Wishful thinking?

I am slowly coming to realize that this is more than likely just a Pewterbee, but I really wanted it to be a Mojave Pewterbee, so I'm holding out hope.

Delusional?

Maybe...

But since I can't track down what a Mojave Pewterbee would look like, I'm thinking that maybe this could be it.

But I do know what a Pewterbee looks like... and this guy looks like it.

But maybe, just maybe, I'm missing something that is the sign. Mojave Bees are somewhat easily distinguished, and maybe because of all of the extra stuff in there now you can't see it so well.

Or again, I could be deluding myself.

I waver back and forth depending on the day.

Anyway, he will be here for a bit until I can convince myself that he is just a Pewterbee, or until he grows enough to make me realize I don't need to hold him back.

That is what tends to happen over here.

So... What do you think?

Have a great day, my friends!

STOKED

So of course, the clutch that I expected to be Pastel het TSK to Pastel het TSK apparently was not.
I do remember putting in the Spider het TSK het Albino in with the female Pastel het TSK, but honestly didn't see anything, and of course, didn't really put much thought into it afterwards.

But, in my lack of paying attention, it payed off BIG TIME!

The clutch was only two eggs, and I still managed to hit on this TSK Axanthic Bumblebee.

I am so excited about this!

I have been working on the Axanthic Killerbee for several years now, almost one of my first projects I wanted to work with.

It was Joel's request that we do it (one of the few that he actually liked), and so I embarked on producing first my own Spider hets, and collecting a few Pastel poss hets from my friend Kelly to prove out.

Well... They did!

Here is the clutch...

1.0 TSK Axanthic Bumblebee 50% het Albino , 0.1 Spider 66% het TSK Axanthic 50% Het Albino

It's a lot of genes to play with, and I'm not sure if I will pursue his Het Albino-ness, but I'm very glad to have him here.

He is one of those "Duh" Holdbacks, and I am absolutely glad to have him here.

One more gene to add to this critter, and we are going to be at the goal.

And then off to a new goal, eh?


Have a great day, my friends!

Grossness

I think that people tend to forget that there are gross aspects to dealing with any animal breeding, including the food, the smells, the feces, and the other stuff.

And with the food, smells and feces comes with other issues themselves.

Specifically BUGS.

So not only do we have to shovel dung, deal with smelly remnants of over-ripe left over food items, but the bugs that come with it tend to push a lot of sensitive people over the edge.

Joel will not go in the room if he smells death.

Overreactions aside, I admit that it is not appealing to most people. It is not to me either, but I have dealt with other smells.

I can handle death smells reasonably well, although if it is overpowering, I will have to take a moment.

The one smell I can't handle (which doesn't particularly apply to the snake room) is vomit.

Lucky for me, that does not really become an issue with the snake room.

Anyway, the bugs.

Ants, flies, gnats and random spiders that tend to congregate in the room due to the temps and readily avialbale food are abundant given enough time...

I have to admit that I try my darndest to stay up on emmaculate cleanliness, but with life, trying doesn't always mean doing.

So yesterday, I went in to feed, which is not fun all the time either due to rodents and their bodily functions adding to the already chaotic temperature and smell sandwhich, and I ran into several tiny little spiders that apparently are populating in the crevices of the Vision Racks that I have.

I am not a huge fan of spiders, but for the sake of taking out the fungus gnats, I allowed them to stay.

One of them even waved at me.

So of course, the reality of having a large group of animals in one area leads one to learn that the life cycles of bugs and the seasons do tend to have an effect on the pleasentness of the room.

Summer = Hot = Gross.

Ergo, grossness.

Which means I gotta step up my game with cleaning, which I have been doing since the move. I am actually pretty darned proud of myself.

But I anticipate, like everything, that there is a time in which this will not be as consistant, and that the Sani-Chips will get not so fresh, and that the water bowls will be smeared with dried gross...

And then we start again from super clean.

Ah, the life I live.

Have a great weekend, my friends!

A few more...

These are the last clutches to have hatched over this past weekend, and I am very excited to say that this first clutch is a first for Heather's Herps.

I have a Lavender Albino male, but had never hatched out any until this weekend.

YAY!

