AusPaws

[kinggizzard]

im quitting tumblr

[wwubwubwubwuubwub-deactivated20]

ok see u tomorrow

[kinggizzard]

this post is now 10 fucking years old

[wordfather]

writing tip:

if you push buttons on a keyboard, letters will appear on the screen. and with that power you can do anything

[lychgate]

 i think it was cruel to give lightning mcqueen a foot fetish, as he lives in a world where all feet are wheels. he has nothing.

[wordfather]

sorry i wasnt talking to you i think

[geckogalaxy]

Last abronia shot for a while I promise, I just can’t get over how stunning he is. He’s got great body condition and is the king of sassy side eye. I have lots of gecko and skink photos to be uploaded in the next few days as well.

[auspaws]

How often should bloods be fed? I'm thinking of getting one next year maybe?? I've had ball pythons and I'm starting research on bloods

Something to know about blood and short tail feeding is that their meals should be smaller than you would normally think (an adult should be getting medium rats IMO, unless they are just really large specimens).  They have an extremely slow metabolism as well and because they are very heavy bodied, it’s easy to overfeed in size or frequency and then end up with an obese animal.

Personally, I feed babies and juveniles every 7-10 days and sub adults and adults every 14-16 days.  If I feel like an animal needs to be cut back because of weight gain, I’ll feed about once a month or drop the prey size (different snakes react in different ways).

Feeding Guide - Kara is one of the most well respected breeders in the industry and her animals have never looked obese to me, so her caresheets are good to work off of.

I like leaner bloods.  In fact, I’m sure if I posted all of my pictures onto different blood groups I’m a part of, there would be grumbling about having skinny snakes (I do have some skinny animals that were in bad condition when I took them but they are slowly gaining weight).  Bloods and short tails should have a tear drop shape (think like a cross section), a defined spine, they should be able to curl up without a lot of visible creases/rolls, and the neck and tail areas should have a gradual slope (no hips and no pin head, though tails can get big when they are holding in poop).

Here’s some pictures that also demonstrate that passing a weight judgement off of just one picture from one angle isn’t a great way to tell if an animal is overweight.  These are pictures of a wild specimen and you can see how the weight distribution can change based on angles and how the animal itself is flattening out or tensing up!

X

[auspaws]

Reblogging an older ask I got about feeding. I do mention I think medium rats are a good size for an adult short tail here. I wouldn't go larger than a large rat for bigger animals. Medium usually fits the bill but there are some very large specimens that a large would also be great for. Just depends on the individual animal. I also get my feeders from a small local company (run by a single person to tell you how small) and the mediums I get from him are very big haha.

[eublepharis-nerdularius]

@equagga @sabletsnakes Here’s a picture of October lying on a flat surface. From this angle she looks fine to me. So I picked her up and put her in my lap and realized she sucks her sides in when she’s held, and that’s what I was seeing before. Could it be she’s anxious?

[sixlegnag]

I’d agree she looks pretty good from this angle. I’d like her a tad more filled out when she’s full grown but not a lot. For a young lady, perfectly good.

Mine puffs up when he’s nervous but these guys don’t all express themselves the same way. She could be tensing when anxious, so she’s locked-and-loaded, but since I’ve never known of one who does I can’t confirm it.

[eublepharis-nerdularius]

That’s great to hear! Thank you again!

We have a couple of ball pythons who tighten up like that when they’re nervous, but like I said she’s my first blood so as far as personality/behavior go I really have no other experience.

[auspaws]

@eublepharis-nerdularius I dropped the ball on commenting on this because @equagga said basically everything I would have said and again, a perfect example of why judging weight off of photos can be extremely difficult with this species.

From the over head we can see that she does have a prominent spine (you can compare with the picture of the ivory I shared previously to see how the spine looks more pronounced between the two pictures) but she really looks just fine to me. Keep on your feeding schedule imo, she’s young and she will go through phases of lean as she grows longer, nothing wrong with that!

I feel like bloods and short tails are extremely variable with how each individual grows and puts on weight. I have an animal who is almost two years and is smaller than many other two year olds I’ve seen, but I’m not worried about her. She’s eating, she’s drinking, she’s active, there’s no reason for me to try and cram more food into her just because she’s smaller than other two year olds.

It’s much more important for this species to develop their weight in a way that is natural for their own personal growth rate. I feel that power feeding bloods is a lot more damaging than other species when it comes to diminished lifespans and quality of life. But that’s just my opinion, any animal will suffer from blowing up just because someone wants to breed them faster. I have four year olds going on five that I still haven’t paired up because I just feel they aren’t mature enough or have enough weight. But slow and steady, I don’t want snake balloon animals ;A;

[eublepharis-nerdularius]

Thanks for the advice! I haven’t altered her feeding schedule at all since talking to you the first time, and my girl is doing great. I’m in no rush to grow her, and I may never breed her (although I’d like to breed bloods someday, at least on a small scale) I’ve read care sheets that encourage overfeeding bloods, but I know their metabolisms are not equipped for that. I don’t need her to get huge as soon as possible, all I care about is that my girl is healthy. :)

[auspaws]

Yes, you’re an experienced reptile keeper already (though we all go through nervous phases with new species I think haha!) And you’re doing great and have the right mind set. Any care sheets that recommend over feeding any species I always steer clear from (just like you!). I really tend to stick with The Blood Cells guides. Kara doesn’t advise feeding her adult short tails anything bigger than a large rat!

