Nate is going to the reptile show tomorrow to sell the baby snakes. Since they incubated and hatched at my place I was pretty sure I knew how to verify he’d gotten on his way and wasn’t stuck at work (since he was leaving tonight, as it is a few hours away): check the snake room for baby snakes.

Glad I got home when I did because I got to see something I’ve never seen before! Cher was shedding her skin just as I walked through the door! She was about halfway done so I did not get to see her do her head, and in the process of it she went under her cave so I did not get to see the tip of her tail, but still, very cool! I wish I’d remembered where my camera was in time to snag a video, but unfortunately I did not.

I sat there for a few minutes after she was done because she was “swimming” around her cage (not sure what the correct verb is there, since pacing seems to indicate the presence of legs), and she’s very pretty in the light when she’s moving around. Very iridescent. She isn’t usually very active, so this was another treat. She then positioned herself so that her cloaca was right in front of me, let out a huge dump, then flipped her tail in the air like, “Fuck you!”

Ha. That is what I get for watching what I’m sure would be quite private, if snakes had social structures and feelings :)

It’s been a bit snakey around here lately. Cher got all moved in and finally laid her eggs on Friday night (see previous post). I say finally because she waited about three weeks longer than she should have. It’s been cold (for summer) here, so Nate is thinking that it’s because of that. Between the space heater, the heater thing he put under her cage, and the two nice days we had late this week, she finally gave 11 eggs. They definitely won’t be ready in time for the reptile show in October, but if Nate doesn’t get a table at that one, maybe we’ll be able to just go down and look. I have zero interest in going to it if he’s going to be sitting in a booth all day, but if he’s not selling anything it’s a neat thing to see.

In other news, Nate has gotten a reputation at work for being the “snake guy”. That is not news. The news is that this reputation has earned him a free boa. A coworker knew of one that needed to be rescued from an owner who no longer wanted it. So now there is a sick boa constrictor in his apartment. And I do mean sick, as in, she has a respiratory infection, not sick as in, duuuuude. Though that works, too. Her temporary name is Juli. Nate asked me what we should call her because he needed to make a vet appointment for her, and I jokingly suggested Drooly, because she’s leaking stuff out of her mouth with this infection. So for now (and as far as the vet knows), her name is Juli. I’ll get pictures of her soon. She’s probably a B. c. constrictor (Nate’s vote), but she might be a B. c. imperator (my initial guess). The vet should be able to tell us, I would think. Her tail isn’t a bright red like a lot of B. c. constrictor pictures I’ve seen, plus the imperator subspecies is more common in captivity.

I’m just going to post snake things right out in the open, unless people specifically request that I hide them behind a jump (which I don’t think will do any good in RSS readers anyway). Ophidiophobes, speak up!