Not the best odds on the hets with 2.0, but I did get 1.2 Lavenders, which makes me very happy in terms of holdbacks.

Now again, the question is, should I hold everything back that I want?

That discussion is for a different time.

They are so cool looking! I wish I had an Albino hatchling to put next to them, but to no avail.

Oh well.

And this last clutch was supposed to be Pastel Yellowbelly to Spider, but apparently the Super Pastel Lesser got a hold of her instead.

One Bee died in the egg, and these guys survived.

1.0 Queenbee, 1.1 Bumblebee, 1.1 Pastel Lessers

Not too bad, eh?

I am looking forward to seeing these guys all shed out and glorified.
When that happens, more pictures for sure.

Have a great day, my friends!

Catching up with Hatchings

So yeah..

Still catching up with hatchings and layings and stuff like that.

Here is a clutch that was laid last night.

I am VERY excited for this clutch.

I got this pair from a friend of mine who has been working with the VPI Axanthics and the Spotnoses, and I was lucky enough to be offered this pair.

I used the male last year to produce a few fun combinations, but this was the pairing I really wanted out of him, as I do not work primarily with VPI Axanthics. She is one of the only VPI Axanthic female thingies I have...

So of course, I had to put them together.

And I'm glad I did! I really hope to hit on a Powerball, since I think those are super fun, and if it just so happens to be an Axanthic Powerball, I will be even more stoked!

Fingers crossed for these guys.

On to the babies...

These all hatched out this past weekend. ALL of them, including some that I will post tomorrow.

This here is my Pastel Pied to Het Pied clutch. Didn't do too shabby on this one. 2.1 Pastel Pieds, 0.1 Pieds, and 1.0 Het Pied.

The Pastel Pieds look very odd in this clutch. I am wondering why they are so dark, but they are very interesting, almost granite-y.

I like them!

I plan on debating on keeping the female. I may, I may not. (She is the one in the top right).
Debating with myself is part of the fun of figuring out what the heck I'm going to do in the future. It's always a fun time.

And this clutch was a fail.. These babies were the only survivors from the Mojave Spider to Cinnamon clutch. Four eggs went bad, and these were the only ones left.

0.1 Cinnamon, 0.1 Mojave, 1.0 Normal

They are pretty though, eh?

Sigh...

More tomorrow!

Have a great day, my friends.

Sterling Mojave and Pewter Mojave, BOO!

So I have all of these fun pictures to share now, and this was a question from a friend about Sterling Mojaves and Pewter Mojaves. Lucky for me, I hatched these two out of the Pastel Super Mojave to Pewter clutch, so I have things to share!

Can you tell the difference?

Yeah, it's pretty striking, actually.

The left is the Sterling Mojave and the right is the Pewter Mojave.

These guys came out of some UGLY eggs, so they had some umbilicus issues, but they are doing great now!

The color difference between the two is pretty striking, and I am really pleased with the way they look.

They are due to shed in the next week or so, so after that is completed, I can show them off with a better idea of the colors they will develop with.

And for the heck of it, someone was asking for Black Pastel Pied pictures, so I took some.

He's a little jerk, but he is gorgeous and fun to take pictures with.

By fun, I mean he and I had a wrestling match to get him to show his head. Most of the time, I lost.

But I did get a few fun photos of him, which are obviously being shared right now.

This was my favorite shot that I took of him during our escapades.

Peek-a-Ball! 

BOO!

Have a great day, my friends. Lots of new stuff to share tomorrow!

Fire and Firefly Crystal

Let me begin this blog, which I'm sure will be referenced by many people, by saying that I am still not 100% sure that these are not both Firefly Crystals. I am almost certain that they are not, and this blog will explain my thought process.

Below, we have what I believe to be the Firefly Crystal.

She is very pink, very yellow, and very amazing.

I think we can all agree.

She is also, from what I understand, the only one in the world at the moment.
(Caveat: This statement depends on when you are reading this... so yeah.)
 

Here we have her next to her brother, wherein I start to explain why I think this is the Firefly versus just the Fire Crystal.


How do I know these are Fires? Well.. cause they were produced from a Super.

The dam to this clutch was a Super Fire Super Mojave.


So there it is as proof that these are both Fire Mojave bases.

There you go. 

The Sire carries the Pastel gene, but is not Super Pastel.

