Boooo!

I admit, it seems like I am falling off the wagon again.

This is NOT true.

I am just in the process of moving!

And as you know, Moving sucks.

Moving sucks big time.

Add that to the fact that Joel and I have a TON of stuff, including all of the newly acquired gadgets and doo-hickeys from loving well-wishers, I do not have a ton of time to go and take new photos.

Things are hatching, of course, and I unfortunately got an awesome looking clutch of veinless eggs from one of my normals on the 19th, but I have not had the opportunity to take photos or update the website.

The next clutch due to hatch is Albino to Het Albino as well, and they are pipping as we speak.

And guess what?

ALL HETS!

Damnit all!

That's alright, I guess.

I can use all of my bad luck on this clutch, and then make it up later with other awesome things!

I will try my darndest to get some interesting photos tonight to share, and hopefully something exciting, but bear with me until Monday. I actually will not have internet on Monday, so I will be blogging later in the day, as some people tend to notice.

Have a great day, my friends!

YAY PROVING OUT THINGS!

So these guys hatched out last night, and I am pretty stoked, yet still somewhat bummed about this clutch.

Let me explain.

This was the clutch from the Mojave Pied to the Pastel possible het Pied female I have been growing up over the past few years.

Here is everyone, above. The Pastel proved out to be Het Pied, but....

Here are the males...

I have been having a hell of a time getting female visual Pied combos at all. I don't have ANY to hold back so far.

Lots of 'penes though. LOTS of them.

I was also hoping to hit on the Pastel Mojave Pied, but that was a whiff.

They are super cool looking though. Two Pastel Pieds and a Pied male..

And my lone girl. This gal is sticking with me, just cause I am bitter about not hitting on the combo pied female. Well... not just cause of that. She is pretty danged sweet looking.

Plus she has the striping that I love!

So there we have it.

Lots more Combo Pieds for me to offer up!

Have a great day, my friends!

Vanillas...

So this is going to be a quick one, since I had not written this early on, and I have no pictures to share.

(EDIT: Now I do! Read on!)

I admit it.

I am not a good identifier of morphs that I am not familiar with.

This is especially true for my first clutch of Vanillas.

They hatched out yesterday, and I know from the Vanilla het Hypo to Pastel breeding that I got two Pastel Vanillas.

They were pretty darned obvious.

(Insert darned obvious photo here when time allows)

BUT!!!
I have the Pastel Vanillas, what I think is a Pastel (but could be a low grade Pastel Vanilla) and two Normal or possible Vanillas out of the egg.

It is especially hard when I have no for sure just Vanilla babies out of the egg to compare with.

(Clutch Photo will be here.... at some point)

And here are the Normal/Vanillas... I have no idea. (I think the one on the left is a Vanilla..)

This is one of those times where I reach out to other breeders for feedback. It's a common practice within the industry, especially between people who know the morph the best and those who don't.

This is true of these morphs:

Vanilla, Special, Specter, Het Russo, etc... (There are plenty more, but those are the ones I see most often)
And of course, normals... Dinkers always are the ones that people ask the most about.

This is with good reason... Normals that look different are the reason we have the morphs we have already!

So there you go.

I will put up pictures and get some answers and maybe when all is said and done, someone out there can make an assessment.

Have a great day, my friends!


Happy Birthday, Brohbs!!! (It's my little brother's Birthday!)

MORE! and LOL

More eggs! I've had this girl for YEARS. Since I started in the industry, really... I got her from a kid who wasn't feeding her correctly, and when I picked her up, she tried to eat my hand. She was thusly named "Bitey" after that, but since then has morphed into "Winda", which is Swahili for Hunt, which is still appropriate.

She has always been a wierd looking female, and I have always wanted to prove her out to be more than Normal, but so far she just throws AWESOME light babies.

And this year hopefully is no exception. She was bred to a few males, and we will see what ends up happening with these babies. Nine good eggs! Yeah!!!

I love it!

And it doesn't hurt that they were laid on Joel's Birthday.

Happy Birthday, Beebs!

And then of course, there is the random photograph that I had to take just cause it was so funny looking!

This Mojave Spider Male caught his rat by the tail and wrapped him up. Usually they look typical curling around by the side... This guy was so excited, he became a Snowman!

Yes, I realize that this is probably only funny to a handful of you, but I did have to rush to get the camera while feeding for this shot.

I'm pretty proud of it.

He did eat it all down like a good boy.

Anyway, I'm off to go frolic.

Have a great day, my friends!

Butter Enchi Spider clutch

So this was the Butter Enchi het Hypo to Spider clutch.

