Happy New Year

I apologize for my abrupt absence over the last few days.







I have had family in town, and helped a friend move.


I needed a break from things, which including imbibing many glasses of red wine and tea in my Snuggie, and induging in a few too many See's Candies, as well as watching the last two seasons of True Blood.


So with that, I will return to our regular scheduled program in the New Year.

I have many things to share and show you all.

Have a fantastic day, my friends, and stay safe out there.

Self-Determination

Well, I have the week off of work, which means the blogs are going to be late cause I can actually do them during the day!

Also, it means that I have WAYYYYY more time to do snake stuff, which I am excited about.

BUT, that has yet to happen.

So I am determined to make more time, to spend more time with the snakes.

And since today is the second day of Kwanzaa, which I do not practice, but do follow the principles, I think it is appropriate.

Today is Kugichagulia...

Kujichagulia (Self-Determination): To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves, and speak for ourselves.

I need to create for myself more time, as well as a few other things. But as this is about the snakes, that is my intention, as well as my new years resolution.

I also need to find more time for the blog, and more interesting topics. Today being one of those that is lacking.

I'm working on it.

So until tomorrow, my friends.

Have a fantastic self-determined day!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Have a fantastic Holiday, my friends.

Merry Christmas, and have a great weekend with your loved ones and snakey friends.

From the Heather's Herps family to yours.

Twins and Pieds to boot!

So all of the Pieds are out, and they are all BOYS. Of course....

The bottom two are the twins, and the top guy hatched out the day after. 

Here are the two twins close up and personal. They detached and are doing well. Should do well after their first sheds. Food is coming, you guys! 

I am intrigued by these guys, and wonder if twins throw more twins? Would be interesting to find out, wouldn't it?

So of course as well as paying attention to the hatchlings, there are the breedings to focus on as well. 

I only caught one last night, and it is the TSK Axanthic het Albino to a Pastel poss het Axanthic. I'm really hoping to get some Pastel Axanthics this time around. Fingers crossed!

 

Have a fantastic day, my friends!

Wait, What???

You know how I mentioned there were Pieds in one of the clutches that is hatching out right now?

Well, I was right... But I didn't expect this!

Two out of the five eggs that were still good out of the clutch had pieds in them. One of them that has a Pied in it has yet to pip, but the other egg had been ready to pip out for a while. 

This egg had been the first one I cut, and I left it alone. Saw white, moved on...

But now that this one pipped, something was different. 

There was one yolk, but two babies!

This is my second clutch with twins EVER, and the second clutch with twins that are genetically Pied.

Here are the two het pied gals from last year that hatched out.

How WIERD!?!?! Same father and everything, but different mothers.

I thought this was really interesting because when I pulled these guys out, one was still in the egg, and the other was out. So I removed both of them, and this is what I saw...

They were still connected!!!

Obviously, this is how they developed, sharing a yolk and not an umbilicus. I have never seen this before, and I am so intrigued!!! I am glad I got a chance to take a picture before they disconnected from each other.

These guys are both boys, and they are small... runts obviously, but they will be great males when they get bigger and more established. I'm excited to work with them!

So there is one more (I think) Pied in the clutch that is due to hatch out, and three more het Pieds. 

So far we have 2.0 Pieds, 3.2 Het Pieds.

WOOHOOO!

Have a great day, my friends.

Breeding and hatching

 Well, a few of the babies hatched out of the two clutches that were left for the season. Since they are hatching at the same time, I put them all together. 

So far, we have 1.2 100% het Pieds, with 2 Pieds in the egg, and the rest (5 or 6 more off the top of my head) are 100% het Pieds.

One of the Pieds looks like a screamer, so lets hope its a girl!

And while waiting for the eggs to hatch, and while the rains are pouring down here in the southland, breedings are afoot. 

I caught these two locks while with the camera, so here we are. 

Here is my scarred up Female Pastel. I call her "Baby" just cause I feel so bad for her scars. They are a few years old now, but they still are scars... They will always be scars. 

But she got one of the babies too. She is being bred by my "I thought he may not be interested since he is so small" Spotnose het VPI Axanthic male. 

I look forward to having a few Pastel Spotnoses in the collection. Poss het VPI Axanthic doesn't hurt either!

And this guy is no stranger to pairing up. You all remember "Pee-Oh-Gee", right? Well, he is getting it on with one of his poss het girls (This gal is het for Albino, but yet to be proven het for Ghost. Fingers crossed!) She had been put with him before a few years back, but I don't believe he produced with her. Lets hope to see some Ghost babies in this clutch.. That way I can make the Sunglow Ball Python!

The rain isn't going to let up any time soon, so hopefully tomorrow I can get some photos of some other locks to share with you all. 

Until then, have a fantastic day, my friends!

WOW!

I absolutely loved the feedback I got over the weekend in regards to the post about the Industry.

I really do appreciate all e-mails and messages I get in regards to the blog...

So I will try and get more hot topics on the blog. Everyone has their opinions, and I want to hear what you think about things too!

And to top it all off, my friends, the last two clutches of the 2010 season are hatching as we speak!

This clutch is Pied to poss het, and she did not prove. Two out of the five are pipping, as well as when I cut them earlier, I knew they were all hets, and no pieds... That's alright!

 Aren't they just too cute??

This clutch is the other Pied to poss het clutch, which DID prove out, as you cannot see in this photo, but let me let you in on a little secret... That one egg that is cut was the only one I cut in that clutch. In there, in that one cut egg, is a Pied. So I didn't cut any others...

Why not? Well, you can clearly see that there are a few bad eggs in the clutch, so I didn't want to expose any other embryos to contamination, although it is more than likely fine, I just didn't feel the need to do it.

So lets wait for another few days, and see what we have popping out of 2010, shall we?

I can't wait!

Have a fantastic day, my friends!!!