Common Courtesy

Well, I have had a moment where I feel the need to rant and rave about common courtesy.

In life, we are all handed our own issues and we are who we are in the way that we handle them. This is the way of life. The issue that I have is that many people forget that there are many other people out in the world, and that there are moments that require some common sense and common courtesy.

What do you mean, Heather?

I mean "Do unto others as you would like done to you" and "the world does not revolve around you" and so forth and so on. 

If it is as I believe it is coming to be, the world has come much more narcissistic than I would like to see. Facebook and Twitter and all of these things that allow someone to put themselves out there for the populace to see, with the understanding that someone out there cares enough to read it.

This is also true for things like this blog. I admit, this is something that I enjoy doing, as it allows me to put myself out there, but I do not feel the need to share everything, nor do I get offended if one of you decides to stop reading. Sad, yes.. I feel I've not been entertaining enough. Offended? No.

But I digress... When people come to you and assume that all that you have to do is cater to their every whim and notion, that is when it becomes an issue to me. Do people not realize that business and life is carried out no matter what, busy and full of things that need to be taken care of before resorting to their important issues?

When people assume that if someone does not respond within 15 minutes to a question, that they are being ignored and that they are being insulted somehow really irks me.

Not that I don't love to hear back from someone within 5 minutes of pressing send, it is an issue that I do not have, because even in a world of Smart Phones, PDAs and constant Internet access, I am under the assumption that most people do not have their eyes glued to their e-mail. I would like to think most people believe that as well.

That people send half sentence e-mails and expect to be answered even though there is not enough information within the context of the e-mail to even understand completely what is being asked irks me. To not even address an e-mail with a name so that someone can know who they are talking to irks me.

Is this the way our society is falling? Sometimes I feel as if it is.

And of course, this may be all just a little phase that I am being exposed to, but I never understood how people can expect to be efficient and get answers and things done without laying it out on the table.

What sparked this???

I spent 3 hours and MANY e-mails back and forth with a potential customer in regards to animals that I didn't know what the person was interested in. I asked several times for that person to respond to me in more than one sentence so that things could be handled more smoothly. I never even got this persons name. But after three hours of attempting, I got a response I didn't appreciate in regards to my pricing, and I responded back, never to hear from that person again.

Was it worth it?

I like to think that people deserve the benefit of the doubt. I try to be gracious, even if my time is being taken away from more important things. Could I have walked away? Sure... But I wanted to help.

So when you see "Serious Inquiries Only" on ads from any breeder, this is mainly due to people like the person in question.

If you intend on breeding, you will get people like this. It's not pretty, it's not fun, and it is up to you how to deal with it.

I dealt with it the way I was taught. Common courtesy til the end.

Did it work out and did I get it in return? Nope.

Oh well...

But know that I am not ranting for the sake of those people who ask me legitimate questions.
I relish those, I really do. I like answering questions and I enjoy e-mail banter. I appreciate people checking up on me and just wanting to talk shop.

Just remember the common courtesies.

Have a great day, my friends!


Sincerely,

Heather

Clutch 38

Again, this was a clutch I wasn't expecting, from a female I didn't think was going to go. I bred this female to the Caramel male to make double hets. Hopefully these eggs go to term and we get some Double hets... but I don't expect it, unfortunately.

The one slug is a absolute slug, and the yellower egg on the right top is not viable either... So it looks like two eggs should go to term if all goes well.

Wasn't expecting this, not unhappy per say, but wish it would have been better. Now is the time to beef her up for next season.


And of course, random photo time.

The Black Pewter Fire is a spitfire! She was not interested in getting photographed, so this was the best photo I could get.

Have a great day, my friends!

Clutch 37 and pictures

This weekend has been very busy, but I got to see a clutch I have been waiting on for a long time! My only Genetic Stripe female that I bred this season finally laid her eggs, and I am very glad to see them!

She was bred to the Pastel Super Mojave, so I look forward to seeing some Mojaves and Pastel Mojaves het Genetic Stripe. Fingers crossed for a lot of Pastel Mojaves!

I am excited to see this clutch! I am hoping for a few late clutches as well, so that this isn't the last one...