I think it went well!

Total count:

1.0 Butter, 1.0 Enchi, 1.2 Stingers, 1.0 Bunchi, and 0.1 Bunchi Spider (all 50% het Hypo).

Here are the boys...

I love how awesome Bunchis (Butter Enchi) look!
I really wish this was a female... Oh well.

And here are the girls!

The Butter Enchi Spider in all her Glory!

She will be staying with me.. This is the first holdback of the year so far.

YAY!

This was a pretty sweet clutch, and I have to say it is getting me pumped up for more hatchings in the next weeks.

I love it!

Have a great day, my friends!

MORE EGGS!

So I kinda lied.. I know I said I would show you the hatchlings from the Butter Enchi het Hypo to Spider, but these eggs kinda came out of no where over the last 24 hours, and I have to record them here.

Here we go!

My camera died and didn't actually record the photo of the female on the eggs, but here is my Pastel het Clown to Pastel possible het Clown clutch. This is my first real chance at hitting on a Clown.

My fingers are super crossed for this clutch to prove out. I would love to hatch out a Clown, much less a Super Pastel Clown.

That would be SWEET.

And this girl is a first time breeder for me. I produced her back in 2008.



She was bred to the Firefly, and I would LOVE to see some Sterling Fires this year. The Pewter Fire is amazing as it grows, so here's to some more fun Fire-ific morphs to watch grow!

Seven good eggs, and some good chances at some fun babies out of this clutch. Fingers crossed for something awesome!

And last but not least, this is one of my largest Pastel females. She always gives me a decent clutch, and this year is no exception.

10 eggs, the biggest clutch this year!

She was being a pain, and I did bounce the egg on the far left because she was struggling, so I'm hoping it is still 10 eggs by the end, but nine still works.

She was bred to the Pastel Butter Spider, so I'm hoping for another chance to get some Super Pastel Butter Spiders. 

Fingers crossed!

So off I go to do some cleaning and packing up.

Have a great day, my friends!

Hatchlings!

So the babies are hatching out left and right here, and the last early clutch has shed out. Here are the most recent shedders that hatched out 5/30/12:

This was the Pastel Butter Spider to Pastel clutch... Yeah.

I got hosed.

1.0 Super Pastel, and 0.2 Normals.

BUT! The Super Pastel is pretty danged crazy looking, and has a weird bright head. He almost looks Hypo... 

But alas, this clutch was a boo-boo clutch.

Oh well.

And this clutch is the Pastel het TSK Axanthic to TSK Axanthic.

1.1 Pastel Axanthics, 0.2 Pastel het Axanthic, 1.0 Het TSK Axanthic

Not too shabby on this one. I'm debating on whether to keep the male or not, since I can replace the Pastel Het male now... But we shall see.

And the Butter Enchi het Hypo to Spider clutch is hatching and actually is all out, but I will save that fun stuff for tomorrow. MWAHAHAHAHAHA.

Have a fantastic day, my friends.

Locks of Love

Before

I did it! I finally got around to cutting off more than three years of hair and donating it to Locks of Love.

I promised myself that I would do as much as I could before I got married to make people as happy as I am for being so blessed with the life I live.

So I grew out my hair (it was already long-ish before I agreed to donate it) and finally got it cut.

I am donating over a foot and a half of hair, and I am very excited to know that someone can put what some people consider waste to good use and help needy children.

There it is... That is what is going in the mail today!

Looks like a hairy snake... How appropriate!

And here is my happy after look. It's been fifteen years since I have had my hair this short, and I am still getting used to it. I am pleased to have such a dramatic change considering things that are happening in my life over the last few weeks.

So there you go!

Things are hatching, things are feeding, and I am off to go watch True Blood.

We'll talk about that too later.

Have a great day, my friends! Do something good today. Make someone smile.

WEEEEKEND!!!

MWAHAHAHAHAHAH!

The weekend is upon us, my friends, and I need it. I know it may seem like I have been slacking over the past month, but of course, that is not quite the case.

I may have been slacking big time with the blog, but yes, I do work full time on top of the snake stuff. It's interesting to note that most people that I know that are involved in the business work full time.

I know of several computer IT folks, scientists/engineers (like myself), doctors, public safety officers, students, contractors, truck drivers, nurses, and the like that work full time as well as enjoy breeding and the hobby that is Ball Python collection ownership.

I was recently asked if I did the snake breeding full time. The answer is "no", but not because I don't want to. I feel that the work I do in terms of the snakes is 3/4ths time.. which I realize is not quite legitimate in terms of quantification.

