67 Million-Year-Old Snake Fossil Found Eating Baby Dinosaurs

67 Million-Year-Old Snake Fossil Found Eating Baby Dinosaurs

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How Do You Keep A Snake?

Part 5: Heat

Reptiles, being exothermic, or cold-blooded, depend on their environment to regulate their body temperature. For proper digestion, they must have an area of increased heat, while at other times they may prefer cooler temperatures. 

There are a number of suggested temperature "recipes" for keeping snakes. You can use specially made heat lamps, heat pads or heat cable to warm one end of the snake's enclosure. The idea is to give the snake a thermal gradient, allowing it to choose the temperature that best suits it at any given time. This is very important for the snakes health and digestion.

Here is what we use: We keep the room at an ambient temperature of around 71-72 degrees. Some fluctuation is acceptable. On one end of each snake's enclosure, we use a Zoo-Med Mini (4x5) undertank heating pad to achieve a warm spot of around 88-92 degrees. We do not use other brands of heating pads or heat lamps, and we don't use other sizes of heat pads for our snakes as they can get too hot. 

We are also experimenting with Zoo-Med heat cable, which looks almost like a thin extension cord with a plug on one end and a cap or terminal on the other. We've had great luck with this product so far. It is safer than many other heat sources, allows for custom installation and is the best value in my opinion.

PLEASE FOLLOW THE MANUFACTURER'S DIRECTIONS FOR ANY HEAT SOURCE TO AVOID POSSIBLE FIRE HAZARDS AND ALSO TO AVOID BURNING YOUR SNAKE. 

It's important to get an accurate temperature reading of the floor of your snake's enclosure. Don't bother with stick-on type aquarium thermometers, as they will only give you a reading on the cage wall. There are a few solutions for monitoring temperatures. I recommend using a thermometer with a remote probe which can be placed inside the cage. These can be purchased at any pet store that deals in reptiles or online. I also recommend a temp gun. This is a small device about the size of a pack of gum that can be aimed at a spot to instantly tell the temperature of that area. These can be found online and in some finer pet stores and cost around $30. It is worth the investment.

Next time: A Place to Hide

On a Less Political Note...

Today I observed the first breeding activity of the season between a young pair of California kings. The male is a nice aberrant patterned black and white from Don Shores and the female is a blue-eyed blonde from Jim Sargent of Split Rock Reptiles. 

The blue-eyed blonde mutation is one of the rarest morphs in California kings. It is a simple recessive genetic trait that originated from a single male that was captured in an area known as Elfin Forest in San Diego just before bulldozers leveled the entire area to build a new neighborhood. It was bred with a number of females to produce heterozygous offspring to introduce the trait to the hobby. This mutation is believed to be a form of hypomelanism (reduced black pigment) that lightens the brown coloration of the coastal phase California king snake to a rich tan color and brightens the yellow bands. The eye color also changes from a dark ruby color in hatchlings to a beautiful denim color as the snake matures, hence the name, blue-eyed blonde. Jim has some better pics of the blue-eyed blond here.

Very few breeders work with this morph so I'm excited at the prospect of producing some heterozygous offspring (which will not display the morph, but will carry the recessive gene necessary to reproduce it).

Hunting Season?

I just discovered something interesting:

With all the rage over wild Burmese pythons in Florida you'd think they (the state, Fish & Wildlife, etc.) would be thrilled to have as many of them removed as possible. I thought the same thing. Wrong! As it turns out, there is a Burmese python hunting season, requiring a $26 management fee and a hunting license. If you take a Burmese python from the wild in Florida out of season or without a license you can be cited and fined, just as if you had taken a deer or other animal out of season.

It was never about the environment, people.

HSUS Racketeering Lawsuit Filed

Kingsnake.com - Herpforum - HSUS Racketeering lawsuit filed

Less Than Glamorous

Some people, myself included, think keeping and breeding snakes is loads of fun...and it is. But it isn't all sunshine and rosie boas. Take today, for example: I just spent an hour cleaning snake cages...outside... in 30 degree weather. Fun! The plastic tubs, which I had left out overnight to soak, were covered with sheets of ice. While my hands are so frozen from the spray from the high pressure nozzle that I can barely type, my snakes are toasty-warm inside (I have two plastic tubs for each snake, so I can rotate them out for cleaning).

It's not fun, but it has to be done whether it's cold or hot or raining, whether I'm sick or busy with work or just in a lazy mood. It doesn't matter. Part of keeping any pet is responsible ownership and the larger the collection the more work there is. And I'm not done today with my snake-related chores. The plastic tubs need to dry, then I will line each one with newspaper or aspen shavings, clean and refill water bowls and put in new cardboard hide boxes. I'll switch the tubs out of the racks one at a time, moving each snake into a clean tub. Dirty tubs go outside to be cleaned for the next go-round. Later tonight I'll thaw some mice and rats for the 22 hungry mouths I have to feed...but that's a whole other story. 

Reptile Expo March 6 & 7

There's a reptile expo coming up on March 6 & 7 in San Antonio. Stop by and check out some sweet captive bred reptiles and talk to the breeders.

http://www.texasreptileexpos.com/schedule/sanantonio/index.html