It's the little victories that count!

It's life's little victories that count. They are the ones you don't expect to see and you never take them for granted. Today, I was lucky enough to witness TWO little victories!

To give you some background: I purchased Charlotte at the NARBC in Arlington back in August.

Several days after her arrival, I tried to feed her a frozen/thawed rat because just a few weeks before, I bulk ordered a bunch of rat fuzzies an rat pups in the hopes that she would eat them along with the normal ball python (she was already a frozen/thawed rat eater). However, much to my dismay, she refused the frozen/thawed rats. So I tried some live rats. I don't generally feed live because I always worry the snakes will get injured, but I figure a little rat fuzzy wouldn't hurt her. So I plopped that into her cage and...nothing. Frustrated, I left it in with her over night and still she hadn't eaten the rat!

So, a few weeks go by and I decide that she's lost too much weight than I feel comfortable with so I offered her a frozen/thawed hopper mouse that I feed my corn snake. Well, she gobbled that up without any hesitation. So I decided to just feed her mice because I knew she would eat them. Occasionally, I would feed her a smaller mouse followed by a small rat and she would constantly snub her nose up at the rat.

Earlier this month, I attended Repticon in Dallas/Ennis with a friend of mine. I went ahead and purchased adult mice and jumbo mice, knowing that Charlotte would quickly outgrow the weaned mice I was feeding her. So I brought them home and stuffed them in my freezer with all the other rodents. That week, I had picked up a live rat for my male, Jax (who you'll be hearing about a little later). He decided he didn't want it so I just tossed it in the tub with Charlotte for a little bit while I figured out what to do with it. I heard a "THUNK" and turned to see the rat bit, coiled, and near death. I was shocked! My little mouser was eating a rat fuzzy. Thinking it was just a fluke, I went ahead and bought her another rat fuzzy last week. She ate that one too. So I decided, today, to see if she would eat a frozen/thawed rat. Sure enough, she gobbled down her rat pup with no problems. So now I have a spider ball python who finally eats rats and a freezer full of mice that are even too big for my corn snakes. Go figure, right?

This brings me to my second little victory. Jax is a lesser ball python that I got the last weekend in September.

I was told by the breeder that he was eating live rats. It was his first feeding with me and I decided to offer him a frozen/thawed rat because again, I have a freezer full of them. No luck. I tried again the next week and even left the rats in his cage. No luck. So I caved and bought him a live rat weanling (or a wiener rat...yes, it's funny). He seemed scared of the rat. He wouldn't strike it and balled up whenever it would come close to him. So I removed it and tried a smaller rat that didn't move quite so much. He ate that one fine! I tried to offer him a frozen/thawed one to supplement since the fuzzy rat was a little small, but he didn't go for it. So the next week, I tried another wiener rat since he is far too big for fuzzy rats. Well, he decided he needed a bigger meal or something because he ate it no problem.

Well, I gave him another live wiener rat last week and this week I thought I would try to feed him frozen again. Lo and behold, he ate the frozen/thawed rat! It took a little bit of convincing, but he did eat it! That means I have two who are finally on frozen rats and I will have two new snakes to help me clean out my freezer!

Having Charlotte and Jax eat frozen/thawed for me today has literally made my weekend. To the people who don't like snakes or are squeamish about feeding snakes, you may not find this amusing at all. But to me, it's one of those small victories that makes me very happy!

Welcome to B.H.Reptiles!

Hello friends!

My name is Breanna and I started up B.H.Reptiles as a way to show off the snakes I produce as a novice hobby breeder.

For the longest time, I've always had an interest in reptiles, more specifically snakes. My mother, bless her soul, has been terrified of them for as long as I can remember. I can remember always wanting to have a pet snake but being constantly turned down. It was my brother who got the first reptile: a Red-Eared Slider named Donatello (followed by another named Vincent). No, they were not named after the Ninja Turtles! I swear it was just a coincidence.

By the time I made it through childhood and onto college, I had branched out and gotten my first pet: a beta fish named Cerceta. I know a fish isn't much, but for a freshman in college, it was all I could keep in my dorm. When I finally moved into my first apartment, it was a little over a year later that I rescued a Siamese mix off my front porch during Hurricane Ike. Since then, I've had my fair share of fish along with two cats. But what about the reptiles?!?!?!

In August of 2011, I purchased my first snake: A corn snake named Chicken.

 

 

Chicken was an amel corn snake and very feisty. I couldn't even pick her up without getting tagged! When I first got her, I was naive to snakes and I had no idea how to figure out if my beloved girl was a boy or a girl. When you get your pets, that's always the first thing you want to know! How else can you select an appropriate name? So, what did I do? I called up a local vet and asked if they could tell me. I brought her up to the vet's office and they took her back. Because it wasn't in an exam room, I was asked to wait in the waiting room. Several long minutes went by before someone asked me to come back. I followed the tech to the back where the vet told me that my beloved Chicken had passed away. I was appalled! Chicken was moving and breathing when I dropped her off and now she was dead! I was offered no explanation, just that I wouldn't be charged for my visit. I went home and buried my baby in the flower garden near my apartment.

Saddened, I called the breeder and explained what happened and asked if she had anymore corn snakes for sale. She said she had a few left, so I drove two hours back to her home and picked out my next snake, Henle (pronounced Hen-Lee), a classic corn snake.

The breeder was kind enough to give me Henle as a way to say that she was sorry for what happened to Chicken. I was told he was a picky eater, but I tackled the challenge with gusto. Sadly, after a month of not eating despite all my best efforts, I made an appointment to have Henle put down. I didn't want to see him suffer. Unfortunately, Henle never made it to his appointment. I buried him next to Chicken.

Reluctantly, I called up my friend and asked if she would go to a movie with me that afternoon to get my mind off of my snakes that I had lost. She agreed and we went to see a movie. This was September 30th. After our movie, we went to Petco to look around and I fell in love with a corn snake. At the time I didn't know what gender or what color. All I knew was that I had to own this pink snake. So I purchased her. At the time, I thought she was a "he" so I named her Severus Snake (Severus for short).

I've had Severus since September 30th, 2011 and I've loved every minute of it! She is what truly started my addiction. After Chicken and Henle, I was determined to keep her healthy and happy. Since first laying my eyes on her, she has gotten a sex change (I was new to sexing snakes - that's my story and I'm sticking to it!) and she has been the reason I considered breeding. I'm fascinated with genetics and since then I've wanted nothing more than to be a hobby breeder to see what all I can make with my genetics. Since purchasing Severus (a snow motley), I have purchased a bloodred female, Miami phase female, Classic female, and an Anery Motley male. I'm sure you'll see pictures of all of them in posts to follow.

But what about my ball pythons?

I first got into ball pythons back in July. I received a text from a friend (coincidentally the same friend who was with me when I purchased Severus) about a ball python who needed a home. I contacted the woman who had her and found out the female ball python had been abandoned by her owner and the parents of said owner had threatened to toss her out in the Texas heat and let her fend for herself. I couldn't let that happen. Within the hour, I had picked up the little ball python. She was 6 months old but only weighed 44g! She had a completely stuck shed and was severely malnourished. I didn't know a thing about ball pythons, but I wasn't going to let this little girl die!

I'm happy to say that Fluffy, a pretty normal ball python, is over 200g now and eats great for me. She's healthy and happy and was the driving force for me to get spider female and my lesser male.

I'll spare you an entire novel for now ;) Tune in next time for more stories and learning experiences regarding my little legless children.