Progression thread: Normal Cape African house snake

Well done, Rico!

Those photos are very helpful. Thank you, Tavia

I'm pleased to report that after an hour or so of letting it cool, Clyde's mouse meal has disappeared. So except for the one refusal in April he's still eating a small hopper every 10 days. Yay!

Yay! His Daddy just took a mouse a few minutes ago too, breaking a mini (not quite a month) fast.

Wow, how on earth did I miss this whole tail discussion?? Those pictures are very helpful. Eve definitely does not have any kind of bulge beyond her cloaca. Thank you both of you for taking and sharing those pictures, and DollysMom for hijacking your own thread for me. <3
Also, good news that both your guys ate! Still nothing for Eve since April 15, but at least now I know that it's not time to worry yet.
I love our little mini house snake community here!

Originally Posted by Tavia

Yay! His Daddy just took a mouse a few minutes ago too, breaking a mini (not quite a month) fast.

Yay, Ukiah! Glad he's off his fast. I figure he knows what he needs but it's really hard on us when they don't eat!

Originally Posted by albertagirl

Wow, how on earth did I miss this whole tail discussion?? Those pictures are very helpful. Eve definitely does not have any kind of bulge beyond her cloaca. Thank you both of you for taking and sharing those pictures, and DollysMom for hijacking your own thread for me. <3
Also, good news that both your guys ate! Still nothing for Eve since April 15, but at least now I know that it's not time to worry yet.
I love our little mini house snake community here!

Hey, better late than never. Now you know why we said Eve had a girly tail! Hope she eats soon.

I love our little housie community, too. This whole board is great, but the "housie club" is neat.

I said on another thread that if Clyde had pooped overnight I could clean his house and then hold him. He's so regular, so here he is wrapping my fingers and my heart this morning!

I don't handle him on feeding day so I got a quick weight today. He was back up to 107 grams which is about where he was before his shed and refusal in April.

Here's another post for the housie club. If you didn't already know how amazing these harmless little guys and gals are, look at the latest snake "family tree". That's right, the Lamprophiidae which includes our little Boaedon capenses and other house snakes is closer to elapids than colubrids based on genetic studies. They were considered colubrids for so long though, that most colubrid interest groups still welcome housie owners.

For the record this diagram is from "How Snakes Work" by Lillywhite. I highly recommend the book and believe I am correctly making "fair use" of this excerpt.

So house snakes are no longer a colubrid? Whaaaaaaat? I used to try to learn all the scientific names and stuff, until I realized how often they change, and then I stopped. But this is interesting!

Originally Posted by albertagirl

So house snakes are no longer a colubrid? Whaaaaaaat? I used to try to learn all the scientific names and stuff, until I realized how often they change, and then I stopped. But this is interesting!

I think it is very interesting. Yep, they have their own branch, the Lamprophiidae. There are some very interesting things in the Lamprophiidae well. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamprophiidae. I read there are 290 species in Lamprophiidae. And while they are no longer colubrids they are colubroids, but so are vipers, elapids and colubrids so go figure, lol.

To us they are Clyde and Eve. <3