Questions about what you personally enjoy about your animals / just general questions

[Dianne]

Like many others, I’ve had a fascination with snakes...and lizards and frogs...since I was a kid. I just found them incredibly interesting. Currently all of my snakes (11) are in pvc or plastic enclosures, black with plexi doors. This gives some privacy to the snake, but a large window for my viewing - to see the snakes but also see when the cage needs cleaning. I’ve used tanks and homemade cages in the past and just find the pvc/plastic to be easier to heat and clean. I keep minimalist setups for ease of cleaning - hides, water bowl, and a couple of cages have branches for climbing. I’m thinking about adding more climbing options to some of the other cages for enrichment, but don’t know that the snakes will use them. We’ll see.

I currently have 5 different species: a Colombian redtail boa (Bci), a Colombian rainbow boa, a Solomon Island ground boa, 7 ball pythons, and a corn snake. In general, if you look in all of my cages you will only see my Colombian redtail and Solomon Island ground boas, and sometimes the Colombian rainbow boa. The rest of the cages appear empty. Even so, I enjoy my pets and handle the ones that are more tolerant of it every week or two, though everybody gets a short handling session when I do cage cleaning.

As for why I have 7 ball pythons and counting? I love the color and pattern morphs, as well as how easy they are to handle. My two newest ones are not being handled much because I am trying to get both eating consistently. Once that is happening, I’ll start short handling sessions. I’m thinking of adding another snake or two, possibly another species that is more visible. I’ve kept a couple of different types of carpet pythons in the past, which were more active and arboreal, so I saw them more. I’m also looking at Childrens, Spotted, and Anthill pythons. Plus it’s just fun to window shop.