The Snake Keeper Blog

Here’s the latest here at The Snake Keeper. Well with the snakes anyways, I hear there is a lot of excitement going on out in the BP world. Talk about the walls that have ears they seem to have mouths as well. But enough of that onto the snakes.

Coffee Ball update, sad news for those hoping that this would turn out to be genetic. Either we have had the worse odds in the world or it is not genetic. Two clutches het to het yielded no coffee balls and one clutch het son back to mother 8 eggs and no coffee balls. The nice thing about it is we did use a pastel from the beginning to do this project. So we do have super pastels and pastels in the mix so it was not a total loss. The het son was a pastel so out of the eight eggs from the mother we got 6 pastels that are real nice. Out of the het clutches which was the het son pastel to other pastels “het for coffee” we produced some super pastels and pastels. So although we did not get the coffee we wanted we did get some great snakes. Some of these will be for sale in the near future.

This is just a great example how breeders spend years developing a project. This is what makes these investment animals. I think we have 4 years into this project and did not come up with the results as hoped. Think about it. We are not just talking one snake here. We are talking about holding back a couple clutches every year. Feeding, housing etc. So it takes time and money to hold these back and work the project. Hats off to all the breeders that take the time to develop new morphs.

The weather is ugly out and cold and raining but the snakes are feeling the need to breed. So we have them together and things are looking good. Had to have some males combat some yesterday. You ever hear males combat in Freedom Breeder housing? BAM, BAM, and SPRING all kinds of noises come out of there. We hope maybe we gave a few a wake up call to get with the program. I will have to go out later and see if it did any good or not later this morning. That’s it I am done.

WOW last week it was 90 degrees out and we had fires burning everywhere in So. Cal. and today it is cold and raining. Even with the rain there is still a fire burning in the mountains. Tony B sent me this link of the fires. Fire in Simi Valley Thanks Tony.

If you did not hear we had 750,000 acres burned here and over 3000 homes burned to the ground. But with Winter here now in full force the fires are behind us but not for those who lost everything. We went out today and collected things to send the the Red Cross to deliver the the people put out by the fires. If you ahve the means to help in any way you really should. It is really great to see people pull together to help those in need.


Next is the Available Stock has been updated this evening. Got a new Super Pastel list and it is awesome looking. I just can not say enough about those SUPERS! Also I got a picture of one of the Banded balls listed as well. Not sure on the genetics on these yet. Have to give it another year to know more. Well go check out the for sale pages and see what new things we have listed. Trying to get up as much as we can to make room for the coming year. The first clutch is already in the hanger waiting to be laid. Yes, the first clutch to hatch in 2004 is already on the way. Time to go more intersting things coming soon.

Well thank you to everyone who is emailing us to see if we are okay. The fire is still about 50 miles form us so we are not in danger here at this time. We are in all the smoke though. It has really gotten bad tonight. The smoke came in like fog and we had to close everything. Ash is starting to rain down over everything. Last night I was heading down the hill to LAX and I could see the fire line and you would not believe how big it was. It ran on for miles. Some of these fires they do not expect to have out till next week. The air tankers land just a few mile away for refilling with water and it was amazing to see them lined up waiting to get their load. Truly awesome to see so many resources being used to fight a fire that seems to go on and on. I know there are ball python people out there who are fighting the fire. Tony B. is one of them. We are praying for all the firefighters and the many people who have sustained losses. At last count I heard over 1500 homes have been leveled to the ground. The weather is due to change here by Thursday so that should give the firemen the upper hand.

On the morph pages we had activated the Spider. We are still working on the others. We should be adding more snakes up for sale soon as well. I may even sell a het ivory male. So if you are looking for one you may want to let me know. I only have one to sell right now. The ivory is just an awesome looking ball. You should see people’s faces when you open the drawer to show them. Well any ways you know what I mean. Well that’s all for now.

Back from the San Diego show. Shows are so tiring. It is just such a long weekend standing behind the table. Of course having the children with us makes it even more fun. Dad come look at this toy, Dad can we go to the petting zoo? Heck the best deal I got at the show was the petting zoo. I gave our two girls a dollar each and they went to the petting zoo and played with the reptiles for over an hour. I could see them from our booth and they were having a great time. Best two dollars I spent during the trip.

The show was okay. Seeing everyone was great. Some new people were there that we had not had the pleasure of meeting. It was nice to see the face and talk with them. It is always nice to see people and talk with them. That maybe the last show we do in 2003. The next one is just a small show in December at the L.A. fairgrounds and I just do not think we will make it to that one a week before Christmas. Found out at the show though that a new date has been added in 2004 for the San Diego shows. Yes in March there will be a show now. So that will make three shows in San Diego put on by the IRBA. That show would be a nice 2003 clean up show. Great for the buyers. You will be able to get 2003 snakes that have some size on them. May turn out to be a great show. Would not expect too many 2004 snakes there as that may be a bit early but who knows. We just had a ball ovulate the other day so that will be our first 2004 clutch to hatch.

