Happy Pre-Labor Day!!

I understand a lot of people are going out of town.

Be safe!!!

It is a great thing to have a vacation.

I cannot say anything wrong with it other than now my banner printer and so forth are also taking the day off on Monday and are cutting my time pretty short for getting things ready for the show in a week.

ARGH!!!

I shouldn't complain. I waited til the last minute, kinda... Logo making, banner making, shirt making, etc. Things are not done, but it'll be alright!

We will make it work. I'm not too concerned.

(Random normal snake photo insertion to break up the tirade.. WOOHOOO)


Anyway, poss het clowns are mostly out. It has been a weird clutch. One comes out a week early and dies half out of the egg... Four others are now out at the gloriously sucky odds of 3.1, and the last one had half of itself out this morning, but would not come out. Lets hope for a girl... PLEASE.

I also have a clutch of pastels and a clutch of SOMETHING else (Mystery males) that should be hatching next week.


Come on, Luck... really... please....



Pretty please... with sugar and cherries and whipped cream on top.

Pippage...

WOOOT

There is pippage afoot!!

Poss Het Clowns from the clutch that had the early pipper.

"BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"


"What do you want????"


"FREEEDOM!!!!!"


"Wait, what's going on???"


I need a good sex ratio on these.. COME ON FEMALES!!!

Health is important!!!

Today is a day I get to enjoy at home, somewhat.

I didn't go into work today so that I could enjoy the benefits of being scraped, poked, prodded, asked how I feel, etc.

Health is important!!!

Get your checkups!!

Clean those teeth!!!

And now, in between appointments, I can sit here and reminisce with you all.

Hooray!!!


Today, since I have time, I will try and take more photos of stuff. To be honest, I wonder when all of the photos of the same stuff start getting tedious. You guys let me know, okay?

Today is going back in time day... These are all photos I took a LONG time ago. How long, you ask? I have NO idea. At least a year or so ago.

Here are eye caps... Why did I take this pic? Just for Shits and Giggles..



One of my favorite old shots of my Spider male.. He is a clown (but not really.. He's a spider)



And my albino male hamming it up as well..

Summer is winding down, but why is it still so hot??

So here in So Cal, it is still toasty. Yesterday it was like a sweat lodge cleaning in the snake room. And yet I did it. And so did the Joel.

I don't run air conditioning in the room, as it seems pointless. The snakes are supposed to be warm, so why run air conditioning in the room??? The Joel couldn't quite grasp why WE as humans had to suffer, but that is alright. The deed is done.

The ants have also been vanquished. Sneaky bastards. They invade EVERYTHING. They were after the water in the water dishes, as it is very dry where I live.

I was actually afraid to spray any chemicals in the room in fear of health issues for the animals, so I had to spray a bit on a paper towel and wipe each part down.

Note to self: Wear gloves so as to not get bit as much by roving ants.

My hands are still stinging.



Anyway, I pulled up this photo because I don't like it. Why you ask? Well, can YOU tell what morph it is??? I think to the casual observer, they would not be able to.

It is a Mojave. One of my 07' females, and a beautiful example of the morph in PERSON. Not in photos. I have yet to be able to capture her essence in photography. Maybe my skills are lacking? Probably... Anyway, enjoy.

All I can do is sigh

Well, its Monday.

I am alive and well, and I hope you all out there are as well.

Seize the day, etc etc etc..

With coffee in hand, I will recount the past several days.

I had the poss het clown clutch pip one egg on Friday, suprisingly. And I left it in there. Saturday morning, it had passed on. Why?? I have no idea. It looked like it may have pipped prematurely, and I'm not sure exactly why. Everyone else in the clutch is still enjoying the comfort of the egg.

.... yeah.

Saturday and Sunday were uneventful. I'm having an ant issue in the snake room at the moment, and that has not been fun. Those suckers BITE.

Today after work, I am going to be their worst nightmare.

Anyway, today is Yellowbelly day. Why? Cause someone I know got lucky enough to hatch out some nice ones, and I felt it was appropriate. Congrats, you know who you are.

This is my Yellowbelly female, hatched out this year 08', and will be a great addition to the ivory, pastel combos, etc projects when she is old enough. YEAH. (Ivories are so cool...)

Freeeeeedom on Friiiiday!!!

It's Friday... WHEEW!

I am so glad for the weekend again. I feel like this week has been flying by, but I still haven't had time to relax. Its one of those things where I've been running around for so long, I can't wait to take a break. AND SLEEP IN!

Ahhhhhh....

Excitement!!!

I think there may be some egg related news soon, as the due dates on some are pretty close to approaching.

