Howl and Dominika

So I've got two new snakes. :P Howl (from Howl's Moving Castle) is a 2010 male ghost, about 4'-4.5' long, I'll need to get a measurement on him once he settles in. His previous owner was feeding him a small rat every 2-3 weeks. I'm still debating on if/how I'll change his feeding schedule. He's got great body tone, just a teeny male. I may try him on a medium just to see how he does on them, otherwise I'll stick to smalls. I may just put him on rats the size of Layne Labs' small/medium rats and feed him on a 4 week schedule. I'll play it by ear. He arrived here yesterday.

When he arrived, he had a bit of nose rub, and looked a bit dry around the face, but overall appears to be in good health. His face already improved a bit during the ~7 hours he'd been here, so I think it was just from the ride here. The nose rub maybe not, in my experience with River it can be hard to tell how old a rub is. I'll see how he does over the next few weeks, and offer him a small rat in about a week.


He is quite pale and clean, though, which I love. His eyes are also different than I was expecting. Tirel's are silver and very bright-colored, his are more of a dark steel gray.


These photos were from when I unboxed him, he came out docile but extremely curious about everything. He took several long gulps from his water dish and explored before I left for work. When I came home, he was under one of his paper towels.


http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/...ps887jsstr.jpg


http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/...psgrfy47fc.jpg


I checked on him long enough to make sure he was still breathing and take a few clearer photos. His nose looked almost normal when I checked on him this morning. Couldn't see the side of his face or under his eyes very well but I'm hoping all the sunkenness was just dehydration from being shipped.


http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/...psqjbjym6p.jpg


http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/...psvfbns3kz.jpg

Dominika is a 2008 proven jungle female from Gray Rushin, he she's somewhere around 7' and 11 lbs last time he weighed her. She had her first litter earlier this year. He's been feeding her to get her back up to weight to be bred this year, but between quarantining her and Howl, and her just having a litter I'll be giving her this season off. She won't be here until December probably, he'll be dropping her off on his way to hike the mountains. I saw someone with one of his boas in July or August, checked out his website, and saw her daughter. I fell in love, but decided to go with her mom since they were similarly priced and she was ready to breed. She's not too bad-looking herself, either. :P I really like the clean contrasted look her and her litter have. I'm hoping Howl's cleanness and whiteness accentuates that.

She normally gets large rats according to the history he posted on her profile, but has been getting jumbos to aid in weight gain. Since she's up to weight again I'll probably put her back on larges.

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...504.1329.0.jpg

Although they won't be my permanent pair (I've still got 2 other females and another male for breeding), I'm getting them around the same time and they're adults so I won't be updating them as often since it's harder to photograph them and not much will be changing. I might photograph Howl more, though, since he's a nice size for arm-photographing. Not the best, but he sorta fits. haha

They look awesome!

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Nice score.

Both cool and I really like the last picture. Nice contrast on that critter.

Congrats on two awesome Boas! :)

Wow, great additions! Dominika is a real stunner - Howl's cool too, I just personally favor high color, but he's a super sweet ghost. Certainly looks like he could put away mediums in the picture of you holding him, but I know you'll do what's best for him. Dominika's single spot saddles are so cool, this might be a stretch, but I honestly immediately thought of Billy Crystal's character in Monsters Inc. (although "Mike Wazowski" probably isn't a great name for her) Congrats, and keep the pictures coming!

Both are stunning!!!!! :gj:

Thanks everyone! I jumped on him when I saw his ad, he's so clean and pale for a 2010.

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Originally Posted by dkatz4

Wow, great additions! Dominika is a real stunner - Howl's cool too, I just personally favor high color, but he's a super sweet ghost. Certainly looks like he could put away mediums in the picture of you holding him, but I know you'll do what's best for him. Dominika's single spot saddles are so cool, this might be a stretch, but I honestly immediately thought of Billy Crystal's character in Monsters Inc. (although "Mike Wazowski" probably isn't a great name for her) Congrats, and keep the pictures coming!

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I'm not much of a a fan of ghosts, either, but I want to make jungles 100% het anery, and hypo does well with jungles so gotta have that, too.

He could but I'll have to see how big they are compared to him to see if he'll get them regularly. He'll get a small first since that's what his owner has been feeding him. At the very least he'll get a medium every other feeding or every couple feedings depending on how they compare to him.

Lol yeah don't want to name her that. I'll probably keep her name since she's an 8 year old breeder. She's only had one litter so far, but keeping her name will make it easier to connect with people who have her offspring or other relatives.


