Pics and Musings (Clutch #36)

So over the last few days, I have been swamped with things to help me get more organized. I am trying my darndest to get back into the right groove to know which way is up, but I've not had enough time to get my head on straight.

This gal echoes my sentiments exactly... Plus her head coloration and pattern are awesome.

Gotta love Super Pastels.

Anyway, with everything going on, I'm sure you guys noticed that I have been slacking on the clutch records and what has hatched and when.

I am actually getting a website revamp, and I am getting a page that will be dedicated to that exactly.

Hoooray!!!

As of right now, the available page, which I am fully aware was horrible for anyone without a super fast computer, is now new! New program, more info, more cool stuff. HOORAY!

Take a look and let me know what you think. I haven't updated any of the animals into it yet, but hopefully I will be able to do so over the next few days.

Plus, everyone is extra chubby right now because of feeding, so I am going to wait for a few days for pictures so that the bulges go away.

And here is a picture of my holdback Black Pastel het Hypo. Random, yes, but I uploaded it, so I wanted to post her up.

The second to last clutch of the season has hatched out as of yesterday, and they look great! I didn't get my Lemonblast het Albino female, but I did get:

2.0 Lemonblast het Albinos
1.1 Pinstripe het Albinos
0.1 Het Albinos

So the last clutch is due to hatch in two weeks, and I can't wait to see what pips out. This will be a Sterling to Het Red... Pewter het Reds are awesome!

Have a great day, my friends.

Crystal Balls

So three of the Crystals shed out.

A Male, a Female and the Pastel Crystal Female.

I took the photos for comparison, as well as just for the heck of it, since I was having fun with the camera.  I need to do some photos in a better light source, but for now, this is all I got. 

I took photos of close ups of the heads...

I know one of you guys asked about the eyes. Yes, they are blue! 

The darker heads are the regular Crystals, and the light head (the one staring into your soul) is the Pastel Crystal. 

She managed to tag me while I was doing this too.. She's going to be one of my favorites.

I really love the colors on these critters, and when they get older, it should be even more interesting to see the development. 

Staring into your SOUL.

I love the peaches and yellows and greys on these animals. 

Have a fantastic day, my friends!

HAWT!!! And Super Pewter

So here in Southern California, yesterday and today more than likely have been the hottest days of the year.

It reached a scorching 111 degrees Fahrenheit in my area.

Yes...

That does say One Hundred and ELEVEN degrees.

Why are you complaining about this, Heather? I live in __(Enter City Here)__ where it is that hot in December!

(Cities that come to mind are Vegas, Anywhere in Arizona or Texas, etc...)

Well, my friends, I still have the incubator on... And where it is located in the house is not conducive to keeping cool, which leads to overheating incubators.

Yes, there is central air, but when it is 111 outside, it takes a LONG time to cool down.

So I was and am concerned about the next few days, as not only did I have to put off shipping (DUH) animals in the heat, I am also worried about the eggs that are due to pip in the next few days.

But, so far so good. And the max that the incubator hit was 93. This is not great, but its not horrible. Let me also preface this by saying this was the temperature IN the incubator, not in the boxes themselves. Pippers are still pipping and alive. All signs point to okay.

So lets hope today stays a bit cooler.

Anyway, on to happier subjects, while the air is on and it is cooling down...

Here is the Super Pewter.

She has not shed yet, but she is doing very well.

I took a picture with her half sister, one of the Silver Bullets I hatched out. Once the Super Pewter sheds out, we will get a better idea of the final coloration, but look at the SILVER on the Super Pewter, my friends.

Whew!

Looking forward to seeing her colors after her shed.

I'll be doing this photo shoot again when that happens.

I have a lot to share once things shed... I'm getting impatient for new skin.

COME ON, Ecdysis. You can do it...

Have a fantastic day, my friends.

Honey, but not Humble

Well, its been an odd clutch hatching weekend, but things are out, so I'm going to talk about them.

The mystery clutch that was supposed to hatch out this weekend did not. I believe something went wrong with the clutch, as only one normal hatched out, and the rest appear to be stillborn. I'll give them another day before I see what is going on.

But on a happier note, the Spider het Ghost was actually proven this season, with bells on!

Welcome to the world, clutch of five.

Five whats?

