Cloud, Colombian BCI

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Originally Posted by PeterPieBaldPython

I love the picture of him in the yellow flowers - he's adorable!

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Thanks! He definitely is, even now with his angular adult face. :P That's also one of my favorites, it shows his "playful" side, as much as a snake can have one.


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Here are some pics from last week, on day 76. Today is either day 91 or 92.

Excuse the blanket, it's for grip, Cloud hadn't figured out hardwood floors. lol

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Looks great!

Nice and lean and long. Good job!

Man, that's a good look'n snake!

I think my next one is going to be a RTB.

Yeah RTBs are awesome. Cloud is coming along nice.

I just realized I meant Day 81 or 82. lol Whoops.

Thanks everyone! I'm sure he's going be happy to be breaking his fast in about a week.


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Lol great looking snake, do you name his food Sephiroth before you feed him?

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Thanks, and no I don't, unfortunately. Haha


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Well Cloud took his first rabbit of the year. :) He didn't seem any more hungry than usual, and took the rabbit with his usual amount of interest, although he did wrap it more than he usually does. The rabbit was about 4.5 oz.

http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/15...bf5530d42e.jpg


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I think he likes rabbit for dinner!:)

He's a gorgeous boy :)

I went to go take him out and dampen his bedding a few days ago and saw he was in shed. He must have immediately went into shed after eating. I've noticed this with Bud, too, he'll go into shed after eating when he goes on strike and doesn't eat for a few months.

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He ended up shedding last week, so here are some post-shed pics.

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Gorgeous... Those eyes are spiffy... And the mustache! Cloud is such a lovely boy... :wuv:

I weighed Cloud today. He wasn't too happy about it it seems. lol He weighed in at 8 lb 9.2 oz. His next feeding day is in about a week.

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Looking good! :)

Do do you have a bead on how long he is?

http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/15...fcbd9a4ba4.jpg

Thanks! The last time I got an exact measurement he was 6'3", and that was in November. I doubt he's grown too much from that since then. It took him 8 months to grow from 6' even to 6'3".


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3 inches in 8 months, cool.

It will interesting in seeing how much longer he gets.

Yup! I don't expect him to get much over 7', if he even reaches it, though. We'll see!


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The face of a boa that smells food a-thawin'.

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Now that Sanji's out of quarantine...even Cloud's tail dwarfs Sanji!
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Quote:

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Originally Posted by CloudtheBoa

From 2012:

His face during a dark phase.
http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/...ps438f556d.jpg

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Normally, people commenting on eyes drives me insane. This may seem like a comment made by an idiot, but to me, I see little variety between the eyes. But this right here? I can't begin to explain it. It looks like somebody polished little chrome balls -- and by polished, I mean worked on it for hours, refusing to even touch it with their hands when done for fear of smudges -- and added a pupil and called them eyes. How can one simply ignore the beauty here? Oh, I just can't get over it! It looks as though it's reflecting the world (even if it's just the colouring... At first I thought it was silver eyes with a reflection.)

Yeah, I haveta agree. Pretty cool!

Thanks! Yes, he's got some lovely eyes. ^.^ They're still quite silver, too! They contrast his tan skin a lot.


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Cloud got his first rat in a long time last feeding. He wasn't as determined to hold onto it (he dropped it when I lifted the hide to see if he had started eating, as I wasn't sure he'd eat one after so long). I re-offered and he took it again, this time I left him alone and he ate it.

Here he is about a week after his meal.
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Trying to hide in the grass.
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And the destruction after I moved him.
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Some recent photos of him in the bathroom with me.

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He's beautiful.

Looks like you two were having fun. :)

Is it just me or does he seem to have grown a bit since last August...Last November he was measured at 6'3', so last August he couldn't have been a noticeable amount shorter than that as it took 8 months just to grow 3". I plan on getting him back to my father's around November so I can get him up against a wall and see if he's actually grown any.

I also weighed him (the reason why he's in the tub in the first place), and he's now 8lb 14.7oz.

The one from last August.
http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/...psz9apihh8.jpg

And one of him in the same exact tub taken just a few minutes ago.
http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/...psm3yiylrm.jpg

Here's a few photos I took a few days ago right before taking him out.

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Reaching for the door.
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So Cloud is on some temporary bedding until I can get to the pet store and get more EcoEarth, when we moved him here the pet store was closed and I've been working every day since. Petsmart closes at 5 pm, which makes it difficult to get there in time. I'll try to go tomorrow since I'm off.

