OMG, Snakes!

Snakes-snakes-snakes. Sometimes posts about other people's snakes. No posts about not snakes.  | Instagram | MorphMarket |

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Happy Pride to everyone but especially to Arthur and Bert, my interspecies gay finches who are in love and are incubating... something?... in their nest??

When my zebra finch Arthur lost his elderly husband Bruce last December (at eleven years old, which is positively ancient for a zebra finch!), I was really worried that Arthur would have a hard time finding love again. Thankfully, my local bird shop guy had a gay male shaft-tailed finch he was having a hard time pairing AND who was from an aviary that co-housed zebra finches, so that worked out perfectly! After a brief introduction period these two started courting and they are now married and very, very happy together.

Love wins!

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I have an adult corn snake that has refused to eat for like a month and a half. He hasnt lost 10% of his weight yet but hes getting there. He just seems hell bent on getting out and cruising around. Breeding season I guess, but he's never not eaten before. He saw a vet three months ago and was deemed fine, if a little fat. How long can they not eat? When should I seek a vet?

Thanks, hope things are going well with you.

Hello friend!

I'm sorry that your buddy is being hormonal and not eating. You can help him get past this seasonal phase by increasing his "daylight" with a lamp to simulate summer photoperiods, and if you're currently offering frozen/thaw prey you can try the brown bag trick: put him and his meal in a paper lunch bag (it doesn't have to be brown, that's just a common color), fold the top of the bag down and then put the whole sac in his cage and let him sit in there for a few hours. Sometimes not having any other stimulation can remind a snake that food is good and important.

If he doesn't snap out of it by the end of May, you may need to go back to the vet, but I'm optimistic that he's on the downward slope!

Also, I'm sorry for being so inactive lately. I'm finishing my thesis and having Life Stuff™ going on, so I'm not on the socials as much these days.

One more week to go!!

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Have you seen the recent Moreparz video about the Arabian Sand Boa?

I have now!

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I don't get to take photos of Yutu very often, mostly because she's a little bit of a turd, but today was pre-breeding-season intros to see how she'd do with Aurelian and she was relatively calm and cooperative after they hung out for a bit. I think they'll be a good pair.

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My beautiful Hatshepsut is starting to develop cataracts as she gets up in years. This is no big deal in captivity as she mostly hunts by smell and there are no predators to take advantage of her decreased vision.

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Lisa my 90s neon highlighter baby

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Everyone's favorite thick idiot son came out to meet trick or treaters, but we've had an average of one group of 2-3 kids every 30 minutes, so we're hanging out on the sofa and now he's all the way asleep on my shoulder.

Good night and may all your Hallows be Weened.

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Trick or treat! May I have your cutest snake? (Trick question, they're all cute)

Hi there! Is this a meme costume? Haha, I think I'm too old to get it but you look cool anyway.

I do have one snake that is a teensy bit cuter than the rest, but he's not for little kids. Are you old enough to meet him? Ah, I see an adult behind you and they're nodding approval! Okay, awesome! Just be careful, okay?

Thanks for coming by! Happy Halloween!

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trick or treat!

snakes are cool!

Well hi! Gosh you sure look scary tonight!

I agree, snakes are really cool! Did you want to pick a candy from the bowl? There's some Partycake in there if you like that. Might have to dig around a bit for it...

Okay, have a fun night! Happy Halloween!

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trick or treat?:)

Well hey there kiddo! That's a cool costume. :)

Here ya go, take your pick!

Alrighty, have a fun night and stay safe, okay?

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Hi friend! Long time after i made my last question.

I'm back now with a new corn snake i got, yet i got 3 things i'd like to ask.

Did i buy a skinny snake, or are corn snakes just like that?

The breeder told me it was too small to be sexed just yet, but i didn't hear the minimum size needed for it since the place was full of people and it was so loud.

With these pictures, can you determine what variant my baby is? It's odd, i haven't seen the pattern before. If the pictures aren't enough i can try to get better shots if you want.

TYSM for your time 🙏🏻

Hiiii friend!

Corn-grats on the little darling; they're so cute!

They're lean but I wouldn't consider them too skinny. This body condition is about what you want for a little baby: round on top, straight down the sides. There's just not a lot of sides yet because they're itty-wee!

They're definitely not too small to sex. Babies can be checked immediately on hatching, though I prefer to give them a month or so to settle in before I go squeezing at their tails. Less experienced breeders might be squeamish about doing it because the sexing method known as popping is a little fiddly and poor technique can hurt a baby snake. There are companies that will use DNA from a shed skin to sex your snake or a good exotics vet can check for you. If you don't mind waiting, corn snakes can be visually sexed by a year or two of age, though it's more reliable the longer you wait. I would strongly caution against taking them to a reptile store to be checked, no matter how "reputable" the store is purported to be. This is a really easy way to expose your little one to infectious disease and those store employees are never as knowledgeable as their managers pretend they are.

Finally, I'd love to see the tummy to be sure but it looks to me you've got a lovely Tessera or maybe a Hypo Tessera. Tessera is a fun pattern-affecting morph with dominant heritance.

Since it sounds like they're from an expo, I'd recommend having a fecal test panel done ASAP to screen for crypto and you can use that opportunity with your vet to have the little one sexed!

I hope you have a lot of fun getting to know each other!

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Guinefort, King of Being In Shed on Photos Day