Progression of Muriel the Albino Paradox

[Fincayra]

This is an active progression thread for Muriel, a female Paradox Albino 100% het for Anery, born 3/4/15. It will undoubtedly be image heavy, as I am a photographer and I find myself suddenly in possession of a very photogenic snake- dial-up users beware.

The 28th of March - last Saturday - was Repticon Denver. I've owned a ball python for a year now but I'd still never been to a reptile show before, so then you can imagine my excitement when my roommate and I were finally able to go to one. I dragged my roommate along for hours, snapping pictures, researching snake species, ogling all the pretty morphs. I wanted to bring another snake home but all of a sudden I was unsure of what kind of snake- I had been certain up until that point that I would only be keeping ball pythons. They were easy to take care of, didn't get too large, and they were available in many attractive colors and patterns. I considered king snakes, Brazilian rainbow boas, woma pythons, corn snakes, another ball python. As I was perusing all my options I'd frequently wander by the couple of booths showing off a number of juvenile boa constrictors. I have always adored the triangular shape of their head and their amazingly beautiful eyes. But I was discouraged by how big the adults were- according to my research, they can grow to be 10'. But this was before I knew the difference between boa constrictor constrictor and boa constrictor imperator, tehehe. So, with the image of a monstrous snake in my head, I reluctantly decided not to consider getting a boa even though I really liked them.

Roughly four hours later, we're still at the show and I still haven't decided on my new snake. I came close to getting an ivory pastel ball python, but someone beat me to him while I was still being indecisive. We finally decided to call it a day but not before making one more pass at all the booths. Twisted Genetics had a stunning collection of young boas and by this time, I was so discouraged and hoped that maybe I had been wrong about their size. Turns out I was! The breeder kindly explained to me the difference between BCC and BCI and then he showed me his row of three-year-old's. They weren't even four feet long! It felt like Christmas, I was so excited. I examined them all- the anerys, the sunglows, the jungles. There were four paradox morphs that I was really in love with- sadly, three were hold backs. But there was one little albino paradox female I couldn't keep my eyes off of. She was a few hundred dollars outside of my price range, but then the breeder said he'd give me a discount. That's when I knew I had to have her.



It was a long drive home, but she rode comfortably in my roommate's front pocket. I wanted to name her Muriel- it was almost as if she had told me what her name was, it came to mind so suddenly and seemed to fit her so well. I did a lot of research that night after I had settled her into her 10 gallon aquarium. She was exploring her surroundings the next day, and because she seemed so adventurous and calm, I broke the new snake rules and took her out for a couple pictures.




She is currently in a 10 gallon aquarium with aspen bedding, a small hide, a couple of climbing plants, and a water dish. Her temperatures are fair- 83° ambient, 92° hotspot. I am having quite a bit of trouble keeping the humidity up but that's to be expected with a glass cage in a very dry state. Because of how much I've been battling with temperature and humidity levels, I've ordered a PVC cage from Animal Plastics. It's the T8 4'x2'x'1 so I plan on dividing it so I can fit both her and my ball python in it together. Eagerly awaiting its arrival.

Thanks for reading! I'll be sure to update on a regular basis.