Snakes and Stones

[Lord Sorril]

Photo #430

Thunderegg piece with a 100% Het VPI Axanthic/66% Het Orange Ghost + 1 possible Pattern Altering Gene (neither Enchi/OD/Het Albino/Lav Albino).
If I didn't know the parents for this one: I would have guessed Enchi/Het Lavender Albino (and been 100% wrong lol).

Fun fact: Thundereggs are volcanic bubbles that are formed by compressed gases in rhyolitic (silica-rich) magma. Some geodes are thundereggs, but, not all thundereggs are geodes.

[Lord Sorril]

So, I have the Special/Het Monsoon ball python I got two days ago in a quarantine enclosure. I noticed every time I walk by during the day he comes out of his hide and stares at me-when he should be sleeping.
These guys aren't complex thinkers: he either doesn't like his cage, his temps are not calibrated properly, or he is hungry.

I see...

[Bogertophis]

He's got some very pretty coloration. And obviously, an appetite, haha.

[Lord Sorril]

He's got some very pretty coloration. And obviously, an appetite, haha.

Yep!
There are always a few things that I worry about when I get a new snake:
1. Does it have an infectious disease/condition?
2. Will it eat-has it truly been eating on its own?
3. Will this snake be a reliable breeder?
The first two can be determined in quarantine. The third one will be discovered later.
At least I can resolve my question #2 at the moment.

Photo #431

Enchi/Het Clown with a piece of Jasper from the Mid-West USA.

Fun fact: This is the 81st ball python of the 2024 breeding season I have shown.
Of the ones I have displayed thus far: Only four are personal holdbacks-and the rest have been sold to distributors.
I cross my fingers and hope people are taking good care of them.

[Bogertophis]

....Of the ones I have displayed thus far: Only four are personal holdbacks-and the rest have been sold to distributors.
I cross my fingers and hope people are taking good care of them.

That's what I hated about breeding snakes- parting with them after raising them up, & hoping they remained in good hands.

[Lord Sorril]

That's what I hated about breeding snakes- parting with them after raising them up, & hoping they remained in good hands.

Yeah, I couldn't imagine breeding dogs or cats...I would be relentlessly harassing the new owners to make sure they were doing a proper job...

Photo #432

Brazilian agate nodule tumbled whole with a Spider/66% Het VPI Axanthic/66% Het Orange Ghost.

Side Story:
I baked a cake 2 weeks ago , and I used a small amount of Betty Crocker frosting on the top (yes yes, I'm a guy and I like to cook--deal with it).
I wasn't sure what to do with the remaining nearly full container of vanilla frosting...according to the label it still contained about 1000 calories (mostly sugar): so I rotated it through my mouse stock cages (containing about 30 mice/cage).
I was surprised that they were reluctant to eat it, and even after exposure to several hundred mice-it took them ~10 days to finish off the small container.
Each stock cage of mice only ate a ~10% portion of the frosting/day, but, all of them became diabetic and their waste and smell doubled/tripled for the next week (super gross!).
This is the second week post-frosting, and my mouse stock cages have returned to normal-which indicates that the effects were only temporary.
Even though a percentage of their diet was frosting at one point, I saw no decline in the amount of regular food that was consumed...I suppose it only makes sense as frosting is nutritionally void.
Anyhow, I just thought I would share this anecdote for fun.

[Bogertophis]

Much better (& almost as easy as opening a can) to make vanilla buttercream frosting from scratch- & no "Franken-food" ingredients. Do you really want to eat something that has a shelf-life of "practically forever"- that even microbes don't want?

Not sure homemade frosting would go over any better with mice though- they like what they like, & they must have thought that stuff was from the moon?

Mice are not the garbage-disposals that rats are...rats would have been thrilled to lend a hand, or rather, their tongues. When I had rats, I'd always let them lick out my "empty" peanut butter jars, & they got them spotless!