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Well Howl took his small rat almost a week ago now, and it left a respectable lump. I'm thinking he should be fine on smalls, but I may order a small pack of mediums just to try him on some. I have a few but they're really old so I'd rather just get fresh ones.

https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5801/3...c87551fd_h.jpg

His face has also cleared up and looks 100% normal. :)

I'm also starting to think he may be a jungle ghost...the person I got him from said he was bred by someone called Chris Cotter, but he doesn't seem to be active anymore so I can't ask about his pairing. He's clean, bright, and even has a bit of that two-tone thing going on. His saddles are also different from what I usually see in regular ghosts, he's got those big white circles whereas ghost saddles are normally pretty solid and have the circles on the sides like normal, but his circles are big and in the middle of the saddle. His saddles also still retain a bit of that purply hue, which was much more pronounced as a baby.

http://arachnoboards.com/gallery/ghost-boa.13592/full

I took these photos while trying to keep tabs on his face without disturbing him too much. Once I was sure his face was fine, I left him alone. Now that he's eaten, I should be able to take him out for some regular handling. :)

His face after a few days:

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...f865ec48_h.jpg

The most recent photo of his face:

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...54365af7_h.jpg

The photo I used to identify his baby photo (I literally just happened to come across it browsing photos on Google). Even though I'd hardly looked at him, I recognized his coloration and vaguely his saddles.

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...db873cf8_h.jpg

And a full shot of that face photo above. I plan on getting him some better RBI/LLLReptile hides when I get paid and they're in stock. For now, this seems to be working for him.

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...32e1a325_h.jpg

they are both stunning! It's hard to go wrong with boas from Gray, he produces some very nice stuff. I like the ghost guy, he looks great and very light. I keep my adult males small (3-4' on a diet of small/medium rats) and they do great. I don't see jungle in him however (in my opinion). The circles in the saddles are one of the highly variable things about boas and are not uncommon to be seen in hypos even though pinched saddles are more common. I have a nice female with the circles in the saddles and almost all her babies get that same trait.
Looking forward to seeing photos of the jungle once she gets there.

Yeah I'm only vaguely suspecting because unanimously every jungle ghost has those purply saddles and circles, and I have yet to this day to see a ghost like him in those regards. Doesn't necessarily mean he is, because I haven't seen every ghost in existence, but that's why I've been thinking it lately. He'll be bred to a jungle so I should find out either way. If he's just a really nice ghost, he should very well compliment Dominika.

Yup no worries about him getting too big, he's already 6 years old and only 4'-4.5', my 5 year old is already 6.5' so at a year older I don't think Howl will get much bigger. His previous owner was feeding him a small rat every 2-3 weeks and I'll probably keep him on pretty much that schedule.

I love Howl! He is so cute


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I made sure to handle him last, but I wanted to get some more handling time in with Howl and get some more photos. He's quite sweet, and although he's still getting used to everything he has yet to hiss, huff, or strike at me. Makes slow, deliberate movements, too. Very curious about anything that comes within reach of his head.


I'm going to wait to weigh him until he poops, but I'd put him at somewhere around 2-3 lbs.


https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5459/3...d6e6ea5a_h.jpg


https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5785/3...79a0f4bc_h.jpg


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Well, Howl shed for the first time (with me) this past Tuesday. :D


This is several days (somewhere around 4-5 days) after I started suspecting him going into a shed cycle, taken Nov 25. He went blue 4 days later.


http://68.media.tumblr.com/d6f234b55...tato1_1280.jpg


This was taken yesterday, he's been giving me the food face since he shed. Unfortunately, all of my snake food had to be thrown out because of another fridge failure. Our new fridge doesn't have the room for all my snake food, so I have to wait until we bring my father's chest freezer over. So for now hungry snakes have to stay hungry. So long as we can get someone to actually come over and move the freezer within a reasonable time frame FOR ONCE, I should have more snake food not this coming week because I work all day every day until Friday, but the following week.


http://68.media.tumblr.com/bd4cbe5d0...tato1_1280.jpg

Also, Dominika will be here on the 21st! I'm in the middle of getting enclosures ready as we speak.

Aww, I love Howl. Pictures like that make me want a boa

You should definitely get one when you can, Meerna! They're great snakes, definitely my favorites.

