Profile: Erichthonius

[Snakesitter]

This week Living Gems Reptiles profiles one of its most exciting 2010 acquisitions, Erichthonius. An October 2010 baby who was the top male pick in his litter, Erichthonius is named for a legendary Athenian figure. His namesake was said to be the son of the Greek god of fire (a reference to our little guy’s strong red heritage), was guarded as an infant by a snake (always a good omen in this business!), grew to be a legendary king of Athens, and was raised to become the constellation of the Charioteer on his death by Zeus.

Not that we have high hopes for him or anything.

Erichthonius is brother to the brightly colored Uvarovite we profiled last month. As of December 2010, he weighed 36 grams.

Here he is at his arrival: “hey, got any food in that thing?”


A few days later, relaxing in his hot tub:


And a month later, deciding between the moss bed and more time in the hot tub:


Notice the vibrant reds on the last shot. Interestingly, I tend to get much more intense shots of him when he is not “posed” -- his background color tends to wash out when in odd places. Baby stress, maybe?

Thank you for looking,