I've been meaning for some time now to get around to writing something and showing a few pictures of the new addition to the family around here... Well, he actually arrived here over a year ago now, but to give you some background on how this came about, just read on and take a look at some of the pictures.
To begin at the beginning; it was early, very early, in 2009 and Alice and Shaggy were living together as usual in the vivarium they have shared for years. Being winter, they weren't too active and were eating a bit less as a result. Now, normally you would not expect any mating to take place between them until March or so - but this was early February and blow me if they weren't at it already, with Shaggy chasing Alice around and she coyly waiting for him to catch up... |
And as Alice was not a young spring chicken anymore (if a snake is ever a 'young spring chicken'), I had previously already decided it would be best to not let them breed this year - but they had beaten me to it and a few weeks later it was obvious that they had been successful with the breeding, as Alice laid a good sized clutch of eggs in April.
As I have no incubator and no real interest in breeding snakes, in the past I have donated any resulting eggs to the local pet shop - usually they give me a few mice to feed Shaggy and Alice with. Of course, I realize the shop makes a good profit from these eggs when they sell the baby snakes, but as far as I am concerned, this is a good thing - I don't want the shop to go bust and close. Where could I ever get mice so easily and conveniently as this shop that is just up the road from my home? |
This year, however, was a bit different as I had offered the eggs to anyone on The Corn Snakes Forum. And from across the other side of town, a guy called Adam volunteered to take the eggs on. And so it was that a trip to his place with the eggs was arranged and they were carefully placed in an incubator. |
| Sixtyfive or so days later I got a message to say the eggs were hatching and so I went to see them and take a picture or two. Adam asked if I was wanting any of the baby snakes at all - I'd previously said no... But since then I had been thinking about it - and I had changed my mind and decided I did want one of Shaggy and Alice's offspring to keep for myself... As Shaggy and Alice are both getting quite old, it is likely this would be the last chance I would have to own one of their babies. |
At the time I first visited, the babies were only two days old and had not been sexed and so I took pictures of one of the snakes that seemed fairly lively, getting it out of it's little plastic tub and holding it up in the light. A few days later, when the sexes of the babies had been determined, by the 'popping' method, it turned out the snake we had photographed the other day was a female. |
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One of Jethro's sisters, pictured here at just two days old... |
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As I had decided I would rather have a male snake, I ended up with a different one from the one we initially photographed; however, I have included a couple of pictures of the little female corn snake, above, so you can get an idea of how small they are and how dark the colours are when they are newly hatched. |
In the third picture, below here, you see Jethro for the first time - see his head markings, which are unique to each snake. At this early stage the colour of him was still dark chocolatey brown. |
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He has always been quite a bold little character and was soon exploring around my room; on the arm of the chair and then a tour over my keyboard (must get around to cleaning it). Compare the size of his head with the keys.
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He has always been a keen feeder - he has never refused a mouse so far. Here he is eating pinkies, baby one day old mice. And see how he is beginning to change colour.
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Pictured with the keyboard (still filthy) it gives you an idea how he is growing. Up close and personal with me, getting to know each other. And then, using his initiative one day, making use of my watchstrap to hang on. So much to see, so much to learn - here he is meeting his father for the first time, but with the glass door still firmly closed between them. And then peering over the top edge of his small starter kit viv.
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He still enjoys clambering around on my desktop, hiding himself underneath the keyboard. The pinkies pictured here show how they vary in size, pictured next to an English penny coin. Jethro started off by eating just one of the smaller mice, getting onto the larger ones fairly quickly. And it was only a few weeks later when he was taking two pinkies, as pictured here.
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Once at this stage, it is only a short time before the next size of mouse is fed, beginning with 'small' fuzzies, moving on to fuzzies with proper amounts of white fur on them. |
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One bad habit Jethro seemed to have for a while was to grab the mouse by the back of it's head rather than by the nose (See pic 36). But with a bit of manipulating of his jaws he soon got the right idea and swallowed these mice down with no problem. He looks very stretched, but this really is perfectly normal... |
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After digesting meals for a few days, he is always keen to get out and about to explore the room, trying out a coconut hide I had made for him and also finding the heatmat - you can see him thinking, "So that's where the warmth comes from..." A favourite place of his has always been in my boots, which are normally kept in the same place under a table... It got to the stage for a while when I used to put him down beside it - doing this gave him a constant reference point to start from when he was exploring the floor. This way he gets to know it better and so he is more confident about trundling around the room for exercise.
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The picture of him going through my trainer needs a word of explaining - Jethro was on the floor, when I felt a tickle on the side of my foot. On looking down I see Jethro was squirming his way into my shoe through one of the holes in the side, getting under the arch of my foot, with me still wearing the shoe... So I slid my foot out, see it to the left, and managed to grab the camera and get this picture before he blithely strolled off, completely unaware and uncaring about what he'd just done...
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The last picture is taken just about one year after he hatched, when he was taking his first small size adult mouse for dinner. He is now well on the way to becoming a very good natured adult male corn snake, with many many more years ahead of him. But I have to say, I am glad I have this pictorial record of his first year - thank goodness for digital cameras, eh?
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The best way to quickly view all the pictures of Jethro
is using a 3D Picture Wall from CoolIris...Clicking the picture below will open a new window and take you to a 3D Wall of all the Jethro snake pictures.
Try clicking here or the picture above...
One minor point is that you will need Javascript enabled and the CoolIris plugin installed on your PC...
CoolIris works with Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer 7 and 8 on all the main operating systems.
See http://www.cooliris.com/ for full details.
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| These links take you to the Galleries of Shaggy and Alice pictures |
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