My new BEL travels well and wins hearts...

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Originally Posted by Herbie'sMom

First of all...BEAUTIFUL GIRL!

While doing a hands-on event as a member of the Minnesota Herp Society, I discovered what great ambassadors these snakes can be - there's something so non-threatening about them. My BEL, Khaleesi (a Craigslist find, BTW!), literally turns heads! People make a B-line for her! I had one woman, who had never touched a snake and was very afraid of them, start out by keeping at least a 5 foot distance from me to touching her and calling her an "angel snake" - all in less than 10 minutes!!

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Cute girl! Is she a super mojave? Something about the white/lighter colored snakes makes them seem less intimidating. It helps when they have great personality as well.

Yep, she's a super mojave!

I like the little Mojave dark head BELs. Nice thing is I have a Mojave to pair Wintre with as well so she may make some of those eventually as well.

Poor thing ended up with an RI however from all the commotion. Took her to the vet today and she needs injections for 14 days. She'll be going in the nice T8 habitat at least until she's better (it has the most stable temps).

oh noes! get well soon Wintre.

please keep us updated!

also my 2016 goal is to now get a BEL. these pix/thread just put me over the edge.

I agree, there's something about light colored/white snakes that make people lose their fears about them. I think it's even just some visual association of the usual brown/black/dark patterned snakes to the "venomous/scary" snakes that that have been ingrained into their minds since they were children. But white or yellow snakes have not.

My mom isn't exactly "scared" of snakes, but apparently there's something about the intricate patterns that make her feel disgusted/repulsed... even in something like a lesser bee, where the colors are light, but there's still a visible patterning. She isn't scared of Cake or Yukon (BEL) at all, because they don't have that kind of pattern or color. Maybe this kind of "disgust/fear" process applies to most people.

I love the BELs! My poor sweet snake is still sick though. Today is her 4th day of antibiotics (Claforan injections) and she hasn't seemed to get better at all. Now a little more popping sounds when breathing and the occasional long exhale (not really a wheeze, but a little junky sounding). She is still acting normal and doesn't seem to be in any distress. The vet said I should notice improvements in about 5 days, so I'm going to give it the weekend to see if she gets better, otherwise I'll bring her back in for a culture. The vet said he wanted to try a less harsh antibiotic as some of the stronger ones can leave scarring that's visible on the white snakes. He seems pretty knowledgeable so I'm following his recommendations.

I have her in my T8 (half of it at least) and I raised the temps to 80 ambient and 92 on the hot side. She has been sticking to the hotspot and felt nice and warm when I picked her up this morning. I hope that will help.

I'm having a bad respiratory cold myself so we've been miserable together.

My other snakes are doing well, except for Quorra who had a misfire on a rat and caught it by a single toe and tried to wrap it up. She struggled with it for a little bit and I had to hold its head with tweezers so it wouldn't bite her. She eventually gave up and went back in her hide and wasn't interested the next day. She may need a week off to be ready for a meal again.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...2022.21.09.jpg