But anyways, over the past 3 days about I've been catching him out and about. He used to live in his hides, so it's kinda awesome to see him exploring again. I'm not sure if it's because no one's around him most of the time, if it's the new smells of the different enclosure and bedding, if he's becoming more comfortable since I started handling him less, or some other reason.

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This one is from today, the others are a few days ago.

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He was reluctant to let me replace his bedding this afternoon, since he was hanging out on it like this. As soon as I reached in he zoned in on my hand, so I used my hook to lift his neck up to get it out and tickle his head and neck out of the way to put it back.

I heard a noise a few minutes ago and went in to check, finding Cloud with his tail in the tree and his head about a third of the way up the wall, intensely tongue-flicking a spot on the wall.

He will be getting one more meal before I begin this year's winter fast. And it so happens I have one more large rat left. :P


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Cloud enjoying his last meal until February/March. He managed to bend the rat in half, as I only opened his door a sliver and pushed the rat into his coils.

In about 1-2 weeks I'll then drop his temps.

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And here are some photos of him eagerly awaiting food while I fed the others (his rat took a lot longer to thaw, naturally).

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Then he followed me over to where I was sitting, waiting for River to swallow her first rat so I could give her the second one.

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Just to go in a hide to watch me.

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Cloud hates being put in the bucket when it comes time to wet his bedding. Usually, he behaves and just sits there once I get him in the bucket, but last night he just kept slowly creeping out of the bucket so I had to set the lid on it. (I didn't latch it shut just set it on top.)

Then he behaved and just hid his face.
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I swear he keeps taking up more and more space in his weighing tub and this bucket but every time I stretch him out he comes out to 6'3". And he's not gaining girth, either. :/ It's a quandary.

Just chilling before returning him to his enclosure.
http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/12...5df298c6be.jpg


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Looks to be a lovely guy :)
Can you explain further please .. as regards soaking the bedding and the relevance id the bucket .. I'm kinda intrigued :)


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Zincubus

Looks to be a lovely guy :)
Can you explain further please .. as regards soaking the bedding and the relevance id the bucket .. I'm kinda intrigued :)


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Yeah here's a video link on what exactly I do. I've just changed the size of the container I use, become more confident in guessing how much I need to dump to get my desired dampness, and started aiming for a slightly damper bedding right after dumping. :)

http://youtu.be/1O-JNnS6XfM

During the summer, when his heat sources aren't working hard, I only have to do this once every 1-2 weeks, and during the summer I do it twice a week to once every other week, depending.

I let his bedding go through cycles, and wait for the bedding to completely dry out before I repeat the process. Doing this, I've completely eliminated any and all vertical stripes (the bent scales you see when they curl up), and made maintaining humidity incredibly easy on myself. At most, he gets some lines under his eyes when the bedding is at its driest.

This method can take some learning to get the dampness level right at first, but basically you want to aim for light fluffy bedding that barely feels wet to the touch. If any water squeezes out and it feels/looks like a swamp, you've got it wrong. That's why I like doing it in portions; if I get it wrong I just mix some dry bedding in until it's the way I want it.


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Oh yeah and as a warning:

In my experience this method of providing humidity does not work in belly heat set ups. The heat pad/heat tape simply does not warm the bedding enough for it to release moisture before it molds.


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He still looks great. Cloud is probably an inch or two longer than Sniper.

I really like what you have done with his diet and conditioning.

He is really lean and looks strong!

I also found your youtube channel.

I'm going to take a peak at your other pets too LOL!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Gio

He still looks great. Cloud is probably an inch or two longer than Sniper.

I really like what you have done with his diet and conditioning.

He is really lean and looks strong!

I also found your youtube channel.

I'm going to take a peak at your other pets too LOL!

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I don't post much, but feel free to! I still have some videos I need to upload as well.


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Cloud is almost ready to come out of his winter fast! He would be eating this week, but he's gone into shed, so he won't be getting his rabbit until he's done. I think I'll be feeding him rabbits before and after his fast from now on, to bolster him for his fast and to help recover. I may also offer rabbits every other feeding throughout his feeding period, not sure yet.

Here are some pictures of him with my mom's Nikon!

He really enjoys Bucket Snake Time...not. lol But unfortunately, uncontained snakes tend to get in trouble during bedding maintenance, so in the bucket he goes.