Well, lets put it out there for you all to see:

1.0 Honeybee
0.1 Bumblebee het Ghost
0.2 Pastel Orange Ghosts
1.0 Ghosts

So this female is for sure a Het, and four out of the five animals in the clutch were visual recessive. I am happy with these odds, considering I wasn't 100% sure the female would prove.

Here are the Ghosts and Pastel Ghosts. I'm planning on keeping the two girls, as I actually do not have any POG females. Now I do! YAY!

And all four Ghosts... I was kinda surprised I didn't hit on the Humblebee (Bumblebee Ghost), but with what I did get, I'm not complaining.

My group of Ghost holdbacks for this season.

And this pretty man all by himself. I can't wait to see him shed out! This guy has a date with my Mojave het Hypo female in the next year or so. I'm glad to have another visual Ghost co-dom male. Pee-oh-gee is awesome and all, and this dudes father, but I have to say, combining Spider Ghost into things isn't too shabby!

Have a fantastic day, my friends.

White Snakes that aren't so white

Well, I have yet to perfect my white snake photography, and I really need to. This animal is white. You cannot tell really from the photos that I have here, but she is.

Here we go, the shed out Pastel Super Mojave. 

Granted, the subtle colors jump out at you with these photos, so we will discuss them, just because they are obvious.

Lets start with the head.

The head is the only part of this animal that doesn't look white, no matter what. With the Super Mojave, as well as the Pastel Super Mojave, there is a grey head involved. The Pastel portion washes out the darker head of a regular Super Mojave, but it is still grey. Just a lighter grey.

The head also sports some awesome racing stripes down the sides of the eyes to the base of the head, typical of most patterned Ball Pythons. They are like racing glasses, or... super trendy makeup. I dunno. They are just there. What do you think they look like?

Anyway, down to the body. There is a slight yellow line down the center of the spine, that should go away with age. The saddles are yellow-y, while the spinal area is more purple-y.

I really like her a lot, and she will be with me for a while. I was trying to get her to be a part of the photography session, but I am still not perfected with the white snakes. Albinos don't help either...

Anyway, enjoy the photos, ask some questions, and we will have a great weekend together!

Have a fantastic weekend, my friends.

Co-dom Axanthics, eh?

Why yes.

Today is the day of education regarding Red Axanthics.

What is a Red Axanthic, you say?

Well, this is.

WOWEE!

It looks pretty black and grey and wierd and cool looking.

Why yes, yes it does.

What is this morph and what does it do?

A Red Axanthic is the Super form of the Het Red Axanthic. The Het Red Axanthic is a basic co-dom animal that is visually not impressive, but has the characteristics of floaty alien heads, flames and blushing on the sides, sometimes with black lines in the alien heads.

We will go over the Het Red Axanthics later on (with pictures).

But this here is a Red Axanthic. This is the Super form, and it does look Axanthic.

The interesting thing about Red Axanthics is that they do brown out into a nice red tone as they age. I don't have any pictures to share as proof, as this guy is the only Red Axanthic I own at this point.

So what does a Red Axanthic (a Super form of a Co-dom) look like next to a Visual Axanthic (recessive morph)?

Well, I thought you might ask, and here I am to help you in your quest for knowledge.

You can see even from this picture, the Red Axanthic has much lighter tones, much browner and less deep.

This holds true for them as adults as well. They turn into a nice auburn tone, while recessive Axanthics stay silver.

Even the head is more "red", right? Indeed, and so named is this particular morph... aka Red Axanthic.

Hope this opened your eyes a bit, got you learning, and answered any questions you may have.

Have a fantastic day, my friends!

It gets confusing with Mystery Clutches

Once upon a time, Heather bred some animals together, and used several males to one female.

"No problem", she thought. "It will be easy to figure out what is what, and the odds will be better for me"

She learned the hard way, and hopefully, you will learn from her mistakes.

Exhibit A:

MYSTERY males (several double co-dom males, including Pastel Lesser, Bumblebee, and others) to a large normal.

8 eggs, 3 slugs...

Hatched out??

8 NORMALS.

Impossible, one may think...

But nay, my friends, it is not. It is the luck of the draw, and she drew the joker, and he was pointing and laughing at Heather.


So she traversed on... with many mystery clutches to be had, she was still looking forward to other results.

Exhibit B:

Pastel Lesser or Sterling males to Black Pastel female.

Results look promising...

Silver Bullets, Pewters and Pastels.

But wait... one thing doesn't look right.

What is this???