At first, I thought that they were both the same when they hatched out, but as they have shed and grown a bit, they have gotten much more distinct, which tends to happen with many Ball Python morphs.

Here we have the Fire Crystal on the left, and the Firefly Crystal on the right.

You can see the more pronounced yellow and deeper lavender tones of the Firefly Crystal. 

This is true of Fireflies anyway. They are deep blacks and bright yellows. So to translate that into Crystal form, this seems to stand the test. 

What gets me is that the heads are almost the same shade of WHITE. This does not happen with regular Crystals.

You can see the comparison HERE:


http://heathersherpsblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/crystal-balls.html

Even with the somewhat crappy dark photos, you can see that the head coloration is not as bright in either the Crystal or the Pastel Crystal as it is here with these two babies.

And for the record, I understand that I have an animal referenced a year ago on the blog as a Fire Crystal. I was informed later that it was a Sulfur Crystal. Whether that matters or not is a matter of contention...

It looks nothing like what I've hatched here so far...

Here is the picture:


http://heathersherpsblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/show-brief.html

So we wait and see what the future in terms of color brings, eh?

Should be fun!

Have a great day, my friends!

AHAH!!!

I did it! (Kinda)

I updated the website available page with the things that have hatched out over the past few weeks that I have been slacking.

Lots of cool stuff, lots of fun new morphs, and honestly, I feel like I should go back and prep the incubator page that has been lacking for several months now. (That's the next big thing to do)

But of course, now I can share with you the cool things I have hatched out that I plan to hold back.

This here is very exciting. This is my Butter Enchi Hypo boy that I produced. I am incredibly excited to have him in the fray, considering I love Butter Enchis, and him being Hypo just tops the cake!

He is just gorgeous, and I am looking forward to watching him grow and develop into his colors. Should be a good time!

And I believe I had already possibly shared this little girl... This is my Butter Enchi Spider. See a trend? I really love what the Butter and Enchi do to things.

This guy I am on the fence about, so he is up for available as of right now. This is my Pastel TSK Axanthic male. I am working on the TSK Axanthic Killerbee, and he would work well into the project, but I am not sure if I want an Axanthic Pastel male, or if I want an Axanthic Spider... or wait for an Axanthic Bumblebee...

Tough decisions, I know.

And although there are more past clutches to share, these guys hatched out on Thursday, and I wanted to share and get back into the groove.

The pairing was Pewterbee to Mojave, and it worked out pretty well, I think.
 

1.0 Spider, 1.1 Savannah, 1.0 Cinnamon, 1.0 Pastave, and 1.0 Thingamajig.

Now, I call him the Thingamajig only because although he looks like a Pewterbee, I am reserving judgement on him until he sheds, since he COULD be a Mojave Pewterbee (which I am totally hoping for). It's hard to tell when they are all shiny and pink and junk.

So fingers crossed for me, my friends. I could rock a Mojave Pewterbee...

Have a great weekend, my friends. 

Today is Smoj's Birthday! Happy Birthday, Smoj!

More clutches!

So in the midst of the cleaning and setting up and etc...

There have been more females getting ready to lay. These two ladies were on egg watch for a while, and I have to say, I'm suprised how long it took for them to let me have their eggs.

I have been waiting on these girls for a while, since I have had them for many a season. They are usually very trustworthy and good breeders.

Let us begin with Gerda, my Spider female. She had the year off last year for good behavior, and this year she didn't disappoint!

I am very plaesed with the eight eggs she gave me from Super Pastel Lesser (my own baby!) to her large fine Spidery self.

My Cinnamon, on the other hand, did not do as well.

For whatever reason , she mainly slugged out this year. Did I not give her enough time with the male? Did I not give her enough love and attention? I hope not, but it is too late to redeem myself this year with her...

I'm hoping that the two eggs that are legitimate will actually do something cool, and hatch me out some sweet looking morph babies. Fingers crossed.

Also, my Pewterbee to Spider clutch hatched out today. Wierd things are happening here. These guys weren't due for another week and a half, and yet the ones that are due are not even pipping...

I will get to baby pictures tomorrow.

Have a great day, my friends!

Clutch number I have no idea....