Here's some photos of him from tonight. He wasn't happy with me because I was gently rubbing him to make sure he knew it was me. He's already wrapped my hand once, while I was putting his water dish back after changing it. haha A quick bite and release, even from a boa Cloud's size (6.5') isn't bad, but a feeding bite is another story. It burned pretty bad as he got me at the bend of my thumb and left a couple teeny tiny teeth.


You can't really see it too well because his eyes are dark, but the dilated pupils tell you he's not a happy boy.


http://i.imgur.com/Ij07yp0.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/aH217uw.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/6xyyHlS.jpg


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


I keep meaning to weigh him, but I'll get around to it, definitely before I feed him next.

Well, the long wait is over and here she is. ^.^ She's roughly 7' long and her breeder says her last weight before the trip over here was 13.5 lbs. She drove all the way from Raleigh with her breeder, William "Gray" Rushin since he was coming this way to hike with some of his college buddies. Which works out perfectly, I didn't have to drive and I didn't have to risk her health by having her shipped.


Just as a refresher, she's a 2008 jungle, and had her first ever litter earlier this year. I'm going to be giving her this season off and try her next fall. I have heard adult females tend to take 1-2 years to settle in to a new home, so I may not get lucky quite then. I'm debating on giving her another year just in case she isn't ready, but if there's no harm in it I may go ahead and at least attempt a courtship.


She's in River's old T12, and as you can see I missed a spot while cleaning the shelf the other day...If she leaves the shelf I might take it out and try cleaning it again. Gonna try a bleach solution this time and see if that works to get the stains out.


She fought me getting her out of the transport bag. At first I tried just pulling her out, but she’d just crawl right back into the bag. Eventually I had to just grab the corners of the bag and lift to dump her out. Took me a good 5-6 minutes just to get her out even then. lol


I picked her up on my lunch break yesterday evening, so I didn’t have time to take photos while taking her out, but I snapped these photos when I got home.


https://68.media.tumblr.com/ef2a10d3...tato1_1280.jpg


https://68.media.tumblr.com/9b1f60d9...tato3_1280.jpg


https://68.media.tumblr.com/287f5fbf...tato2_1280.jpg


So far, she hasn’t gotten defensive with me at all, but she still doesn’t trust me. While I was taking photos, she was slowly shuffling to the side to get away from me. Just scooting along sideways while still curled up, never seen a snake do that before. She didn’t stop scooting until I shut the door and walked away.


In the last photo, you can see she’s scooted slightly away from the wall. She made it halfway down before I left her alone. I only bothered her for so long because I was so confused as to what on earth she was doing. "Is she getting ready to poop?" "Is she getting ready to go into a defensive posture?" Eventually I figured out she was just moving away from me in a very odd fashion, and I finally left. lol


I'll be trying her on a large rat in a week or two, and hopefully sometime soon I'll get around to getting photos of her pattern and better photos of her color.

Your story about Dominika is similar to mine when I brought Punch home. His stats are similar to Dominika's as well except for being a male. I like her looks, I sure hope your projects with her pan out.

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Originally Posted by Reinz

Your story about Dominika is similar to mine when I brought Punch home. His stats are similar to Dominika's as well except for being a male. I like her looks, I sure hope your projects with her pan out.

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I'll be feeding her less so she may slim out, her breeder says she's even heavier than last year when she was gravid. He's been feeding her xl and jumbo rats every 1-2 months to try to get her ready to breed again this year. I don't plan on breeding her until next year though so I'm dropping her down to her usual large rat once a month.

It's hard to tell if the 7' is accurate, she looks closer to Cloud's size when stretched out in her 4'x2' but she's so much thicker than him she looks bigger. I'll get a measurement on her eventually once she settles in.

Also she looks like she's going into shed her eyes have been looking milky the past day or two.

As an update on Howl I finally weighed him and he's 917 grams.


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Yeah I know what you mean about getting a measurement and the large girth making it harder to estimate. I got lucky with Punch stretching out alongside of some furniture.

His previous owner had him on 1 to 2 Colossal rats every 1 to 2 weeks. I changed that right away to 1 XL per month.

I didn't weigh him until after a year. He's at 14.5 lbs right now and maintains that nice square Boa shape.

Sounds like you'll have Dominika in good shape when she breeds.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Reinz

Yeah I know what you mean about getting a measurement and the large girth making it harder to estimate. I got lucky with Punch stretching out alongside of some furniture.

His previous owner had him on 1 to 2 Colossal rats every 1 to 2 weeks. I changed that right away to 1 XL per month.

I didn't weigh him until after a year. He's at 14.5 lbs right now and maintains that nice square Boa shape.

