Ziggy Ure - 50% Hypo Bredli - Progression Thread

[Gio]

He took another meal today! I'm still giving him hoppers for now, perhaps one more, and then I'll see about finding some small adult mice. In all honesty, they seem to be a good size for him as far as I can eyeball it, but I don't think I'm too good at eyeballing xD I've also heard carpets prefer bigger prey, and he was on adult mice before anyways, so once I'm certain he feels comfortable I'll bump him up.

Absolutely no problem striking! He's a great eater.

That 50% hypo looks a lot more hypo than my 50-percenter!! Although, I guess maybe I should look back at photos when my guy was a younger lad. He's coming up on 6 years old in September.

Great looking snake for sure.

Bredli get heavy fast. I can't believe how dense my guy is. He's close to boa constrictor density.

This is what you may be looking at around the 5.5 year mark.

[Caitlin]

Ziggy is doing so well, which is no surprise. These are great snakes.

You mentioned that he doesn't seem to like his enclosure lighting. I just wanted to chime in and say that almost none of my snakes like full-brightness light. At one point I was super worried about my green tree python (helicopter parent...) because he was actually going down to the ground and crawling under his substrate, which is wildly abnormal for these arboreal snakes. Turns out the LED in his enclosure was too bright. I've found that this particular snake prefers the very lowest level of UVB and doesn't like any LED light at all - his enclosure is in a corner that has exposure to natural light from two windows, so that's been enough of a day/night cycle for him.

I do like having an LED light in my enclosures, but for some years now I have kept them on dimmers, and I don't put them on full brightness with any of my snakes. Most are in fact fairly dim.

I also use UVB but am super careful to set the enclosure up so that there is only a small 'basking' area with full UVB exposure, and the rest of the enclosure provides a light/shade gradient that ranges from dappled light all the way down to deep shadow so that my snakes can choose to what extent (if any) they want to be in UVB or exposed to the LED light.

[OatBoii]

Gio, what a gorgeous snake! I adore your bredli- I've seen lots of pictures from other threads. I can't wait until my boy starts getting that big blocky head, but I know I'll miss this little stage once it's gone.

As far as lighting goes, this light actually has multiple brightness settings (I stole it from the miniature painting desk), so inturned it down to the lowest one and he seemed much more of a fan of it! The room he's in does have a window, but it gets very little light, so it's not the best. That being said, since he seems to respond well to lower light levels, I might try moving this one back to the desk and seeing how ambient lighting works. Although I've heard UVB can be good for snakes, I don't know if I have the experience to get one set up in the right way. I'd rather not risk hurting Ziggy, since I'm not confident on setting up a UVB correctly.

Pics! He was basking briefly on his branch last evening, but he spends most of his post-meal time curled up inside his hot hide.

This is the light on its lowest setting, and he looks much less hypo under this lighting.


He reacted to me coming over! It was the first time he seemed to show an interest and not fear to me walking up. Hopefully that doesn't mean he thinks I'm food xD I want to start target training once I'm certain he feels safe in his enclosure. Probably soon!

[Homebody]

I want to start target training once I'm certain he feels safe in his enclosure. Probably soon!

There is no need to wait. If you're feeding, you can target train. This video provides a great overview of the individual steps: Train your Snake to Target: Step by Step for Confident Snakes. Watching your snake progress through the steps is very rewarding.

You can follow my steps and missteps training my Children's python in this link here: https://ball-pythons.net/forums/sear...searchid=10096

[OatBoii]

It's been a bit, so here's another photo dump~

I've been experimenting with various levels and types of lighting this week. Nothing too exciting to report, but Ziggy does seem to be responding (positively) to my presence more! He is much less scared and much more curious. Next time I feed him, within the next day or two, I'm going to try an adult mouse and introduce the target. I'm excited to start the process c:

Various pictures! The first two my partner took- they have a much a much nicer camera than I do.

[Bogertophis]

He's SO photogenic! And that head shape-

[OatBoii]

Apologies for the long gap, but I'm suffering from some health problems as of late. Ziggy is doing great in the mean time though! He took an adult mouse no problem and will be due for another this coming week.

Just a few pics. Hopefully my health will improve again shortly and I can start spending a bit more time taking pictures. I love his arboreal "strike" pose that he likes to rest in. I really enjoy seeing him climb across his branches... I'm not sure he's ever touched the bottom of the viv xD

[Bogertophis]

Sorry to hear you've been unwell- I hope you're done with that or will be very soon. Love the pics you take- that's one very awesome snake, & you've provided a beautiful home for him to match.

[Gio]

Apologies for the long gap, but I'm suffering from some health problems as of late. Ziggy is doing great in the mean time though! He took an adult mouse no problem and will be due for another this coming week.

Just a few pics. Hopefully my health will improve again shortly and I can start spending a bit more time taking pictures. I love his arboreal "strike" pose that he likes to rest in. I really enjoy seeing him climb across his branches... I'm not sure he's ever touched the bottom of the viv xD

The best part of Morelia IMO is the semi to highly arboreal nature of the group. They are excellent display animals and you are able to see them in a variety of positions.

I had my Bredli out yesterday watching TV and he was pretty mellow.

I'll get some photos up of him soon. He's about ready for some larger prey. I'm debating on a 2 pound rabbit. He and my boa are capable and that size cuts my feeding to less than monthly.

[OatBoii]

I'm here with some more pictures of Ziggy! He'll be getting another adult mouse tonight, his second one. Right now I'm feeding him roughly every 12-14 days, since that was about how frequently he got fed before, and I think it works well for him. I have yet to see him poop since the first week he came here, but I'm assuming that simply means he is utilizing as much of his meals as he possibly can.

I held him, very briefly, for the first time this last week It was mostly just to give him a look over and move him for cleaning purposes, and I could tell he was a bit nervous, but he was also very curious. He is slowly but surely getting braver and more comfortable. Just this morning in fact, he was on top of his left cork tube, and he has stayed there all day so far! Now that we're getting some spring/summer heat, he tends to be spending much more of his time on the cool side of the viv. I've been monitoring his temps, but if it gets too hot, I'll probably adjust the DHP down a little, or even turn off the UTH. He doesn't spend much of his time on the ground anyways (in fact I never see him on it at all), and it was mostly there to help combat the poor insulation and subzero weather we get where I live. Now that we're starting to warm up- although we've still got another solid 50 degrees upwards to go from here- it might be too much.

I'm working on slowly preparing a branch to put in his enclosure. He really likes to spread himself out across the substrate guard, and I think he would enjoy it a lot.

Onto the pics now. I got a new phone because mine started splintering, so the picture quality really went up!





He kinda just... splays himself out xD A display snake indeed, once he wakes up in the evenings.




Such a gorgeous little guy... He amazes me every time I see him