Monday, October 20, 2014

An Addition!

Well, what do we have here...


Yes, folks, that gleeful sound you hear all the way from Central Florida would be me, and the lovely creature rather ingloriously displayed on the throw blanket is Sheldon, our relatively recently acquired two-year-old male Dumeril's boa.

I am beyond psyched.

We weren't planning on a new snake any time soon (not until the pet rats passed away, at least -- bless their stinky little hearts, they are darling but they are not low maintenance); however, my exotics vet called me one day last month to tell me that her family situation had changed about a bit and she was downsizing her reptile collection.  She knew I wanted a Dumeril's boa at some point, so would I be interested in her male?

Of course, my gut-level response was YES!!!  followed by feeling pretty awesome that my exotics vet thinks enough of my reptile keeping to be okay with me taking over one of her darlings.  Reality fortunately set in pretty quickly and I naturally said I would be thrilled but I did need to talk to my husband to see if we could realistically take him in.

Thankfully, that dear man said yes.

Sheldon is settling in pretty nicely.  He ate after we'd had him just a week and has been pounding back his food with great regularity ever since.  He's the most cage-aggressive of all my snakes (none of the rest of them appear to be at all cage-aggressive, to be honest), but once he's clear of his enclosure he's an absolute doll and with regular handling is taming down rather nicely.  One thing my vet regrets is that she wasn't able to handle him as much as she'd have liked, so he's a bit wild for a Dum.


Rumor has it they tend to be a bit moody anyway, so if that's the case he's spot-on.  But he's just awesome and I'm obviously thrilled about to death.

Leonard is also doing amazingly well.  He continues to grow and become more and more peachy with every shed.  He is absolutely gorgeous.


That's my beautiful boy lazing around on my arm.  In spite of finally having my Dumeril's, I have to admit that Leonard remains my favorite.

The ball pythons continue to do well, and eliminate waste with near-distressing regularity.  The sand boas also thrive, especially Slither (aka The Most Beloved Snake Extant) who I'm actually toying with putting on a bit of a diet considering he's now resembling more of an oversized sausage than a snake.

I am fairly convinced the pet rats are going to live forever.  They're nearly two years old and aren't showing any signs of aging or slowing down.  You'd think they'd be keeling over left and right, considering how swiftly so many of the ratties on the mailing list I'm on tend to pass away, but my rats?  Healthiest critters on the planet.

I'm going to be scooping rat poo for the rest of my life.  I can feel it.

At any rate, there we are all updated!  I'm sorry it's been so long -- I've been so busy caring for the critters I've kind of run out of time to write about them.  I'll attempt do to better :)

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