Summer means they're all home! Looky at all our snakes

[LauRuffian]

It's summer, which means all the classroom pets are living in the house with us for the next two months. We've gone from one snake in the house to seven--plus a dozen incubating eggs.

The cages aren't settled (heat lamps aren't plugged in and the like), so please pardon the mess, but I was eager to share our herp family with you all.

First, we have amel motley Dr. Zaius, AKA Dr. Z, baby daddy to this and last year's clutches. We bought him a year ago as an adult, so his age is unknown. He has a cataract in one eye, so I'm assuming he's over 10 but obviously could be wrong.

Here is Cleopatra, AKA Cleo, the classic baby mama. (Her coloring is dull as she's just about to have her postnatal shed.) She turns 12 on the 25th of this month--yup, I know her actual hatch date.

This is a lousy pic as he really is a pretty boy, but this is classic (het-amel, het-motley) Zoltan (ahem--"Zoltan Zeus Phineas Ernesto"), the itty bitty runt from last year's breeding. He continues to grow well but remains half the size of his same-age siblings. He originally was just going to be a yearlong classroom study, but hubby has grown attached. Heh.

And here is amel (het-motley) Gru, the other yearlong classroom study specimen. We'll likely sell him rather than keep, though. I actually have a fellow teacher friend who wants him. He's much bigger than this photo suggests.

Finally, here is amel (het-motley) Izzy, the baby from last year that our 8yro son chose as his very first pet. I think she's really turning out lovely. She is and always has been the sweetest thing.

Our other two snakes are ball pythons. If it's okay to share non-corns, I will in a later post.

 

[Jordanmurphy10]

Nice snakes! what ball pythons have you got?

 

[LauRuffian]

Thank you! Our ball pythons are nothing fancy, just nice snakes.

Here is Seymour, who will be 11 in June:

And here is Mr. Cuddles (who, upon inspection of the spurs, I think is actually Miss Cuddles[/i]):

Cuddles was actually inherited last year from a retiring science teacher, so we don't know much about her/him. We're concerned because s/he keeps refusing food (typical ball, eh?). S/he looks a little saggy in this pic, huh. Now that s/he's home, I'm going to see what I can do to encourage feeding. We've tried offering a better hide, mice, rats, prekills...no dice. Sometimes acts very interested, but never strikes and eats.

Seymour (who I know well as I've had him since he was 6mos old) had a period like that when I went out on maternity leave unexpectedly early and the first few subs had little classroom control. The kiddos were dropping things in his cage and that sort of thing (Cleo, too, but she's much more resilient). Hubby brought him home but it still took 6mos to get him eating again--in that case, he needed a much tighter hide than the wood arch thingys the corns are so happy with. I'm wondering if Cuddles might be located somewhere in the classroom that is too active and disruptive for their tastes. S/he was raised in a classroom setting, but not in the same cage or location.

 

[Jordanmurphy10]

Nice! I'm sure he/she will eat soon, I've heard a lot of ball pythons do that haha, I like the white pied ones

 

[LauRuffian]

I love the pied ones! Just gorgeous.

Cleo shed just hours after I took that pictures, so I thought I'd show her true colors:

Better picture of runty 8mo old baby Zoltan:

Gru again:

Gru and Mama greet each other safely through glass: