The internet needs more snow

[prairiepanda]

I bought this girl from Port Credit Pets after much debating, and I'm glad I did! Why did I hesitate? Because there aren't any really good photos of snow pines online! Many many snow bulls, but barely any snow pines. I wasn't sure what to expect. So now that I have one, I want to show the world so that nobody else will hesitate before buying one! She's brand new, so I'm going to be leaving her alone for a while, but once she's settled in I'll be posting plenty of photos and videos!

Here are the photos PCPC sent me:
http://i.imgur.com/S3LgMVM.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/NJmmCxY.jpg

And my first photos, in sunlight:
http://i.imgur.com/p4tS0d5.jpg
(got a nice black pine to contrast her, but the internet already has plenty of black pine photos!)
http://i.imgur.com/ToBYcEC.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/g3A0gbI.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/FfDUSgk.jpg
I LOVE the purple saddles towards the tail!

And again with indoor lighting:
http://i.imgur.com/lxbBRQ9.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/cBpPKkF.jpg

She's a squirmy spaz, but not the least bit defensive. The black one is more chill, but a bit huffy. They just arrived by plane this morning, though, so it's hard to judge whether those are personality traits or just stress reactions.

[reptiledude987]

Very nice pine! we have a thread for rare species already but you should start a rare morph thread with your new friend.

[SnoopySnake]

Nice! Really like the contrast between the two.

[sharthun]

Beautiful!!!!

[prairiepanda]

Here's a better shot of the black pine if anyone's curious:
http://i.imgur.com/hZuqAD3.jpg
I really hope she keeps that white bib on her chin, because it's adorable!

Both of them are just barely over 2ft. The black is only 81g, but likes to puff up to look bigger, and the snow is 93g. They were both active and comfortable today, so I gave them their first meal today! I decided to try rats on them, even though they've only ever had mice before, and they both ate like champs! Great feeding response.

Seems like I might be able to get started on handling them sooner than I expected! We'll see how they do in the next few days.

[Sylphie]

Wow, they are great, especially that snowy little princess :D

[prairiepanda]

Got them out for a bath and some more pics! The snow said no to the bath, as you can see, but the black one was clever and puffed himself full of air so she could float and relax on the surface.
http://i.imgur.com/D7bSr4d.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/C8PZ5Yp.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/WYfAi8r.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/o5hgnat.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/w4QCXvd.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/U68ixmt.jpg

The black one appears to be in shed(doesn't really show in the picture) but I didn't get any attitude from her whatsoever.

I'm amazed at how intelligent and inquisitive these guys are! Makes me feel like the milks and kings I've dealt with have all been dolts! Still love me some Lampropeltis though.

[Sylphie]

Great pics and cool snakes :D How big will they be?

[prairiepanda]

Since they're both female I'm expecting around 6ft. I've heard of them getting close to 7ft, but that seems to be a rare occurrence. They'll have some nice girth compared to other colubrids as well. They're at least 9 months younger than my honduran milk snake and already slightly thicker, despite being shorter than the hondo, so they'll be pretty beefy as adults.

[Sylphie]

Sounds a little like russian rats :D They are really cool looking, unfortunately in my country they are practically impossible to find so I can't buy one.

[prairiepanda]

I adore russian rats as well, but I can't get any because I'll be moving back to Alberta in a couple years, where they're illegal :( Not sure why they would be, but oh well...

[reptiledude987]

I know theyre a SITIES species so you need the permit to have them imported across a border. But didnt think that any kings corns milks bulls rats or pines were actually illegal anywhere in Canada.

[Sylphie]

prairiepanda, yeah, law can be weird sometimes :) In Poland russians are just not "top popular", but you can easily buy them if you want... on the other hand all the bull, pine, mbk or other "american" snakes are really rare or just impossible to find :<

[reptiledude987]

Ya its similar here theres some thing that are popular in other countries but are rarer here IE. diamond carpets are popular in Aus and europe but if youre able to find them here they're quite expensive. Last ones I found were $1800 for a pair.

[Sylphie]

reptiledude987 wow, that's really a "nice" price... Maybe we should create an international trade system, and find>buy>ship snakes to each others :D

prairiepanda you just must promise that you will be posting plenty of photos for me so I at least can watch pines :)

[prairiepanda]

prairiepanda you just must promise that you will be posting plenty of photos for me so I at least can watch pines :)


No worries there; I plan on taking loads of pictures of these guys as they grow! I'll try to do some videos as well. Not enough pituophis videos on youtube!

