Something New

The one and only Coral, of course. I took her out this morning to feed her and I was able to keep a hold of her while I pounced on my phone to see if I could get a picture. Voila.
I decided to feed her today instead of waiting until Friday. She's missed about three weeks of mice, so although a few more days of waiting wouldn't make much of a difference, why make her wait?
She ate in a very interesting position. Today she decided that she was feeling needy, and so she wrapped herself around my hand, as you see in the picture. I placed her in the container where I feed her and put the mouse in front of he. At this point she usually wants to explore all around the container, but today she stayed wrapped around my hand. She didn't bother striking at the mouse, I think she's on to me. Yes, Coral they're frozen/thawed mice., it's better for you than live ones. She started swallowing with the majority of her coils still holding on to me. I thought there was no way she could swallow in that position, but I was wrong. I learned something new toay, snakes can swallow prey in whatever position they like, and the feel of a mouse going down a snake's gullet is interesting to say the least.

In This Desert

Coral finished shedding this morning. All in one piece, good for you Coral! This is because she is super smart and she actually lays inside her water bowl when the humidity levels in her cage go down. My other babies don't quite get this concept, it could get as dry as a desert and they'd still be laying under the heat lamp, waiting for the stupid human to mist their cages.
I gave Barbossa a steam bath again yesterday morning, and I'll probably do it again tonight. I am still miffed with the humidifier, but I'll guess I'll keep trying to use it, leave it for more hours on and see what happens.

I just have one more thing to say for today: it is damn hot outside. I just came back from a lesson and stepping outside is like opening the gates of hell. Truly God-awful. Ok, that's it.

Feeding Frenzy Friday Part 22

Today feeding time was short. Coral has still not shed so I knew she wouldn't eat. I attempted to feed Maat for the millionth time and she again refused. I ended up giving her Pedialyte. I think she's becoming used to it because she grimaces less. Yes, she actually grimaces.
Talulah ate. I can always depend on her gluttony. Damascus also ate although he was shedding. I love ball pythons, I don't know why everyone says they are picky eaters. I've never had too much trouble.
Tybalt ate on Wednesday night, since he is still eating live pinkies, he has to eat when my sister brings the baby mouse from the wildlife center.

I have Topkapi to feed tonight and that's it for this week.

Tomorrow I have to get up bright and early to go to my French class. It's every Saturday from 8:30 to 11:00 am. It is looooooooong. But at least the teacher is good.

Steamy, Dreamy Clouds

I'm a bit disappointed in the humidifier I bought a few weeks ago. I guess I had a little fantasy going on in my head of me walking into a beautifully steaming room and each snake happy and with a big grin on his or her face.
Not surprising I'm disappointed because I would have to create an alternate universe where snakes can grin to make this dream work.

Anyway, I filled the humidifier with a good amount of water, a pinch of salt, and I plugged it in.
A few hours later and there is only a wimpy stream of steam (ha) making it's way into the room. And which is of course being completely massacred by the air-conditioning.
I placed the humidifier really close to the snakes that are shedding, so hopefully they are reaping some benefits from it.
It also has a night light, which I thought was kind of cool, although I'm sure the manufacturers were thinking more in the way of keeping a child happy, not 7 fearsome snakes who happen to be mostly nocturnal.
Fearsome. Right.

Pillow Talk

That's Topkapi having a nap inside my pillow. I took her out in the morning and placed her on my bed while I put some stuff away. When I finished,I turned around and she was making a bee line for my pillows. I guess it was too early for her.

Poor Coral is shedding and she is looking really dull. More than usual. Her eyes are powder blue and she is also more skittish than she is normally, which is saying a lot. I haven't used the humidifier yet because Coral is smart and she goes and soaks in her water bowl. If on top of that I use the machine she'd get a respiratory infection easily. Hopefully she'll shed soon so she can eat on Friday.

I am baking some Banana Peach Bread, here's the recipe.

1/2 cup butter
2 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 bananas
2 peaches
zest of one orange
2 tbsp. fresh orange juice

Preheat oven to 350 F.
Mix the dry ingredients. Put peaches in blender and pulse. Place in a bowl and add mashed bananas. Add zest.
Cream the butter, add eggs one at a time. Add fruit mixture and orange juice.
Add to dry ingredients. Stir until just moistened.
Bake 50-60 minutes.

Bad Characters

A few days ago, Coral decided she needed to make my life a little more interesting. I walk into the snake room in the morning to turn the lamps on and I see Barbossa acting strangely. He's in a weird angle and he looks nervous (don't ask me how I knew he was nervous, I've just had him long enough to KNOW). I look around his cage for feces but I didn't see any. Finally, I lift my eyes and I see Coral with her whole body squeezed between the wall and the back of Barbossa's cage. Somehow, she managed to slide her cage door open and walk over to my poor shy baby's cage to terrify him and me. I guess it amuses her. I put her back and made sure the door was fully closed. She'll probably do it again one of these days, so I'm going to have to come up with some type of lock for the door.
Crazy, crazy snake.

I just finished "The Magicians" by Lev Grossman. I did not like this book. People describe it as an adult version of Harry Potter but I actually considered it much more childish than any of the J.K. Rowling books. Adding sex scenes and curse words really does not add maturity to a book. We know, they're teenagers, they have sex and they curse, big deal. I don't feel more grown up reading about it.

The main character, Quentin, is completely unlikable. He is supposed to be an anti-hero, the skinny, tall misfit who makes it into a magical school where he thinks he will finally find what's been missing from his life. Sounds good, right? Predictable and completely done, but good. Well, it's not. I usually root for the anti-heroes but none of the ones in this book had anything remotely interesting about them. The story line, as I said, is nothing new so the least the author could do is make the characters cool. Think of the worst, whiniest, apathetic teenagers you've ever met and then give them magical powers and you'll have the torture Mr. Grossman put us through. It's actually a shame that he chose such poor characters and storyline because his writing style is actually quite beautiful. All he needs is to come up with his own ideas and leave the magic to the professionals.

Ducky

I just came back from a voice lesson. Jesus I am tired.
Tomorrow I have another one and then I'm heading over to see the concert of one of my teacher's students.
Which means I won't be able to feed my snake babies tomorrow. And THAT means that there will be a lot of reptilian attitude to deal with. Topkapi already thinks my feeding schedule is crap so she is not going to be ecstatic about a further delay. They are going to be sooo pissed.

So, my sister brought home a baby duck yesterday from the wildlife center. We are going to find him a momma duck who'll adopt him. He is just the cutest, noisiest, most huggable thing in the world. I'm a bit concerned that he'll get seriously imprinted on humans, but we're doing what we can. I can hear him peeping for attention as I write this. Must..resist...the...cuteness.