Dartssnake's Pittsburgh Herpetological Society ArticlesI have been a Member of the Pittsburgh Herpetological Society for a little over a year. In that time, I have submitted two articles, both of which were accepted for publication in the newsletter.The newsletter is published monthly, and distributed to all members. To find out more about the Pittsburgh Herpetological Society, return to my Homepage and click on the link! My articles are titled Ruby and Carnelian, after my snakes. Scroll down for the articles and a picture of the snake that each article was named after. To see more pictures of the snakes, return to my Homepage and click on the name of your choice!
Ruby |
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(Pittsburgh Herpetological Society Newsletter, renamed and tweaked,formerly titled "Fellow Enthusiasts" - Vol. 11, No. 9, September 1998, Page 4.) Fellow Enthusiasts! I would like to take this opportunity to thank everybody in the Herp Society for their gracious help to a novice herper with too many questions. I got advice from everybody, including Herb and Dolly, Tom, Dan, and anybody else I could corner. I think my persistence pays off every day, in that every day that passes without a problem is a good one. My knowledge of herpetology is limited, as I am new to this hobby and quite specialized, since I only have room for one pet, and I chose a relatively difficult specimen to propagate. My choice, after weeks of careful study and investigation (along with bothering many people who had much more experience than myself) and seeing and handling all of the different specimens offered at our herp show was relatively obvious given my tastes and preferences. The parameters that I had set were as follows: My final decision was very difficult. My choices (as I saw them) were limited by my parameters to these two: Spotted/Children's Python (Antaresia Group) and Rainbow Boa Constrictors (Epicrates Group). I saw and handled Children's Pythons (Antaresia Childreni), Spotted Pythons (Antaresia Maculosa), and Pygmy Pythons (Antaresia Perthensis). I also handled and considered a Columbian Rainbow Boa Constrictor (Epicrates Cenchria Maurus), a Trinidad Rainbow Boa, and a Brazilian Rainbow Boa (Epicrates Cenchria Cenchria). While all of these species were nice, and had their own strong points, only one particular snake had the beautiful markings that I desired. I chose a female red-phase Brazilian Rainbow Boa Constrictor (Epicrates Cenchria Cenchria) that was about 8 months old and 21 inches in length. I purchased her from Darrin Bell, of Bloomingdale, Ohio, for $150. I was a novice, so I forgot to ask him for lineage information, but I saw pictures of her parents, and they were exemplary. Her coloration and markings were very promising, but the major selling point was her disposition. She was easy to pick up (no nipping), and remained calm no matter who held her. I had been nipped by every snake in the Antaresia Group and the Trinidad Rainbow Boa. Darrin said that she had hardly been handled and might be "nippy," so I was surprised to find her so calm. She remains so to this day, having never gotten a tooth into anybody who was holding her or picking her up. The only close call was when I was feeding her the second of three pinky mice (just before upgrading to rat pups), and she was close to shedding. She struck at my hand as I positioned the pinky in her feeding box, but closed her mouth before touching my hand, resulting in a vicious nose-bumping to the ball of my thumb. In the last paragraph, I mentioned shedding. I have never seen Ruby present the typical shedding characteristics espoused by the experts ("blue" eyes, temperamental, not hungry, etc.), but her skin dulls at least a week before the event, and then clears up almost to normal the day before. It is very confusing, but gratifying to me, in two cases, in which I was handling her when she began shedding, and she allowed, if not encouraged me to help her. She rubbed her cheeks on my fingers, then scrubbed her nose down my thumb, popping the old skin free of her head. She then yawned deeply, loosening the skin on her lower jaw. She allowed me to grasp the old skin on top and pop it off over her eyes. At that point, I just held on and she did the rest. I was too impressed for words and deeply gratified that she felt comfortable enough with me to allow my participation in this very stressful activity. During her shed, I mentioned that Ruby "yawned." I put that label on this activity because that is what it most resembles to me. It consists of a long, in-drawn breath, jaws opened to their widest extent (almost 180 degrees!), and a shuddering and wiggling of the jaws. She does this at least once almost every time that I handle her. Until we got Ruby, my girlfriend Traci would have been hard-pressed to find the perfect adjective to describe any reptile, let alone one that lived in her house. I found myself just as surprised as her the first time she said "cute" when referring to Ruby. I have been told that Ruby has been picked as Pet-of-the-Month for September, 1998, and you can see her on the Pittsburgh Herpetological Society website. The pictures I submitted were taken the day after her second shed since acquiring her in April, so they would have been around the first of June, when she was about 27 inches in length. Now she is nearly 30 inches or more. Does anybody know the accepted method of measuring a small, wiggly snake?
