Mice S(ound)mell Funny

It has been forever since my last post and I apologize to all of my adoring fans. I know you have hungered for more snake talk.

Well, due to my recently snake neglect, my father in law took it upon himself to feed our lot of pets. To his chagrin, the price of rodents has recently gone up. It is definitely a sellers market out there.
So he decided to get 4 white mice, versus our usual purchase of African Soft Fur Rats. I don't know if you have ever noticed this, but mice have to hold some sort of record for size:smell ratio. They might even give the skunk a run for his money.

Luckily, we were able to give them all a good home... in the belly of the veracious Destiny's Child and Big Bertha! HAHAHahahahahahahaha HAAHAHAhahahhaha HAHAHhahah Bwwahaahhhahahahah...

Christmas Snake

I gave Sam Indie, the adventurous anery kenyan sand boa today for Christmas and he absolutely loved it. And the best part is that my parents are actually fine with it. My brother-in-law, Spencer, might be a little upset by it because that was his favorite of the bunch. I'm sure he'll be fine.
They have to be the lowest maintenance pet ever, they don't smell, they can go months without food, they drink very little, and they have no hair to be allergic to. What's not to like?

The Perfect Pet

For Christmas each year, our family draws one name from a hat for secret santa. When I drew my 11 year old brother Sam this year, I immediately wanted to give him a snake. Sam would absolutely love a pet snake. However, due to my family's disposition towards snakes, this proved to be difficult.

My Mother is the person most scared of snakes that I know. In fact, our neighbor (5 houses down from us mind you) had a 6 ft. long Boa Constrictor, and she actually had nightmares that it would escape and she'd find it under her bedsheets.

So the question is, under these conditions, how would you go about getting Sam a pet snake for Christmas?

Destiny's Child

Great news everybody, Destiny's Child is eating like a champ. I was worried about him for awhile. After nearly freezing on his traumatizing trip from Vermont, he has been quite stand-off-ish. He was striking an awful lot at any movement, so I decided to give him a smaller cage, a dark hide box, and to put him up high where he wouldn't be disturbed. I think this has really helped him feel secure. After shedding, he ate two fuzzy rats this week with no problem. Huzzah!

What I wouldn't do to get my hands on...

a Mojave and a Lesser Ball Python. From what I've seen, these patterns are the most striking of all ball python patterns. I got this picture off of an Ad from VPI.See the top snake whose pattern fades rapidly down the sides? That is the Lesser. The Mojave is the bottom left snake. I love the dark dark browns and the key hole patterns on the side. There is also a slight fade that happens down the sides.
This other snake here on the right is actually a product of the two snakes- a blue-eyed luecistic. Isn't that interesting that two totally unrelated patterns would produce an all white snake with strange blue eyes?
I have a 5 year goal of producing a Mojave Lavender Albino. Would that be the sweetest thing? To my knowledge, I don't think any exist currently.

Eye Candy

I never really understood that phrase- "eye candy". But I'm sure it applies to these pictures of the totally bodacious new snakes we recently got. Thanks Steve for letting me take pictures of the adults.

1- Adult Pastel Male 1- Normal Female 1- 100% Het Lavender Albino - Destiny's Child. Mmm mm.

The Anorexic Anerythristic

Snakes are amazing little creatures. I wish I could go months without having to eat anything.

Indie, my little, once adventuresome, male Anerythristic Kenyan Sand Boa has not eaten since I brought him home over a month ago. If he were a full-sized adult, I wouldn't be so worried about it, but he is only six months old. My other 2 Kenyans are literally double the size of Indie, and they seem to eat whatever I put in front of them.

I have a theory as to why Indie refuses to eat. Indie is the leader of a tribe of sand boas that are under the rule of a tyrannical government- and until they leave his tribe alone, he has decided to fast. He calls it "passive resistance".
Because of this new behavior, I've decided to rename Indie- He will here-to-fore be name Ghandi.
(Actually, it was probably because the other two snakes were incorrectly sexed by their breeder and Ghandi has been living with two very large and scary females this whole time)

So now, we've given him his own small cage and we've tried feeding him everything. This includes both frozen and live small pinky mice, one chopped up small pinky, and 3 various sizes of crickets. All of these we attempted in different locations at different times of day. NOTHING seems apetizing to him.
On the bright side, Ghandi seems to be very active, and other than the fact that he is very small- he seems quite healthy.

If anyone has any other suggestions, I'm all ears. (I love how I say that as if my famous blog is being read by hundreds of snake enthusiasts each day)