Showing posts with label royal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label royal. Show all posts

Friday, September 13, 2013

Morph of the Day 9/13/13

Tesla

First produced in 2013 by Natalini Daniele, the Tesla is the combination of the dominant Calico and Spider genes and the co-dominant Butter and Enchi genes.







Thursday, September 12, 2013

Morph of the Day 9/12/13

Butter Tiger

First produced by Sweball in 2011, the Butter Tiger is the combination of the dominant Desert gene and the co-dominant Enchi and Butter genes.






Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Morph of the Day 9/11/13

Today's MotD is the Aquila.. The Aquila is the combination of the co-dominant enchi and bamboo genes. First produced by Crystal Palace Reptiles in 2013.





Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Reader Feeding Question (INCLUDES PHOTO OF FROZEN RODENT)

"Hi Caitlin, iam a huge fan of u by the way in instagram iam @adal240 well my question is my male ball python is about to turn 1year old and idont know if its still to early to feed small rats he is currently eating large mice idk if I should start feeding him small rats ??"


The best way to figure out what to feed your snake is to look at them.. most snakes can handle prey items that are as wide as the largest part of their body or a bit larger.. Personally, I recommend getting a ball python onto rats as soon as they are large enough to safely ingest them. Every time I have switched a bp from mice to rats, they have gone through a growth spurt shortly after switching. I honestly think rats are better for them nutrient wise.. 

Some snakes prefer one larger rodent, while others prefer multiple smaller rodents (i.e. one mouse fuzzie or two pinkies, one weaned rat or two weaned mice, etc.)

Approximate Prey Sizes:

mouse pinkie- 0.5-3 grams
mouse fuzzie- 3-6 grams (can be exchanged for a rat pinkie)
mouse hopper- 7-12 grams (can be exchanged for a rat fuzzie)
weaned mice- 13-18 grams (can be exchanged for a rat fuzzie)
large mice- 19-25 grams (can be exchanged for a rat pup)
XL mice- 30 grams + (can be exchanged for a weaned rat)

large rat = 1/2 lb. rabbit
XL rat = 1.5lb rabbit



Wobbles currently has a full stomach (he ate two XL mice on saturday night and a third on sunday morning... i offered him the first two which he snatched up right away then left the third in with him overnight incase he wanted it and i caught him eating it early sunday morning)
This is an extra large mouse (so he ate two of these in a row saturday night, and a third the next morning)

He weighed 507g before eating, and now weighs 629g with a full stomach.. so each XL mouse was about 40g

Morph of the Day 9/10/13

Morph of the Day

Chocolate Chip Cookie
Firefly Chocolate Pinstripe

This morph is the combination of the dominant pinstripe gene, and the co-dominant chocolate, fire, and pastel genes.

First produced by Deb Northern in 2012



Wobbles the Ball Python

Wobbles is a male Bumblebee morph (pastel x spider) ball python. Before his last meal he weighed about 510 grams, he is about 3 feet long. With ball pythons, the females tend to be much larger than the males. He is from a 2012 clutch, I purchased him from Outback Reptiles at the Northern Virginia Reptile Expo in Manassas, VA on December 8 2012. Outback had received him as a trade in from another breeder so I don't know his lineage.

Wobble's is currently living in a 55 gallon screen top terrarium. I use shredded/ground cocoanut fiber bedding in his tank. It is less likely to become impacted than other beddings if accidentally ingested, though it tends to stick to prey if the prey is wet (from defrosting or from snake saliva) so I feed Wobbles in a separate bedding-free tank to avoid all chance of accidental ingestion and impaction.
He's eating 2, occasionally 3, large retired breeder sized mice every 5-7 days. Normally he would be eating 1 small rat every 5-7 days but I ran out of rats and had a bag of 25 large mice.. I definitely recommend switching to rats as soon as your snake can handle them, they typically have a lot more nutrients than mice (which can sometimes be just skin and bones) as well as a better meat-fat ratio. In my experience, ball pythons tend to hit a growth spurt shortly after they make the switch from mice to rats.

Wobbles on the day I got him

Wobbles at about 8 or 9 months old