Sounds like you'll have Dominika in good shape when she breeds.

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Yeah cutting out the fatty xl and jumbos will go a long way to getting her to thin out. She's roughly 3-4 lbs heavier now than she was when she was bred last year. Which, weight is good, but only when it's muscle. She's not bad though still has a good body tone, I just don't want to risk my first breeding to a possible liver failure. I think 10-11 lbs will be a good weight on her.

Just a few hours after my last post she went milky all over. Her last shed was recorded about a month ago, so it's a bit early.


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by CloudtheBoa

Well, the long wait is over and here she is. ^.^ She's roughly 7' long and her breeder says her last weight before the trip over here was 13.5 lbs. She drove all the way from Raleigh with her breeder, William "Gray" Rushin since he was coming this way to hike with some of his college buddies. Which works out perfectly, I didn't have to drive and I didn't have to risk her health by having her shipped.


Just as a refresher, she's a 2008 jungle, and had her first ever litter earlier this year. I'm going to be giving her this season off and try her next fall. I have heard adult females tend to take 1-2 years to settle in to a new home, so I may not get lucky quite then. I'm debating on giving her another year just in case she isn't ready, but if there's no harm in it I may go ahead and at least attempt a courtship.


She's in River's old T12, and as you can see I missed a spot while cleaning the shelf the other day...If she leaves the shelf I might take it out and try cleaning it again. Gonna try a bleach solution this time and see if that works to get the stains out.


She fought me getting her out of the transport bag. At first I tried just pulling her out, but she’d just crawl right back into the bag. Eventually I had to just grab the corners of the bag and lift to dump her out. Took me a good 5-6 minutes just to get her out even then. lol


I picked her up on my lunch break yesterday evening, so I didn’t have time to take photos while taking her out, but I snapped these photos when I got home.


https://68.media.tumblr.com/ef2a10d3...tato1_1280.jpg


https://68.media.tumblr.com/9b1f60d9...tato3_1280.jpg


https://68.media.tumblr.com/287f5fbf...tato2_1280.jpg


So far, she hasn’t gotten defensive with me at all, but she still doesn’t trust me. While I was taking photos, she was slowly shuffling to the side to get away from me. Just scooting along sideways while still curled up, never seen a snake do that before. She didn’t stop scooting until I shut the door and walked away.


In the last photo, you can see she’s scooted slightly away from the wall. She made it halfway down before I left her alone. I only bothered her for so long because I was so confused as to what on earth she was doing. "Is she getting ready to poop?" "Is she getting ready to go into a defensive posture?" Eventually I figured out she was just moving away from me in a very odd fashion, and I finally left. lol


I'll be trying her on a large rat in a week or two, and hopefully sometime soon I'll get around to getting photos of her pattern and better photos of her color.

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She's a beauty!!!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CloudtheBoa

Well, the long wait is over and here she is. ^.^ She's roughly 7' long and her breeder says her last weight before the trip over here was 13.5 lbs. She drove all the way from Raleigh with her breeder, William "Gray" Rushin since he was coming this way to hike with some of his college buddies. Which works out perfectly, I didn't have to drive and I didn't have to risk her health by having her shipped.


Just as a refresher, she's a 2008 jungle, and had her first ever litter earlier this year. I'm going to be giving her this season off and try her next fall. I have heard adult females tend to take 1-2 years to settle in to a new home, so I may not get lucky quite then. I'm debating on giving her another year just in case she isn't ready, but if there's no harm in it I may go ahead and at least attempt a courtship.


She's in River's old T12, and as you can see I missed a spot while cleaning the shelf the other day...If she leaves the shelf I might take it out and try cleaning it again. Gonna try a bleach solution this time and see if that works to get the stains out.


She fought me getting her out of the transport bag. At first I tried just pulling her out, but she’d just crawl right back into the bag. Eventually I had to just grab the corners of the bag and lift to dump her out. Took me a good 5-6 minutes just to get her out even then. lol


I picked her up on my lunch break yesterday evening, so I didn’t have time to take photos while taking her out, but I snapped these photos when I got home.


https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...tato1_1280.jpg


https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...tato3_1280.jpg


https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...tato2_1280.jpg


So far, she hasn’t gotten defensive with me at all, but she still doesn’t trust me. While I was taking photos, she was slowly shuffling to the side to get away from me. Just scooting along sideways while still curled up, never seen a snake do that before. She didn’t stop scooting until I shut the door and walked away.


