Disclaimer:

Disclaimer: If you are easily offended by sheer honesty, or you think me having my own opinions is "being negative", then this is not the place for you, and I suggest you leave and head elsewhere. I call a spade a spade, and I don't sugarcoat anything.

Saturday, July 17, 2010

And Then There Were 4

Well, yesterday after posting my last blog post, I did an official count of the number of pups Melissa had. Where I thought there were 7, there were actually 9. Which was a good thing! That gives me lots of pups so that I am sure all these snakes get well fed. I fed them all this morning. I gave one to Bandit, my California kingsnake. One to each of my pueblan milksnakes (that's two). And Barney, my African house snake, got two pups. That's 5 total pups that had to be sacrificed this morning. Poor Melissa! In less than 10 minutes, more than half her brood is gone. I feel bad for her for sure. The second time I stuck my hand in her cage to pull out some babies, she started to approach me with her ears flat. That means she was undecided if she wanted to run or defend her babies. There is a possibility that none of her babies will make it to adulthood. Because I will have to feed Barney again with a bigger baby next time. Then 2 more have to go to my ratsnakes. In another week, I will be feeding Bandit again too. He needs to bulk up because soon he will be going into hibernation. He needs to be well-fed for that. Well, soon I will be having more baby mice because I've been noticing Malcom and Misty mating with each other. I need to keep a steady flow of pups coming in.

Hey! I know this is hostile, but for me it is much easier to home-breed my own mice than go to the nearest pet store where I can get pinkie mice, which is 25 miles away, just to get them when I need them. Besides, the prices they charge just for pinkie mice!! I remember a time when I could get pinkies for no more than 75 cents!! That was back in 2000, the last time I had snakes. Now, they want $1.50 just for pinkies!!! $1.75 for hoppers!! That's too much!! Then the trip out there alone is also quite costly. To go over there and back burns about $5 worth of gas. Since I feed my snakes once a week, do the math! So for me, it's so much easier just to breed my own mice at home. It's a matter of location and necessity. And I don't want to leave this town! And mice are very easy to breed yourself, so there's no problem.

Well, Melissa's done had her litter for now, so I will just be waiting for the others to have their's and then I will retire the mice for the year so the snakes can hibernate. I will start them up again after the next New Year, so we can have that steady supply of babies once again when the snakes wake up next spring. They will be hungry for more food. Well, one thing is for certain, I don't stand in front of their cages filming the snakes killing the mice like some people do. I don't mind videos like that myself. I've been watching them to get me used to the sight of snakes eating mice again. I've been unused to it for so long I was afraid it might disturb me. I haven't even seen any nature shows in a long time! That's because most of them nowadays talk about nothing but panthers! And I don't care to see any panthers doing anything! The last nature show I saw was in 2002. It was supposed to be about antelope. And what is more focused on in the show? Lions, leopards and cheetahs. YUK!!! I don't want to see where some cameraman splatters a picture of a lion's ass all over the TV screen!! So I stopped watching nature shows. Getting snakes, I knew they would have to be fed, and fed mice. And I was not used to seeing that anymore. So I watch some of the videos on YouTube where people feed their snakes mice and stuff, so I can get used to it again. But what I don't understand is people who stand there filming, and start laughing about the mouse, rat, or rabbit dying in the snakes' coils. Or those who stand there, shouting "OOOOOOOOOHHHH MY GOOOOOOOOOOOD!!" Then act like the death of the animal is some kind of a hoe-down! That I don't understand!! That's one kind of video you will never see on my channel!! Most of my snakes don't like to eat in the presence of humans anyway. Especially Barney. He likes to do his feeding in total darkness. I think house snakes are nocturnal animals.

Well, I love my snakes. I am so glad I got them. I'd been missing having snakes for pets, so I was glad I got these guys. I'm happy too they are not venomous! I don't think I will ever be ready to work with venomous snakes! There's this guy on YouTube, and I regularly watch his videos and he deals with all kinds of venomous snakes. He's fascinating too! I love his vids. He can be quite a wise-guy. But he is very honest in his responses, and I like that. He makes it look so easy to deal with venomous snakes! He makes it look easy, but it's not. His disclaimer in the beginning even implies that it is not a hobby for everyone. I know it's not for me. I'm not that alert anymore! LOL! When I tried to give Bandit his mouse this morning, he kept biting me!! Because I smelled like mouse to him. LOL! Things like that happen and then I am grateful that I am not dealing with venomous snakes. Probably never will either.

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