As for me and the Joel, thank you all for being so supportive and concerned. We are getting on our way to fixing things and solving the little things in our respective vehicles.

Onward Ho!

For the last photo of the week, I wanted to make it something most everyone loves.. Here they are, the PIEDS.

This is the 06' Father Pied with his 08' daughter Pied hatched out here. They are absolutely gorgeous, and I am so proud of having them.



Have a great weekend folks.. I know I'm gunna.

Its is a Happy Day!!!

Tis my friend Pattycake's birthday!!!

Happy Birthday, buddy!

In honor of his birthday, today is Spider day in the week long photo session.

This is a 07' female Spider that I got from a friend with an 08' Spider that I hatched out.



The baby was in shed, but that's okay... Still gives you an idea. I believe the female is at least 500 grams, while the baby is at 70 grams.

YAY SPIDERS!!!

Awesome animals, with an interesting quirk, but still loveable and great animals!!

For those who want to know, yes, I do have wobblers in the collection. Wobbling, for those who don't know, are an interesting tick in the Spider gene that makes the animal bounce its head involuntarily, as well as flip around with its head sideways or even upsidedown. In my collection, it is sporadic, and is actually only two of the spiders I own and is minor, but it is there.

My non-spinning spider male has thrown spinners, and those that don't. I have been watching things very closely to see if any spinning or wobbling develops, but so far, not too bad! I've seen Spiders that have it bad, and lucky for me, I have yet to own one.

I'm curious to see when the Bumblebees hatch if there are any spinners or wobblers in there...

Much love, enjoy the photos, and have a great day!!!

Why do I freak out so much???

I absolutely freak out shipping animals.

Because it is all out of my control, there are so many things that could possibly go wrong... And it drives me NUTS!!

And of course it doesn't help that Fedex has messed with me countless times.

But I shipped out several packages to arrive today, and I am pretty sure everyone arrived okay. I've heard from one person (THANK YOU) and the others will hopefully be letting me know soon too.

Still holding my breath, but no news is good news, right???


Anyway, let us continue in our week long photo session:

This is a 07' female Black Pastel I hatched out, and an 08' that I also hatched out (unrelated).



The 08' is a half sibling to the abberant Black Pastel female Chipo. I'm hoping to do the pairing again next year and see if it is genetic or just a fluke.. (crossing all fingers)

I love Black Pastels. They are just to variable and such a great morph. Too bad the odd gods were making fun of me. This female is the last of the year for me.. Meh.

Well... Hmmmmmm

So... yesterday I had to go valiantly rescue the Joel from the Barnes and Noble parking lot, as when he was studying, someone stole his Catalytic Converter from right under his truck.

I'm just so disappointed in people some times..

So we have to get it replaced, and some shipments didn't get out last night cause of it.

I'm sorry.

So things were not as cheery and happy over here as one may have anticipated! My car gets in an accident, his car gets cased, and now... we are here.

Things that don't kill you make you stronger, right??



Anyway, back to snake stuff!!

The theme for the week is: "What a difference a year makes"

Pastel female 07' with 08' female (Graziani and Lemon Lines respectively)



I LOVE PASTELS.. They are great and do so many wonderful things with combos.

For those of you who are wondering, I work with Graziani, Lemon and Bell Lines of Pastels. And, in my opinion, all of them are great, and you can make excellent examples of the morph if you just breed selectively!!! Choose your females wisely, and your whole collection will be that much better in colors..

Yeah!!!

More to come!

(PROPS TO THE SUTHERLANDS FOR MAKING THE TRI-STRIPE BALL PYTHON... Ohhh man. I am so in love... Tri-Stripe Ball Python)

Contentment

So this past weekend was actually a good weekend that started off bad.

Friday night, I get out of work and am glad for the weekend! Woohooo....

Driving home from work, BAM!!!!! Car runs into me.

Damage, not too bad... But seemed to be one of those times where things start out crappy. Call insurance, try to not think about it, and move on. Thank goodness we were both okay!

Watch Tropic Thunder. Not the greatest movie. Has a lot of laughs, but man, is it over the top!!! Do not take your children to see this movie! If you are easily offended or grossed out, also do not see it!

Saturday rolls along. Feeding day, cleaning day, relaxing day. Later in the evening, we go over to hang out with friends. See some snakes, kick back... stay up way late, and enjoyed every minute of it.

Sunday! My friends Rashad and Armita come over to check things out! In their honor, I took some pics after they left of some of the things I showed them...

I kinda have a photo theme idea for the rest of the week as well, thanks to them.

Anyway, here it is...

