Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Standard issue but always nice. Remarkably tame animals! They seem to like each other.

-----
See all my snakes at SerpenTrack.com

This photo op just popped-up so...

-----
See all my snakes at SerpenTrack.com

They are just gorgeous. I'm usually a fan of outstanding normals, but stillwater hypos are one of the exceptions. I have a regular hypo bull (not a stillwater), and I hope it turns nearly as nice as yours. Beautiful animals................

Thanks Dave. I'm mostly into normals too but I cannot claim to be a purist...there sure are some awesome morphs out there.
-----
See all my snakes at SerpenTrack.com

Aww...look how cute we are!
They remind me of my young Kingsville x Stillwater bulls, who also like to coil up together:

Even though they have a big 2 x 2 x 4 foot cage with multiple hides, they will invariably be found together. I think this tendency to be more "social" than other types of snakes is why they are tamer by nature.

Awesome! What lookers too! Don't think I've seen you post those yet?
-----
See all my snakes at SerpenTrack.com

Here they are this last February right after coming out of brumation. They are just over a year old this May. Although my partner tolerates my snake hobby,(he sees the snakes as animated strings or colorful worms more than creatures one can interact with) he does like the bull snakes.

Very very nice! Thanks. "colorful worms" - caught me off guard when I found out that many supposedly educated people don't even know they are vertebrates. I think it is a smaller and smaller segment of the population that is interested in natural history anymore.
-----
See all my snakes at SerpenTrack.com

I think what it is about snakes that makes it hard for some folks to relate to them in an affectionate way is they have no arms or legs, and cannot wag their tails (although they can buzz if pissed off!) and they cannot meow or bark (plusses in my book!)
Some of my toads; my partner likes the toads. He sort of looks like a toad, so they seem more like real animals to him! LOL! He does care about all the snakes in a humane way; I have a California king snake he always talks me out of releasing...tossed back out into the cruel world and have to find his own mice...too bleak!

Also it is sadly true that more people are not connected to the natural world as children so much anymore. It helps to have access to the natural world, not trapped in a city or sterile suburb.

I looked at your website. Cool. Later today after chores I will join it and post my reptile and amphibian family.

Funny about your partner and the toads

Thanks for the compliment about SerpenTrack. Also, glad you want to join up, BUT, it is designed for specifically for snakes collection management. I could create a facility to include other stuff for display only, (like you could build your own pages for whatever). Actually that is an interesting idea. If the site gains a little more popularity I might work that up. Hopefully you'll plug your snakes in anyway.

As for the Cal King...I had two wild caught that I let go this year. Both we nonstop active and wouldn't eat after brumation so before they lost too much wait I figured they'd be happier taking their chances in the wild. All the rest of my animals are CB and seem much more content. Funny about those two Cal Kings, exactly the same personality. They were eating but then went hyper and just stopped flat out.
-----
See all my snakes at SerpenTrack.com

Your Cal kings were probably horny and ready to find mates. Mine is eating more this year than any time since May '08 when I got him, so I think I'll keep him. I have a couple of wc gophers to release at the gopher paradise at my friend's house. They are in fine shape but I think would do better controlling my friend's gopher infestation than eating my home grown mice.

I might profit from a snake collection management system. Right now I keep a log on paper with everyone's names, who ate what when, who is in blue or has shed, current weights, any odd things like indigestion (rare). This is on a clipboard. I don't have to boot up the PC to use it, but it does have it's limitations. Like, a graph charting growth would be nice.

Sounds like you're doing a good job of it on paper. But, yep, it is limited for lots of reasons.

I am goin to add graphs soon to chart growth and whatever else I can think of to have fun with. But all the data fields are there to be used now. Here's a few screenshots to give you an idea of how it works...

-----
See all my snakes at SerpenTrack.com

WOW! That is some detailed stuff. Very nice! Very professional!
Here is my humble notepad; with each new feeding of the main group I make a new page and put the old page in back in a sequential order. When they last ate is always on the left hand column.

Pretty retro, eh? LOL!
I did join the site and am entering one snake at a time, and eventually hope to get them all entered with their pertinent data. Right now the data is stored in a little file card box; not real High Tech for sure. I am trying to not be a Luddite about new ways of doing things...

Very cool. Glad you're giving it a try. The setup takes a little work but once you get going I think you'll find it's pretty simple.

btw, it may look complicated but you only have to use what you need. Most of the fields, etc. are optional.

I'm open to suggestion too if they make it easier to use and more fun (and I don't have to rewrite the whole thing). There'll be more features as time goes by. Basically, anyone one who uses it has a straight line to the development staff...e.g., me
-----
See all my snakes at SerpenTrack.com

nice snakes! They look very healthy. I was looking at your snake site... do you allow your snakes to roam around the room? Just curious as I got a kick out of the pics of your 'glades rat up on the curtains and your pair of rat snakes that you found together in a box. I like it.

-----
- Matt

1.0 Black Milk '04
1.0 Andean Milk '06
0.1 Eastern King '97
0.1 Bullsnake '09

Love the face on your Bull!

Yeah, I have the luxury of being able to let my snakes come out. Some might balk, and have good reasons for it, but my snakes are healthy and I think it really opens up their behavioral options. I call it their enrichment program and that also includes some TV, mostly PBS Anyway, it's a ton of fun to have them around and there's always some fun surprises, but ya gotta be careful who's getting too chummy.

Glad you visited my website. I'd be really happy to have you put your collection up there. No need to use the husbandry tracking if you don't need it. If you have any questions about it let me know.

Cheers,
Brad
-----
See all my snakes at SerpenTrack.com

...looking in.

Here's the big fella wondering what's going on in there. That's the girl, Luna, in the lower right soaking up all the attention. She's not ready yet this season but she's lookin' good to these wannabes.

Diego, the big deppei will have to wait for his little child bride (the "Pygmy Pine" posted below) to grow up some.

As for Paolo, the male bull, not sure he'd know what to do if he got it

-----
See all my snakes at SerpenTrack.com

Great pics. I especially like the one of the two heads.
-----
Matt Kauffman

Thanks Matt, cracked me up when I saw that. I like their bald heads...they look like me (I should be so lucky).
-----
See all my snakes at SerpenTrack.com

Damn those are gorgeous, and yeah I'm usually more drawn to nice normals. After reading the replies I'm thinking maybe it is because they look bald lol. Wish we could keep Bulls here.

Thanks man.

Can't keep Bulls? Where?...I don't get it.
-----
See all my snakes at SerpenTrack.com

I live in Alberta. Bulls are protected & they don't differentiate between CB & WC. We used to be able to keep but not breed or sell, but they've been bumped in recent years to the section on our regs here where we can't even keep them now without a permit that is extremely difficult to get. I know of some grandfathered in from before the change, but even then you can keep but not "traffic". I may eventually attempt to get that permit myself just to keep one, but I'm pretty happy with the rest of the pits which we're allowed to keep here.

Are bulls rare there?
-----
See all my snakes at SerpenTrack.com

They're considered "at risk".

Seriously beutiful bulls. I hope mine atleast turns out half as as nice as them.