Snakes and Stones

[Lord Sorril]

I picked up a few more uranium glass dishes the other day.
Below is a quick shot of one of them with my Spider Ivory from photo #362.
I made sure to limit the UV exposure of the snake to <5 seconds-as the light bothers both of our eyes...

The top stone is green aventurine (India).
The one on the left is some sort of local granite (MA, USA).
The one on the right is a fragment of a geode (KY, USA).

[Lord Sorril]

Someone mentioned that the stones in the image above are not glowing, but, reflecting UV light.
That is a reasonable assumption, but, short wave UV light acts a bit different than long wave 'black light'.
Shown below is what it looks like when I am picking out UV reactive stones (@365nm):

It is pretty obvious which ones don't glow, and they all do not look 'blue/purple'.

[Lord Sorril]

Photo #435

Natural iron stained granite from Massachusetts USA, with a 66% Het Clown/50% Het Lavender Albino.
I produced a lot of these ball pythons this season. More than any other genetic combo.

Sometimes I have to wonder what happened...I missed the double recessive...did I make a mistake somewhere?
I started with two clutches of 100% Het Clown/50% Het Lavender Albinos.
1 clutch with 2 males and 3 females
1 clutch with 1 male and 4 females
To avoid in-breeding: I crossed my 'most likely double Het' male from the first clutch with the females from the second, and the single male from the second clutch with the females from the first.

-The first male bred with the 4 females and did not produce a single Lavender Albino. Statistically there is 1:4 chance that he would have produced a Lavender Albino if the female was also Het for this gene. Given the number of eggs available-this proves that he is not an actual Het. As a result: this converts all of his non-clown offspring from the 4 clutches into 66% Het Clown/50% Het Lavender Albinos (since it is still possible for the female to be carrying Het Lavender Albino).

-The second male *did* produce Lavender Albinos (+66% Het Clown), however the odds of producing a double recessive using strictly Hets is 1:16-and he failed, but, not because of genetic background, but, because it was just an unlikely event.

While I did miss out on Clown/Lavender Albinos this year-I did prove one of my males to be a Double Het for the next (which is very useful).
In addition: Earlier in the year I had purchased a breed age Super Blade ball python that is both 100% Het for Clown and Lavender Albino. This separate bloodline will allow to me ignore any inbreeding concerns for the next generation, and reinforce my probabilities for the 2025 season.

[Lord Sorril]

Photo #436

Flash photography shows all the internal inclusions in translucent stones.
I don't think I got a good representation of the snake in this photo above. Below is a snake-only pic (Axanthic/100% Het Orange Ghost).

The amethyst is the stuff I picked up from my trip to RoughStone rock-starting to get some pieces out of polish.
Start:

Week 1 (Rotary):

Week 2 (Rotary):

Week 3 (Rotary):

Except for 2 of the larger chunks which are still in rotary....the others are queued up for finishing in my vibe tumbler.
Note: Vibe tumblers are good for rapidly smoothing/polishing stones, but, they usually do not change the shape--so as long as I am satisfied with the overall shape: they are good to go...

[Lord Sorril]

Photo #437

100% Het Piebald with an odd stone. The stone looks like banded obsidian, but, it is not.
It came in a box of petrified wood from across the USA...but, I'm not so sure that is what it is. Mohs hardness of 7 (e.g. harder than a steel nail).
Looks a lot like the banding I see on clam shells, but, it could just be a natural geological structure.
I will update this thread if someone from the rock group can identify it...

[Homebody]

Interesting. Definitely looks a lot like a clam shell.

[Lord Sorril]

Interesting. Definitely looks a lot like a clam shell.

Yep, but, just a geology thing.
A member of the rock forum ID'd it as Ohio Flint (from Ohio, USA), and I totally agree.
The patterning combined with those ugly splotches and creases in the stone are the giveaway.

Photo #438

These are 'Brazilian Agate Nodules' that I tumbled. Impossibly pitted.
Agates are supposed to have banding, and these don't...so I guess that makes them Brazilian Chalcedony instead of Brazilian Agate.
This 66% Het Clown/50% Het Lavender Albino ball python was also 100% dedicated to biting me.
I had to put one of the stones on his tail for the photo to keep him from closing the distance between us.

[Bogertophis]

...This 66% Het Clown/50% Het Lavender Albino ball python was also 100% dedicated to biting me.
I had to put one of the stones on his tail for the photo to keep him from closing the distance between us.

Hey, whatever works!

[Lord Sorril]

Photo #439

Super GHI with a piece of local river quartz-ish material.

Breeders Note: In 2024 I produced 3 snakes that I am confident are Super GHI.
Only 1 of them came out super black pigmented (not shown)...for some reason I thought they all would...
I suppose next time I have to study Morphmarket closer...it seems that high-black specimens are not as common as I thought...

And an Update:
My Dreamsicle that got caught in the egg and suffered internal injuries in the process- has finally eaten its first meal-unassisted! Whooo!
I force-fed it 8 meals before we reached this point.
Photos of the current status below.


Internal bruising is almost gone and the dorsal scales are white again now (instead of dark purple).
I'm going to skip a ventral (belly) photo as it is still a bit gross.
I'm hoping that as the snake starts growing that the problem will become proportionally smaller.

[Bogertophis]

Hang in there, Dreamsicle! Hopefully time will fully heal this unfortunate one.