Beauty Babble (Dial-up be Afeared)

Neptune is an odd boy. He seems to like doing everything at once... shed, poop, and eat in that order. He'll eat maybe once or twice a month, and sheds awfully frequently for an adult ratsnake, which I suspect is because he's such a stressball. He was even in shed when we first brought him home, which is why he ate for us right away. *sighs* He's healthy though, so claimeth the vet, so I'm not complaining! We're feeding him on Saturday now, so if he refuses Ma-tsu can have it on Sunday. She always eats, so no wasted food that way.

Ma-tsu is in hiding a lot lately... I keep hoping she'll lay, but it's hard to tell as she's eating just fine and being so unusually hidey. I pester her every once in a while just to make sure she's not hiding eggs where they'll dry out. Poor sweetie. When I life up her hide she's all coiled up and looks up at me like "Wha? Huh? Oh, hi. Huh?" And is so cute I just want to scoop her up and snuggle her. :hokitty: But I don't, cause she might be preggers. Below is an example of the cuteness I must resist on a regular basis. God, she's gorgeous.

http://pics.livejournal.com/medusasowl/pic/0008b083



Here's a few pics just before Neptune shed! Do my eyes decieve me, or is he actually using his humid hide for once?! He is! He's using it! And angry at me for noticing, lol.

http://pics.livejournal.com/medusasowl/pic/0008648h

Semi-soaking in a circle.

http://pics.livejournal.com/medusasowl/pic/00087w8k

http://pics.livejournal.com/medusasowl/pic/0008845g

http://pics.livejournal.com/medusasowl/pic/00089gxc

One shed and poop (in the humid hide, no less) later, he took the offered f/t rat! You can see the bump that was the rat here. I didn't dare take pics before it was that far down, for fear he'd get offended and change his mind.

http://pics.livejournal.com/medusasowl/pic/00082kg7

http://pics.livejournal.com/medusasowl/pic/00083g7t

http://pics.livejournal.com/medusasowl/pic/00084a3c

http://pics.livejournal.com/medusasowl/pic/000856ee

Thanks for looking! I'd love to iconize this cute picture of him peeking out for LJ, but I can't quite think of the right caption. Any suggestions? :)

http://pics.livejournal.com/medusasowl/pic/0008a1rf

"I See you...." lol I just love your VBB, just too beautiful!

such gorgeous beauties :)

oh and i forgot to mention... those enclosures are gorgeous!!! did you make them yourself? how would a hog island or a ball do in them i wonder? hmmmm. what's your temps and humidity?

I love that first picture! :sweeet: Thanks for the pictures. I always love updates on those two.

I was at a local pet store and saw they had two baby blue beauties for sale. :O Talk about shock!! I thought of you immediately. They also had a more adult Taiwan beauty as well. Those guys are super long!! WOW! It was the squirmiest thing I had ever seen. Very impressive snake. :love:

Awwh, "I see you" is a cute idea! :love:

I got Neptune's cage from Custom Wood Reptile Cage Company, who are just awesome. I highly recommend them. Best prices I've ever seen for custom made, delightfully escape proof (trust me, Neptune has tested it and tested it good!), easy to clean and just looks beautiful. Even got to pick out the wood stain. :D I've since become buds with the owner, who's an absolute doll. When I get my snake room, I want a bunch of these. The humidity isn't much better than it would be in a glass tank, as the top is a screen, but that's why they've got humid hides. Haven't had a single problem shed! They're UTH safe too, though all VBBs need is between 75-85 degrees. *does a whole commercial* Seriously, I love that cage. It makes the room look magically less cluttered too, somehow. :P

Squee, baby VBBs!! In a store?? Wow! Man... I can't wait to have little pipping babies of my own. :love: I also love being associated :happycry: I wear my crazy VBB lady title with pride! The length is amazing, isn't it? I've seen a Taiwan Beauty in person before at a pet store, the same one I got Unut at. First beauty snake I'd ever seen in person before, but she was cranky and in shed so I didn't really get the full effect. Apparently the fates were saving that up for Ma-tsu. :D I love that pic too. That's her right after I lift the hide to egg check, poor dear, lol.

awesome snakes!! for the last one "hey is that rat for ME?!?!?!" lol

That's a cute idea, but I wish! For Neptune, probably more like "Back off, lady, I'm big and bad and... EEK, my shadow! :bolt:" than food begging. He is crazy like that, lol. ;) And thank you! I love them to bits. :love:

okay, one, i love your icon.
two, that ma-tsu, i need to look up your older posts on her- i forgot what she is. stunning. srsly.
three, your rat makes me want another corn. soo active.
kudos on the righteous babies.

mat-su and neptune are Vietnamese Blue Beauties.

thanks for commercial! i'm going to check out the site!!!

AWEsome pictures, Sheree! I could just sit and look at those all day!


(And I love your new avatar...that's so funny!)

