There will also be a free "cold-blooded" Educational show (he does parties too). Plus lots of lizards, frogs, turtles, snakes, and supplies for reptile pets.
Come on it'd be an adventure. ;)

This is a captive bred only show. No reptiles are collected from the wild.

WHERE: Across the street from the Monona Library
Monona community center
1011 Nichols road, Monona, WI
10-4 pm
Adults - $5.00
Under 12 - $2.00

New home page

I have a new home page with this awesome slide show site. Check it out.

It's still summer!

It's still summer and warm out. Thank you very much.

And to prove it I took my snakes for a photo shoot outside. At first they weren't sure they liked the grass.
But soon decided there were no elephants around to step on them.
So loosened up.