Not exactly cats or dogs, and not exactly in the garden...

16 Jan '07 3:34 am

I thought I'd start a new thread for this as I don't want to totally hijack someone else's!

I managed to get a few photos of some of the snakes over the weekend and thought I'd introduce you all. The photos aren't great as we were losing light and the snakes kept moving Rolling Eyes

, but I think you can get the idea mostly. Also, I couldn't get two of them out as Beowulf had shed his skin badly so we had to wrap him up in a damp cloth bag, and Mrs Hudson is about to shed any day now and gets upset if we handle her around that time. So apologies for the incomplete line-up and the quality (or lack of it) of the photos, but here are some of our snakes...

16 Jan '07 6:43 am

You are making me wiggle in my seat Bambi! Mr. Green

Such unusual pets (we only have really little ones in NZ, we call them worms Very Happy

) and such brilliant colours. Particulary Baskerville she is gorgeous Cool

When you say Beowulf 'shed his skin badly' does that mean he looks gross or can it be painfull?

BTW, we get a peek of the garden so technically..... Wink

However, I do note in the pic of Dr Watson that there are a pair of extremely clean fingernails? Shocked

16 Jan '07 12:23 pm

Bambi, all your babies are totally lovely. We have never owned a pet snake, but we did have a resident black snake on our farm when we first moved here. He managed to get himself totally enmeshed in some bird netting that I had left in the barn the first year. My husband and I had to tediously cut him free one strand of net at a time. It took almost an hour to get him freed up.

Then I put the bird netting on a shelf in the tack room where I thought it would be safe and would you believe he did it again the next year? He found the netting up on the shelf and got himself completely tangled once more. Again we had to painstakingly cut him free. After that I threw the netting in the trash so it. It was just too tempting for a snake trying to shed his old skin. He was about three feet long and beautiful.

I must admit I was not too happy when I caught him stealing the eggs from a nest of Barn Swallows up in the rafters of the barn. I realize he was just doing his snake thing, but I knocked him down from the rafter and chased him out of the barn. I wanted him to only eat mice and rats and he just didn't understand my rules.

I haven't seen him in the last few years, so I don't know if he moved to another territory or was done in by a neighbor who was not so tolerant. He probably thought I was totally crazy after the chasing episode and decided to move on.

16 Jan '07 7:22 pm

Bambi they are gorgeous! Give them an appreciative - tickle? from me. And lots of pix, please. Do they have their own clear personalities? And please tell us more about the skin-shedding, like Pumpkin I have no clues, and wonder how long it takes, and whether they hide away all shy like a silly moulting hen. And why are they called Corn Snakes? Or is that a totally stooooopid question?
Cheers

16 Jan '07 9:16 pm

Bambi, I have nothing more or less to comment on your snake babies than what Moosey just said. I have the same questions...Moosey expressed my very thoughts!

And, Faith, what a lovely snake story!

16 Jan '07 10:17 pm

Bambi...those pets are lovely and you both are so brave! Smile

Ohh...Pumpkin, you often make me smile/laugh with your witty remarks! Wink

Hehe..I'm guilty...that very same thought regarding the clean fingernails flashed in my mind the second I viewed that pic! Laughing

17 Jan '07 2:59 am

Wow, what a response! I’m very flattered and so are the snakes. Ok, here goes:

Faith, what a lovely story. I’m so glad you helped the snake rather than leaving him to suffer as so many people would have done Sad

. But then I’m not surprised, because of who you are! Do you know what kind of snake he was? I hope he’s ok now.

With regards to shedding, basically the snakes’ skin goes very dull and dark for a few days and their eyes cloud over. Then they clear for one day and by the following, they have normally shed. Because their eyes cloud over, they do become very much more timid and wary because they can’t see very well, so we don’t usually try to feed them or pick them up at this time. They also need enough moisture to shed successfully as otherwise the old skin is very dry and will break up, so it was our fault that poor little Beowulf had a hard time for not keeping an eye on the humidity levels in his home. His skin had come off in patches and was hanging off him so yes, it did look rather gross, but there’s also a health issue in that the lenses might not come off their eyes and they could go blind; we also have to check that the tip of their tail has shed properly and around the vent too because these are places where the old skin can stick. If it doesn’t come off the tail, it dries and becomes a hard shell and eventually will cut off the circulation to the tail which could drop off. When we first got Mrs Hudson, the previous keeper hadn’t checked this and the last centimetre of her tail was very hard and inflexible and, when she shed the first time after we had her, it broke off which was rather horrible! Nowadays she’s no worse the wear for it, but it’s not something you really want to happen!

As for personalities, they can’t really be said to have as distinct ones as dogs or cats, but Beren is very relaxed and you can pick him up and he’ll wrap himself around your wrist and just stay there, whereas Luthien is much more wary and nervous. All the Corns are voracious eaters – they’ve never missed a feed and they gobble their food down very quickly, whereas Beowulf takes ages to eat; we usually give him his first and then do the other three babies and they’ve always finished long before him!! Rolling Eyes

Corn Snakes are called that because they live in corn fields in the wild where they search for rodents. Oh, and it wasn’t a stoopid question, btw! Very Happy

And lastly, the reason why my nails are so clean is because I’d just had a lovely long soak in a hot bath!! That's part of the reason why it was starting to get dark when we took the photos. Hee hee Laughing

17 Jan '07 11:54 am

They look lovely but, do they behave on walks? Are they prone to chasing cars or jumping on couches? Apart from that they'd probably be the ideal pet.

Very Happy

No but seriously folks...

19 Jan '07 3:20 am

Hee hee, well they do tend to slip their collars quite a lot, and always insist on stopping every five yards to taste the air if a rodent goes by! Laughing

19 Jan '07 2:36 pm

But apart from that you don't get any complaints from the neighbours re their raucous 'barking'?

*wonders what if any noise they do make... thinkssssss on thissss sssseriously for a ssssecond or two...*

Not exactly cats or dogs, and not exactly in the garden...