Mom has agreed to keep the snakes separate. The wild rat needs to be quarantined and is a little too young to breed anyway. If it's not a female, I'll have to find one elsewhere. She's also agreed to change the substrate to Aspen. But she has to have time first. Grandma is coming home today, and mom will have to help grandpa take care of her. While I probably could clean out the tank myself, mom probably might think I can't. All I need is someone to help me carry it.
Mom isn't as bad as that, she just knows nothing about snakes. When it comes to dogs, she knows a lot. What's funny is while she wants perfect snake babies, she saved one of the pups who had a birthing injury. Vet said it wasn't a birth defect, the pup just got wedged and didn't have a TNJ joint. The pup eventually had to have most of his lower jaw removed because the bone kept healing wrong. All the while he got neumonia, and other complications. Mom spend a crap load of money saving him. He made it. When other breeders would have culled him. However, he doesn't have a good life. He's locked up in a little room with an elderly boxer and only sees people when it's time for food or bathroom time. They are in there because they are destructive. Before the special needs dog (Masada) came along, the boxer (Oj) wasn't that bad. But with two males, one with a housebreaking problem, one starts territorial peeing. Masada likes chewing. Even though he has no lower teeth, he can still destroy stuff. He has to eat mushed food, which gets extremely messy. He gets food up his nose and sneezes when exited. Despite all this, he is very very sweet. But locked up in that room all the time, he became hyper more than usual. The boxer started losing weight drastically. Don't know if it's from stress or old age. Oj is only in there to keep Masada company. Masada was hand-reared from the moment he was born. He is used to being around people. I hate what mom and my stepdad have done for their "miracle dog". That's what they call him on their website. They show his survival, but not where he is now. I'm sure there are people who could give him the attention he deserves. Mom thinks no one would want him. Our other Mastiff with medical problems is Maggie (Affectionatly called Maggot). She is our only brindle. She got problems that the vet said would probably he fatal. I think they called it renal failure. I don't know how much money they put into her. But giving her special purified water turned her condition around. For saftey's sake, she will nolonger be a breeder. She lives in the house. She gets special treatment. Most breeders give or sell their old dogs who can't produce anymore. But mom says it's wrong to thrust Maggie's medical problems on someone. Hopefully Rose will have no health problems, she's the only other female who could go to another home. Her sister, Grace, is another story. Grace is mental. Anything "different" or "weird" sets her off barking. Strangers are greeted by ferocious barks. Of course, Grace won't attack anyone. She's too much if a coward. She gets Maggie and Lily crazy by barking. She's the ringleader of crazy things. I can set her off by just looking at her funny. On the other hand, she loves children. My sux year old
stepsister can walk her. She is loving, sweet, and a good snuggle buddy if you don't get near her feet. She likes to kick. She is a good mother. She doesn't trust my stepsister unless mom is with her. One time I had to care for her and the pups Aline and make sure she didn't sit on one or anything. She suddenly grabbed my arm in her jaws, but without hurting me. She gently shook my hand and growled. I had to earn her trust.
Our other female is a pup, Lily. She's hyper like a pup usually is. She's just a really big puppy. She will be the next breeding girl when she's two years old. Our male is Elijah. He is awesome and laid back. A complete contast to the girls. Everyone loves him. He's a good salesman. His only thing is he doesn't like it if you blow in his face. That's the six year old's fault. We used to have another male, Gabriel. But he ended up with one testicle not descending, and that is hereditary. We gave him to a nice family with kids to play with. I named Gabriel. And Maggie. Our name theme is religious. The other dog is mine, a twelve year old cocker mix named Lady. She's getting blind and deaf. But sometimes she still tries to act like a pup. Then we have an old rabbit in a smelly cage who gets no attention by the six year old who outgrew him. We have a Jenday Conure, Jay, who only likes my mom. He screams at anyone else. Though my name is the first he learned. You have to be trying to hear it when he says it though. We've got three cats. Blue, an old gray tailess thing who is kinda crazy. She tries to take bites of my cheeseburgers while I'm eating them! There's no use correcting her. You can't teach an old cat new tricks. Then there's Maya, a dilute colored gray cat with little orange blotches and white and cream belly. She's very skittish. Her favorite human is my mom. Then there's Danny, Maya's son. He's a hoot. He is obsessed with me. Me behind a closed door and him on the other side is a no-no. He has hyper spells in which he terrorizes his poor mother. And me. Who is usually trying to sleep.
And you already know about Jack.
So my mom isn't that horrible, she just knows zip about snakes and has too many animals. In my opinion, atleast.
And while the pet shop may be doing things wrong, it's out of ignorance, not malice. The woman who owns it is really nice. She loves animals. She's an old lady doing what she's always done and that's all there is to it. Changing stubborn older folks is a difficult thing to do, especially when they don't realize their doing something wrong. This lady is my best friend. I can confide things in her that I never can in my mother. She's the type if person who tells it like it is. She knows the secrets of the town. She may not know a customer's name, but she knows about them. She's nice to everyone who comes in her shop. She puts up with a lot idiots. Working with her is fun. So when I defend the shop, I'm not really defending her methods. I'm defending my friend. If she had a perfect shop, I'm sure you'd all like her.
I've played around with the CornCalc, and still nothing I can pair Jack with would make anything but normals and amels with hidden genetics. I'd have to breed the offspring together to get something, and I can't keep both offspring because I'm not getting rid of Jack until he dies or something awful happens. I see so many people not being able to keep there pets these days due to moving and stuff.
The reason I want to breed Jack with a black rat is
1) I love black rats.
2) While mom doesn't like black snakes, she likes the hybrids they make.
3) It won't just produce a normal or amel corn.
4) I like hybrids of stuff.
