Drymarchon pictures

Thanks, Scott! He is truly a very handsome boy! I'm sure that all of our young snakes will catch up to their potential very quickly, being fed whatever they'll eat. It's fun having snakes from each of two subsequent years, because I get to look at my '12 snakes, and know that my '13s will be even bigger, in just a year! (After all, I've had the '13s for an extra few months of their young lives, compared to the '12s)

AND!!! :

I'm expecting to post some pictures of a new member of my family, within a week or so. (I'm excited!)

Can't wait to see the photos!

The E34 M5 is very rare; the cats are from Hawaii, the boy '12 couperi is their "friend" (well supervised) This picture represents something quite rare.

A custom 6'x3'x28" Boamaster cage is awaiting a new arrival, couperi #5 in my family. Live plants in place, hidebox, branches, heatpad, lights on timer.... snake is paid for, awaiting permit.......pictures soon!

Very cool! I'd love to see photos of your enclosure. I'm thinking my boy will be big enough for his adult enclosure sometime in the next year or so. I really want to do a nice naturalistic/bioactive setup to display in the living room.

I'll take some pictures of the 6 ft enclosures this weekend: This is a picture of a cage, while it was still divided into (2) 3x3 sections. The two '12 snakes are now in 6 x3, and another is ready for the big girl arriving on the 30th (next Tuesday).

Lights are LED, plants used are low-light. I highly recommend putting "river-rock" gravel on top of soil of live plants, or the snakes try to burrow there, which uproots the plants.

I keep a back-up carpet for each cage, to switch in for major clean ups, on average, once a week. Carpets get taken outside, rinsed off with hose, then tossed in washer on delicate, and hang to dry. Hang to dry takes an hour or so, they don't hold water. If you have a back-up carpet, swap is quick. Lowes sells in/out carpet, black or green, Green looks like nice grass, but I'm really starting to like the black better.

Additional advantage to live plants is that they make oxygen from CO2. Bromeliads are beautiful; I'm drawing a blank on the other plants; variations on philadendrons work great.

Of course, we have to come to some compromise between a beautiful cage, and one we can easily maintain, don't we? In 3 minutes, everything is out of this cage. 2 minutes with antibacterial wipes, 3 minutes washing the water dishes, 3 minutes reassembling. Add a couple minutes for washing the acrylic glass (static electricity attracts dust), and once a month change the cyprus mulch in the hide box. (The snakes never seem to crap in the hidebox, but I clean it thoroughly anyway)

If I see a poop on the way to work, or when I'm in a rush, I clean it up with a couple of antibacterial wipes, lifting carpet as recessary, takes a minute.

I keep a smaller waterbowl each cage. The snakes sometimes dump it; the big corner waterbowl can't be dumped, but occasionally, the girls seem to crap in the big waterbowls. Of course, I have a quick visual inspection of each cage daily. Dirty water goes away IMMEDIATELY, no matter how rushed I am.

Thermometer/humidity readings with memory of 24 hrs, in each cage. Fifteen bucks per cage.


Arrival of special new family member will be Dec. 30th; to avoid Christmas shipping issues. New permit has arrived today!!!

I'd like to add, for any who are interested, that the permits process seems to be very well managed, at this time -- meaning that it's fairly painless.

In less than two months, I have applied for a permit, received it, found that using this permit wasn't going to happen, applied for another permit, and received that one.

There is no secret to this: we are just blessed with an extremely efficient US Govt employee who understands and is dedicated to doing his job very well, in spite of personnel changes around him. How cool is that?!?!

My email is bmwdirtracer@att.net, Scott.

Very nice! I've used carpet for some snakes in the past and it worked well. I'm currently using sani-chips with my couperi.

I have this crazy dream of doing a bioactive setup for my boy, as his adult enclosure. I understand the difficulties. I have some limited experience with bioactive and smaller snakes. I THINK it can be done. Plus, I don't have a huge collection to maintain. So, it would get pretty much all my attention.

MY NEW BABY IS HERE!

She's beautifully enormous! Sure makes my '12 boy look like a tyke....and he's ~ 5 feet! Lousy pictures, just caught while exploring her new 6x3x30" cage. She's somewhere about 6.5 to 7 feet, ~ 2.25 inches diameter.

Proven breeder with perfect babies in the past, 7 years old. The holes in the hideboxes are made by multiple applications of a hot beer can, to give you some idea of size; better pics will come this weekend.

She's from John Michels at Black Pearl. He is a great devotee of the species, and I'm absolutely happy.

I received her at work today; I'm a mechanic. I had to take her out of her bag 4 times, for showing. She really did not want to go back in the bag, and she had a trick for that, I'd never seen, in DECADES of collecting everything: she made a big loop, and kept making it larger, so I could not compress the bag enough to tie the neck.

She was incredibly patient, and sweet, of course. And she's been inspecting her new abode for a few hours, now.

I'd also like to express the greatest respect for Robert Buskirk at USFWS, who has really added a new level of professionalism to our Government.

Congratulations! She's a beauty! I'll probably get my next drymarchon from black pearl. Fantastic snakes. I can't wait until my little guy gets some real size on him.

Chris, that is great. Such a nice big girl. Here is betting she thrives with your care.

Thank you, my friends! She's just eaten a one-week quail, a chick, and a small rat! Nothing shy about this girl! I'll make some better pictures this weekend....