In the last photo, you can see she’s scooted slightly away from the wall. She made it halfway down before I left her alone. I only bothered her for so long because I was so confused as to what on earth she was doing. "Is she getting ready to poop?" "Is she getting ready to go into a defensive posture?" Eventually I figured out she was just moving away from me in a very odd fashion, and I finally left. lol


I'll be trying her on a large rat in a week or two, and hopefully sometime soon I'll get around to getting photos of her pattern and better photos of her color.

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I've found that F10SC works awesome at lifting up dried urate off AP cages. I spray it on and let it soak for about 10-15 mins, then it just wipes right up.

And that big boa is nice looking. Looks like Rosey lol. Here she is doing her python warming eggs impression :P
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...4735feff_b.jpg

Sauzo - Once she's settled in I'll go and try to clean them again, I just don't feel right trying to bother her yet.



Well I weighed him last week at 917 grams but he pooped *again* today so he's either just barely over or just barely under 900 grams empty. I did not weigh him as I seem to have misplaced the container I used last time...


Before I discovered his little New Years present.


https://68.media.tumblr.com/763bd528...tato3_1280.jpg


And back in his clean enclosure with flattened paper towels. He hung out around the water dish for awhile.


https://68.media.tumblr.com/5e30e5e5...tato1_1280.jpg


https://68.media.tumblr.com/55d71c9b...tato2_1280.jpg

I saw she was going into shed a few days after arriving, and she shed minutes before midnight yesterday (so a couple hours ago), and took almost 2 hours to eat her rat. Hopefully I'll feel up to handling her later this week and start getting her used to me.


I've got a blanket wedged in between the wall and end of her enclosure because there's a cold draft there that was keeping it way too cold, and blocking it off really helped.


http://68.media.tumblr.com/fd88b6466...tato1_1280.jpg


With her large rat. She makes them look tiny, but they should be plenty for her. If not, my father has bred his rabbits and they should be born and large enough for her in a few months. I do not feel comfortable feeding her rats any larger than this due to the fat content.


https://68.media.tumblr.com/a1dfbdfc...tato2_1280.jpg


https://68.media.tumblr.com/284f082e...tato1_1280.jpg


I will go and remove her shed in a few days as she wouldn't eat with me there. I was hoping to remove it while she was swallowing, but at least she ended up eating. :)

I took Howl out the other night because he pooped. I can always tell because he'll lay curled up on top of his hide and refuse to move. If he's stretched out on top of it, he's just laying there, and usually will either start crawling around or go back in his hide if I walk around him.

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...tato2_1280.jpg


https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...tato1_1280.jpg


https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...tato3_1280.jpg


https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...tato4_1280.jpg

I've been feeding him a bit more often to get some weight on him before I attempt any breedings, he's eating every 2 weeks rather than 3, but he should go back to 3 soon. He just worries me with how small he is, I'm sure as I get used to breeding that won't be the case but I want to make sure he has the strength to breed Dominika.

And some more of Dominika. She really loves her shelf, but she's been giving the floor of her enclosure more love lately, now shelf time and floor time are more evenly shared. lol

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...tato2_1280.jpg


https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...tato1_1280.jpg

This is Dominika after dumping her out of a bucket. I was dampening her bedding and she wouldn't willingly come out of the bucket when I was finished so I had to dump her out. She filled up a decent portion of the bucket, so just tipping it over wasn't enough because she just pushed against the walls to keep from sliding. So I tipped it over on its side until she had repositioned herself to be curled up on one of the walls. After that, she was easy to dump out and came out curled up just like this. Then she sat there watching me in bewilderment for several minutes. >.>


https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...tato2_1280.jpg


https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...tato1_1280.jpg


I also managed to get some photos of me holding her to gauge her size. I'm 5'1" or 5'2" I don't remember which. After comparing to a photo of me and Cloud, I'm think she could be 7'-7.5'. I was overestimating by what degree her girth made her look bigger. lol


https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...tato2_1280.jpg


https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...tato1_1280.jpg


https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...tato3_1280.jpg


https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...tato4_1280.jpg

I got a few rabbits in, so I'll be trying a rabbit for her next meal. They're the same size rabbits Cloud gets. My father hasn't been breeding his rabbits as much and production has gone down so I only managed to grab 3 rabbits for Dominika and Cloud, and I'm giving the other 3 another week or two to get to 1 lb for River.

Very nice! I have one on the way from Gray as well. Can't wait! He has been a pleasure to deal with.