Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Bill, good to see your post. I still have two pink Texas westerns I got from you years ago. Both males, alas, but magnificent animals--really glad to have them. Huge cages with forced-air venting--the snakes are beasts.

don't know if I am really back yet. Glad to see they are doing well. I will have to find you a female...
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"Life without risk is to merely exist."

My males have been looking for love for a long time. I finally located a red female--not the blush pink of the Texas, but the red-paint look of the so-called piceus form--the "Red Racer". She mated with one of my males but I've been searching obsessively for a mate for the other male, who lives just below the happy couple. He seems to know there is matrimony going on in the cage above....I hope he's not too frustrated.

The male who got to meet the lady in red was the more agressive of the two. He's always been fearless and territorial, and thinks nothing of defending his cage from me when I put my hands in there for maintenance. We call him Cujo. Well, after he found a sweetheart, he mellowed out and now he's much less hissy. The two snakes spend hours coiled together and seem positively blissful--or would that be blisssssful....?

Anyway, now that Cujo is Mr Mellow, I want to find a good woman for his brother. Do you still keep or breed any coachwhips? The rules for stopping along roads in Texas have changed since you used to dive into cactus after snakes. True Texas pinks are hard to find these days.

Agreed, it's good to see the sighthunter "back" at least temporarily. I have a pair that I got from Bill last year, the female is w. texas locality, bright red and pink, but a little smaller for breeding than what I like. Right now she's on her own getting bulked up, which shouldn't be a problem at the rate that she's taking down frozen quail chicks (about 3-4 per week). In the mean time, the big w. texas male has taken a liking to a banded female. They've locked up several times, not sure what to expect from here. Black easterns are my new obsession though. I just acquired a big one from oklahoma that's a holy terror.

Kevin

A few years ago there was a pic on the Field Notes forum of some magnificent Easterns from Oklahoma or Kansas(?) I don't recall just where. They were big and black with a hint of bronze overwash. What beasts.

I was out recently and saw some wild Blue Racers. I love the way those snakes seem to flee, but if you're patient and stealthy you might catch them spying you out from a perch in a nearby bush. They double back to see what you're about.

A friend has a Striped Whipsnake and it's one of the most inquisitive snakes I've seen. It's always slipping around behind its pile of hiding bark, then peeking at us over the edge of the bark or through a space in the pile. If we turn away for a moment to look at something else, the whipsnake is periscoping to check us out when we look back.

I prefer to keep active snakes like whipsnakes and coachwhips in very large cages--I'm never satisfied since no cage is freedom, so I practically build them their own house if I have room. My friend with the whipsnake has space and I made him some of the biggest cages I've ever done. This whipsnake lives in a cage over six feet long. An active, intelligent snake in a big cage is what the hobby is all about for me. My friend enjoys that whipsnake and also his western coachwhip on very different levels than he enjoys his Cal Mt Kings and other colorful Sterilite dwellers.

Sighthunters--coachwhips, indigos, racers and whipsnakes--are addictive. Collectors who don't keep them sometimes express concern that they are high-maintenance, and I suppose they are compared to boas, kings, ratsnakes etc, but so, so worth it.

I had given most of my collection to Kevin but have access to most of the animals I have farmed out to others. I have been busy raising children, MINE! you could imagine the challenge! LOL
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"Life without risk is to merely exist."