Final Adjustments

     The Fourth Installment of the Reptile Rack has been completed! I added, the lights, the heat, a door, new carpets and I did a little experiment with some left over Acrylic sheets.  Basically, I super-glued some pieces together to make a clear tray that both lines the shelf, and works as a guide for the sliding door.  I really could have done it better; using better glue for instance...and my measuring is a bit off, but I think its working just fine.
     If all goes well, I will make more for the other shelves since those critters are so messy.  Chouji the corn snake has a bad habit of pooping up the side of the wall....when he isn't pooping in the water dish.  I swear that guy can be a pain in the ass.  I HAVE ENOUGH THINGS TO CLEAN AS IT IS!

                                         
                                                                                     The 4th BP enclosure
   
The new guy is settling in, but doing what most new pythons do, hiding in a corner.  The rest of my snakes become active and curious whenever I clean their cages like I did today.

                                         
                                                                                       Someone got brave

Meet The Fresh Prince

BUH BAM!
My new male!  I jut got him yesterday and he doesn't have a name yet!  He's a Coral Glow / Mojave and possibly het for Axanthic.  He's  1 year old, 220 grams, and pretty cool with being handled.  (I will limit my handling for the time being, its best not to hold a new python until it has settled and started eating.)



I think I prefer the look of a CG rather than a CG/Moj but for breeding purposes, i really wanted something that would give me a lot of combos since I'm only breeding on a small scale anyway.
Anyway, I think he's super pretty!  By breeding this guy to Lucy the Lesser, I could end up with normals, lessers, mojaves, coral glows, lesser/coral glows, more coral glow/mojaves.
It can also produce a lesser/mojave or lesser/mojave/coral glows.  (Results in Blue eyed Leucistics )


                                       (Random Blue eyed leucistic photo)

That's right, you heard me correctly, THAT purple/yellow thing + Lucy (brown and black) can make THIS  white thing.
But I'm a long way off from actually getting any hatchlings.  Just going to sit back and enjoy my new pets for a while and hope they take on some weigh for the next breeding season.

Bindi Gains Weight and Lucy Starts Eating

It took 6 months for Lucy to calm down enough to finally eat.  I eventually taped a paper bag to the front of her terrarium so she'd have some privacy.  I've yet to get her to eat FT, or even a real rat for that matter.  I only got her to eat one live mouse, and then two live mice the next week.  I'm going to try to get her eating a small live rat and hopefully move her onto FT rats next.  

Gasp!  Who's That Beauty!?

Those Colors!

That Pattern!

It's Princess Bindi!

With the last few sheds, her pinky-tan color has changed.  Now her belly is a crisp white and those speckley bits on her back make the yellow look a little green even.

                                                             Chubby Princess Bindi

Bindi Is a year old now, and 205 grams.  She took a while to gain weight because her feeding schedule was to be fed every week, but on the 4th week, she'd go off feed for 5 whole weeks!

Now that I feed her only once every two weeks, she is quite hungry and eats every time.  She gained 100 grams in the last 4 months, 50 of which were in the last 4 weeks!  She's now eating the same size rodents as my 10 year old Corn snake Chouji.  Yay Growth Spurt!

I'm Hoping Lucy will come around and gain some weight too so that I can finally breed her to an awesome male.  

The Multi Snake Rack

     In order to optimize the space in my small room, I am building a multiple enclosure snake display.  This will be much more space efficient than keeping everyone in their own glass terrarium.  My goal was to complete at least three enclosures and have two that i could finish as needed. I also tried to spend as little money as possible because i knew the new snakes would likely be more expensive.  I helped my dad build a chicken coop when i was 9, but I have no experience with construction aside from that.  Basically it was a "design as you build" thing.  Luckily my friend "B" knows how to use a circular saw.
   
     To begin I searched my basement for unwanted furniture and found an old bookshelf made of particleboard and melamine.  I secured the shelving with screws and cut peg board to fit the back.  I screwed on 3 2x2 boards to the back in order to help stabilize the shelving.

To make the sliding doors, I built sliding track out of some Walmart Yardsticks and pretty wooden trim I bought at Home depot.  The yardsticks were thinner than the wood trim, allowing for overlap.  this created the slot for the Plexiglas to slide along.  I left the two bottom shelves unfinished for storage until I need them.

I then added thinner strips of wood trim on either side of the sliding doors.  After creating wooden "locks" to keep the doors secure, and attaching knobs to the doors, the whole thing was looking pretty snazzy.

                                                                           Lucy in her house

What's a snake enclosure without a heat source?  I attached adhesive under tank heater pads to the ceiling of each enclosure.  This provides belly heat to the snake above, and a little radiant heat to the snake below.
     I drilled 1 1/2 inch hole in the top left corner of the pegboard in order to let the heat pad plugs to go through and then added a cord grommet to close off the holes.

 Finally I installed lighting!!!!  I purchased some cheep LED light strips and connectors which easily attached to the back ceiling of the enclosures.  I had to drill some peg board holes a little larger in order to fit the light connectors through the right side, but i used the cord grommet to let the wires through on the left side.  I had to super glue the LED strips in place because Bindi (baby ball python)
kept pulling them down for some reason.         

                              Add some decoration, hides, water dishes and you get a Happy Herp!

                                



                                                        
                                                                                                 Lucy
                               



 

The Beginning

      I've always had an interest in reptiles and have been caring for a leopard gecko (Mushu) and a corn snake (Chouji) for the past 11 years.  I bought my first hatchling ball python (Bindi) at a reptile expo last August.  She is a beautiful Pastel Spider ball python also known as a Bumblebee ball.  To my delight, she has turned out to be an excellent pet with a docile manner.
     Now I am interested in breeding ball pythons as a hobby and have already began the process!  I purchased another female last month (Lucy) who is a 3 1/2 year-old Lesser Ball and needs to put on a little weight before breeding.  This is giving me time to pick out the perfect male to match her!
     I need the proper space to house all these reptiles, so I decided to build my own snake rack/display systems!  Its turning out amazing!  I can't wait to see where this project goes!

Lucy the Lesser Ball Female