The Snake Keeper Blog

Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WOW was 2004 just a blur or what? It seems just like yesterday we were all worried about the Y2K crash on New Years Day, well it is all over now the holidays are finished and we are embarking on a new year. It should be a great one! I hope you year is great as well.

Well looking at how things are going right now this season is looking real nice. We have been blessed with some terrific rainy weather here in Southern California that has got he balls in the mood for some love. Yes most of them are about their business. There are a few hold backs but that is the way it is every season. Always seems to be a few who want to give you grey hairs. But looks like we should have some early clutches this season and not just regular balls either but some desirable morphs. We will just have to see if it all works out.

Many people keep asking about the ball cam. Just to let you know it only works when snakes are hatching so it will be off line for another few months.

I see the Phantom/ Mojave questions are back on the Kingsnake forums. Many of you do not know this story. I wrote it a while back but never posted it but since everyone is wondering I thought you should read it. This is how it all went down.

So you want to know how the “Phantom” ball got it’s name. Okay I will tell you the story. Several years ago Ralph came up to me at the Daytona Expo. He said come look at this snake and tell me if it is a Mojave or not. So I went over and looked at this snake that was way in the blue (shed). I said the pattern looks right but the color looks a little off. Heck hard to tell with the snake in the shed, right. So I said I do not think it is since I could not see the right color. So time goes by and we are at another Daytona Expo. I am just out looking around and I see this snake on Ralph’s table and I say dude that is a Mojave. He says “ No it is not, you said it was not a year ago so now it is a Phantom” Yeah right! He made it very clear he knew what it was and the Phantom name fits it perfectly as it is hiding a Mojave. He even put it in writing. Here is his quote from an email years ago.

“lol…….I had some guys come by and they thought the 01 an 02’s I produced from that weird female are Mojave’s………………….they are Phantoms now”,

“That white snake has nothing to do with the Mojave……………..and it’s a “Phantom”……………remember………………:)”

So there you go that’s the story. So now you can make of it what you want. You know my opinion.

Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Well we are well into the breeding season now. Things are going real well. Our new room is working like a dream. Never before have we had this much success so early in the season. We just have to hope that is keeps it up through egg laying. Tomorrow is a mile stone. The first day of winter. That means the shortest day of the year. Which if you like the sun that means we are on the down hill slide to longer days.

Well so onto the snakes. Guess everyone has heard about the Super Mojave now having blue eyes and being a white snake. WOW did that make some people happy and I guess a few are unhappy as well. All I can say is I had a good laugh. It is nice that we know now before we got too far into the season as everyone wanted to know what it would be. It was like the market was on hold just waiting to know. So that is behind us now and we can concentrate on other things.

Yesterday Colette decided to put some snakes together. I told her she hit a grand slam. 27 males breeding at the same time, yahooooo!!!! I think that was a first for us. That was just so cool to see that many cages marked as breeding. Many of the females are carrying some well developed follicles as well. If all goes well we should see some early results this year. We had a few males holding out like the caramel albino and piedbalds but they even decided it looked like the thing to do so they joined in as well.

Well that is all for now. If I do not get back here again we wish you all a Merry Christmas and a very happy New Year. I think we should all do well this season. We should see some new crosses we have all been dreaming about for years. We have a few we are working on that we expect to see produced this season and I know there are many others out there that will have new things as well. So what do you think is going to be the hot snake of 2005? Go ahead and email me and let me know what you think the new upcoming morph will be this season. If I get some feed back I will take the top ones and then post a poll and we will see how it turns out.

Well has it been a while or what? Here were in December already. The weather here has been real cold in California and that is really working to our advantage this season. Breedings are going good at this point. Well you always have those hold outs that just will not get with the program when you would like them to but they will kick in soon. Good day today though we have 15 males breeding right now. Seems the new room is paying off this season, I hope it does then I can finish paying for it.

