I got to get me a shorti!
5 Likes
They’re pretty great! I’m just sticking with these two for now, once they’re big enough to produce a clutch for me I might look into investing into some other morphs… we’ll see though! 
3 Likes
They’re beautiful!
I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how quickly Mina has tamed down with handling. She was a little nervous at first and took a few shots at me, but only one of them landed and she didn’t even break the skin. For the past few weeks she’s been wonderful with no huffing or striking at all. She’ll often still do the blood python reverse slither when I first go to hook her, but that’s the only remotely defensive behaviour she’s exhibited in a while. And once I get a section of her body hooked and get my hand under her to lift her out of the tub, she relaxes almost instantly.
4 Likes
Mina’s definitely entering a shed! When I took her out today, her colours are definitely looking dull and her eyes are starting to go cloudy, it’s definitely not just me seeing things, it’s pretty pronounced now. It also finally hit me just how much bigger she’s gotten. She spilled her water bowl, so I popped her into her little shoebox-sized holding tub so I could change her substrate. I haven’t had to put her in there for at least a couple weeks, so I was a little shocked to discover that she barely fits in it anymore! I also noticed that the little baby snake hook I use with her barely supports her girth anymore. Good thing I have a larger hook! I think she’ll also need to be stepped up to a larger enclosure soon, perhaps after she completes this shed.
Since I see her every day, it’s often difficult for me to accurately guage just how much she’s grown (I’m not in the habit of obsessively weighing my snakes unless I suspect there’s some sort of problem), but seeing how large she is compared to her holding tub now really drove it home. I knew she’d grown, I just didn’t fully comprehend how much!
4 Likes
I completely agree with that lol. I am beginig to think snakes somehow have magical growth spurts! You see and care your prized “kids” everyday and then out of the blue they double in size! I am really happy that Mina is doing great for you and your enjoying your new bond!
3 Likes
Haha yeah, I think it’s just that we don’t really notice the gradual growth when we see them every day…until they pass a particular milestone and/or you notice their size compared to a static object, and then your brain finally grasps just how much bigger they’ve gotten. I’ve been through similar experiences with virtually all pets I’ve gotten as babies.
I got one of my cats as this cute little 6-month-old kitten, and I had a friend over right after I got him. The same friend visited a few months later and was shocked by how huge he’d gotten, but it didn’t really register for me until my friend pointed out that he was half the size of my other cat when I got him, and then 5 months later he was at least 50% larger than my other kitty. Only then did I finally realise what a giant he’d become, haha 
2 Likes
I agree lol, this happened to me when I got Willow and saw what size Kai was now . It just blew my mind that this came for that 
2 Likes
Bloods grow pretty quickly!! When I first got Ecco back in May last year she was 160 grams, once she hit her first birthday in December she was around 700 grams… now she’s 900+ grams and still growing!
4 Likes
Mina is actually the first snake I’ve gotten as a tiny baby to raise up myself, so while I’m not all that new to snake-keeping and general reptile care, watching one grow up is a new experience. I honestly had no real feel for what sort of growth rate to expect.
I’d actually ordered three tubs of different sizes before she arrived. Initially I’d gotten the shoebox, thinking I’d most likely be getting a relatively new hatchling who had only had a few meals. Then when I settled on Mina specifically and realised she was already six months old, I ordered the tub she’s currently in, thinking (correctly) that the shoebox size might be a little small for her. But then it took so long for her to ship that I kind of panicked and worried the new tub would still be too small since I really had no idea how fast they grew, and I worried she’d outgrow the tub I’d prepared before she even arrived. Though I’m kinda glad I got the bigger tub, because while she didn’t need it when she arrived, she definitely will soon!
In fact, I even have one last tub that my previous roommate left me that’s probably large enough for a full-sized adult. I plan to get her a nice PVC enclosure as her permanent adult home, but I’m sure the big tub will still come in handy. If not for Mina, then maybe for someone else in the future. You can never have too many tubs!
2 Likes
Turns out Mina’s kinda grumpy this deep in shed. 
I’ve been handling her with no issues until just now. Her eyes are now totally opaque, and she was being pretty huffy and defensive when I went to get her out (she didn’t strike at me, but she seemed to be thinking about it)…so I opted not to push the issue and just change her water, mist her substrate, and say goodnight, haha. No need to stress her out when she’s essentially blind and clearly feeling insecure.
2 Likes
Well, now I know that being in shed doesn’t stop Mina from eating! She was due for a mouse last night, so I warmed one up and popped it in her tub, not really sure if she’d eat it or not. This morning it was gone!
I’m honestly not that surprised, she’s been a great eater for me, but I also know that often even good eaters will refuse food when they’re about to shed, so I just wasn’t sure what she’d do. It wouldn’t have been the end of the world if she’d refused it, but I’m glad she ate it. I’m still hoping that I’ll get her to start strike feeding off the tongs for me at some point…but ultimately I’m happy so long as she’s eating.
Her eyes are no longer blue, so she should be finally shedding that skin any day now! I’ve been keeping her humidity a little higher over this past week or so since I noticed her entering the shed cycle.