Heather at first thought it was a Pewter... Now we all know that if it was a Pewter, we would not be discussing this issue at all.

It is a Black Pastel Lesser.

Heather mistook it for a Pewter. She even took it to the show and had it marked as a Pewter.

Shame on her.

Shame shame shame.


So remember, Mystery clutches do bode well, and do not. To be sure of what you are hatching and to pay attention to what it could be is KEY to breeding. 


I think that we are not going to be doing Mystery Clutches next season... Just to save me the headache.

So there you go. Learn and live and learn some more.

Hope this helps you all out, and have a fantastic day, my friends.

Sadness and Happiness (Not for the weak of heart)

Since this weekend, there has been ups and downs and highs and lows.

If you notice, I hadn't really updated you guys on the other clutches that were due to hatch out a few days before the other...

Well, there was a good reason for that.

The Genetic Stripe het clutches that were meant to hatch out were devastatingly bad.

Meet an animal I had to cull.

 
Yes, it was alive when it tried to hatch out. It did not get completely out of the egg, and was still connected to the yolk. I had cut the egg a few days ago, and that is the only way it got out of the egg. When it was out of the egg, I thought it was dead.

When I saw the face, which was missing part of the upper jaw and most of its face, as well as many kinks in its spine and was not able to move other than to breathe.

So... I had to cull it. (It was frozen in our deep freezer)

The only reason there was blood was that when I was trying to move it, the umbilicus ripped off and started bleeding as well, so I knew it wasn't going to survive no matter what I tried to do.

Everytime I see things like this, it makes me very sad.

This particular animal had two other siblings in the clutch as well, and one other died in the egg, while the first and only survivor is doing fine. 

Part of the deal as a breeder, having animals that do not thrive, cannot thrive, and will suffer in life.
It's hard.

I actually didn't just lose this animal this weekend, I also lost a non-feeding Axanthic today. So with the ups comes the downs.

But again, remember, this is a small bump in the road considering how many animals I have hatched out sucessfully so far this season.

So with this reminder to those of you out there that were considering breeding, or have been breeding, don't forget that these things happen. Be prepared.

But again, this is not to prevent you all from trying it... just to remember that it is a possibility.

Without trying, you cannot succeed.

Don't forget that.

Have a great day, my friends.

Crystals and Super Pewters!!! ACK!

OH MAN, this weekend has been a hatching crazy bonanza, my friends.

Let me share with you my excitement.

This clutch hatched out on Saturday...

Sterling to Pewter:

I got my Super Pewter! But she is a gal... No big deal! :)

So ended up being:

1.0 Pastel
0.1 Super Pastel
1.2 Pewters
1.0 Sterling
0.1 Super Pewter

SUPER PEWTER!!!!  (With the Sterling) Boo boo photo though..

SQUEEEEEE!!!

And... to top it all off, the Pastel Super Mojave to Special clutch hatched out completely on Sunday.

Ended up with:

2.2 Crystals
0.1 Pastel Crystal
0.1 Pastel Mojave

I'm calling the Pastel Crystal and Crystals based on the head coloration. I'm waiting for them to shed to be 100% sure, but that is what I see right now.

What do you guys think?

Sorry for the ugly pictures. I'm going to have to get some better photos soon..

WOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

I'm not sure what to do with all of this, but I am very excited for the opportunity!

I'm going to go think about things for a while...

WOOOOHOOOOO!!

Have a fantastic week, my friends!

Breeding? Why yes!

So... people are wondering, how do I prepare my animals for the breeding season?

Well, over the past few months while babies are hatching...

I am feeding up the females that I am planning on breeding for the next year.

I start breeding around my birthday, which is October 29th. 

This basically means I start in November, as I have had later and later years every year due to the fact that I feel like some females don't bounce back fast enough, so I make everyone wait. 

Plus, the males tend to be skinny still from the season before.

So I wait and see what I can manage with the females, and go from there. 

Now, you are asking, what do I do to get the breeding season going?

NOTHING.

Well, not nothing, really...

I actually just introduce males into the females tubs. 

No cooling, no brumating, no changes in anything other than the external temperature and weather. 

Rain is fantastic for breeding, as the barometric pressure goes down, which stimulates the Ball Pythons to wanna get jiggy, so to speak. 

So, maybe this year, as a change of pace, I may start when the first rains come. But then again, I live in Southern California, and rain comes and rain goes... I think I'll stick with my original plan. 

