Really Exciting Snakes!

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

Thanks to Mr. Joe Peck a very special box arrived yesterday. I've been feeling much better, I can move around some now and was able to change some water bowls, and I even dragged a chair and table into my snakeroom so that I could sit comfortably and feed my younger garters. The only issue I ran into was that one of my natrix tesselata made a magical flying leap and managed to make the trash can. Meaning I had to dig through a 50 gallon trash barrel (it wasnt very full thankfully) to find one little snake... who of course made his way to the bottom of it. boy was I MAD! I also stepped out onto the front porch to take these photos of the snakes! It's very hot and sunny here... so last evening was good for picture taking as the sun was going down. The three new babies each ate a whole pinky head (cut in halves) and two worm pieces immediately. They are so calm too, perfect little angel snakes!

male Flame... because I am low male:

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Snakes/Garters/P1120326.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Snakes/Garters/P1120330.jpg

male Snow (dirty snow, that is)
you know these guys have the creepiest eyes... black pupils with a glowing red iris. He looks so sinister... I still think these things are pretty ugly, but he's got great potential as far as breeding goes and he's growing on me more and more!

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Snakes/Garters/P1120371.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Snakes/Garters/P1120382.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Snakes/Garters/P1120385.jpg

IM IN UR SHRUBS, FILLING IT WIF EBILS.
http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Snakes/Garters/P1120386.jpg

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

Next is a female schuett albino... this snake is fantastic looking. Joe, you picked a real winner here. Her spots and eyes are really dark, and then her body is super bright. The contrast is amazing! She has nice orange on her sides too.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Snakes/Garters/P1120340.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Snakes/Garters/P1120347.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Snakes/Garters/P1120350.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Snakes/Garters/P1120351.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Snakes/Garters/P1120363.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Snakes/Garters/P1120360.jpg

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Snakes/Garters/P1120364.jpg

Next is an absolute knockout, snake-of-my-dreams...(heck I traded 3 snakes for her) Female flame 100% het albino.... this girl is a small adult and as long as Mr. Albino flame keeps growing the way he is now, he and she are going to make some seriously sickening babies next season!

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Snakes/Garters/P1120387.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Snakes/Garters/P1120390.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Snakes/Garters/P1120393.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Snakes/Garters/P1120395.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Snakes/Garters/P1120396.jpg

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Snakes/Garters/P1120398.jpg

And heres the male Albino Flame I got from Tom.... He LOVES worms and fish but I'll be damned if I can get him to eat a pinky. I slather it in worm guts, salamander slime, tadpole slime, fish slime, he doesn't care he still knows the difference! His sister (66% poss het) is already eating pinkies.He's stubborn but I WILL crack him! For now he gets something to eat every other day and is growing very well on that.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Snakes/Garters/P1120411.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Snakes/Garters/P1120416.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Snakes/Garters/P1120421.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Snakes/Garters/P1120423.jpg

And here's some pictures I took a while ago but didn't really post:

Gravid Eastern Blackneck
http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Snakes/Garters/P1120226.jpg

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

axanthic plains-possibly gravid. Saw my males courting her hard this year.
http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Snakes/Garters/P1120230.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Snakes/Garters/P1120232.jpg

male striped keelback... my pair is VERY fat and healthy... and they chase my hand like dogs! These snakes are seriously underrated.
http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Snakes/Garters/P1120400.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Snakes/Garters/P1120401.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Snakes/Garters/P1120402.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Snakes/Garters/P1120404.jpg

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

female similis... growing fast!
http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Snakes/Garters/P1120440.jpg


male similis
http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Snakes/Garters/P1120444.jpg

Holdback FL banded water snake time....

female cherry, not related to mine so she's much darker, there is no hypo influence
http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Snakes/Garters/P1120252.jpg

male hypo
http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Snakes/Garters/P1120248.jpg

male hypo cherry
http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Snakes/Garters/P1120245.jpg

female hypo cherry
http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Snakes/Garters/P1120243.jpg

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

female patternless hypo cherry
http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Snakes/Garters/P1120242.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Snakes/Garters/P1120237.jpg

Their mother who is now 33 inches long...
http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Snakes/Garters/P1120426.jpg

and mother with her year-old daughter
http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Snakes/Garters/P1120439.jpg

thats it for today.... thanks guys!

[infernalis]

As always Shannon, your photography is so impressive ;)

and those snakes, breathtaking.

Thanks for sharing with us.

[Stefan-A]

Very nice.

[Hollis_Steed]

Always enjoy getting to know the snakes of others. Thanks for sharing!

[charles parenteau]

What a great thread Shannon very nice pictures!!!Your flames are awesome...

[BUSHSNAKE]

the Schuett albino is also het melanistic

[guidofatherof5]

Great looking group of snakes. It was nice seeing the adult water snake. Lets me know what I have to look forward to in the future.

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

Great looking group of snakes. It was nice seeing the adult water snake. Lets me know what I have to look forward to in the future.

haha...they are SO much fun! I love her to pieces. I love how when I open her cage, She crawls up the vertically hinged door, and sits there stretched all the way up the glass waiting for a cookie (a silverside, i call them cookies because even if she eats 10 it doesn't put a dent in her) She never fails to do that! But you have to watch your hands... they get so overly eager to eat, she starts snapping at anything that moves and their bites HURT when they are this big!!! I also love how they get really heavy. She feels like a brick when you pick her up. She eats either two large bluegill, or two adult mice and a small bluegill in a sitting. I split the big bluegills in half horizontally to make feeding faster.

[drache]

fantastic snakes and great photos, Shannon
is the male keelback the one from me?
if so, he's looking good indeed

[redspot]

Very nice snakes, those keelbacks are pretty cool, Don't they have a pretty good bite?