And of course, I promised some photos, and I thought these pictures would be a good start to the week. These two females look similar, but they are not.

To the left, the Pastel Mojave Spider female. On the right, the Pastel Lesser Spider female.

Just one gene difference, and they look so different!

Considering Lessers and Mojaves do very similar things, I am surprised how different these guys look, and wanted to take a comparison shot. Of course, the Queenbee (Pastel Lesser Spider) decided she was not interested, and kept trying to bite the camera, but I got the general concept with this photo.

And the Stingerbees shed out, so I took some photos of them as well. To the left, an Enchi, the middle are the Stingerbees, and the right is the Spider. I really like how they look now, and I will be taking some photos individually soon.

I look forward to sharing more random photos soon as well!

Have a great week, my friends!

It begins...

So I am undertaking a few new challenges in life, one of which is weekend classes.

I am NOT excited.

I feel that I am already under a lot of pressure to do things, and this is another thing on top of all the other things I have to do.

But it will be worth it, and it will be a good time. It's just going to take a lot of time.

So, forgive me if I don't answer your e-mails immediately, or if I don't take pictures of animals within 24 hours.

Things are about to get even crazier than they have been.

I'm sorry.

With that, I'm going to go rest up to get ready for the weekend.

Sitting in class on the days you have off from work? Yeah... not too exciting at all.

Lord help me.

Have a great weekend, my friends!

Wow!!! And Sexing..

I absolutely LOVE this combo... And unfortunately for me, I only got this one animal to show for it in the clutch, as it looks. This is the only baby out of clutch 26, and two of those eggs died... So out of three eggs left, this is the only one out so far.

Black Pastel Mojave. Apparently they are called "Black Magic" as I've seen around the forums. I think that is appropriate! This female came out just as dark as these photos show and with an awesome yellow coloration.

I really do love this combination, and am grateful that this gal came out.

And yes, I took a look "down there" to check. I do it as soon as they come out of the egg, and I pop only.

Why is that? Well, popping babies is super easy, as the muscle control in the rear area is rather flimsy at this point.

I only probe when there is a question of the sex of the animal, and even then, I tend to use the probes on subadults or adults.

Popping is relatively easy, and I will do another blog with better pictures to show for it later in the week or next week.

I will also go over probing.

But right now, lets stare at the new girl, yes?

Have a great day, my friends!

Photos

I've been scrambling this week to get a few things done, including get into my final classes I need to get into my Masters program. So of course, I get home late, and there is very little time for snakes or snake related activities other than checking the gravid females, watering the babies, and going to sleep.

So with that being said, I am sharing some older photos, most of which were done by my father when he was out here last.

I fully intend to have more time during the week to accomplish more snake related informative blogs, but today is not the day for that, my friends. I need to get my self in gear and get acclimated to the current goings on in my soon to be school life, on top of working full time and doing this snake thing.

I wish I had more hours in the day.

But this gives me a chance to share with you the awesome photos my Dad took of my collection, which surprisingly he is more interested in than I gave him credit for.

Did I expect him to take these photos? No way, man.

Did I expect him to ask about the morphs specifically and want to learn the names? No way...

So this is a gracious dedication to my patrimonial parental unit, and his interest in my interest.

And of course the cool photos he took of my critters.

Fashion forward and forward thinking, eh?
I love it.

While I pulled snakes for him to photograph, I have to appreciate the fact that he does indeed have an eye for nice pictures.

Now I gotta go in the snake room and try and upstage him, my friends....

Any requests?

Have a fantastic day, my friends!

Hoooo Boy!

Well, today has been a crap shoot of emotions..

We have the bad to begin with. The POG to Het Hypo clutch hatched out, with the one POG and some Pastels Het Hypo and a Het Hypo.... but this little guy, the other POG.. didn't make it. It looks like its umbilicus was twisted and it died very recently.

This kinda hurts, because I have not gotten any Hypos so far this year other than the Pastel Orange Ghost male that made it. Would have been nice to have another... 

But at the same time, the Crystal clutch hatched out, and although there was only one Crystal, he came out already, and it's a HE! The rest are Specials, Mojaves and I think a Normal. We will see tomorrow or Weds for sure.

