It's officially spring

The moment that I have been anxiously anticipating has passed, and I now declare it to be Spring. I say anxiously for a variety of reasons: extra work, lack of space, extra work, "OMG, what was I thinking", and "I thought you were GETTING RID of those!" Yup - that's right...my colubrids are out of brumation. Now, I don't have a whole lot of them: a paultry group of 16 - composed of bullsnakes, greybanded kings, sinaloans, and albino nelsons. But that is 16 more mouths to feed and enclosures to clean...and I was feeling overwhelmed already, lol. Last year, I got so distracted by things that I totally blew the breeding season for these guys - I plain ol' just didn't put the males with the females. I am determined to not do that again (at least not this year).
Now, there are two main problems: I pretty much filled up their space with other things (babies I held back, and just a few new critters), and I had told my wife that I planned on getting out of colubrids entirely. OOPS. (the funny thing is, I have more now than I did when I put them down. What can I say, it was a deal I couldn't refuse at the time.) Since their space is gone, they are stacked in the dining room...out of the way, but not invisible. I knew this day was at hand, so I have already cut the melamine for a new rack. All I need now is a little time to put it together.
And just wait til the babies come. I'll be kicking myself when I am over run with the little worms. Give me baby anacondas any day, lol. Wish me luck

Harald,

Sounds like you will have your hands full!

Good luck with all of your projects!!


-Steve

Things were looking good for putting the rack together today (ahead of schedule, lol) til I walked by the anaconda cages. I actually briefly considered doing the rack anyway, but opted to be a responsible keeper and do my cleaning chores (animal maintenance first, which is why I never seem to get anything done). I'm not quite to the point of screwing the shelves in place, anyway - I decided that I want to cut slots on one side to put the heat tape through. Not a huge job, but it will involve taking the time to measure everything out, then to cut...I think I will be much happier doing it this way than trying mess with neat installation later or installing as I build.

Back to the subject of "more work" - I added a colubrid page to my website, now all I have to do is take pics, watermark them (that will take a while since I don't remember how, lol), and post them. While I was in there, I figured I should set up some of the PayPal stuff...and somehow managed to switch buttons midstream...gotta fix that soon. And of course, while I was doing that, I realized that I also need to do pics of the ball pythons I plan to sell (after I decide which ones they are ). Oh, and I should work on posting individual pics of the leftover babies - I'm not sure that I want to clutter the website with that, though...it won't be bad right now, but when the new babies come it'll be a nightmare. I know people like to see photos, and to pick the baby they want, but I think it is alot of hassle in some cases (like with yellow anacondas...I mean, how much difference is there in the babies. And how do you choose from a group of pictures - at least in person you can see small differences in size, and which one bites you the most). I'm considering linking to an external photo site, but I'm not sure that will be the best way. Any suggestions/comments?