This clutch is a welcome relief. I have not had anything out of any of my Visual Pieds as of yet, and this clutch should be fun!

I also enjoy the fact that this breeding was a Mojo Pied to the Pied, with a Cinnamon het Pied male as backup.

Should be a good one, my friends.

Six nice pearly whites, all very well calcified and pretty.

And of course, things that have been laid are hatching, but I will save that for tomorrow.

The Pastel Super Mojave to Pewter clutch hatched out with two live babies..

Pictures and more information tomorrow.

And I think I've not introduced a few of the babies that hatched that are awesome.

Catch up time will be good photo op time!

Have a great day, my friends.

Playing Catch Up

Alright, since I had a day off being sick, I am trying to keep myself up to date with at least the current happenings, as I have been having a hard time playing catch up with the older stuff...

It's going to be interesting the next few days.

But yesterday (7/16/12), I was able to get into the room and pull a clutch from the Pastel Genetic Stripe to a Het Genetic Stripe I produced back in 2008.

Of course, no pictures, as I am still getting my act together with that.

I also collected two eggs from a Het Pied female that didn't appear to be fertile, and she still has a few left in there. I am waiting her out. She was bred to the Pastel Pied.

So of course, this weekend did pan out well. I did finish the epic clean that I had promised myself I would do, although the getting sick part was not part of the plan...

I am feeling very... uplifted.

Like when you have a clean house? Spotless and clean, and although you know it will be dirty in a few days, you know that you made the herculean effort to do it, and you are proud of yourself.

Yes...

That is me right now.

Now I can actually focus on getting the snakes pictured and moved around and organized better and so forth.

So I shall...

My goal for the week, although I will have the Smoj in town (my mother, for those of you who do not know), will be to get photos up of the available animals, and to get the clutch records updated.

I may get to one out of the two things, but that is better than nothing. I hope to do BOTH!

So there you have it, my friends. Until tomorrow!

Have a great day.

Food Poisoning.. Break

Sorry...

Will return tomorrow!

Introducing: (What I think to be) the Pastel Fire Crystal!

So yeah, the Super Mojave Super Fire has proven herself to be that. 

And I am SUPER stoked. 

These two popped out of the clutch.

They have shed and look amazing.

They are for sure Crystal Fires, but I am almost certain they are also Pastel.

Of course, I need to wait and watch them grow into their colors, which I am very interested in doing, but... We shall see.

One female, One male.

I can accept that. 

They are awesome looking, and nothing like the Fire Crystals I have seen before, and nothing like a Pastel Crystal, as I have hatched out before.

They should be AMAZING adults...

I am very excited to share this with you, my friends!

Have a great weekend!

Cleaning

Thing I've learned over the last few weeks?

The more stuff you have, the more stuff you have to clean.

And yes, I have been cleaning like crazy over the last few weeks. I promised myself I would make everything spic and span, and I haven't gotten there yet.

I am about 1/3rd of the way there.

That's a huge accomplishment for me doing this by myself, considering the 300+ animals I have.

Slow going, yes... but at least they are clean to my own exacting standards.

Plus, it doesn't help that I work full time and can only get to cleaning after I get home from work.

This isn't too bad though. I hit about a rack a day completely overhauling clean and switch out substrate, and spot clean the babies. Makes for a decent amount of work in a few hours.

And of course, Sani-chips get everywhere, so I of course have to break out the shop-vac every hour or so to make sure they don't fly everywhere.

Yes... It is a lot of work, but a passion of love. Once I am done, I will be so happy and relieved!!!

But, as it stands, I am not.

That's alright. I hope to complete it this weekend, although I'm going out of town on a business trip...

Back to the snake grind when I get back.

Which also means I will not be blogging tomorrow, as I will be away...

I'm sure that comes as no surprise, and that you are all used to me disappearing now and then.

Monday will come and I hope to report that I will be done and have fun pictures and hatching reports to share!

Have a great day and weekend, my friends!

Clutch number I'm not sure...

Still playing catch up, so I have no real idea what number this clutch is....

Sounds horrible, doesn't it?

But I got this clutch last night, and the breeding was Bunchi het Hypo (Butter Enchi het Hypo) to Spider.

I'm really hoping for some holdback Bunchi Spiders, because that would be amazing.