So to summarize, I don't change anything in my room. The only thing that changes is that seasons have changed, and the temperatures outside change as well. 

Water, feed, clean, enjoy. 

Such is the way of a snake breeder. 

Hopefully that helps, and have a great weekend, my friends!

Need a moment

It's been a busy week, and I have not had a complete moment to get all of my stuff together.

I plan on shipping out shirts tomorrow or Friday, so if you are interested, just shoot me an e-mail about how to get one!

Other than that, I need to get down and dirty to clean and organize to the extent that I would like.

Until then, if there are topics that you would like me to approach soon, please let me know.

I do plan on doing a "How to ship reptiles" blog soon, as well as a few other topics, but if you have specific requests, let me know!

So I am going to make this short, to give me more time to cut up paper liners for one of the racks.

Have a fantastic day, my friends!

White Snake

Well, over this past weekend, I hatched out a few things, including our Caramels that I will reintroduce.

There were three in the last clutch, one that died in the egg, and one that had a neck kink. Here are the other two that are almost perfect, one being from the original clutch.

Here they are. Both boys, both gorgeous, and both doing great!

One thing I love about Caramel Albinos is the red pupils.. I tried to capture that on the photos, but I was not very good at it.

This guys is my favorite. He has great color, and floaty alien heads! Love it.

This is the other, and he is doing fine as well. Don't you just love the colors??

One of these guys has the minor tail kink, and the other is perfect as far as I can tell. I plan on feeding them up and evaluating the spinal issues to see if anything pops up or goes away. Yes, spinal kinks can go away, and I will try and keep you all updated as to any progress that I see.

This is the only Mojave that I have hatched out so far. Welcome to the fold, Pastel Super Mojave...

Thank goodness she is a she.

I don't know what happened, but the clutch went bad. Three eggs, this little gem and two normals. I have NO idea what could have happened, other than I used the Pastel Lesser to back up the Pastel Super Mojave.

But this gal is for sure a Super Mojave, and almost positive she is a Pastel. Why, do you ask, do you know for sure, Heather?

Well, the head color, as well as the yellow stripe down the spine that is broken up.

It will be easier to show off when this gal sheds, so we will revisit this soon.

And even though this clutch was laid ONE DAY after the Mojave clutch, which hatched out last week, this guy decided to pip today. And the other two eggs have no interest in pipping...

Odd...

But more babies to come soon! The poss het mother of this Genetic Stripe clutch did not prove out, so these are all 100% het Genetic Stripes.

Have a fantastic day, my friends.

Anahiem Part Two: Critters

There were a lot of critters.

I'm going to try and remember what each of them were.

I am stumble a bit, so bear with me.

This was something I was surprised about... The Ivory Fire. VERY interesting paradox animal, I find it fascinating.

A Super Special... I COVET this animal.. They are gorgeous.

Pastel Butter Pinstripe. Very cool looking to say the least...

The Caramel Genetic Stripe. I am very very tempted to start on this project now, even though I don't have any Caramel females.

This is the Desert Butter, from what I remember. I had a friend that was drooling over this one, and I have to admit, it was pretty sweet.

The TSK Axanthic Clown from Reptile Image. My camera didn't get her true colors at all, but she looks fantastic still.

The TSK True Ghost and a Lavendar Albino.

The TSK Axanthic Bumblebee and a Pinstripe. Guess whose table these were all at??

The Puma. I'm intrigued by this morph, and am curious what will happen with it over the next few years.

Super Pastel Champagne. I was surprised how the Pastel washed out all of the color in the Champagne. Very interesting, and something to think about if you are interested in that project. I have to admit, I don't have any yet...

The Soul Sucker.

And this little guy was next door to my booth. He was too cute...

So there is a bit of what the show had to offer.

As I mentioned before, Leonardo DiCaprio stopped by, and a LOT of people were all a flutter. He didn't stop by my booth, but he was walking down the aisles and I did see him. I would have loved to get a picture with him, but I didn't want to bother him...

BUT! Donald Schultz from Wild Recon was there, and he and I took a picture together.

YAY!

Sometimes you gotta love living near Los Angeles.

Anyway, more again soon.

And by the way, if you are interested in shirts, E-mail me and I will get them out to you ASAP. I plan on getting a big group out the door by this weekend. I have sizes from Small up to 3XL, so don't be shy!

Have a fantastic day, my friends!