Aw, ignore the snake haters - we'll win them over to our side some day! My fiance and I do educational programs with ourreptiles, and on Earth Day we brought his Dumeril's Boa (who weirdly enough is about a foot longer than he should be) to our table. Sweetest snake, really good about being pet and even lets us pester him by doing things like showing folks his mating spurs and such. A lady from the DEC who was TERRIFIED of snakes two tables down worked up the courage to pet him by the end of the day
Anyways, great pics and I LOVE your menagerie. I had a "hilter fish" as well, but her moustache also went away with age; it's remarkable how much their markings change with time. Just be prepared to give him a BIG home one day (and some friends). My tiny baby common grew to over a foot long now at just four years of age - and he's stunted! His children are very rapidly outgrowing him. x_x
I love Arwen and Aragorn- just love names from great movies! My Pippin is named after Peregrin Took from LOTR .
Your hotot is so so gorgeous- especially the baby pictures are just too cute to bear!
Loving all the reptiles too. So many people in my family have reptiles- especially boas- but I really don't know much about them. Look forward to it in your blog
Ya guys if you don't like snakes don't post in these kinds of blogs. I'm sure if you went on a reptile forum and started posting about your bunnies and got 'Uh I hate rabbits, they smell, their dumb' etc. You wouldn't be so happy Reptiles are beloved pets to many people like bunnies are to you
Thanks for starting a blog! Your pictures are brilliant! You must have a really good camera. Welcome to Rabbits Online
Venomous snakes usually (let me stress /usually/) have very arrow-shaped heads, like this:
See how it starts vert pointy at his nose, gets really wide, and then very quickly narrows to become his neck? This is a copperhead, he is actually part of some research my boyfriend does with copperheards. He is studying eating habits (will a copperhead eat a fish in the presence of a mouse?) as well as fang shed rate.
Venomous snakes usually have that type of head as opposed to the colubrid (corn snakes like Drake and Aphrodite up there as well as many other species) type of head, which is narrower. Trying to keep it to snakes native to North America, btw. But all your rattlesnakes will have that type of head. That is because they have their venom glands around their "cheek" areas which make their head more bulky. That is not always the best indicator of a venemous snake if you run into a wild one, though, because as a defense mechanism a lot of snakes will try and flatten out and make their heads look more arrow shaped, like this Northern water snake -- perfectly harmless (as far as venom goes, but they are fiesty little buggers and bite a lot! And their musk smells like death), but he tries to look like a cottonmouth!
There are others that don't necessarily have the arrow shaped head, but generally for rattlesnakes, that is a good indicator. And the rattling noise, too
Wow how interesting! I love that there are so many different species and families of snakes, and all their many indiviual adaptations; rattle, spitting venom, hood, constriction etc.
I think the most fascinating thing about snakes, that I learn the other day in one of my lectures, is the fact that they almost have 4 jaws- two on the bottom, and two on the top, not joined by bone, only by stretchy ligaments, so they can 'walk' them over their prey.
I really love your boyfriends milksnake..if you go to my blog I only breed leopard geckos now, but I really want to get back into snakes, but just milks probably and of course the rainbow.
Jen, here in AZ I worked with the University with venomous snakes and even Gila Monsters (ASU owns 3)! They are really great to work with! Such great education. I am curious if you own one also.
Gila monsters! Wow! How fascinating. You are so lucky!
My university? If I am honest, I don't know (yet). I am only in my first year, so we've only been working with skeletons and reptiles/spiders in display jars etc, and small invertebrates.
Currently we have only seen a Praying Mantis and hermit crabs in our lectures. The Praying Mantis was just unbelievable to watch- it's hunting skills etc. I have a video somewhere that I'll try and get on here somewhere!!
I have never understood why some people can't stand things like rats or snakes....rats are super smart and LOVE cuddles and play time, and snakes can be just as sweet, while not exactly playful, and can be cuddled with as well. They all have personalities, even the reptiles!