[Obsidian_Dragon]

I got to meet a black pine this weekend--he was neat! They're definitely beefier than I'm used to.

[prairiepanda]

I got to meet a black pine this weekend--he was neat! They're definitely beefier than I'm used to.

Yeah, that was a big motivator for me to get a pine snake; I've been wanting something a bit heavy-bodied but wanted the ease of care that colubrids have. I'm definitely happy with my choice! They settled in incredibly fast and are super sweet to handle.

And I have some more pics for you guys!
I'm so obsessed with this girl's pretty colours and patterns:
http://i.imgur.com/2hsw7M4.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/6d5YOBM.jpg
She tied a knot around me!

And here's the other girl super super in shed:
http://i.imgur.com/euj3Tha.jpg
She's got some brown patterning to her still, so I'm excited to see how she will darken with each shed! Looks like I'll have a nice shiny post-shed picture of her soon!


Now, to put aside all this "the black one" and "the snow one" nonsense; these girls DO have names! Took a while and a lot of debating with friends and family, but they are officially named and there's no turning back! It was tough to decide whether to give the pines their own theme, or continue the theme I started with my hondo(Tesla), or no theme at all. But in the end we dubbed the snow Kepler and the black Sherkaner. Yeah; I tend to disregard gender when naming my pets. All my snakes are female but I like masculine names :o
Tesla, Kepler, and Sherkaner are all scientists, inventors, and dreamers ahead of their time(albeit Sherkaner is a fictional character), so that is the theme I'll be sticking with for these and any potential future snakes!

[Sylphie]

I really love Kepler, she's super sweet! And it's funny because I always prefer normal colours than morphs, and she's an exception to that :D

And your pics are really good, how did you get them? Mine are always a little blurred, and Artemis never sit still even for a moment...

[prairiepanda]

I'm actually just using my iPhone to take the pictures! They take pretty good pictures. But the trick with really active snakes like this is to just keep snapping pics! Each time I take pictures of these guys, there's 5 to 20 blurry or out-of-focus pictures for every one good picture I take. Just keep hitting the shutter button real lots and you should get a few nice shots out of the bunch.

[prairiepanda]

Second feeding for Kepler today! I skipped over Sherkaner; I usually don't bother offering food once they go blue.
http://i.imgur.com/fyGQLSH.jpg

I'm hoping to teach them both to accept motionless prey, so that they won't get excited by small moving things such as peoples fingers. Today I wiggled the rat a bit to get Kep's attention and then dropped it. She struck it a couple times before attempting to swallow. Let's hope I can work that strike response out of her! I don't think I've heard of anyone else trying to "tame down" a feeding response, but I would like my animals to be unintimidating should I ever need to have someone else care for them temporarily. Guess we'll see what happens!

[EL Ziggy]

I'm not sure how I missed this thread but those are 2 beautiful pines you have Panda. Your snow pine looks a lot different than my snow bull. I love the purple coloring on yours. Keep the pics coming please. :)

[prairiepanda]

Wow, these guys are going to grow really fast! I weighed them again today; Sherkaner went from 81g to 91g(and this is after pooping and not eating for over a week because she's in shed) and Kepler went from 93g to 106g(granted she ate a couple days ago). That's just in 10 days! They're definitely outdoing my hondo, who only gained 4g in the 2 weeks since I last weighed her! With the weather warming up now too, I imagine I'll see some even better growth rates pretty soon.
http://i.imgur.com/pp9nsc5.jpg
(The scale is tared with the container)

I wonder when they'll upgrade to fuzzy rats! Hopefully before I run out of rat pinks lol

[Sylphie]

That's cool, I really want to see them as an adults :D They'll be gorgeous for sure!

[EL Ziggy]

I love your Snow and Black Pine Panda. I'm pretty sure she could handle the smaller rat fuzzys now. You are right, your pines will grow FAST.

[prairiepanda]

I love your Snow and Black Pine Panda. I'm pretty sure she could handle the smaller rat fuzzys now. You are right, your pines will grow FAST.

Yeah, I'm going to dig through my fuzzies and find the smallest ones to start giving them to Kepler. I'm hoping to bump Tesla(hondo) up to fuzzies too since she's eating multiple pinkies at once now but she's thinner than Kepler so I'm not sure. Sherkaner is a bit thin as well, so she'll be stuck on pinks for a little while too. Most of my fuzzies are pretty huge, so I may have to order more pinks.