But for now, I can be grateful that I got eggs in the aftermath of the move, and that they look good!

I had to dig thru my boxes to find the index cards, the Sharpie, and the camera.

That's part of the reason why I haven't shared many pictures yet.

BUT I FOUND THEM!

More importantly, I found the CAMERA!

So things can proceed.

By Monday, I should be back and completely updated. That is my plan...

Although my plans recently have not been too well followed.

But there has to be a goal to reach for, right?

Right.

So here this box of eggs went into the incubator, and we are almost at full capacity again (we were very close to it before the move, and then things hatched...)

I am very glad to see that things are looking towards the positive again.

And I hope it is for you out there as well.

Have a great day, my friends!

Almost there...

So I am neurotic to a point, and since we have moved into a new home with new things and new everything (so it seems), I want everything to be fresh and new as well.

So that means a whole overhaul of the entire snake room.

Which also means a reorganization of the collection, of racks and supplies, of everything.

I have preliminarily gone thru and determined what is safe to let go of, and although I, being the woman that I am, am having a hard time with letting go, I am well aware that this is high time for me to do it.

Over the last few months, things have been overwhelming, and the amount of animals that I have to take care of is part of that.

Add to that the fact that babies are hatching, shows are going on, and I have to get back in gear to update the site, update e-mails, photos, information, etc...

It's a lot of work, people!

But as we are finally settling in a bit better, I am getting to the point now where I can breathe, and I can focus.

This has been very hard to do for a while now, with being pulled six ways to Sunday.

BUT! I can actually say, that other than cleaning up and doing a bit more re-org in the room, I am getting comfortable with the setup. This is a huge step in the right direction.

I realize I have been saying a bunch of nothing so far in terms of what has been going on in my season so far, but I am gearing up to it. My main concern right now is getting everyone setup and cleaned and settled in, and THEN I can take a ton of pictures and put it all on the blog.

It will happen, I promise.

Until then, have a great day, my friends.

Decompressing

I am having a hell of a time getting my act together when it comes to the blog.

I apologize. I work, I come home, I unpack more stuff, I go to sleep, I wake up, and I go to work.

I have not had much time at all to even finish the intended revamp of my snake room yet. Everyone is happy and warm and clean, but that doesn't leave much time for photos and blogging and other things.

Joel and I have been going non-stop for the past three weeks, and it has been very difficult. Forgive me for my lack of blog.

BUT... I do have a lot to share, babies to post, hatchlings and egg to record.

There has been a massive amount of things going on, and that includes the snakes.

But I wanted to take the time and decompress about the room.

I do have a bit more space in this new house, which is refreshing. It is also on hard wood floors, which is much nicer to clean, albeit more annoying to see the little sani-chips all over the place.

They aren't able to be ignored in the carpet anymore... So of course, I bought myself a little mini shop vac.

With that, and the fact that I am in the process of revamping everything, we have had an ant problem.

Ants are a pain in the ass, my friends.

I didn't think it was an issue at first, but after moving in, they took OVER. So we did some spraying outdoors, and I found some awesome natural insect spray that is essentially eucalyptus oil and peppermint oil. It worked well, but smelled like Pepto-Bismol, so Joel says.

After a week, we got them under control, and I am now a little less stressed over the fact that little black ants can crawl over everything if just a small dirty area exists.

As we well know, any snake room with more than a few animals in it will get dirty immediately after cleaning, so that gave my already high level of anxiety about the new house a bit more of a boost.

I am feeling still overwhelmed, as things just keep piling up, but I have to say, it's getting better.

We are blessed to be able to have moved so quickly, and to a good area and a new neighborhood. I just have to have a bit more time to focus, and organize the room to the best of my abilities.

Right now, things are where they fit, but not where they would be best served. I need a bit more time for that. And of course, things are still breeding, laying, etc... It has been a whirlwind couple of months, and I really need it to settle down a bit so that I can get back on track with things like normal.

But what is normal, eh?

Have a great Monday, my friends.


Side Note:

Also, please take the time out to send a prayer or well-wishes to Sean Bradley, who suffered a tragic injury this past week and will be paralyzed. 

Read it HERE. 

He needs our support from the Reptile Community. 

All the best, Sean.