I feel we’re so used to more commonly kept species like balls where we rejoice when they eat anything or seeing retic keepers showing off ‘that bulge’ when they feed their giants pigs and sheep that newer keepers might be swayed away from a longer feeding schedule and smaller prey size when dealing with short tails. It doesn’t help that some of the big name short tail breeders have actually been recorded saying they want their females as fat as possible so they can breed faster and bigger clutches either (even though this has really negative impacts on health and quality of life) :( but most of the good people working with short tails will stick with smaller food and longer feeding schedules.

It’s really important I think to get that advice out in the open to make sure we have healthy and comfortable animals. :) Can’t wait to see her grow up and color change over the next few years with you!

This comment is just me reaffirming to any followers I have that keep short tails or are thinking about it to stick with the above feeding advice!

[eublepharis-nerdularius]

@equagga @sabletsnakes Here’s a picture of October lying on a flat surface. From this angle she looks fine to me. So I picked her up and put her in my lap and realized she sucks her sides in when she’s held, and that’s what I was seeing before. Could it be she’s anxious?

[sixlegnag]

I’d agree she looks pretty good from this angle. I’d like her a tad more filled out when she’s full grown but not a lot. For a young lady, perfectly good.

Mine puffs up when he’s nervous but these guys don’t all express themselves the same way. She could be tensing when anxious, so she’s locked-and-loaded, but since I’ve never known of one who does I can’t confirm it.

[eublepharis-nerdularius]

That’s great to hear! Thank you again!

We have a couple of ball pythons who tighten up like that when they’re nervous, but like I said she’s my first blood so as far as personality/behavior go I really have no other experience.

[auspaws]

@eublepharis-nerdularius I dropped the ball on commenting on this because @equagga said basically everything I would have said and again, a perfect example of why judging weight off of photos can be extremely difficult with this species.

From the over head we can see that she does have a prominent spine (you can compare with the picture of the ivory I shared previously to see how the spine looks more pronounced between the two pictures) but she really looks just fine to me. Keep on your feeding schedule imo, she’s young and she will go through phases of lean as she grows longer, nothing wrong with that!

I feel like bloods and short tails are extremely variable with how each individual grows and puts on weight. I have an animal who is almost two years and is smaller than many other two year olds I’ve seen, but I’m not worried about her. She’s eating, she’s drinking, she’s active, there’s no reason for me to try and cram more food into her just because she’s smaller than other two year olds.

It’s much more important for this species to develop their weight in a way that is natural for their own personal growth rate. I feel that power feeding bloods is a lot more damaging than other species when it comes to diminished lifespans and quality of life. But that’s just my opinion, any animal will suffer from blowing up just because someone wants to breed them faster. I have four year olds going on five that I still haven’t paired up because I just feel they aren’t mature enough or have enough weight. But slow and steady, I don’t want snake balloon animals ;A;

[auspaws]

Malystryx, my smol Queen

[auspaws]

Be the rat... BECOME the rat

Here’s a feeding tip for those of you with picky/fussy eaters.

Do you have a snake that you’ve tried just about everything with f/t (braining, scenting, different sizes, different COLORS even, etc) and the animal seems interested and strikes and coils… and you are like ‘Ohhhh yeah finally!’ and you sneak out of the room and then check on them several hours later and there is an uneaten rat sitting in the middle of the cage taunting you?

Well, I have two ball pythons that do this and I was mentioning it to a few people and they told me to try this:

Once your fussy snake hits and coils the prey item, tug on the tail of the rat.  Wiggle it around, pull on it (not like, a tug and war match of course) for a couple of mins.  You’ll feel the snake coil more and squeeze tighter because they think the rat is still alive and struggling.  Then, cross your fingers and sneak out of the room and see what happens.

I’ve tried this the last couple of feedings with these two animals and I’ve come back to check on them and there’s no rat.  I’m particularly happy about my male ball that started refusing f/t over a year ago and we had to start feeding him live.  And now he’s eaten twice with this method on a f/t feeder.

Learn something new everyday.  Maybe this is like, old hat trick and everyone knows it, but I didn’t, so maybe this will help some folks.

[auspaws]

how rude I am to lift up her hide and her paper towels to check on her the day after feeding The rudest human alive

[auspaws]

your 2016 water bowl flipping champion

[auspaws]

I think this animal is at an ideal body weight for this species.

[auspaws]

'Ghost' Ivory

[auspaws]

Stealing photo ideas from Kara

[auspaws]

Picked Miss Mustard (Pyros) up for cleaning with no strikes! Still a very wary snake as you can see by her posturing but no strikes, just some tension, tongue flicking and hissing. Baby steps.

[teleos]

Agni by Julian Rossi Via Flickr: Arizona mountain king snake.

[honeyformytea]

These are all of my babies! (From top to bottom)

Perona / crested gecko Neera / black and white argentine tegu Gamabunta-chan / pacman frog Toothless / northern blue tongue skink Mugen / Sumatran red blood python Elsa / blizzard corn snake

You can find pictures of them under /tagged/scalebabes

[auspaws]

Let’s talk about how amazing the color change can be as a blood matures

K-Mart Bloods & Bolivians

[auspaws]

I was looking for something else in my archive but I feel the need to bring this up again.