Well that’s the run down on the show weekend. Now it is back to work of the title I used………show recovery. Coming home you almost dread it. Knowing the extra work that has to be done to catch up on everything. Getting home late Sunday night and being up by 5:00am the next day cleaning rodents. That’s the nature of the business. By Monday 11:00am I had cleaned the mouse room, drove over 80 miles and delivered 1000 mice, came home loaded up again and delivered to two pet stores and checked the PO Box. Then it was lunch and packing two shipments that needed to go out. So a busy day back from the show. Today is feeding day for the snakes so Colette will be busy doing that. It is an all day job. If I am lucky I will get the rat room cleaned today. Also a few more orders to be sent out today as well. Well I am starting to ramble now a little too much like some one else I know. LOL

Thanks for stopping by and seeing us at the show. It was great to see everyone. We really appreciate all the kind words about the snakes and the web site and all.

Yes we are heading to the last show of the year; we will be in San Diego this weekend. Should be a lot of fun. We are looking forward to seeing you all there. We will have the new DVD of the Ball Python Breeding series available at the show. It is the same as the tapes but on DVD. We will also be bringing down the Ivory ball for everyone to see as well as a few others. Sales have been going real well leading up to the show. There are only a few things left for some of the morphs. We are up late tonight watering everyone and packing. We have people here while we are away to watch everything and keep everything under control. No fun coming home to a rodent room flood. So it is nice to have all that covered. Believe it or not we have a snake ovulating tonight. Looks like that will be the first clutch to hatch in 2004. With that said it does not look like our incubator is going to get a break this season. I guess that is good but I sure like having time to service everything in the room with out it running. We maybe with the new building IF it is completed by then that will be the first clutch in the new incubator room. We wanted to get the building done ASAP to beat old man winter from setting in but it looks like it is going to be close. Now we are setting our sights on just getting a slab and have it at least framed and covered with a roof before first rain. Well we will see how it goes. I will have to show you how it progresses as it goes up. Have to get with the program now to get to the show. Hope to see you there.

We have begun adding more snakes for sale today. Check out the Currently Available page to see what is new. Should be able to get a morph or two added this weekend as well. Feels like the first day of Fall for us here right now. Rather cool out this morning. This could be a good sign for the up coming breeding season. Looks like I better start getting the yard ready for Winter. So much to do.

Well here is the latest addition to the site.scalation This is really cool we think. Let us know what you think. A few more morph pages are ready as far as pics go we just need to add a little text to them and we will be set. The webmaster has just been working over time to get it all done. I am really pleased how it is all coming together. We are starting to think about what we will be bringing to the San Diego show in two weeks. We will have the Ivory & Hypo Mojave on display. Should be a good show this year.

We added three more morphs to the site today.Genetic Stripe, chocolate Fade & the Coffee Ball So a little more done in the morph section. We are still working to get most of the morphs listed done by the end of the weekend. Check them out and see what you think. Is that chocolate fade going to be genetic? I hope so; well we know one thing if it is it will be simple recessive.  People already want to buy the possible het males produced this year. On the rodent side of things we added 100 female medium rats to the colony today so we can keep up with the food demand for the snakes. Seems we fell behind a bit on rodent production then everything started hatching and before you know it you have a shortage of food, but that is taken care of now. Amazing how many rodents we feed off in a week. That is about all that is new. If you have not been to the new forums you should check them out.

Can you believe it is October? We just got a clutch of eggs yesterday. Not due to hatch till November 27, thats after Thanksgiving. Some breeding has already started for the 2004 season. Looks like they will not be much of a resting time between seasons this year. We really needed that clutch of eggs. Actually I could use 10 more clutches just like it. We got 7 eggs from albino to het albino. Everyone wants albinos this year from all over the world. We are still getting calls for them and I have to say it will be next year before I have them available. I just hate not having what people need when they want it. Well the ball python market is still stong for albinos and that is good.

Still trying to get the last pictures I need to complete the “more info” pages on the currently available stock pages. I think I need about ten pics but i just have had one thing after another come up everyday this week. Yesterday I spent hours on the freeway just picking up new rodents from the lab. Then I had to work on getting them half put away. Today will be spent finishing the job. But you have to have rodents if you have snakes. So back to the pics I hope to get them done today. Maybe traffic will be light today as I have to go to the airport.

Thanks for all the kinds words about the web site. We do enjoy the emails hearing what you think. The web master really spent a lot of time to make it all work out. More coming over the weekend is the plan.

You are probably thinking the same thing. They finally got the new site up. But that is not all. Check out this picture.<A HREF=javascript:newWindow(‘nimg.php?imgDisp=newstripe’)><IMG SRC=/newsphotos/newstripe.jpg ALIGN=right></A> We have been trying for years to get this male to breed. Look at him and tell me it is not genetic. This has got to prove out. We will have the full story on this male on the morph page when we get to its page. But for now just seeing this going on makes my day! If I remember right Bob Clark said it took almost 6 years before he had his Genetic stripe breed for him so this is no surprise. Maybe that means this will be a new proven line as well. The site is coming along great now. Added a few more morphs to the site, I know there is not much yet but it is getting there. Not much more going on right now. Any one have extra rats? I can not believe I fell behind on rat production. I am recovering but it is a slow process. I ordered a load of new breeders to bump the numbers up fast. All these babies eating the rat pups up does not leave much for the adults to eat. That should change over the next few weeks and we will be back in full rat production. That is all for now.