Snakes and Stones

[Lord Sorril]

I really like that particular stone. It has a lot of character.

Thanks!

Photo #97


Shown: A Hypomelanistic Ball Python with Quartz (grouped up the blue-ish pieces together) and plain colored Quartzite. Quartzite is a composite of Sandstone incorporated into Quartz.
I did not know what Quartzite was and while collecting I was unable to tell the difference between Yellow Quartz with a weathered rind (Photo #92) vs. Quartzite...I ended up tumbling a bunch of plain colored stones lol.

As for the quartz pieces: they had some gold colored streaks on the surface pre-tumble (shown below). I was hoping the metallic color was pyrite....it was not...disappeared in tumble.

I showed this photo to my 'rock buddies' and they said the gold color was not metal, but, a type of organic matter...disappointment...

[Bogertophis]

Who knew rocks were so "complicated"? Thanks for sharing your knowledge-

[Lord Sorril]

Who knew rocks were so "complicated"? Thanks for sharing your knowledge-

You are welcome!

I always found geology boring because I had no practical application for it. I wouldn't exactly call tumbling/polishing rocks a 'practical application', however, identifying new sources of material is enough to spur my interest.

In other news: I just hatched three 'proof clutches' to confirm if some of my 66% Het females were 100% Het. All three clutches (HO x 66% Pos. Het) had more than enough hatchlings to statistically prove their mothers Non-Hets...DOH! Normally I would be pretty disappointed, but, I have the day off from work today-so I'm cool with it...good to know...

Photo #98

[Lord Sorril]

When I first started tumbling rocks: My girlfriend was angry that was taking up a 'kids hobby'. She demanded to know what I was going to do with the finished product: "Are we just going to have piles of rocks laying around the house???"
At the time I was trying to figure out some sort of props to use with my snakes for photos...so I told her that I would use them for that purpose. She didn't believe me and asked for a 'proof of concept'. I produced this photo below...the very first Snakes and Stones photo.

Photo #99


Pastel Het Clown with some Carnelian Agate, and a few random stones thrown in.

[Lord Sorril]

Photo #100



A Black Pastel with Firework Obsidian from Mexico.
Firework obsidian is considered one of the more difficult materials to tumble/polish. I read it was for someone with 'advanced' tumbling skills...had to try it.
Of the rough material I started with: I separated out the 'lighter' and 'darker pieces'. Shown above are the darker pieces.

There was an odd piece of rough material in the bag to start with (shown below). I later learned it is some Asteroid Jasper that snuck in.


Note: As we are only at photo #100 (100 individual snakes shown so far) and my 2021 clutches are hatching reliably: I may increase the frequency of my Snakes and Stones photos to catch up to this year.

[Bogertophis]

...

Note: As we are only at photo #100 (100 individual snakes shown so far) and my 2021 clutches are hatching reliably: I may increase the frequency of my Snakes and Stones photos to catch up to this year.

I feel sure that we can all adapt okay -thanks for the "warning".

[Lord Sorril]

Photo #101



Super Pastel Lesser Het Axanthic--She had a slow start because she is a poor eater/high anxiety, her clutch-mates are easily 3X her size.

[Lord Sorril]

Photo #102



Orange Ghost adult with a piece of dendritic agate/chalcedony.
Even though the female is about 5 years old you can see just a little bit of the orange in the head.
My 'normal' expression OG's have no yellows/orange as adults and look like regular Hypos.

Breeders Note 7/21/21: Half the eggs in my time lapse Clutch# 4 started to die in the last few days prior to hatch (Day 57). The remaining four are hatching normally (three are out). 50% mortality in one of my clutches is the worst I've seen in years. So, my question is: What happened? I know my time lapse incubator has slightly shaky temps due the heat generated from lighting/cameras/overall lower insulation value. Upon necropsy of the failed eggs I see that the snakes are not well formed. It appears they are what I would expect for three weeks of growth. My records shows a matching time frame where there was both a heat wave and a power outage for aprox. 24hrs., with no electricity and no ambient air conditioning the eggs went slightly above 92F. Even though the eggs did not die immediately...it seems their development was interrupted.
Had I not dissected the failed eggs I would have wondered if cutting the eggs at the first sign of trouble would have helped, and the answer is 'no' it would not. This is one of those situations where a brief lapse in incubation conditions shows up at the very end.
Just thought I'd share.

[Lord Sorril]

Photo #103



Super Lesser, and brighter colored firework obsidian.

[Bogertophis]

Photo #103



Super Lesser, and brighter colored firework obsidian.

Very well-named obsidian...and for all of the above.