recent pics

[jitami]

Love the obscurus! Way to snag 'em Shannon

[thamneil]

Shannon and garter snakes? YAY!

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

Shannon and garter snakes? YAY!

I've got a nice little eastern blackneck named Buttercup too. I'm currently at 58 snakes, only one tham

[snake man]

Nice looking crew.

[jitami]

I've got a nice little eastern blackneck named Buttercup too. I'm currently at 58 snakes, only one tham

Oh, this makes me sad... glad you're taking steps to rectify that!

[snake man]

58! wow what type!

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

58! wow what type!

Well 58 is nothing! at my peak I had over 150 adult thamnophis of just about every subspecies native to this country.

Pregnancies and some other family issues caused me to cut back, and then when I found out I was pregnant with my daughter I decided to cut back to pretty much no thamnophis because they are too demanding, time wise.

I had about 80 animals of varying species, my favorite being a pair of eastern indigos and also a group of flying tree snakes.

In very late may of this year, a thermostat in my snakeroom malfunctioned and simply allowed the heat to stay ON. The result was that about 3/4, maybe a little more, of my collection was killed. I lost animals that can never be replaced, from My first EVER snake, to my indigos, all my flying snakes, my high end morelia, and so, so much more. All of the stuff I had worked so hard for was GONE.

Thanks to some wonderful people, I was able to acquire several species I was sure would take me a long time to acquire once more.

I currently keep many different species, mostly oddball colubrids, too many to list but you can view each animal in my collection here:

iHerp : Online Reptile Software, Husbandry, Community, Tracking, Breeding, Snakes, and More!

And That is the very short story of why today, I only have one single garter snake.... but soon to be FOUR when I get my awesome three serpents from Joe!

[ProXimuS]

I'm so sorry to hear about all your losses Your existing collection is pretty amazing I have GOT to ask you about your sunbeam snake, and the indigos. I've heard the sunbeam snakes just like to stay buried most the time and don't like to be handled. And for the indigos I've heard they are hard/expenisve to take care of and very messy(cage needing to be cleaned numerous times a week?). Can you attest this is true? It's just stuff I've read about them because I really like them both

[guidofatherof5]

Sorry to hear about your loss.

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

I'm so sorry to hear about all your losses Your existing collection is pretty amazing I have GOT to ask you about your sunbeam snake, and the indigos. I've heard the sunbeam snakes just like to stay buried most the time and don't like to be handled. And for the indigos I've heard they are hard/expenisve to take care of and very messy(cage needing to be cleaned numerous times a week?). Can you attest this is true? It's just stuff I've read about them because I really like them both

Well, in regard to the sunbeam, I have had that animal for about 5 years now, maybe closer to 6. She has always been a doll for me but this is not typical of sunbeams. Many of them die for various reasons, sickly imports, improper care, unwilling to feed due to stress..... the list goes on. A lot of people kill sunbeams when they learn that they need extremely high humidity and what do they do? They stick them into damp bedding. This will cause a nasty white "crust" on their scales that quickly kills sunbeams. If people would learn that high humidity is how saturated the AIR is with water, (meaning it's got nothing to do with damp substrate) then they wouldn't kill nearly as many animals.

My sunbeam eats all of the time, she eats great... and she doesn't spaz out when handled like they have a reputation for doing. in fact she doesn't give the slightest crap about it but again, this isn't really the norm. She does spend pretty much her entire life under her oversized water dish and is quite happy that way. As a pet... if you like pet holes, get one, but don't have high hopes as these animals are not captive bred and imports can be very difficult.

As for the Drymarchon.... well what can I say? They really are the royalty when it comes to snakes. Picture all the personality and intelligence of a garter snake, and MORE, in a rather large snake. That is what you get with drymarchon. They are much like giant garter snakes, they eat a LOT, they poop a LOT, their poop is smelly of course and they grow FAST. But their personality, unmatched. THe price you pay? Worth every penny. My husband and I Definitely plan on dropping a few grand on indigos when we are settled in. Thanks to a good friend who breeds cribos, I do have an AWESOME pair of blacktailed cribos and a yellowtail male ( a female fell through this year but she will come next clutch), and cribos and indigos are all one in the same, just different species and paint jobs really. The eastern indigo was my dream species and I'll never forget the day we brought ours home. To have lost my precious babies only a few months after that to such a horrible accident.... needless to say, it has affected me, permanently. You will need to spot clean any drymarchon's cage often. I look forward to my blacktails growing, I have only had them for about 5 weeks now and they have over doubled in size already. But really, most of my snakes are like that. All of my beauty snakes, my king rats, my whip snakes, all poop machines. I don't really mind it. I use poopy pick up bags to spot clean their piles and then regularly change the substrate.