3/4ths plus 4/4ths doesn't equal out so much... Basically, I work 7/4ths of the time. Full and 3/4ths time.... Too much for one person? Sometimes!

Right now, things are ramping up to pretty heavy, so for the next few months I will be more "snake-inclined", as I like to say.

What does that mean?

That means that I will have a ton to share on the blog, and that I am back in full force!

I have a bunch of pictures to share, and there are things hatching today!

But before everything, we shall enjoy a beautiful weekend and have a great day!

(BTW: I am cutting my hair for Locks of Love on Saturday, so we will be going over that briefly on Monday as well...Before and After pictures!)

Clutch #1 hatched!

So this clutch hatched on the 23rd of May, and I am very excited about this one!

This comes right after the very sad loss of my breeder Male TSK Snow... He died earlier that month.

This was the Spider het TSK Axanthic possible het Albino to my Albino het TSK Axanthic female.

I have officially proved out my Spider male to be double het for Snow!

This is exciting again, due to the loss of my Visual male. I am not completely out of the Snow game.

Four eggs went bad in this clutch.

So the count for this one was: 1.0 TSK Snow, 1.0 Spider het Albino ph TSK Axanthic, and a 0.1 Het Albino ph TSK Axanthic.

He's pretty sweet looking, and I was really hoping he was a Spider Snow, but not this time..

The brothers together. 

It's hard to get the official pattern visual on this guy, but I think it's pretty obvious in this shot and this one without flash.

So no Spider Snow, but I have high hopes to be able to do this pairing again.

So will I be keeping this little man? I don't think so... I'll just shoot for the Spider Snow again next season.

Ahhh double recessive co-dom projects.

Fingers crossed!

Have a great day, my friends!

Sigh...

Wow. Getting back into things has been more tough than I thought.

I have to say, with all the stuff I have had to do, it's kind of weird to now to not have much to do, but I still manage to not do it all.

So yes, I had planned to go in and catalogue all of the new babies that have hatched over the past month, and I didn't. I went in, cleaned up the baby racks, and went to bed.

Get your act together, Heather!
I know I've lost a few regular readers for my disappearing act this past month, but I am trying to get back on track for my own sake.

Even though the blog is daily, it is also a time for me to record things that are happening with the snake stuff. So now, like you, I have a large gap of record over the past month.

But I have some exciting things to share!

And some sad news...

But I am going to do it day by day and get things back on track.

And of course, should you want an update of specific animals, I can absolutely do that as well. I need a kick in the butt to help me get back on track for you all out there in Internet land.

And for those who are wondering if my marriage is going to change anything, the answer is "No Way!"

Joel has been my rock since I started breeding, and he knows what's up. I am trying to get him to get involved in the blogging too, but he is not too keen on that.

He can just get me water for the room... and help clean.

Background assistance..

I can accept that.

At least he's helping, right?

Have a great day, my friends.

Clutches of the Past Month

I'm going to go thru these pretty quickly, as there are a ton, and I still have to upload them onto the main page as well. 

This female is a first time breeder...

My Pied poss Het Hypo female finally laid me some eggs, and although there are only three, I will take them.

She was bred to the Hypo het Pied male.

Fingers crossed on hitting the odds. 

This female was also a new breeder, and unfortunately for me, she didn't see the need to incubate three of the five eggs that she laid.

Pewter female to Pastel Super Mojave, five eggs, two of them already bad.

This female has been a consistent breeder for me over the years, and she, being a Het Pied, was bred to my Pastel Pied. 

This female Mojave always lays under her hide. She is one of the only critters I have that has a hide, and she manages to lay her eggs under there every year for the past two years. I have to check her doubly, and this time I caught her with her eggs within a reasonable amount of time.

Fingers crossed for some Potions this year.

I have no idea what the deal is with the roll outs, but this sucked too.. First time breeder Cinnamon female, 7 eggs, four outside her clutches. So far they are still okay, but... We shall see.

Usually when they are out of the coils, they are not good.

Yeah, I didn't take pictures of this female on eggs... I had just gotten back from my wedding, and I just wanted to put the eggs away.

My friend Tim took care of the critters while I was on a post wedding excursion, and these are the clutches that popped up.

 

There are six eggs in there.

 And then I got back, and there were MORE!

Black Pastel female I produced back in the day....

And this was the last clutch so far...

Two ginormous eggs... Lets hope for Twins.

So there you go. I'm off to go update the website.

Soon, I will have pictures of the newly hatched babies and junk.

YAY!