The internet needs more snow - Page 2

prairiepanda · 03-14-15, 03:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sylphie

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 · 03-16-15, 09:51 AM

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

prairiepanda · 03-16-15, 11:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Obsidian_Dragon

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:

She tied a knot around me!

And here's the other girl super super in shed:

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

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 · 03-16-15, 12:05 PM

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

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 · 03-16-15, 01:02 PM

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 · 03-18-15, 11:22 AM

Second feeding for Kepler today! I skipped over Sherkaner; I usually don't bother offering food once they go blue.

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** · 03-19-15, 02:47 PM

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 · 03-21-15, 11:37 AM

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.

(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 · 03-21-15, 11:43 AM

That's cool, I really want to see them as an adults

They'll be gorgeous for sure!

**EL Ziggy** · 03-21-15, 12:37 PM

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 · 03-22-15, 10:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 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.

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.

I'm sure seeing a lot of new black on that belly!

prairiepanda · 03-31-15, 05:25 PM

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.

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 · 03-31-15, 07:09 PM

That snow is awesome.

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

**EL Ziggy** · 03-31-15, 07:12 PM

Both your pines are looking GREAT Panda!

Sylphie · 04-01-15, 01:51 AM

Great pics, I love them both

You know, my Russian was always fed on frozen, and s/he still every time are doing that "stalking, assault, suffocation" thing

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!