I love the reptiles - I have my one corn snake Scratch who I inherited from my son... not sure of his/her sex but he/she loves to snuggle in any warm spot on me... being in perimenopause with lots of hot flashes, Scratch loves when I come to put him/her in my sweatshirt! Had green anoles years ago when my boys were little.
Someday maybe an albino Burmese or ball python will be in my future... fell in love with those at one of hubby's annual meetings and the owner eventually had to peel the snake off of me - we were bonding quite well!
My late farrier's daughter had a rat as a pet and when the rat passed, they purchased another and brought her by for me to see.
How do reptiles show affection towards you? I've never owned one, and, although I can't envisage it, it annoys me to hell when people say that rabbits can't show affection towards you, just because it's not as obvious as a puppy barking and leaping on you wagging its tail, so I am more than willing to go into this subject with an open mind
How can you see when your snake is attached to you or bonding with you?
What about signs/sounds of contentment?
Snakes don't bond or show affection. The most they do to show they "like" you or are "content" is to not view you as a threat. I have never been bitten by any of my pets, because I handle them on a regular basis and they are comfortable with me. Snakes are natural loners, so they don't really make friends with anyone. However, you can still cuddle with them and for me its easy to ignore the fact that its not that they like me, I can pretend They are great pets. However, snakes always retain that wild animal nature and if you were to release a snake into the wild, as long as the climate was the right one for that snake to survive it could easily revert back to hunting for itself and survive as a wild snake again. Thats what has happened in Florida with the Burmese pythons. Things like hurricanes and irresponsible pet owners have released these animals in a climate that can support them, and now they are running wild and reproducing as wild animals.
And on that note about Burmese pythons, you should only get a Burmese if you have adequate experience dealing with other large constrictors. They are a HUGE handful, and can be extremely dangerous if you don't know exactly what you're doing. They get MASSIVE and if you don't handle it enough when its young, it can grow into an adult over 20 feet long and over 100 pounds with a nasty temperament. That size snake could easily kill an adult human. My friend with the burmese has had at least 10 years experience with reptiles, including large ones, before she got Sunny. Sunny is a very docile Burmese because she is very careful to make sure he is desensitized to being touched in "sensitive" snake places like his face, and he is used to being lugged around and cuddled with and whatnot. Even with all that "training" and "socialization" he is still potentially dangerous around feeding time because sometimes he will chase your feet thinking they're rats. He is only half the size he can potentially get, too, at 11 feet long. These snakes are not for the beginning reptile owner, and colubrids like corn snakes or other species that are generally under 6 feet really don't prepare you for these snakes. Perhaps large red tail boas could be a good start, because females can get up to 12 feet. I can't tell you how many Burmese pythons I see on criagslist because owners get overwhelmed when they start getting bigger. I see more Burmese pythons and other large constrictors than rabbits. Its the same in Florida, owners get too overwhelmed with their large size and just let them go instead of being responsible and finding them a new home.
You have beautiful animals! Please just ignore anyone who is anti any of your animals. Everyone is here for rabbits, pet rabbits, but almost everyone will respect your love of animals in general.
I am also a huge animal lover and have a bunch of animals. I really need to start a blog, but my camera has gone missing and I want to post pics with them. LOL But like you, I have rabbits and reptiles (turtles, bearded dragons, a veiled chameleon and 3 ball pythons) and cats and dogs and I have had rats and ferrets and chinchillas and so on and so forth.
Adorable rattie boys :biggrin:! I have 4 neutered boys myself.
I love looking at blogs with a variety of animals, but sometimes I have to be careful because of frogs. I'm extremely terrified of them to the point where I have really bad panic attacks if I even see a picture of one. Whenever I visit Ren's blog I have to scroll VERY slow to make sure I see the word "frog" when pictures are coming up, so I take that as my warning to either exit out or scroll super fast past the frog pictures :whistling.
