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A teensy update on the "free" BPs and ManRay

Floof

New member
So, a lot is going on in my own little reptile world this week, and I felt like sharing some of it with everyone. So now you get to listen! (Don't worry, I'll include some pictures!)

As some of you know, I was given two ball pythons through the month of June.
To start, I can't BELIEVE their poop! Ed pooped for me.. On the 3rd, I think? And then Hobbs decided to give me his first poop that wasn't just completely urates yesterday--and I'm stunned! The stuff is as solid and turd-shaped as the dogs' poop! Please, if this is normal--bear with me, because my boas' and corn snakes' poops look NOTHING like it! Lol!

Ed and Hobbs will soon be neighbors, as well. I decided to hold out and wait to find/make taller enclosures for the Jekyll and Osiris, so Ed and Hobbs will be getting the two-level enclosure I had purchased for the boas--actually, the one that Ed had come with as a "freebie".

Moving on, I'm absolutely thrilled with their eating habits. My biggest fear with these two was whether they would eat and be consistent for me... It drives me nuts when a snake refuses a meal, and the last thing I want is a snake that's going to refuse meals on a regular basis...

Well, Hobbs has been eating GREAT. Once a week on rats ranging from 40 grams to 120 grams, with no refusals yet... Although he does seem to be a bit picky on one point: the rat HAS to be set down on the floor underneath his nose. But I think that may have more to do with his stuck eyecaps than it does with his feeding habits.

As for Ed... I thawed out a weanling mouse late last night/early this morning. After a bit of work to get his attention, he very enthusiastically took it! He seems to be a bit of a shy eater, though--I had to turn off all the lights for a few minutes because he was more concerned with what I was doing. =P

I didn't think to snap pictures when Ed constricted his mouse, but here's one of Hobbs:
Hobbs_Feeding_1.jpg


Anyway, you may remember Man Ray, my little rescue dragon. He hasn't been eating too well, so he's going in for another vet visit this month... If anyone has thoughts on this, I'm welcome to opinions, but this isn't about his feeding issues...

Man Ray has been living in a 20L since before we got him in January. Last week, I had the... "joyous"... task of cleaning two 75 gallon aquariums and their screens out on the driveway.. Once we had them inside, I sat down and thought over my plans for them, and decided Man Ray deserved an upgrade!

Apparently I don't have any pictures of his old enclosure on hand (and taking them now would be useless with all the furniture/lighting taken out/off), so I only have an "After" picture for you... And it's not even accurate. Placement of the basking rock and the log hide have been changed, with the log in the basking corner and the rock at the other "foot" of the climbing structure:
ManRay_75gal_1.jpg


Man Ray isn't happy about his move. He says his tank is big, and he doesn't like it. He also doesn't like that it's so quiet now... His 20L was in the living room--exposed, constantly, to the ruckus of the house, ranging from the TV to my screaming brother and the barking dogs. He is now on the floor of my bedroom... No TV unless I'm playing Nintendo (not often), no brother, and I have a policy of sending/taking any barking dogs upstairs to go to the bathroom and/or be fed. All he gets is typing, distant squeaking of mouse wheels, and any music I happen to have on (which has been lots in the last two days, for the sake of drowning out fireworks). A dog will occasionally hang out beside his tank, but it's in the least trafficked portion of the room. I'm still debating whether it's the lack of noise or just the sudden spaciousness of his new home, but this is what I found after leaving the room for 20 minutes or so the afternoon after his move:
ManRay_Hiding_1.jpg


After pulling him out:
ManRay_BlackBeard_1.jpg


Sitting in my lap for a while calmed him a bit...
ManRay_BlackBeard_2.jpg

ManRay_Greybeard_1.jpg


It's a bit startling (almost a wake up call) to find out that he relies on the interaction he gets from constant commotion; even more so that he values my presence. It looks like he'll be getting a lot more handling time now, and I'll be listening to a lot more music... I've tried convincing my mom to let me pull the doors off the armoire behind him (it's not like I can open it with his tank there!) so I can put my TV (and more enclosures) there and he can get a bit of visual stimuli from it, but she won't go for it. =(

So, yes. That's what's up lately with those three.

As for everyone else... [see next post]
 
As for everyone else...