Thank you! I love looking at them too, lol. I might make a wallpaper out of that top pic of Ma-tsu, even. And yes, Vietnamese Blue Beauties, says so in the sig ;) And the cages rock, Kasia does great work!

Hehe, thanks, I've been enjoying all the silly/cute/Jimmy icons everyone else is using I thought I'd put a few more cute off-topic random icons into my rotation even though the BG logo/Medusa's owl is the most "me". :D For the record I didn't make this one though, someone else on LJ did who's credited in my LJ icons page... but it's so cute and... Picard! :love:

Always a joy to see pics or hear stories of these lovely VBB's. Oh and Picard...sexiest bald guy ever! ;)

i thought neptune was a rat snake. thing is- as soon as i posted it i thought "i bet he's not..."
^^
either way, still gorgeous

Quote:

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Originally Posted by shhhli

i thought neptune was a rat snake. thing is- as soon as i posted it i thought "i bet he's not..."
^^
either way, still gorgeous

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VBB's are a species of rat snake. So your first instinct was right. ;)

Picard rules, that man could read the phone book aloud and everybody'd listen in rapt attention. :P One of my primary reasons for seeing X-men was that Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen were both in it, and they both have huge fans in this household!

And yup, VBBs are big long Asian rat snakes! 3lbs and 8ft each. :D

wow, i didn't realize there were so big! :O

Very, very beautiful, dear. ^_^

Thankee! :D

And yup, these are BIG rat snakes! Oh so very long and skinny! This is why wrassling Neptune is such an adventure, lol. This pic of Ma-tsu and me with the rabbit cage is probably the best size reference I have and you can't even see all of her in it because a chunk of her middle is behind my back. They don't look as big as they are, but they're a whole lotta beauty snake! :love:

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...tcagematsu.jpg

Here's a picture of my daughter, Petra, holding Ma-tsu. Again, there's a big loop of her behind Petra's back, but it still gives a great idea of her magnificent length!



https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...atsu-petra.jpg

I love that pic! :love: That was such a fun exciting day... and my, Ma-tsu *has* put on some pounds since then! She's thicker now and I dunno if that's the eggs or getting fed more often! :snake: Probably both! I wish I could take her with to the Expo in Oct to say hi to you, Judy!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MedusasOwl

I love that pic! :love: That was such a fun exciting day... and my, Ma-tsu *has* put on some pounds since then! She's thicker now and I dunno if that's the eggs or getting fed more often! :snake: Probably both! I wish I could take her with to the Expo in Oct to say hi to you, Judy!

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Ohhh, I wish you could too! We'll just HAVE to plan a visit up to Phoenix sometime!

Wow, awesome snake, and awesome cage too! Is it handmade?
lol; my man is sitting far away from the computer, and he said "is that a rattlesnake?" :)

wow..... much longer than i thought... funny how pics don't do our snakes justice LOL

We'll come up with a good excuse for you to come up here, Judy. :D Sometime with more time to visit and pet bunnies!

It's handmade by Kasia of Custom Wood Reptile Cage Company, from whom I plan to get more cages in the future! Whatever size or stain, beautiful work, and delightfully escape proof. I did a whole commercial for her somewhere further up in the thread. ;)

Oh wait! Or do you mean the rabbit cage? Karen made that one, following these instructions more or less, lol.

Rattlesnake?? Lol, wow, VBBs look like everything! Copperheads, rattlesnakes, it's no wonder everybody think they're venomous! :P

And yeah, pictures only go so far, in person it's surreal! My blue Asian dragons. :love:

Yay! More VBB pics! They look great...=)

The local reptile store in town had a pair of Tawainese beauties (I think), more yellow and black, for sale for a long time...they actually just sold a while ago...but stilll not as pretty as VBB's. =)

Thanks! Taiwans are neat, but yeah I'm (obviously) biased toward the Blue Beauties. ;) If I were to be tempted by anybody else in the immediate taenura family, it would be a Ridleys. For a while there it was believed that Blue Beauties were an intergrade between Ridleys and Taiwans! But now they're acknowledged as their own subspecies.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...w_4-749146.jpg

Those are great pics!!!


How large of an enclosure do they need? And are they arboreal at all? Sorry for the goofy questions, but I know NOTHING about them.

:) Neil

I have a whole caresheet for them on my site! I'm all about spreading the VBB love. :D This should answer most of your questions, and if it doesn't then I need to update it!

http://www.bluegorgon.com/caresheet.htm

VBBs will climb and explore, they're not technically aboreal but they're active! Any time I change anything in Ma-tsu's tank, she must inspect it! She kind of reminds me of a cat that way, lol. She's also enjoyed lounging in the tree I have for her on occassion! Neptune is only active sometimes, but he has some emotional problems I'm working on. In the future I have plans to focus on breeding this gorgeous species specifically for sweet docile dispositions like Ma-tsu's.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...tsubranch3.jpg

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...tsubranch2.jpg