And of course, another interesting item... I come home from work to get ready to ship something, and a tub is wide open! The Clown male managed to escape apparently from my own lack of paying attention and leaving the tub cracked enough where he could push out.

So I get down on my hands and knees and search everywhere for this boy... It takes me a good thirty minutes, but I finally find him behind an adult females tub two racks over.

Here he is right after being found... no worse for wear.

So overall, things worked out well!

And things are still hatching out, so there are things to look forward to.

With that, I bid you a good day, my friends!

Hatchings!

This weekend was face paced, a good time, and not a lot of snake.

I met some people, did some stuff, bought my dress, and had a grand ole' time.

But I did have some hatchlings, a few of which are out, and many of which are not.

Here are the few that are.

We have a Pastel Orange Ghost male, and a Het Ghost something.

He is pretty sexy, if I do say so myself. It appears that there may be one more in the egg..

And just for fun, a random shot of Kona dog, wiping her paws and laughing.

I'm sorry this blog was so brief. I'm hoping to compile some Daytona pictures to share from friends.

Tomorrow should be an exciting one!

Mystery Solved - Stingers

Well, my mystery clutch has been revealed!

The Spider mystery clutch obtained a bunch of Spiders, Enchis and Stingers!

I have never hatched out Stingers before (Enchi Spiders), so this was new... But I have to say I like them a lot!

Problem is, I don't need boys, which is what I got.

2.0 Stingers, 1.0 Spider, 1.1 Enchis

I have to say, it was interesting to have a Spider and Stingers together. When you see them individually, you don't notice much of a difference, but when they are next to each other, it is much more obvious. 

The colors are what are most striking about them, and the head pattern is also a bit different. It will be very interesting to be able to see the comparison in color after they shed and aren't so squishy and pink.

The one on the left is the normal Spider, and one on the right is the Stinger.

Let the good times roll, people!

Have a great weekend.

Constantly Changing

I am always of a mindset that is constantly changing.

Not opinions, mind you... but plans.

And one cannot plan well ones life, as things are constantly changing in the environment that make you think twice about the plans that you have had.

Thus, we come to the center of the reason why this comes up.

I AM CONSTANTLY CHANGING MY MIND.

Priorities are no longer priorities... Other things become more important to catch up on, things become more interesting, less interesting, and the collection changes to fit that need.

I am in a conundrum and with many issues in life, snake purchasing and plans are at the forefront right now.

Why? I should be worried about "real life", aka school, wedding, work... etc.

Sure, those things are important, and like many things, are an all encompassing stresses in themselves.

So I choose to stress on things that can be solved.

Like, what should I pick up this season without spending everything I have earned and still make a reasonable decision for the upcoming seasons?

How much is too much in terms of spending versus trading?

What can I manage to scrounge up that will be worth it to me in the long run?

Should I sell something that I produced so that I can get something that I can't produce yet?

How long should I wait until I just give in and buy the animal that I have been planning to produce/need over the long haul in projects?

Who do I bug about helping me decide?

Can I trust myself to make the right decision?

...........

And it goes on and on and on, my friends.

I have spoken on this many times before, but tonight it has really come to head. I am not sure what the best move for me and my collection is, and there are so many things that can be/should be done.

So, what to do?

Well, I consult other breeders and close friends. I determine what I am willing to spend and try not to go overboard on it.

I promised myself and Joel that I would only purchase a few minor things this year. (But what is minor?)

And of course, while scouring the classifieds, I see things that fit my projects that I hadn't even considered needing this year, which of course, puts me into a Frenzy of Want.

Being in a Frenzy of Want is not a good thing...

It is hard to step back, especially right now when things are hatching left and right.

For me, it is the realization that I have a lot already, and that really... all I need is... _________.

That blank was left blank for a reason.

I don't REALLY need anything. I can go about my season next year and do reasonably well with it.
But as a breeder, and as many of you all well know, being a breeder is not only breeding, but improving your stock.

So in the sea of morphs, where to focus?

That is something I have to delve deep to figure out for myself. And then hold on for dear life.