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/...psct23gfub.jpg

Tail close-up:

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/...psfxldlffs.jpg

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At first I wasn't sure he was going into shed, but now I am! haha I've gotten pretty good at predicting the onset of my non-albino snakes' sheds. :P

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/...pso6ezk6z6.jpg

Well my suspicions have finally been proven! He HAS grown. :P I stretched him out earlier, and he came out to 6'5". http://www.ssnakess.com/forums/image...es/biggrin.gif So he's only an inch short of 6.5' now, and he's grown 2" since November 2014. Not much, but he's still growing.

Here are some catch up photos!

Deep in blue, from before his first meal of the year, he's eaten a second time now, so these are a month old at least.

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He got some permanent plastic RBI hides, so I could finally ditch the cardboard! I may get him one or two more, though, because they don't take up much space at all.

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Eating his second meal of the year. This was the smallest remaining rabbit I've got, the others are 7-9 ounces, so bigger than I feel comfortable feeding him when I've got large rats. So, the rest of the rabbits will go to River now that she's big enough and Cloud will get the rest of the rats. My father is going to breed his rabbits again soon, but if Cloud runs out of the rats before they're old enough I'll order another pack.

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And a full body shot to show his body tone.

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/...psygq3yvar.jpg

Cloud went into shed again recently. A week before his next feeding day, he went blue. :/ So far no sign of anymore length growth, so I'm probably going to wait until July or August to measure him again.

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Cloud got to go outside a few days ago, and he seemed to enjoy it. At least he was active and inquisitive. He didn't try to hide, just kinda checked everything out. I tried to get some full body shots but the lighting wasn't good for that, he just turned out dark like a shadow, so I'll try to get more next time I take him out.


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So Cloud tonight was very out of character. :/ I woke up from a bad dream where one of our friends had released all of my snakes and thought I heard a thunderstorm going on so I went to the snake room to check and make sure the heater was still going and everyone was ok.

When I flipped on the light, I saw everything was ok and then walked around the corner of Cloud's enclosure to look at him because he's usually out and about this time of night.

When I did I was greeted by a 6.5' boa in full-on defense mode and he struck the glass several times. He tried his hardest to get away from me, and eventually began hissing.

He clearly had been agitated for awhile because his bedding was flung to the side and his hides moved, and there was bedding in his water.

I thought maybe he was getting too hot from the heater, but my temp gun read his body at around 80-81F and nothing else in his enclosure was all that warm, either. All surfaces read anywhere from 79F to 83F.

Nobody else in the room was agitated, and I've entered the room similarly many times before over the year we've lived there and he's never once gotten defensive. He's literally never acted this way in his life.

I'll see how he's behaving when I get off of work and try to give him a once-over, but I'm kinda worried about him. I have no clue what could have set him off.

There was no thunderstorm and it wasn't even raining. A thunderstorm would have been my next guess but there wasn't one.

When my smaller male Boa, Butch did the same thing once, I was puzzled. :confusd:
He slammed the glass again the next day as I walked by which is just soooo out of character for this sweetheart. Even though he wasn't due for a feed, I fed him anyway. He didn't slam the glass anymore and hasn't acted that way again.

I reckon just like humans, these guys can have sudden cravings for food as well. My adult BP has gone into major feed mode before way before scheduled feedings.

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...0b127d4c76.jpg

Butch, Wild Type/Common BI

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Reinz

When my smaller male Boa, Butch did the same thing once, I was puzzled. :confusd:
He slammed the glass again the next day as I walked by which is just soooo out of character for this sweetheart. Even though he wasn't due for a feed, I fed him anyway. He didn't slam the glass anymore and hasn't acted that way again.

I reckon just like humans, these guys can have sudden cravings for food as well. My adult BP has gone into major feed mode before way before scheduled feedings.

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...0b127d4c76.jpg

Butch, Wild Type/Common BI

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He wasn't just striking at me, he was scared. Whipping his tail around, trying his best to get away from me, and eventually hissing.

When I opened the door to give him fresh water, he only made mock strikes and didn't actually come after me. I figured I may as well give him fresh water after him soiling it, though.

I don't really think he's hungry, this appeared to be purely defensive. I've been feeding him a large rat every 3 weeks to get him ready to be fasted, because I'm out all of rabbits. His last meal was meant to be the last for the year, but that was only 17 days ago.

Again, I don't think he's hungry, but we'll see how he acts later today and the next few days.

We had YET ANOTHER fridge failure, so if he is indeed still hungry, I won't have any more food to give him until we get a new one. No use in ordering snake food until we have something to put it in.

