DanWildermann
New member
Hello Everyone! My name is Dan and I'm relatively new to the "Herp" scene. In the past I've found forums to be the BEST source of help for working on cars, repairing paintball guns, cooking food, etc. so I really wanted to find a good forum for taking good care of my new pets. This forum seems to be the best I've found for classifieds and helpful, informative members! I just wanted to introduce myself and give some insight to everyone as to what my collection is right now, but also have some questions for you guys. About 6 months ago, I purchased my first snake. She was a hatchling brazilian rainbow boa and I had done a lot of research online about snakes in general before i got her. After about 2 months of her coming along very nicely, she escaped from her cage (my fault) and I found her 3 days later frozen dead in the ventilation under the house... I was devastated! This happened around the same time I had aquired 3 baby turtles(2 red eared sliders and a yellow belly slider) and a Northern Garter Snake. The turtles are coming along great and the Garter snake is eating pinky mice/shedding just fine. After a few weeks, I purchased a female normal ball python hatchling as well. (kinda impulse because i was so sad about my brb) She has been a wonderful addition and although still a little head shy she is easily handled and is feeding / shedding well. As I'm sure some of you might already understand... this still wasn't enough to satisfy my hunger for more snakes and about 3 weeks ago I purchased a normal Male Reticulated Python hatchling. He is by far my favorite snake and has already shed once, and is feeding on small rats like a boss! So far I've been feeding all of the snakes in a separate tub to keep them from having any type of "feeding response" when I go to scoop them up. I handle them all every day for a good 15 min at least (except after feeding), and have a question about one thing in particular. I noticed with the retic that his dumps/pee are huge/more frequent and also that every time I put him in water he tends to go. I've been putting him in a 5 gallon bucket of luke warm water for a couple of min. before I handle him because he's taken a few dumps on me already. This has worked like a charm and I haven't had to clean his cage (or me) as much since I've started doing this. He doesn't seem aggravated or stressed about the whole "being put in a water bucket" thing and has been super chill with everything. Is this cool or should i just let him take dumps in his cage and deal with the mess? Obviously i know that he will out grow this and may need to use the bathtub or something else once he's huge but I'm just looking for your $.02 because it's just been way easier dumping the 5 gallon bucket then picking up huge turds from the cage. I also wanted to post some pictures so you guys can see what I've got going on and critique my setups if necessary. 
Since I can only post 4 at a time, i'll leave some comments with more pics!
Since I can only post 4 at a time, i'll leave some comments with more pics!