I have yet to do it.

I hope you all out there have a better grasp than I do. But know that if there is a WANT out there that I can help you with, I would love to do so. I feel your pain.

Have a great day, my friends.

Ugh...

Did a lot of updating of the available page.

Lots of individual pictures taken, but a lot more left.

The Genetic Stripes have shed, but I haven't got enough free tub space right now to allocate them as of yet.

Or I'm too tired.

Or both.

Yeah.

So tomorrow is more updates of the available page.

And more pictures.

But right now, it's time to finish up.

So I promise something more exciting tomorrow, with more photos of interesting stuff and not so much of Heather complaining.

But yes, I am running out of baby space right now. Time to re-evaulate a few things, and get some of these babies off to new homes.

Want one?

Have a great day, my friend.

Colors

So my Father was in town this weekend, and he and I took some photos, him with his amazingly complex fancy shmancy camera (Nikon D70) with 16 different lenses, and my basic broken but fixed camera (Panasonic DMC-FZ7).

Above and below are the photos I took.

Above is Crystal development within a year...

Below is the Pastel Super Mojave.

And here are a few of the ones my Father took.

Below is the Lavender Albino, close to true color.

The same Pastel Super Mojave

And my Pastel Calico female... 

I have to say, I want to get to know more fancy schmancy camera work, but I have yet to get one to play around with. Seems like there would be a lot of fun to be had doing lens and focus and etc work...

Anyone out there work with fancy schmancy cameras that are not just Auto Focus?

What do you shoot with?

Lenses?

I'm curious, as I would love to expand my horizons....

Share with me, my friends, and have a great day!

Clutch 36, and Clutch 21 hatchings

Welcome to the world, Clutch 36! I am completely shocked by how well this female, my original female, has produced for me. She has always been a big clutcher, but I gave her the year off last year and now, my biggest clutch of the season!

She gave me 11 good eggs this year, and that is fantastic, but again, I have no idea what she was bred to....

I put her in with several co-dom combo males, so we shall see what is in there.

And Clutch 21 hatched out this weekend, my Firefly to Black Pastel clutch.

This one was an odd one in terms of odds, but I will take the sex odds for sure!

0.1 Normal, 0.2 Fires, 0.1 Black Pewter Fire

I really do like what the Fire does to the Black Pewter, and look forward to seeing the real colors after she sheds.

The first time I saw her, I thought that she looked a lot like a Sterling.

Gotta love the Fire gene for lighting up animals.

Here's to many years of watching her grow and develop. She is one of the lookers this year for sure.


Have a great day, my friends!

Mojave Amazing

I have to say, I really love Mojaves. They do so much to so many combinations, that I have to appreciate them each for their own additions to the combinations that they make.

Above, we have the Pastel Mojave Spider, which I have to say is a gorgeous animal. I love the head on these guys, and I really do look forward to seeing how they color up as they get older.

The yellows just blend together and the pattern is awesome and very reminiscent of the Sable or "blob" look.

So glad to have this one to grow up!

And below, we have one of my favorite critters I have hatched so far. This is my Super Pastel Mojave female, and I can't stop staring at her.

I LOVE THE COLORS!!! Peaches, yellows, some violets... and of course the nice blue brown outline.

I really need her to keep these colors forever. I would be super excited and stare at her often.

Obviously, she is staying here.

Look at that head color!

Of course, Mojaves are not the only amazing morph of the Ball Python world, but these photos jumped out at me as ones that I had to share together. And thus, a blog was born.

Hope you enjoyed it, and have a great day, my friends!

...sigh...

It is so hard to take decent pictures of babies.

Like humans, sometimes babies when they first come out are just ugly...

Shiny, covered in slime, and just not too pretty.

It takes a bit for them to plump up and look better.

This is my problem while taking pictures for the available page.

Some of these pictures are not my favorites.

But that is what I did all last night, is to update the pictures and what's available to a reasonable quantity. It's not complete, as there are still babies to shed, but as of right now, the list is getting more comprehensible.

So forgive me as this blog is a tad bit short. I am still working on photos.

Have a great day, my friends!

Clutch 35!

