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My Black Milk Jade seems to be a different girl... two weeks ago today I retrieved her from my son and his girlfriends home... Jade was there for breeding purposes with Nate's male Sonny. For the two weeks she's been back she's been the same old girl... until tonight.

Following my same routine for taking her out of her enclosure for feeding... namely opening the door and letting her crawl out on her own... when I attempted to pick her up she threshed around madly, unheard of for her, getting her under control I sat down on the couch with her thinking to calm her down... she headed right for the spaces between the cushions, grabbing hold of her I attempted to stop her from heading for the innards of the couch... no such luck, trying to keep hold and simply outlast her in the struggle I was rewarded with being musked... something she has never done... fearing I might hurt any eggs she may be carrying I simply let her go, flipped the couch on it's back, cut the fabric on the bottom side and extracted her. Wrapping her around my neck as I usually do when first taking her from her enclosure I put things back in order.

After that I go back to the usual feeding routine... she refuses the meal... something I can never recall happening in the five plus years I've had her.

I made the attempted breeding this year hoping to avoid the very flighty behavior she exhibited last year from April until August... always pacing the enclosure, night and day looking for a way out... taking a little longer to eat but always doing so within 10 minutes... acting a little skiddish but never trashing about while holding her.

Long story short... sort of ... what a nut job! Certainly no improvement from last years antics... I've only had one other captive snake musk me before, my own poly about three weeks after getting him... being musked by an 18" inch snake is very different than being musked by one that's a little better than 72"... holy crap... sort to speak.

She better have eggs if this is what I have to look forward to during the "together" time I put in with her and my other snakes.

Good thing it's all good

Gerry

At least it's only once a year and not once a month!
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http://www.waffahousereptiles.com

Gerry,

Pretty interesting observation, man! I've never really had a female go "nutty" until she's about to lay. That's when the crazy really starts!

-Cole

Right, she should be going into her pre-lay shed soon, if she hasn't already. I hope you've got that incubator set up, Dad!

It's all under control. It's all set up, just waiting for her to go into blue before firing it up and getting the temps all tweaked out. Have a wired thermometer as well, just forgot to put it in for the picture... covers off the container so you can see the inside with the light diffuser shelf, the stuff is dirt cheap at work. Hopefully I get it all right and in a few more years I can start working with the polyz as well.

Using sphagnum moss as you can see, vermiculite and perlite only come with miracle-gro additives around here it seems.

Jade's behaving herself now, still won't eat but you know she has the bulk to miss a few meals if it comes to that.

Gerry/Dad

Yeah, the Home Depot and Lowes with the Miracle-Gro" additive lately really was disappointing to see. I had to go to a nursery/landscape store to get the plain stuff this time.

Best of luck with the gaigeae and later the poly'z!

I had a few more female's lay today which was nice to see..

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

Well I have to say Cole I was not expecting her behavior at all, she's been nothing but great with handling no matter who was doing it... I no sooner touched her the other day and she was off as if possessed... yesterday and today she's been the same old girl... making her way from my shoulders down to the floor as I sit here typing... looks as if she's heading for the big hole I had to cut in the bottom of the couch though... perhaps I spoke too soon

Gerry