BTW, there's nothing wrong with a guy that bakes & cooks...my brother is pretty good in the kitchen too, at least for some things- his specialties- & it gives his wife a break.

Vanilla buttercream frosting is my favorite, & very hard to mess up- I mostly don't even measure. Recipe is usually on box of confectioner's sugar or online- just conf. sugar, butter, milk (whole is best), vanilla, dash of salt. Set out to soften the butter- then blend & whip ingredients in electric mixer: roughly 1 box sugar, softened butter (about 1/3 -1/2 c.), 1 tsp. vanilla or a bit more if you want, dash salt, & enough milk to moisten to the right consistency- don't add it all at once- you want spreadable but not runny. I do not sift the sugar- no need. If you have too much, you can freeze the extra frosting for another time, but it's also good on graham crackers & other things.

P.S. Nice snake & amazing agate!

[Lord Sorril]

Much better (& almost as easy as opening a can) to make vanilla buttercream frosting from scratch- & no "Franken-food" ingredients. Do you really want to eat something that has a shelf-life of "practically forever"- that even microbes don't want?

Not sure homemade frosting would go over any better with mice though- they like what they like, & they must have thought that stuff was from the moon?

Mice are not the garbage-disposals that rats are...rats would have been thrilled to lend a hand, or rather, their tongues. When I had rats, I'd always let them lick out my "empty" peanut butter jars, & they got them spotless!

BTW, there's nothing wrong with a guy that bakes & cooks...my brother is pretty good in the kitchen too, at least for some things- his specialties- & it gives his wife a break.

Vanilla buttercream frosting is my favorite, & very hard to mess up- I mostly don't even measure. Recipe is usually on box of confectioner's sugar or online- just conf. sugar, butter, milk (whole is best), vanilla, dash of salt. Set out to soften the butter- then blend & whip ingredients in electric mixer: roughly 1 box sugar, softened butter (about 1/3 -1/2 c.), 1 tsp. vanilla or a bit more if you want, dash salt, & enough milk to moisten to the right consistency- don't add it all at once- you want spreadable but not runny. I do not sift the sugar- no need. If you have too much, you can freeze the extra frosting for another time, but it's also good on graham crackers & other things.

P.S. Nice snake & amazing agate!

Thanks!

Yes, I'm the head chef in my household. I tell my parents that times have changed and household chores based on gender are no longer applicable, but, do they listen? Of course not...they are still old-school...

Yes I'm sure rats would have loved to eat the generic frosting. Type II Diabetic mice are gross enough, diabetic rats would have been worse!

I rarely make cakes-I feel awful after I eat them due to a number of food intolerances lol.
My favorite was Pineapple-Upside-Down-Cake, but, Covid wiped out my pineapple taste receptors. Less calories means less cardio though...so...there is that....

Photo #433

Fire/Het Clown with some tumbled/polished stromatolite.

In other news: Stable Diffusion 3.5 (Large Model) was released on October 29th 2024.
I downloaded it yesterday and I had to configure a new user interface ('ComfyUI') to run it.
I'm glad the new setup is simple to use...oh wait...ughhh...

It really shines in creating text, and while it does draw snakes better than SDXL-it still gets confused with the body and tail and requires manual corrections.
SD3.5 is just a base model. Since it is open-source the user population will rapidly improve it....better models should show up soon...
I still plan to build an add-on using my Snakes and Stones photos, unfortunately SD3.5 currently runs 10X slower on my system than SDXL.
I'm going to wait a while first to find out if the community can speed it up a bit...it will take my computer weeks at the current rate, and I don't feel like renting a supercomputer for the sake of improving the realism on digitally generated snake images.

In the meanwhile:

[Bogertophis]

Dang, stop making me hungry! I love pineapple upside down cake too- & I definitely eat my share of sweets. Happily, I have a great metabolism & it doesn't show (don't hate me).

Hahaha! Back to the snake pics!

[Lord Sorril]

Photo #434

GHI with a chunk of petrified wood from Arizona, USA.