Snakes and Stones

[Bogertophis]

You bet! I'd stay in there too! I've actually had rat snakes come all the way out & then go back IN after they had a look around.

(You might get a kick out of that movie- it's definitely not "Hollywood" fare. )

[Lord Sorril]

(You might get a kick out of that movie- it's definitely not "Hollywood" fare. )

Ahhh, so I just watched: The Gods Must Be Crazy.
I thought it was OK for a movie released in 1980.
As a scientist: I can't pretend to idealize life without modern advancements.
I did not agree with its theme that good people can be so easily corrupted by envy (in this case by a glass bottle) on the same scale of: Tolkiens 'One Ring'. But, meh...just a movie.

[Lord Sorril]

Photo #371

66% Het Clown/50% Het Lavender Albino Ball Python with some odd green stones I find occasionally in my area.
Not quite sure what the stones are, but, they don't tumble well...doesn't stop me from trying though...

Breeders Note:
My Clutch #10 was GHI/Fire x Lesser.
All 6 of of the hatchlings have GHI (1/64 chance)-which seems a bit sus...

It did take me a while to ID them all, but, aside from the 100% GHI anomaly: Results for the additional genes were within normal predicted values.

[Lord Sorril]

Photo #372

If you look carefully you can see the body of the snake showing through the top of the translucent snowflake obsidian.

BP: 66% Het Clown/50% Het Lavender Albino.

[Bogertophis]

I never would have noticed that the top of the snowflake obsidian is translucent enough to see the snake-

[Lord Sorril]

I never would have noticed that the top of the snowflake obsidian is translucent enough to see the snake-

Yep, since obsidian is just volcanic glass...it has varying levels of light diffraction/translucency which can make it difficult to use flash photography.

Photo #373

Some larger pieces of Atlantis Wonder Jasper with a 66% Het Clown/50% Het Lav Albino.

For reference: This snake has a lot of good markers for Het Clown, but, nothing for Lav Albino.

The stone on the right I considered splitting along the fracture line, but, this material can be porous and I didn't think it was worth the risk of ruining the piece.

[Lord Sorril]

Wow! 3 Million views!
Thanks everyone!!

I should probably write something profound, but, I have one cat sleeping on my shoulder and another one biting my toes as I type this: so my '300 Spartan Style' appreciation speech will have to wait.

I can give you an update on my collection and breeding efforts in 2024 though:
-10/28 clutches have hatched. I have lost 2 eggs from the first 10 clutches.
-All of my hatchlings (so far) have had no issues with accepting food. I am not certain if this is a result of selective breeding...or pure luck.
-Even though I stopped my mating pairs a month ago-I see a few females with advanced follicles which means that I *may* have additional clutches in the near future...
-I have been talking with a breeder regarding a rare recessive ball python morph and he has offered to sell me a 100% Het Male holdback he does not need-at a deep discount. Adding another recessive project is not what I had planned, but, I must admit that it is a tempting offer. I am not going to name the morph and the price because I can guarantee everyone here will encourage me to buy it-and maybe I should...

Anyhow, Thanks Again For The Views!

Back to business,
Photo 374:

66% Het Clown/50% Het Lavender Albino with half of a tumbled/polished Thunderegg originally collected from Oregon, USA.

[Bogertophis]

Would you "settle" for a HUGE CONGRATULATIONS here? For all you're doing... And good luck deciding on that potential new addition... I'm staying out of it.

[Lord Sorril]

Would you "settle" for a HUGE CONGRATULATIONS here? For all you're doing... And good luck deciding on that potential new addition... I'm staying out of it.

Thanks! I will take a Huge Congratulations!

As for a potential new recessive addition...I'm definitely leaning against the option. The gene in question is largely untested...and while it may be cool to make 'Worlds First' this-and-that...I haven't seen any 'must-have' morphs that have been produced yet.

Photo #375

Highway ball python with a piece of Iolite from India.

Iolite is a hard, but, brittle mineral. The rough iolite pieces I purchased (sight unseen) looked like they were blast mined and were impossibly fractured to start with.
Fun fact: Iolite is also known as Cordierite and has the ability to rapidly heat up and cool down repeatedly with no damage. Synthetic Cordierite is used to make the lattice structure of catalytic converters which are coated with either platinum or palladium.

[Lord Sorril]

Oh, and my gf and I went to the Hancock Shaker Village in Pittsfield MA today.


The site is a functional farm/museum open to visitors, but, not a Shaker village anymore.

I may have left them a drawing at their historic school house.

It is about 750 acres. We don't go there for the religious angle (a lot of people do), we just like to walk around and check out the farm.

We also visited the Berkshire Museum while we were in the area, and aside from a Diadem rat-snake and an impressive mineral collection (including a topaz a bit smaller than my head)-it was rather lackluster.
Bad lighting and restrictions on photography made my pictures of the museum a bit of a mess.

Note: My gf was mad that they were co-habbing two male ball pythons at the museum, and they both looked like they were in tough shape.

Aside from driving a few hundred miles back and forth from our home-we thought it was a fun trip.