The corn eggs are taking their sweet time to pip. Lucy's clutch seems to have gone bad (aka, they were JUST pretty slugs), but she's in blue again--whether that means she wants to double clutch or she just grew a lot in the last 2 months remains to be seen. China, the Kenyan Sand Boa, has FINALLY moved up to fuzzy mice, and I'm very close to convincing my best friend she needs a KSB (she LOVES China). Both of the BCIs are both doing well--Osiris will soon be inhabiting the second 75 gallon, and Jekyll will be upgraded to Hobbs's 40B... Oh, and Osiris is now 3 ft and around 2 pounds! She was 2.5 ft and about 1.5 lbs when I got her in March... =)

China, my proud little fuzzy muncher:
China_5.jpg


Osiris, recently shed:
2009-06-30OsirisLightPhaseCrappy-30.jpg

2009-06-30OsirisLightPhaseCrappy-28.jpg

2009-06-30OsirisLightPhaseCrappy-26.jpg


Slightly old images of Jekyll... He shed recently, so he's due for another photoshoot:
Jekyll_20.jpg

Jekyll_Headshot_1.jpg

Jekyll_19.jpg


I'll get pics of Lucy after she sheds. Also, I managed to track down my camera's spare battery and charger, so I'll have some good pictures of Ed up once I have them cropped/resized. =)
 
Ed!

Hey, cool, I managed to get Ed's pictures edited in under an hour! "He" weighs in at around 1150 grams, and is probably 3 ft (couldn't find the measuring tape)...

He's such a shiny snake!
Ed_2.jpg

Ed_Headshot_3.jpg

Ed_Scales_1.jpg


I don't have any blue bowls... But I do have a blue towel!
Ed_3.jpg

Ed_4.jpg

Ed_5.jpg

Ed_6.jpg


And a red plaid basket! =D
Ed_9.jpg


The best "size reference" I could get was my hand...
Ed_7.jpg

Ed_8.jpg


More pics in the next post!
 
Ed! Part II

I wish I had thought ahead and put a DUW in the title. I didn't realize I had THIS many pictures to post! :awcrap:

Okay. These ones were kinda fun. While I was taking the "blue towel" pictures, I noticed my older brother's sparkly red Flying V...
Ed_GeeTar_1.jpg

Ed_GeeTar_2.jpg

Ed_GeeTar_3.jpg

Ed_GeeTar_4.jpg

Ed_GeeTar_5.jpg

Ed_Rar.jpg


Okay, I think I've loaded this thing with PLENTY of imagery... Hope you all enjoy! =3
 
Awsome, awsome pics!
Great thread too.

I dont know much about the sand boas, is there a good site to go to to learn about them?
 
Only one thing that bothered me... for MOST UVA/UVB lights, the beardie needs to get within 12 inches or so of them to be effective, so you may want to pick up a higher perch for him. If that is not the case for your particular light, my apologies. :) Your animals are lovely. What morph is Osiris? I love the name by the way!

The last All MD show we went to, we bought Antonio, a het albino '05 male to go with Anne, our '07 albino female. This old guy saw us standing in line at MaxPets with a snake bag and leered "Whatcha got in the bag?" (I say leered because he was hella creepy and had no teeth...) My sister said "A ball python," to which he replied "Good luck getting that g** damn thing to eat!" And stomped off, like it was personally offensive to him. Ha!

*knock on wood* Antonio is one of our BEST feeders. My kingsnake is more inclined to refuse food than Tony. Anne, his mate, can be a bit picky, but it is usually a matter of waiting til she is ready. Our other two BP's are good feeders as well. Perhaps it is a matter of making sure all of their environmental conditions are satisfied. We keep heat lamps on our BP's that aren't in the environmentally controlled cages, to keep the ambient day time heat up. Maybe that helps?
 
Thanks, everyone!

Jdarlin, I just googled it and read various caresheets... Plus some care info supplied by CS.com members, since I originally discovered KSBs here... They don't get big (as usual, size depends on sex), they're mainly burrowers so you may as well give them a low cage (China is doing great in the largest sized Faunarium) and a bedding they can burrow in--a couple inches of aspen works well. They require a hot spot temp of.. I think 90-95*F? I keep mine at around 92*F--again, she's doing great with that. They're awesome snakes! Don't expect to see it out much if you get one, though--they spend all their time burrowing. =)

Thanks for the tip, Lauren! I wasn't sure about that, and the height of the 75 actually had me a bit nervous. I'd heard they need to be as close as 6 inches, but having him that close to the top would make me nervous, between the questionable condition of his bones and my habit of just leaving the top off. I'm already planning on picking up some sculptey clay today to make a new basking perch for him, so I'll just make sure to make an extra tall one. =)

Osiris is an Anery.. My favorite morph, lol!

The ambient temps probably do help. If, for some unforeseen reason, Hobbs has to stay in his 40B, I'd probably leave his heating "apparatus" as it is--a night bulb on top and a small heat pad stuck to the side--simply because he's doing so well.

I was a little bit surprised Ed took his mouse so readily, actually. He isn't in a "real" enclosure yet, but is instead hanging out in a spare, unheated 10 gal until I get his enclosure scrubbed out. It's terrible, I know. I've had my bedroom heater cranked to keep his tank in the 80s all week. I almost didn't feed him because of it, but I wanted to see if he WOULD eat--just get that suspense over with--so I compromised by giving him an extra small meal (weanling mouse) instead of something larger like a small rat. =P
 
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