I've been looking up info here for a while and decided now my collection is getting bigger, i should make an account
Im in my 3rd year of an animal behaviour and welfare degree, and i came accross a fair few snakes. I was never scared of snakes themselves - i was terrified of hurting/scaring them though! That all changed when i essentially rescued my first corn snake, Sebastian!
About a year ago though i was in a pet shop buying fish food and saw the most pathetic little face looking at me. An employee, trying to make a sale, offered for me to hold him. He was the super friendliest but skinniest little thing and when i mentioned he was almost triangular, they whisked him off me pretty quick. They shoved a younger female at me, saying the male was moving tomorrow because he hadn't sold after being on display for 6 months. I hadn't intended on buying a snake but i didn't want him festering in some other pet shop (or worse!) so i decided to at least place a deposit on him so he had to stick around while i thought about it. The next day he came home. He was initially a fussy feeder, but when i figured out how he liked his food presented he did a lot better. A year on he's now almost 2, and still a smallish boy at 28", 95g but finally starting to put on weight and chunk out a bit!
I also rescued a bearded dragon 6 months ago. The owners left 2 males and a female in one viv, fed them sporadically, and everybody had fought - in the middle of it all the poor female had to lay eggs with the two boys in the same viv! I got one of the males and the female. The female, now called Tilly went to a home of her own where she's finally relaxing. I kept Hige (Japanese for Beard) who was also too skinny and he's also doing well and has gained more than half his original weight in 6 months!
I also now have 8 hatchlings who all hatched in late June/early July. They were bought from a breeder as the subject for my final year dissertation. I'm researching spatial learning in juvenile corn snakes which will be a behaviour only study so no one is going to be hurt
I have 4 girls and 4 boys, including 6 normals, 1 ghost and 1 hypo (all but Londo, the hypo, are named after kinds of tea!) The majority of them are being rehomed (to good homes im going to thoroughly check!) following the study, as my initial plan of doing some more long term behavioural studies aren't financially viable. I intend to keep Londo, a little hypo though. I won't put up photos of them all though since there are far too many of these guys to do so!