Carnelian
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(Pittsburgh Herpetological Society Newsletter, tweaked, "Carnelian" - Vol. 12, No. 5, May 1999, Page 5.) PLEASE NOTE! : THIS IS TONGUE-IN-CHEEK HUMOR! Fellow Herpetology Enthusiasts, I'd like to take this opportunity to reiterate some advice I was given at the first meeting I attended last year: "Don't ever go to a herp show or sale with money that is 'extra' or unapportioned." What I mean is, the money that is left over after vital bills are paid. Not many people have such a luxury, or, as in my case, not very often, but it does happen. The incident in question happened at the last show and sale in 1998. It was November. I knew it was the end of the season, and I had been talking to a few dealers from Ohio about a male mate for Ruby, my female red-phase Brazilian Rainbow Boa Constrictor (Epicrates Cenchria Cenchria). This back-and-forth, offer and counter-offer was fun, and slightly serious, but I was always short of cash. (My plan was working!) This conversation had lasted about 3 or 4 months, and I had resisted their nefarious plans up to this point, but I had not realized how EVIL they actually were! My intentions had been to be at the Palace Inn at about 10:00 or 11:00 am, but I was thwarted by the fact that I have trouble moving with any type of speed or precision on Sundays. I convinced my girlfriend that I needed to go, and she wanted to shop in Monroeville, so she drove. She dropped me off at about 1:45 pm, so I was pretty late. Many people were packing up and most of the others were preparing to leave, so I hurried up and down between the tables, looking for specimens that interested me. I finally got around to the traders that I had been talking to, and found, to my horror, that they had a specimen on display that met, if not exceeded, all of the standards that I had decided on for Ruby's mate. It was a male red-phase Brazilian Rainbow Boa, but he was brighter orange than Ruby, with exceedingly dark black markings. He was much younger than Ruby, and much smaller, but seemed very healthy. I cleaned my hands (as every conscientious herper does) and asked to handle him. He was very scared, and tried to bite me, but either his mouth was too small, or my fingers too big, (or both!) so he was unsuccessful. For a snake that had been housed comfortably in an eight ounce dip container, he sure was a handful! As I had been looking at him, I saw a sticker with the price of $125 on the lid. I commented that I didn't have the money and reluctantly put him back. I quickly turned my back and walked away. I tried to become interested in other things, but my mind kept drifting back to the male snake. I looked up and found, to my surprise, that I had returned to the sales table. I looked at the male and picked up the container for a closer look, and tried to have a conversation with the trader. Some comments that I remember from his evil spiel were, "See you next year," and "Last show of 1998."...Despicable! I again tore my eyes from the snake, said goodbye, and turned to leave. I had almost completed my escape, when this vile phrase slid into my head like an icepick: "What would it take for this snake to be added to your collection today?" The same icepick then penetrated my right foot, securely nailing me to the floor. At the same time, as if on its own volition, my hand darted to my pocket. I began to smile, thinking that I did not have any money on me, and I was safe...WRONG! In my bumbling, hurried state, I had put on the same jeans that I had worn the night before. I reached into the pocket and latched on to some bills. It was the $100 that I had put away for "fun money." I pivoted on my nailed-down foot, and uttered the fateful words, "Are you offering a deal?" In an unctuous, used-car-salesman-like voice, he hissed, "How about...$80?" Inside I was screaming, as this final icepick was inserted into my brain, and on the outside, I smiled and said, "OK." I named him Carnelian. Ruby and he share a cage, and have never even acknowledged that each other exist. |