Speaking of Sherk; she shed last night! One solid piece, including eye caps! And she ate without me having to wiggle the rat! Yay! Good eating and good sheds; looks like I don't need to worry about these guys getting overly stressed with my frequent handling.
http://i.imgur.com/MHBYMyV.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/ZSWa8h7.jpg
I'm sure seeing a lot of new black on that belly!

[prairiepanda]

An update and more pictures! Both my pines are taking motionless prey now, although they still have a strike & constrict response which I hope will eventually settle down once they learn that their prey isn't going to struggle. I upped Kepler and Tesla to fuzzy rats no problem, which made pretty big lumps in them but didn't cause any digestive issues. Sherkaner will finish off my stock of pinkies before upgrading, but should be a good enough size by then to take on fuzzers.

http://i.imgur.com/CDxYkRQ.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/WFoGtSa.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/T7NKTMP.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/07TKENo.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/E6jk0m3.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/lxek2Ul.jpg

Still waiting to see what Kepler will look like when she's in shed! I'm pretty stoked to see that one day.

Both of these guys are mega chill now and will tolerate any sort of handling without complaint. I have introduced them both to my (very well trained) cat, and they like to check her out and sniff her but don't like touching her. I'm satisfied with that, as is my cat!

I noticed that they rarely ever hide. They do like to dig in their enclosures, and sometimes conceal most of their body underground, but they don't utilize hide boxes or anything like that and spend most of their time, day or night, on the surface in plain sight. Quite different from my hondo who, despite being wonderful to handle, seems to spend 23.5 hours each day hidden.

[Chris72]

That snow is awesome. :)

Missed being able to pop by PCPC when I was down in Port Credit for the dentist. :(

[EL Ziggy]

Both your pines are looking GREAT Panda!

[Sylphie]

Great pics, I love them both :D

You know, my Russian was always fed on frozen, and s/he still every time are doing that "stalking, assault, suffocation" thing :D I guess s/he just like to think that it's hard-earned meal, and that s/he just killed two very "fighting for life" mices.

And yeah I'd like to see Kepler in shed too!

[Albert Clark]

Beautiful animals! Thanks.

[dave himself]

Thanks for sharing, but the black pine would be my personal favourite :)

[prairiepanda]

Thanks for sharing, but the black pine would be my personal favourite :)

She's going to be incredible as an adult!(heck, she amazes me even now with all her complex markings) If I hadn't gotten a black pine, I probably would have gotten an MBK at some point. But I'm glad I went with a black pine. It's so awesome having that contrast between my two pine snakes, and they're always on display!

[prairiepanda]

Resurrecting my old, dead thread to bring you updated photos! And to show off the old ones to new people :p

Kepler has grown from 93g to 154g, and 2'3" to...2'3" lol
She finally shed for me today! (Sherkaner had shed twice already since I got them) She shed perfectly except for some stuck to her nose, so that's why her post-shed pictures have a brown nose.

Pre-shed, apparently her eyes turn purple! Her nose turned yellow as well, though you can't really see in this picture:
http://i.imgur.com/p3j1mSt.jpg
Nothing else seemed to change on her to indicate pre-shed. I expected her belly to turn yellow but it didn't.

And post-shed, we're back to those gorgeous candy-apple red eyes!
http://i.imgur.com/LP8v5qN.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/cWaaUxP.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/WmPn2ee.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/7TrFKUn.jpg
(yes, she had a poop coming there lol)

[prairiepanda]

And here is Sherkaner, who's gone from 81g to 182g and 2'2" to 2'6"!
http://i.imgur.com/almAe1Z.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/vtKts2q.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/HG2Rz3t.jpg
The darker she gets, the more iridescent she becomes under sunlight! I'm stoked to see what she'll look like as an adult.

And finally, Tesla, my tangerine albino Honduran, who doesn't get enough photos posted here! She's a year older than my pines and currently weighs in at 210g and 3' long; the pines, especially Sherkaner, are racing to surpass her despite the age gap, and it seems they will succeed!
Pre-shed:
http://i.imgur.com/lbjuSme.jpg
Post-shed:
http://i.imgur.com/esOK2ay.jpg

[EL Ziggy]

All your snakes are gorgeous Panda.

[Sylphie]

Thank you for posting new pics! I love both your pines, and it's cool to see that our snakes are growing :D