Some of my snakes

[danl82]

I don't just keep mantids, I've been keeping various "exotics" for over 30 years. Reptiles and amphibians mostly.

I took a couple of pics of a few of my current collection.

First my adult male everglades ratsnake



and one his young from this year, 14 days old



One of a young pair of ladder ratsnakes



My female tartar sand boa



and finally my breeding pair of leopard ratsnakes, these are nervous by nature so I just took the lid of their hide box so as not to disturb them too much.

 

[Rick]

Nice! A herper myself.

 

[danl82]

Glad to see I'm not alone. There isn't a decent forum over here atm for herp stuff, so thought I'd share some of it here. The state of the hobby has gone in some funny directions and the only forum in the uk reflects that.

 

[MantisGirl13]

Those are some cool snakes! 

- MantisGirl13

 

[Graceface]

Neato! Those are some cool snakes I could use their help clearing rats off my property! Maybe I should be getting into snakes...

 

[hcarlton]

Due to parental restrictions I'm stuck with my 3 corn snakes and a couple milk snakes at the moment, but those are several species I intend to have some day! Love the various old-world ratsnakes....

 

[danl82]

I used to have a lot more, especially Asian ratsnakes and small pythons. But I downsized a lot when my children were born. I'm now at the point of slowly rebuilding a collection again.

 

[Mantis Lady]

I am not keeping snakes, but I like your pics, They all are beautifull.

 

[danl82]

A couple of more pictures

First is my male rosy boa, this is currently the oldest snake in my collection.  He came with me to university and had him for a couple of years prior to that so he is over 20 years old.  I found a female for him about 16 years ago and most years they breed.  Found them hooked up recently so hopefully this year as well.



This next one was a gift from an old herping friend, an irian jaya carpet python.  It was a very quick shot at night so doesn't show her brilliantly but she's a beautiful animal.  Purebred so the tricky part is finding a purebred male for her.

 

[danl82]

I've been a bit quiet on this forum for a while, not gone just busy with other stuff. Thought I'd add a couple of new(ish) pictures



This is a intergrade rainbow boa, a cross between a colombian and a brazilian, not bred by me, I don't produce hybrids.  He was unwanted and I've given him a home.  He is nearly 6 ft and incredibly docile.  He has the typical rainbow iridescence but it is something that is so hard to capture in pictures.



My peruvian rainbow boa, this photo was taken by a friend of mine when I took a couple of snakes to visit his shop. Taxonomically they have been lumped in with the brazilian rainbow boa but side by side they are quite different, more red/purple where as brazilians tend to be more orange and the black markings are much thicker, also size he is almost 7 feet. Never seen a genuine brazilian anywhere near that size. My brazilian is in shed atm so I will have to try to get some pictures next time.



Not the greatest picture but this is my female dumerils boa, I found my male locked up with her the other day so fingers crossed for babies in autumn.



Miami corn snake, this is my female and one of my kids favourites. So easy to keep, feed and handle, she's a pleasure to have around.  Now if I could just find a genuine miami male....



My black ratsnake, whilst my collection has a fair few pythons and boids, I have a real fondness for colubrids.



One of my royal pythons, normal wildtype and not carrying any morph genes as far as I could ascertain.  Exactly what I wanted when I got and her partner, she surprised me with these eggs, whilst I expected them, I was thinking maybe 5/6 given how big she got.  Instead she laid 3 enormous eggs which are still incubating at the moment.



My male bredl's python, his mate carries a bit less black on her body but was being even more unhelpful in front of the camera : )



For a change from my snakes, this is daisy our green cheeked conure, stealing my ice lolly.

That's all for now, I need to take pictures of the rest of the snakes at some point but never seem to find the time.

 

[MantisGirl13]

Beautiful animals! Your snakes are stunning, and Daisy is adorable!

- MantisGirl13 

 

[danl82]

Thank you, she is an absolute character and very headstrong, I actually got her 3 years ago as a surprise birthday present for my wife. Pyrrhura conures are just like a big parrot in a little body! All the personality, intelligence and extremely cuddly, their voices are little quiet compared to say an african grey. She talks well and has a large vocabulary. 

 

[hcarlton]

I love Miami corns, when I have the space to expand more I really hope to get a Miami Tessera one day. Same with Bredl's carpets, their rusty orange colors are great.

The rainbow boas are beautiful too, don't think I've ever seen a Peruvian locale and until I read the description I was sitting there trying to parse out what the first one was for too long since it was sporting traits of both species. I love their iridescence, but have to say with the chances on attitude I'm glad I snagged the Dominican boas I've got (a cranky rainbow isn't great as an educational animal).

 

[danl82]

Peruvian rainbows are not common to begin with and I've no doubt that the few that have been around were often crossed with brazilians or just sold as brazilians. Alot of the differences become pronounced as they grow up. The intergrade one is actually so calm, he's been into my kids school as a teaching animal. Your dominican boas are lovely and one of those species that's always on my "ķeep an eye out for" list.  But tbh I woukd only likely be able to find those at something like the hamm show, not happening this year so far.

 

[danl82]

A couple more pictures today as the weather was good.



Brazilian rainbow boa.







These are my pair of rosy boas, the male I have previously posted above before.  The top two are my female and the last is the male, bay of LA locality.



This is a variable or thayers kingsnake, this one could be advertised as a buckskin, leonis or buckskin leonis depending who was selling it! He is a personal favourite and I have a younger female growing fast to hopefully pair to him next year.

I did receive a couple of new animals yesterday, but I'll let them settle in before any pictures.  I'm trying to get pictures of the entire collection eventually, but that will probably take a while!

 

[MantisGirl13]

Wow. Beautiful!

- MantisGirl13 

 

[danl82]

Found a bit of time to take a few more pictures. 



Black pine snake, one of my all time favourite species.



Fresh out of the egg today, black african house snakes, that iridescence is permanent the parents have it too.   The parents were wild caught adults and it has taken over a year of work to get to this : )  Out of 4 eggs, 3 made it to hatching, 2 females and a male.  I'll be holding back a pair to secure their future with me, maybe all three. The taxonomy of "African house snakes" is a mess, I've seen these listed as a black form of the cape house snake but they don't conform to that species at all, from scale counts, behaviour, morphology, preferences in their cage, the ability to change colour at night etc, so the jury is still out.  I have two brown house snakes (from unrelated sources) that were supposed to be B. capensis, however the female is clearly a B. maculosa, just to give a bit of perspective on how confused the situation is with this group of lovely animals.



My male spotted python, the female is gravid, a bit late this year, usually eggs are laid by june.





My male blood python still a youngster at almost 4 feet and the colours still have some more development to go .  Him and his future partner are both het for albino.



Female Dasypeltis gansi, west african egg eater.  She was wild caught and not in the best of heath when I came across her. Against my better judgement I took her home and after a few tense months, that felt like an eternity, she gradually got healthy and settled.  Still does her best saw scaled viper impression if suddenly disturbed but she's settled and a year later doing well.





This is my King rat snake, he was only hatched in late 2019, so has a way to go with his colours.  Eventually he'll be black with every scale having various amounts of yellow, which you can already see, his eyes will go fully red and his tongue is a bright scarlet.  Very nervous, he's slowly calming down, I don't expect him to ever be "tame", it's not in their nature, but when he's 8 feet long I'd like him to be easier to deal with at least lol!

 

[MantisMart]

Very cool! I bet it takes up a lot of ur time to care for them lol.

 

[MantisGirl13]

Beautiful snakes!!! I love the color of the rat snake and the house snakes are stunning! 

How big will the house snakes get?

- MantisGirl13