I think she’s ready to be switched over to small rats. Her normal prey, large adult mice, are starting to look pretty small for her. I got a small rat this weekend, but opted to give her her usual large mouse last night since she is in shed and mice are what she’s used to. But she’s definitely now large enough to handle a small rat, so once she’s shed, I think I’ll try giving her a rat for her next feeding. I’m not aware of bloods normally having issues switching from mice to rats (they’re not ball pythons, after all), so I’m hoping the switch will be uneventful, but we’ll see. In an attempt to set us up for success, I put the rat in the same bag with my sand boa’s mice in the freezer, so it should have some mouse smell on it. No idea if that’s necessary, but I figure it can’t hurt. 
2 Likes
Mina’s shed is finally starting to peel around her nose and under her chin! 
3 Likes
So, Mina’s shed has not been going so great, unfortunately. She got off most of her head and part of her neck…but things haven’t been progressing now for a few days. I tried bumping up her humidity another notch, but that didn’t seem to help. I think we’ve reached the point of needing to soak, which I plan to do this evening.
It also occurred to me that since she’s gotten larger, part of the issue could be that she just doesn’t have enough space to stretch out and wriggle around enough in her current tub to get out of her shed. So I’m in the process of setting up her new, larger tub, which I plan to move her into after her soak. I’d initially planned to wait until she had shed to upgrade her, but now I’m thinking that the upgrade could help with the shedding issues. I also collected and sterilised some rocks and branches to put in there, so she’ll have plenty of textured things to rub against. She has a few small cork pieces in her current tub, but it’s seeming like that’s maybe not enough.
The main thing that concerns me is that one of her eye caps didn’t come away with the rest of the shed on her head. It has started to partially peel away, so I’m still hopeful that she’ll be able to get it off, but…we shall see.
3 Likes
Gotta get caught up, i missed so many updates!
3 Likes
Mina has been soaked and moved to her new enclosure! I was worried she might be a bit grumpy, what with her stuck eyecap and shed and the fact that I haven’t handled her since she went into blue, but she was such a good, cooperative girl! She didn’t even huff at me. She’s such a good baby.
She seems to like the new tub. She explored it for a few minutes, checking out the new rocks, branches, and foliage before burrowing into the substrate and settling down on the warm side. I’ll take some pictures in a day or two, but I want to let her relax and settle into her new abode first. Hopefully the soak combined with the extra space and textures helps her get her old skin off.
3 Likes
Look what I found in Mina’s tub this morning:
It looks like she even managed to get that stubborn eye cap off. Hooray! 
6 Likes
Congratulations, I am happy to hear that she pulled it off.
2 Likes
It was a big relief! I wasn’t too worried about the shed on her body, I could tell it was very much loosened after her soak and figured she’d slip right out of it as soon as she dove under her substrate (and it appeared I was right, I found the shed half-buried in her Reptichips), but I was a little concerned about the eye cap. Very happy she got that off on her own as well. Not quite sure why she seemed to struggle with this shed, especially since I was so vigilant about her humidity levels. All I can figure is the fact her tub had become somewhat cramped, not having enough textured objects, not being able to fully fit in her water bowl to self-soak, or some combination of those things made it difficult for her to get the shed off. I kept thinking she’d get it off if I just gave her more time, but I’m glad I finally intervened.
In more good news, she devoured an extra large mouse last night, so the switch to the larger tub didn’t put her off her food! I’ll try giving her a small rat next feeding, as she’s definitely ready to move up to rats now. I figured I’d stick with a mouse last night since she’d just moved to a new enclosure and I’m always hesitant to push too many changes on a snake at once, but now that I’ve confirmed she’ll eat in the larger tub, I think it’s time to make the switch.
2 Likes
Well, Mina successfully ate her first rat last night! I left it in her tub, and when I came back 30 minutes or so later, it was gone. I wasn’t too worried about her making the transition to rats, but still, I’m relieved it was an easy switch.
2 Likes
Just had a great experience feeding Mina! I’ve talked before about how I’m a little disappointed that both my snakes are drop feeders who won’t take prey off tongs. Well, even though Mina didn’t take her rat off the tongs this evening, she’s given me hope that one day she might.
I warmed up her rat and, as I usually do, I wiggled it in front of her, mostly just to make sure she was awake and knew it was dinner time. She did her usual routine of lifting her head and flicking her tongue, but made no move to grab it off the tongs, which was what I expected. So I put down her small feeding plate in front of her and put the rat on the plate, which is our usual routine. I was just starting to reach for the lid of her tub to get everything closed up so I could leave her in peace to eat when I was surprised to see her immediately stretch out, grab the rat, and start swallowing it. Which may not sound that exciting, but she’s NEVER done that while the lid is off her tub or while I’m standing over it. So I just stood there and watched her swallow her rat. It’s the first time I’ve ever actually seen her eat. Normally I just leave the rodent in there, and then check on her 30 minutes or so later and the rodent is gone. It was a super cool experience.
Also, I now know that Mina actually keeps her meal on the plate like a good girl while she swallows it, unlike my sand boa, who insists on dragging her mouse off the plate to eat it, thus defeating the whole purpose of using a plate in the first place. 
2 Likes