Which this time it kinda sucks because only Layne Labs has small rats, and to get everyone's food from LL will be over $500 with shipping. I can get all but the small rats from Perfect Prey for $213 but then just the small rats is another $160 from LL. Which is ridiculous. Big Cheese is out of small rats and bigger so I could get MAYBE half of what I need there. My father has yet to begin fresh pairings with his rabbits so it will be another few months before I can get any rabbits.

My father is going to give me one of his chest freezers so maybe I'll be able to salvage my snake food for once next time this happens.

Sorry, as soon as I read "struck the glass" I guess I overlooked the rest as my mind must have been thinking about my experience instead of focused on the rest of your words. :rolleye2:

That is really strange about how Cloud reacted.

As an update, he's been acting perfectly normal since that incident. I've even flipped on the light and walked in several times, he has yet to be startled. :/

He's also going into shed now, but that normally doesn't affect his behavior beyond making him hide away more. He doesn't get pissy or defensive.

I guess I'll just chalk it up to a random occurrence.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CloudtheBoa

So Cloud tonight was very out of character. :/ I woke up from a bad dream where one of our friends had released all of my snakes and thought I heard a thunderstorm going on so I went to the snake room to check and make sure the heater was still going and everyone was ok.

When I flipped on the light, I saw everything was ok and then walked around the corner of Cloud's enclosure to look at him because he's usually out and about this time of night.

When I did I was greeted by a 6.5' boa in full-on defense mode and he struck the glass several times. He tried his hardest to get away from me, and eventually began hissing.

He clearly had been agitated for awhile because his bedding was flung to the side and his hides moved, and there was bedding in his water.

I thought maybe he was getting too hot from the heater, but my temp gun read his body at around 80-81F and nothing else in his enclosure was all that warm, either. All surfaces read anywhere from 79F to 83F.

Nobody else in the room was agitated, and I've entered the room similarly many times before over the year we've lived there and he's never once gotten defensive. He's literally never acted this way in his life.

I'll see how he's behaving when I get off of work and try to give him a once-over, but I'm kinda worried about him. I have no clue what could have set him off.

There was no thunderstorm and it wasn't even raining. A thunderstorm would have been my next guess but there wasn't one.

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It is breeding season I believe and with him being a boy, maybe he wanted some lady love and not your love lol.

As for the substrate, welcome to my world. Rosey always shoves her aspen all over, pushes her water bowl and pushes aspen in it lol. Her, Dottie and now Luna are my terrors. They shove hides, aspen, water bowls, pull down temp wires and anything else they can destroy.

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Originally Posted by Sauzo

It is breeding season I believe and with him being a boy, maybe he wanted some lady love and not your love lol.

As for the substrate, welcome to my world. Rosey always shoves her aspen all over, pushes her water bowl and pushes aspen in it lol. Her, Dottie and now Luna are my terrors. They shove hides, aspen, water bowls, pull down temp wires and anything else they can destroy.

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He's been in breeding mode since late July. Lol Been leaving sperm plugs everywhere. He recently stopped with the cold weather which is weird. I guess because I started using the heater, it heats a lot better than my old one.

Yes but that's highly unusual for him, he rarely messes up a single thing in his enclosure, and any spirited frenzies are short-lived (like a day or two).

He's been back to normal since that incident though so no clue what was up with him. I've even taken him out and handled him since with no problems.


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Lol maybe he had a bad dream. My beardie has woken up in a frenzy before and shot out of her little blanket like a bullet, ran across the cage and stood there like in shock. I picked her up and wrapped her back up and held her for about 30 mins and she fell back asleep lol. Only ever happened once in 4 years.

Well at least he is back to normal so I guess just chalk it up as a snake being a snake lol.

Here are photos of him in said shed cycle. He should be going blue any day now.

http://i.imgur.com/0VvzuGI.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/d12cwVP.jpg

I haven’t posted Cloud in a looong time, mostly because I haven’t had a yard to get him out in. That has luckily just changed. [emoji16] He’s been rubbing a lot since I paired Dominika the first time, and when Nymeria ovulated, he really kicked up the gear and damage his nose. Went on antibiotics and luckily the rub has scarred over and with the recent shed, that also fell off. So I got some pics outside while I let him get some likely much needed UV, and fed him a rabbit the following day. Now that his fast and the move is over, time to get those rabbits in gear and fatten him up a bit again, and hopefully more sun will help color him up again too.

Phone pic:
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DSLR pic:
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https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...ab35f7f78f.jpg

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...8ff5fcd42e.jpg


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