Whew! All the Albino stuff is coming together in a group. This gal is a Het Albino bred to an Albino. Simple enough, and yet five eggs in and we shall see if there are some visuals in the clutch. Fingers crossed! I'm pretty sure this female is a proven female, but hey... You can never be too careful.

So yeah, there are five eggs in there. You can't see them (AGAIN) in this photo, because I was tired and didn't get the exact angle to get all of the eggs in line.

No worries, I know its there.

Anyway, random photo time!


This gal is my Pied het Hypo that I hatched out this season.

I can't wait to plug her in with her father, the Hypo het Pied... But until then, I have another female I hope to see if I can prove.

Double recessives are a tough project, my friends. Don't mock the prices on these. It takes a LONG time to get them.

I'm already kicking myself about the Snows... I am considering just giving in and buying one. We shall see what happens this year and if I should or not.

There are a lot of what-ifs again, and I'm trying to get myself to sit down and focus while hatching and having fun.

.... Soon enough....

Have a great day, my friends!

Clutch 34: Hmmmmm

Welcome to the world, Clutch 34!

This is a clutch in which I have some regrets...

Why, do you ask? Well... I am fairly certain that the Spider het Axanthic is NOT a het Albino, so now I am not going to get my Albino Spiders out of this clutch.

But, of course, how would I have known? And maybe, JUST MAYYYBE... He is a Het and I hadn't hit on it yet.

So my fingers are crossed, but not super crossed.

Five chances. Let's see what happens in a couple months, eh?

Oh! Yesterday and today things finished hatching.

Here is clutch 17, Pee-Oh-Gee to Het Ghost. Apparently, it was not to be with this pairing in more ways than one. 3.0 Het Ghosts, 0.1 Pastel het Ghost.

Ouch.

And another ouch, this time more painful. My Lemonblast to Pastel clutch went partially bad, and only three eggs made it thru.  Of course, I end up with a Normal male. But... in the end:

1.0 Normal, 0.1 Super Pastel, 0.1 Lemonblast

I love the way the Super and the Lemonblast look. Here's to some growth and progress to see how they look in a month.

While waiting for cool new babies to pip out in a few days, I took some fun pictures of what I have here at the collection.

Here we have one of my Spotnose females. I have no idea what I plan to do with her, but I know that it's going to be AWESOME when she is ready. We have another year or so, so the wheels aren't quite turning yet, but... we shall see.

And this girl is my Bumblebee het Hypo female from last year. I know that she will be going to something Hypo, but I am not sure what I want to do with her either. 

Seems to be a trend? Yes, well... I keep what I know will be great to have, and figure out what to breed to them when they are ready.

So now I have to get a something something het Hypo and something that would be great to work with the Spotnose.

Hmmmmm.

What do you guys think?

Sorry, but YAY!

Sorry, everyone.. I didn't take my camera to the show. It was in and out and I didn't even stay for more than a few hours.

BUT...

I do have a ton to share about what happen this weekend here at Heather's Herps!

These ALL hatched over the weekend, and I have to say, I wasn't ready for the huge group of critters that popped out.

These guys were from clutch 16, and they were hopefully going to be Albinos, but now I have a bunch of Pastels and Normals het Ghost 50% possible het Albino.

These guys ended up being: 2.2 Het Ghost 50% ph Albino, 3.1 Pastel het Ghost 50% ph Albino

And this group is from clutch 19, hatched out early...

I FINALLY got my Queenbee, and it is a girl. I am pretty excited about it!
The rest were:

1.0 Pastel Lesser, 0.1 Lesser, 1.0 Bumblebee, 1.0 Spider, 1.0 Normal and 0.1 Queenbee.

And clutch 20, the clutch that I didn't even expect, hatched out with EVEN MORE than I didn't expect!!! It came early, it came small, and it came out BLAZING!

The female is a Het Axanthic, and I managed to get my Pastel Axanthic out of it.

End results were: 1.1 Pastel Het Axanthic, 0.1 Axanthic and 0.1 Pastel Axanthic.

Clutch 15 was also a huge surprise, and they came out on Friday..