[ConcinusMan]

SHOW OFF! gawd, I think I'm going to throw up due to envy.

Now take a look at that axanthic plains. See why I think our "anery" concinnus are actually axanthic? I really think they are axanthic and that the xanthosphores, or whatever they are called, in the orange to red spectrum are what is affected.

Absolutely fantastic photography shannon! Marry me?:p

[oki-inu]

Beautiful snakes!

Do you cut the dorsal spines off the bluegill? Just curious, I know they eat fish in the wild spines and all.

[ssssnakeluvr]

Nice snakes and photos as usual!

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

SHOW OFF! gawd, I think I'm going to throw up due to envy.

Now take a look at that axanthic plains. See why I think our "anery" concinnus are actually axanthic? I really think they are axanthic and that the xanthosphores, or whatever they are called, in the orange to red spectrum are what is affected.

Absolutely fantastic photography shannon! Marry me?:p

Haha, I think my boyfriend (1.0 long-term captive) might object to that :D

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

Beautiful snakes!

Do you cut the dorsal spines off the bluegill? Just curious, I know they eat fish in the wild spines and all.

Nope, I just thaw them out, cut them down the middle if they're too big, or hand them to the snake whole, making sure that they grab it the right way so that the spines will lay flat.

[ConcinusMan]

Or you could just cut the spiny fins off? I dunno, I just wouldn't be confortable with feeding them blue gill like that. I guess it's the protective father in me. I've seen snakes dang near choke to death on less dangerous stuff. I mean, what if the snake decides it needs to regurgitate:eek:

[Snaky]

Some very beautiful snakes and great pictures, Shannon! :D

[Nir]

Very nice snakes!! I especially love the flames and the black neck!

We need more pics!

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

Or you could just cut the spiny fins off? I dunno, I just wouldn't be confortable with feeding them blue gill like that. I guess it's the protective father in me. I've seen snakes dang near choke to death on less dangerous stuff. I mean, what if the snake decides it needs to regurgitate:eek:

I've never had a snake dang near choke on anything, lol! I don't find it at all necessary. If a snake wants to spit it up he won't have any problems, because everything is covered in so much slime that it comes right out as smooth as it went in. Sometimed my big female water snake will swallow something, start pushing it down, and then decide she didn't like how she swallowed it the first time, spits it back up and eats it again the exact same way she just swallowed it. She does this with both mice and fish.... she's a weird one! The Spines are fixated downward anyways from the fish being frozen. I have had wild snakes throw up whole bluegills on me before... they don't have any problems. I am much more concerned about substrate ingestion than I am the naturally occurring spines on fish!

[ConcinusMan]

"Sometimed my big female water snake will swallow something, start pushing it down, and then decide she didn't like how she swallowed it the first time, spits it back up..."

And that's right about when that spiny fin pokes out right through the neck, right? I mean, it goes one way just fine, but not the other way.

I'm sorry, but I'll pass on the whole bluegill. Way too many other good sources of food to be dealing with that mess. The times I was talking about snakes dang near choking to death was when they decided they wanted to reverse gears. fins tend to not go both ways and that's where the choking commences.

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

And that's right about when that spiny fin pokes out right through the neck, right? I mean, it goes one way just fine, but not the other way.



No, it doesn't happen like that. There is too much slime involved. The fins stay flat, they are covered in lubricant and they are stiffened in the down position from being frozen. It DOES go the other way just fine... I am not saying that I think it will I am saying I know it does. I've fed my snakes a LOT of bluegill.

[Nir]

I found a northern watersnake with a spine probably from a catfish poking through its side... The snake looked fine and the injury looked old, like the snake had healed.... I am guessing the spine will eventually just drop... It was fascinating!! hehe

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

Catfish spines are brutal... they actually sting with them and they are very large and sharp! They also tend to stick to whatever they've been stuck through, I always have to remind other workers at my store not to use nets with catfish... they stick out their spines in fear and become stuck in the net... permanently! It kills them :(

[Nir]

Catfish spines are brutal... they actually sting with them and they are very large and sharp! They also tend to stick to whatever they've been stuck through, I always have to remind other workers at my store not to use nets with catfish... they stick out their spines in fear and become stuck in the net... permanently! It kills them :(


Oh yes!!! Anyone who has had to empty a Pimelodus sp quarantine tank knows what your takin about!! hehe I used to work in a petstore too!

[Jeff B]

Very nice photos, don't know how you manage to get them to hold still on flowers....sedation, refrigeration, lol?. We have those pretty blue/purple clematis blooming in the front yard now too,(that is a great contrast for the flame too) but I'm affraid taking pics might attract way to much attention with the neighbors.

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

Thanks Jeff! it's so sad that some people can't fully enjoy their snakes because of neighbors...my neighbors have all been in the snakeroom, they think it's cool! I actually don't do anything to the snakes prior to taking them out for photos, I just grab one and walk out the front door! The babies I got from Joe were pushovers... they are so calm... I could just set them on a flower and they would sit still, or skillfully start climbing around them without panicking. Some snakes, like the keelback and my Natrix are a pain to take pictures of, because I'll finally get them in a position I like... and then I raise the camera to photograph them and that movement alone spooks them all over! If you just keep playing with them, eventually snakes will stop trying to move around for a second and will sit perfectly still and take everything in. That's when I click away! And then change positions and wait for the snake to hold again.

[ConcinusMan]

I've had a very hard time getting even my tamest concinnus to sit still for photos outside. They just want to go, go, go, like freakin' speedy gonzales. The only reason I got photo's of Big Bertha out on the lawn is that I wore her out for half an hour before she decided she had better rest for a minute.

Took me an hour and many photo's to get that winning photo for the March photo contest. That was your female anery BTW, shannon.