HOW TO MAKE A PEWTER:



And the beginnings of the theme for the week: "What a difference a year makes"



I had a lot of fun hanging out with all my friends this weekend, and had to recover by napping after everything was over.

Gotta love it.

Stripey goodness

Here he is!!!


This is "He who has yet to be named Genetic Stripe Male"

He was a necessary pick up, as for some reason and some how, I have ended up with six possible het females that I have been growing up. I have a het male, yes, but with poss hets, I'd rather go with a visual to at least make 100% hets if they don't prove out.

It was also VERY DIFFICULT to find a perfect stripe male... I was suprised at this, but it took me a long time to find this guy. Hopefully he throws perfect stripes too. (I have seen a lot of broken stripes and so forth... really takes away from the morph in my opinion)




Having him now has completed the circle for that project, although I am debating as to what to do long term with him and his progeny. I like him!!!

I have to admit that G-Stripes are not the most impressive of animals, but I think the combo potential is awesome!! Looking forward to playing with it.

09' Babayyy! The year of the G-Stripe at Heather's Herps. Lets all cross all of our digits.

EXCITEMENT!!!!!!!

SO!

Things are going well...

I actually have honest to goodness updates from the snake room!



Hatchings!





WOOOOT!!!!


This was a weird clutch, that I didn't anticipate having the results that I did....

2.2 Normals
1.0 Spider
0.1 Pastel

Now... This Normal female was put in with a group of different males, and I honestly barely remember putting in the pastel male, but here we are. She was mostly with the Enchi male, but to no avail!!!

I was hoping that maybe my eyes were deceiveing me, but alas, I do believe our girl is just a pastel, not the infamous Enchi that I am looking for.

And the Spider male is really nice looking! I am very happy with him. He's going to make someone a good breeder some day. NO SPOTS!! YEAH!

AND, we have a newcomer arriving today, so tommorow will be the great unveiling!

(Are you on the edge of your seat yet????)

The excitement should wear off soon, but for now, I'm stoked!

Hummmmp Day!!

It is hump day, and I have suceeded!!!

I am now able to share with you some new photos of snakes.

Hooray!!!

Today, I've decided that it will be Axanthic day.

I work with the TSK (The SnakeKeeper) line of Axanthics exclusively for now. The reason being that I have an albino that was produced by TSK that is possible het for Axanthic. Now, this was not something I knew until AFTER the purchase, and considering the fact that I wanted to get a Snow (Axanthic Albino -double recessive project that would take 4-6 years if done from scratch), I got into it.

I had to get myself a male to prove out the possible het, and here we are!

The first photo is an adult Axanthic, a subadult axanthic, and a "normal". Axanthics are not the most outstanding morph when you look at it, but the lack of yellows in the pigment make it a powerhouse in combos and pretty cool looking in general.

Here we have the obligatory Albino over the Axanthics, just to give you the contrast of the differences. Axanthic Albinos are called Snows, and are pink eyed white animals with slight pearl pattern in the body, as Axanthics wash out the yellow, and Albinos wash out the black.

And here we are with the trio of Axanthics I am working with. The baby should be much more dramatically grey and black, but she is in shed... But I took the picture anyway to show the differences in "browning out" in this particular line of Axanthics.

In all honesty, it does happen, but I think people make it out to be worse than it really is. I will try and take another picture when everyone is clear for better contrast.

So there we are. TSK Axanthic 101.

Well, here we are...

So I lied.

I cleaned and cleaned last night, and thought I would get some good photos.

I lied.

I didn't get anything. I was so tired, I cleaned, and then passed out. It was glorious.

The Olympics were on though.. I watched it, kinda. Good for Micheal Phelps. He's a good swimmer. Gymnastics looks easy with the people that do them in the Olympics on TV, but I know for a fact I will break my something if I even attempt it.

Anyway, I hope to actually have something interesting snakewise to share with you tommorow.

Maybe I'll find something...

Poke poke poke!

We haven't had a nice bite story in a while.

Anyway, I was going thru my old photos and thought to share these with you, since I don't have anything else to share.

A few years ago, my young cousin sent me his Flat Stanley for him to come visit California and hang out with my snakes. Here is what Flat Stanley and I did.

Here he is standing in front of my old Lyon incubator (a good one for small clutches) with a clutch of Pastel eggs that ended up going bad that year..



And here he is in a tub of snakes! I see my Albino, Pastel, a couple Normals, and one of my Blurry girls in there. My photography skills were not up to par then.. Maybe it was the camera.



Yeah. Flat Stanley was from New York, by the way. He was grooving in his shorts and sandals.

