Fat Man

[Lobo_Reptiles]

Hey Jen, I just thought I'd share for you (and everyone) some pictures of Chimera to show you how big he's gotten. I measured him last night and he's about 3'9" Are you definitely sure he's a boy? Everytime I pick him up and realize how big he is I start to wonder...



Here is a shot of the eye I worry he is going blind in. To those who read my other thread or anyone else with experience with blind snakes...does it appear like a blind eye? >_>

[Freakie_frog]

Nice toe nail polish.

Oh and good looking big boy.

[West Coast Jungle]

Has his eye always been like that? I had a snake that had a faded eye since he was a baby. You could only see it in brighter light, looked like he was gonna shed and was not a retained cap. It never seemed to bother him. I saw it in his baby pics and now he is 3 1/2 and it has never been an issue or affected him. I no longer have him but he is with someone I know and is fine

[Ginevive]

Wow, he is huge compared to how he was before.. he was a chunker even then though! I remember he had a lightening-fast feeding response; he did probe as a male, but then again I already had probed "Goblin" (now Ginger) wrong.. my probing skills were marginal at best. So heck, I might have sold you a girl.. It is so cool to know that I helped get him out of the situation he was in; the guy had 3 BPs in a dry 55-g tank with pine substrate, no water.. but I thought Chimera's eyes were clear.. the largest of the trip had the eye problem but he wasn't the one you bought..

[Rapture]

Just wondering... how can you probe a female as a male?

[dr del]

If you get a little "overzelous" pressure wise when probing you can apparently rupture the bottom of the female recess and so insert the probe a long way in under the skin on the tail.


On the forum thread I saw it discussed on the person who did it said it had healed up allright.

Don't know how much damage it would do it you punctured the hemipenes by doing the same. Its the main reason its a great idea to get someone experienced show you how to do it a couple of times - preferably with different sized snakes till you get the feel for it.


dr del

[rabernet]

He looks great!

[Ginevive]

It never damaged them any.. just was a mistake like anyone else could make. I have heard of breeders mis-sexing snakes, no one is perfect. Now that I have more practice, I know how to probe better, but everyone starts somewhere..

[Lobo_Reptiles]

His eye just started looking like that for a few weeks. It looks like it is detached from his eye kind of and there is a tiny pocket of air between it and his eyeball. I'm definitely sure it isn't a retained eyecap though, very positive. I'm going to wait until he sheds next to see if there is a change.

Yeah, Jen, he still has an awesome feeding response. I think I'd be sad if he was a girl. I just always thought his personality was very guy-ish. But you figure a female would probably be bigger than him, although I have no clue seeing as I've never owned a grown female before.

Does anyone have some sizes/pictures of their full grown female BPs?

[Evan Jamison]

He looks good, and at 3'9" and still growing, he could be a she. Did you just call him a him when you got him, or have you had him sexed? Here is a pic of one of our bigger girls. That's a CB-70 tub, and a 4" coupler for size comparison.



As far as blind BPs, we had one at the University I graduated from (probably from years of stuck eyecaps), and he seemed fine. He ate well, and had no problem being handled.

-Evan