Six Genetic Stripes from Seven eggs from Visual male to Het Female. I saw it and needed to blink a few times... But I am stoked for this one!

4.2 Genetic Stripes, 0.1 Het Genetic Stripe. Would have loved to have more females, but hey... I can't complain!

So now I'm done for now...

Enjoy the week, I will get much more stuff to share soon, and I hope you have a great day, my friends!

MY CAMERA BROKE!!!

Stupid floor breaking my camera...

So the pictures I wanted to take will not be able to be taken today.

So... I leave you with this.

Concrete floors + Delicate Camera = FAIL

I will be back in business for photos on Monday.

Until then, have a great weekend, and I will have pictures of the Pomona Super Show for you as well (from a crappy camera).

Substrates for BPs

Well, the question was posed to me about substrate.

Substrate is a tricky thing, and depending on the location in which you live, some of the woods that I am going to talk about may be hard to come by.

But here we go:

ASPEN:

I use Aspen, but I use them in Sanichips. You can buy it at Petco or other large retailers as shredded as well. This wood is a great substrate for your every day tub or tank. I use Sanichips primarily, and although there are some drawbacks, such as mold when it gets too wet for too long, the thing I like the best about it is that it is like cat litter. You scoop what is dirty, leave the rest. Simple clean up.

Shredded

The exact bags I get

Sanichips

Sanichips are great, and I utilize them in most all of my racks, not including the babies.

Shredded has a tendency to be too big sometimes, and if you feed over it, it can get embedded in an animals mouth.

Another con with Sanichips is that it is small enough to be ingested, but it is small enough to get embedded in the orifices of males (which is BAD). This is a substrate that if you breed on it, you need to be vigilant for absorption of pieces within the hemipenal areas. It's not a fun time, but at least you can prevent a prolapse or an infection. BUT!!! You can switch to something like papertowels during breeding if you feel the need.

For me, babies get papertowels, larger animals get Sanichips.

Plus, it smells nice.

Next on the list is

PAPER PRODUCTS:

Paper towels are expensive, but very useful and handy and clean. Blank newsprint works as well, but is not as cushy as the paper towels (depending on the brand). I like paper for animals I have to watch closely, aka injured or small or sick animals. White paper background shows off many issues that one may miss if using a particulate substrate.

Again, I start all of my babies on paper towels until they are large enough to move up to the subadult rack.

THINGS I HAVE NOT USED WITH GOOD REASON:

Repti-Carpet or whatever they call it. That green stuff you buy at Petco? The thing that looks like green and black felt? Yeah.. NO GOOD. If you use it and don't clean it, it will just keep soaking up the waste of your animal, and will lead to all sorts of problems. Even if you clean it, I can't imagine it lasting that long. (This goes for any other cloth substrate)

Sand (including calcium sand)... Ball Pythons do not live on sand. They might slither over it occasionally in the wild, but sand is just not a good substrate. It can be ingested too easily, and create a blockage too quickly. I don't recommend sand of any kind for any animal... other than kids in a playground, and then again they don't eat it (usually).

Pine or Cedar. One word. Toxic. Yes, it smells lovely, is nice and cheap, and is pretty and fluffy, but the chemical compounds in the oils of the wood are toxic to your critters, and if you care about them living a healthy life, do not use these woods.

Bark. I like it for some applications for other animals, but in the case of Ball Pythons, bark or even coconut husk is not useful. I have also had problems with splinters and dust with bark substrates, wherein the animal gets bark dust embedded in between the belly scales. Another problem again is with digesting a big chunk of wood, which I wouldn't suggest allowing to happen. Eco-earth and the like are mooshed in to this category.

Moss. Too expensive to be useful... Pretty, and keeps humidity up, but unless you have a bad shed issue and use it only in a small area of your tank/tub, I don't think its worth using.


OTHER OPTIONS:

Cypress... I've heard good things, and it tends to be cheap and accessible depending on the area in the world in which you live. Try it if you can. It is bigger than Sanichips in terms of size, so be careful of ingestion, but it holds humidity well and looks good.

I hope all of this helps!!! Let me know if I can touch on anything else for you.

Tomorrow is "favorites" day....

Have a great day, my friends!