I wonder how he's doing now???

I'm BACK!!!!

...and I am TIRED...

But the wedding was GORGEOUS.

Here are a couple of shots of when we got in to Lake Tahoe.






For those who are aware, I was doubtful of my friends colors: Black and White Polka Dots and Gerbera Daisies.

Well, it worked. I liked it alot.







I absolutely loved the wedding spot. It was beautiful, and it was done so well. I have to say though that the dress did not particularly flatter me in any way, but there you go... Black and Black polkadots.

Me and my groomsman.



Isn't the altar beautiful??????



Such a sweet shot the Joel took at sunset of the newly weds.



It was very sweet, and 9 hours of driving back later, we are back in the swing of things with LOTS of caffiene to get me going this morning.



I promise snake updates tommorow.

I'm on my way!!!

So last day at work...

And of course, working like crazy before I leave, to make sure everything is accounted for.

Same thing at home.. I swear that I checked on everyone 10 times, and I have someone going in and checking on them when I am gone.

You can't be too careful.

Snakewise, things are on the low and lazy, and again I find that no matter how much I clean and water, there are at least ten animals that decide to push over the water dish, expell fluids and solids, or all and all make a huge mess.

Rather aggravating, to be honest.

Oh well...

So since I won't have any cool pics of snakes in the next couple of days, here are a couple I took a few days ago in my fit of photography. (I plan to have another one soon)

This is the Spider I picked up from my friend locally. She is awesome, and I can't wait to get her up to size to breed her into an Axanthic... Or an Albino.. or a Pastel combo something.. Oooooh the possibilities.



And here is a baby Pastel from my first morph, my Lemon Pastel male Pete. He was sent off to spread his seed, and this is what came back home with him :) She's cute!



So... Tonight is lots of driving, tommorow is another quick update, and then I'm GONE!!!

I promise plenty of pics when I get back :)

I almost forgot its already August...

Jeeze Louise..

It's been one of those weeks already that I forgot to greet the month!!!

HAPPY AUGUST PEOPLE.. (Belatedly)

So I fed yesterday with leftovers cause I don't want to have to worry about extra care of little creatures while I am gone.

The new stuff took to food great! I am really excited...

Oh! Ontop of the Albino, she who has yet to be named, a friend came with her as well. My albino project is now SOLID.

Here she is, she who has yet to be named Het Albino.



She's pretty!!! And eats like a pig. I love it.

I'm still rushing to get things ready for our leaving, but there is less to rush and do. Thank goodness.

Here is our baby of the day. This is a Black Pastel female with a tad of a ringer on her tail (I've noticed a lot of my Blacks tend to throw slight ringers). I'm toying with the idea of keeping her... Kinda.

Getting ready...

I'm getting ready for a mini vacation to Lake Tahoe for my best friends wedding!!!

With this being said, Friday will not be a blog day, as I will be driving up there that day and will not have internet access.

Got all the necessary beautification things going for me, and now, have to get the snakes ready.

I have cleaned neurotically this weekend, and need to get a couple more things done before I can even be comfortable leaving them not in my care.

I also took photos of them, as I have a couple of new ones that I have to catalogue into the collection.


Please welcome our newest family member, She who has yet to be named.





For the record, it is very difficult to get Albinos to photograph well without washing out their colors.

She is going to be a great addition to the Albino project, so I am very excited to have her here. Not sure what to pair her up with yet, but I'm not complaining!!


Side note:

I do NOT envy the people who have collections in the thousands that cannot go anywhere... That will never be me. I like going places.


Anyway, with more cleaning, and feeding and getting ready, these next couple of days are going to be interesting!!! Wish me luck!

Expect the unexpected

So....

Feeding day yesterday!

I'm plopping food in tubs, and all of a sudden I open a tub for one of the larger females, and I see a female in a beehive. I'm like "Woah!", and then "Dangit!"

Surprise!!!

Not that I'm upset about it at all, I just dislike being unprepared.

This is my FIRST ball python I've ever had, the one who started it all!!!

Her name is Unagi!



She has been my favorite for a long time, and now that she has given me 7 eggs last year and 8 eggs this year, she is really making me proud!!!



I had actually not expected any eggs from her cause she was so late in the season even though she was bred with everyone back in December. Also, she ate every time I offered!! Usually a sign of not being gravid? Well.. not for her! I LOVE FEMALES LIKE THAT.

So she was bred to my little Mojave male, who is turning out to be a stud!!!

I am really glad to see more eggs.

I think (again) that I may only have 1-2 more females and I'm done..

Onward Ho!