Eastern Indigo - Drogon

Congratulations Red!! I'm happy for you :bow:

Wow! Just wow!

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Originally Posted by ladywhipple02

Also one of the smartest snakes apparently - I'm interested to hear how his personality develops as he grows!

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Originally Posted by Dianne

Beautiful! It will be interesting to see him grow and change, and hear your thoughts on his personality. Very cool pick up.

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I'm interested too! Keepers often talk about their intelligence. I'm taking it with a grain of salt though, because a snake is still just a snake LOL. My tanimbar scrub and northern pine snake have already shown me what I think is a snake's extent of discernment, awareness and intelligence, so Drogon will have some tough spots to beat. I'll be updating this thread in the future!

Welcome to the Drymarchon family !!!

stunning stunning !!

care to share your experience with the permit process and all of that?

i recently added a black tail cribo yearling to my collection. I wanted an indigo but ended up in a different direction with a MBK and the BTC. I will tell you. They are definitely a different level of smart and aware. But... you already have some smart snakes but I think your new add will surprise you. Going to be cool to watch him grow and compare notes!!

aweome stuff !

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Originally Posted by Phillydubs

Welcome to the Drymarchon family !!!

stunning stunning !!

care to share your experience with the permit process and all of that?

i recently added a black tail cribo yearling to my collection. I wanted an indigo but ended up in a different direction with a MBK and the BTC. I will tell you. They are definitely a different level of smart and aware. But... you already have some smart snakes but I think your new add will surprise you. Going to be cool to watch him grow and compare notes!!

aweome stuff !

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oh congrats on your cribo! Well, I can't wait to see what kind of smarts my indigo will display as he grows bigger :D
I decided not to bother with the permit and just get one in state, so it was a regular transaction for me.

wonderful species !!! So magnificent !!

So rare.

I do believe I have seen one in the woods where I board my horse at. It is on a military installation and there are miles and miles of deep woods. We have a large and diverse number of wildlife in those deep woods, in part because they have been left fairly undisturbed for many years.
We actually have the largest numbers of gopher tortoises left, because no-one messes with their burrows (no gasoline poured in to catch rattlers and other such nonsense). Our woods also get controlled burns every few years, which makes it the perfect habitat.

We've had sightings of low slung big cats, might have been a Jaguarundi. They have been released in the general area many, many years ago. Also had sightings of bears. There really are some thick and deep (and large) woods surrounding the horse barn. Quite spooky at night.

There are a ton of snakes, too. At one point I could have sworn I saw an Indigo. Very large and heavy bodied solid black snake. I couldn't get a good look at the head and chin, though, but I can't think of another snake that would be so large and deep black. To bad I've never seen it again.

It has become so rare, that there haven't been any sightings in years now. Quite sad.

Congrats to adding such a unique, rare and magnificent animal to your collection :)

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Originally Posted by zina10

wonderful species !!! So magnificent !!

So rare.

I do believe I have seen one in the woods where I board my horse at. It is on a military installation and there are miles and miles of deep woods. We have a large and diverse number of wildlife in those deep woods, in part because they have been left fairly undisturbed for many years.
We actually have the largest numbers of gopher tortoises left, because no-one messes with their burrows (no gasoline poured in to catch rattlers and other such nonsense). Our woods also get controlled burns every few years, which makes it the perfect habitat.

We've had sightings of low slung big cats, might have been a Jaguarundi. They have been released in the general area many, many years ago. Also had sightings of bears. There really are some thick and deep (and large) woods surrounding the horse barn. Quite spooky at night.

There are a ton of snakes, too. At one point I could have sworn I saw an Indigo. Very large and heavy bodied solid black snake. I couldn't get a good look at the head and chin, though, but I can't think of another snake that would be so large and deep black. To bad I've never seen it again.

It has become so rare, that there haven't been any sightings in years now. Quite sad.

Congrats to adding such a unique, rare and magnificent animal to your collection :)

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That's awesome that you have the undisturbed wildlife and woods so close! And that you've seen a couperi in the wild! That must be a great feeling. If the snake was so large and black, there's really no other native species quite like that, so I'll bet it was an indigo. So rare!

I have terrible luck in spotting wild snakes. I live in socal and hike relatively frequently and have never even seen a rattlesnake LOL.

Yes, I'm pretty sure that is what it was. The only other snakes that large are the Eastern Diamondbacks, and there is NO mistaking them !!!

The only other time I've seen a Eastern Indido Snake was at a endangered wildlife presentation at a fair in Savannah, GA.

I'll never forget it. The guy came out with this gorgeous and big Eastern Indigo snake. He walked around in front of the people while talking in his microphone.
I watched the snake slither through his hands and then start nudging his wrist. I thought "uhoh" and sure enough, the snake casually latched on the guys wrist !!!

He had this khaki long sleeve shirt on and I don't think anybody else noticed it. He was such a pro. All he did was slightly raise his voice and tense up a bit. Then he just kept walking and talking while the snake held on to his wrist. LOL. He kept the sleeve low to try and hide the fact.

He finished up pretty quick, though, LOL.

Where I board my horse now I've seen all kinds of snakes. Mostly Rat snakes (they call them Oak snakes). I have seen quite a few Eastern Diamondback rattlers too, a few Copperheads and a really big Cotton mouth. The most unique one was a little rough green snake. Was as emerald green as a Green Tree Python. I saved that one from a barn cat.

Nights out there (spent a few with a sick horse) really do get spooky. The facility is carved right into the edge of deep woods, built on a old weapons dump. Coyotes run through there, wild pigs and just all kinds of animals. It is quite cool, when it isn't in the middle of the night.

What a beautiful pickup!! And a big hatchling! Dragon is the perfect name for him.

wow! talk about #LifeGoals!

congrats! how long did permitting take?

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Originally Posted by redshepherd

This hatchling was ready for me to pick up a few weeks earlier than anticipated. He's on unscented rodents already.

If there's going to be a final snake to any collection, it better be an eastern indigo! He's hatched 7/27/18 and I've named him Drogon. I love dragons and I thought it's fitting for his colors and future large adult size. :D

Eastern indigos are endangered and are the largest native snake species in the US. They're not constrictors, so they actually kill their prey by just grabbing and crushing. As adults, they eat and poop like large dogs and are high-maintenance snakes- ideally need to be fed multiple prey items per feeding with frequent feedings every few days. Some general info on the species LOL

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that's one of the reasons why they're so awesome! i hope to see some nice feeding pix an vids.

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Originally Posted by redshepherd

Also the most money I've ever dropped on a snake. :O

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dat Disney money!!