We were counting up what we thought we would be producing this season and it looks as though we will be producing 50+ morphs of ball pythons. Some of which will be new crosses never seen yet. Guess we will be expanding our baby area by a few racks if we get them all. So we have some high expectations for this season.

The black stripe male is breeding so we hope to see some offspring from him this season as well. Seems he gets a lot of looks for people visiting the site. I will have to let you know how that project comes along.

The just does not seem to be enough time in the day to get everything done. We are working many hours trying to keep up with the season and it seems we just keep falling behind. It is already time to ultrasound again. Feeding comes every week way too fast. Of course for some it would appear that feeding happens much more often. I have seen some pics lately of snakes that just blow my mind. It is not a race to see who can grow up a snake the fastest. Any time you look at a snake and see this little neck and head but a huge body that can not even bend as it is so over weight that is a problem. Snakes that live for 40 years are not to be grown up in 4 months. Unfortunately the side affects of this type of feeding behavior will not be manifested till later in the snake’s life. But this is just my opinion; I would rather have a well feed snake that looks in proportion than a snake that needs liposuction. Bigger is not always better. Take some time to talk to the breeders that have been doing this for 10+ years and see what snakes do the best for them. I think you will find that a moderate feeding program is the best policy.

What else is going on, the Mojave’s are doing well. I hear there is news buzzing around on those right now. Guess we will hear and see more about this soon. This has got to make some people real happy.

Any ways we are making priority list for available balls now. If there is a morph that you would like to get from us you should take the time to give us a call. This should be just a great season for the ball pythons. Popularity for the ball is at an all time high right now. The market is still growing and being sustained by new people every week it seems. I talk to about 3-4 new comers to balls a week. The biggest problem for them is they can not get the morphs they want at this time of year. So that tells me that the market is still growing and strong.

Well that is all for now. Good luck to you all this breeding season.

So here is one for you, guess where we lost a snake to a few days ago? Down the top of a freedom breeder unit. You know the square hole on all four corners. Yep that little dude escaped out a fallen cage and went for cover. We devised a trap for him and gave him a few days but to no avail. So today I went fishing. Well if you are an electrican you would understand. I lifted the unit and pulled off the wheel and got out my fish tape for wire pulling and sent it up the rack. Well that passed him so we had a little girth to it and we sent it back up after adding a extra 12 inch piece of metal tubing to the rack. Then after going fishing we pulled the extra piece off and we had caught the little snake. It was really funny but really stop up the holes on the top of your units before it happens to you.

So you waiting for some Mojave news? We have HYPO MOJAVES hatching right now. These look even better then the ones last year. Wait till they are out of the egg and we will get some pics of them. We will have some for sale so if you are interested let me know. Still two male mojaves available as well. Call to get pricing.

So lets talk spiders balls. I just have to voice my opinion here on this one. Why are people selling females for so little? These people are really going to be hurting when they realize that those same females are going to be in demand for all the spider crosses. Just think of the spihave (oops sorry Wes) I mean the Spider Mojave. Or the many other crosses that have yet to be done. People do not want to use their morph females to a spider male you want to breed your morph males to your spider females. These females are worth way more than what some of these people are asking. I know there is no super spider but that does not matter. The bumble bees etc. are what make them worth something. Those females are going to be worth more than males just like the pastels but by the time people are done running them into the ground it will be too late. Kick that normal off the shelf and put that spider in it’s place. You will be happy you did. Okay I feel better now that I said that, I been telling people that on the phone for the past several days.

So you ready for Daytona? You should be, from what I hear it is going to be some fun. You know there will be lots of drama and everything that goes with it. I bet we will see some good buys there as well. Were ready well not really but we will when it is time. I have to have a good time as soon as I get back I am going in for surgery on my shoulder. That is not going to be any fun but not doing it is just hurting too much. Did the one shoulder a few years ago so it is time. Well that is all for now. See you in Daytona. Oh Colette just came in and the Mojave males have shed so I will get pics tomorrow. Last chance to buy before Daytona.