Reptile fans!

[Amy]

Anyone here is a fan of reptiles too? I've always had lizards, especially Iguanas growing up and I later got into snakes a lot. I really fell in love with the big guys and I've been keeping a great number of snakes for the past 5 years.
Keeping snakes is what got me into fish too... There are a lot of similarities between the two.
I started keeping polypterus, rope fish, eels, fish that look prehistoric/snake-like and those who have a nice set of teeth like triggers and dragon wrasse, to finally adore fish in general.



Meet the family (most of them I got as babies)!

Tiger reticulated python, 10ft:





Albino boa constrictor, 5ft



Moluccan python, 7ft



Selayar Reticulated python, 15ft, 70 lbs



baby emerald tree boa



Albino Burmese python, 8ft, 30 lbs



Anery Boa constrictor, 6ft



Hypomelanistic Boa constrictor, 6ft



Black blood python, 5ft



Albino Tyrosinase positive blood python



Iggy

[Hookup]

Amazing photographs and quite a "large" collection of snakes.

Please, upload more photos anytime.  They are outstanding.

[jon1985]

I love snakes.  I used to have 4 different types and several of each, 22 was the total I think. 

Loved it, but when we moved I sold everything off.

[Thunda]

The reptiles are amazing. You've got some great snakes. We have 3 cape gopher snakes that we got from Rays Reptile Zoo. They're very colorful snakes but will never get to the size of yours. They should grow to between 5 and 6 feet but never get that huge around like the boa's. 

I'd add a picture but right now we have no power.  Lightning struck the transformer behind the neighbors house.  The fire department was there as the trees were on fire. Few big branches down. One being across the road.

[elk]

Hi Amy,
IM curious how you managed to grow those snakes to 10-15 feet long which takes at least 10 years,you said you got them as babies and your profile says youre 22 years old.

[SeaKing]

Fascinating. With all these hungry snakes to feed, I would have gotten into raising rabbits instead of fish... 

[rockgarden]

Nice collection of photos and nothing that I have found in the wild.  I think that I'll stick with the smaller garter snakes although I have a bad habit of stopping to photograph ones that rattle in the wild. 

[Pablo]

Hi Amy,
IM curious how you managed to grow those snakes to 10-15 feet long which takes at least 10 years,you said you got them as babies and your profile says youre 22 years old.

Most boas and pythons tend to reach their maximum size in 2-4 years depending how well fed they are. My Tiger reticulated python is a year old and just reached 10 ft. They grow really fast the first few years, like most of the giant constrictors. Reticulated pythons are the longest snake in the world, they can reach 30 ft in length easily. The biggest one I have ( selayar, 15 ft) was given to me as a gift by a breeder. She's 12 yrs old and is a smaller locality. She comes from the island Selayar. The big ones are found in Sumatra or in Borneo (the mainlands) She is done growing, but she can get fatter. The albino burmese is around 6yrs old today, I got her as a baby when she was around 2 ft long. Even as babies, these snakes are big and feed on large rats the first months. She is very small... burmese tend to way more then 60 pounds at that age, they can even reach 200lbs easily. Mine is what you can call a "dwarf". She has been very well fed and she may never exceed the 11-12 ft mark.
The rest I got them as babies... they came in little plastic tupperwares with holes in it and are all more then 5ft. Most of them have reached 4ft in length the first year of their life.

that's the thing with big constrictors... they're like big spaghettis, then they pack on fat.


And yeah raising Rabbits would be a great thing to do...  But I just can't seem to do it lol! I tried with rats and ended up keeping 32 of them....  I get nice deals often from  the place I buy my rats though, it's not that bad.  Costs me 60$ a month to feed them all...  My great danes cost me twice as much as that and I only have two, so no complaining here


Thank you for the nice comments everyone, feel free to post some pics of your reptiles here! I'll post some more tomorrow of varanids and other boids I owned in the past



(It's Amy by the way... I posted with my boyfriend's account by mistake... sorry for the confusion!!)

[robt18]

Wow! Great collection! I've just started to collect snakes and reptile, but these ones are crazy!

How do you plan on on housing the retics and burmese etc once they hit 15'? And how do you manage to handle a blood python? From my experience they're not exactly the friendliest of snakes... the burmese can be tamed but I've never successfully tamed a blood python...

Great looking snakes though, keep us updated!

[Amy]

I have a big room for my reptiles right now. Adult retics can be housed in a 6X3X3 cage no problem, even for the 18-22 ft ones. My baby Tiger will probably bust the 15ft easily lol...  So I'm planning on moving everyone to the basement someday.
I don't think my burmese will ever get big to the point of rebuilding a bigger cage.

Bloods take a while to tame... And they are almost always agressive as babies, like retics, but tend to calm down in generally as they grow. They are really not the craziest snakes I've seen or had though. The moluccan python snaps at every little move you make and it's almost impossible to take him out with your bare hands. Bloods are more hypocrite then anything, they wait til you're close enough and strike. But these guys we're handled daily for 2 yrs straight. My black blood tried to bite not too long ago, but it was really my fault (made the wrong move whlile she was in shed). Depending how you handle them, you can't hesitate, you grab them, hold them firmly and move with them. Moving round and round with a snake really confuses them and they practically never bite when you do so. That's what I do with really agressive specimens like any member of the morelia and liasis family.

Once blood pythons are tamed, they can be the greatest pet you'll ever have. It's only advantages from here. They're just TOO fun to keep, great size of snake, they have the most awesome colors/patterns and they don't defecate/urinate as often as most snakes. I have to wash my bloods cage once a month/2 months lol.

This is my reptile room right now. It's always going under major changes every year and I might be receiving some new cages soon. (the emerald tree boa and seleyar retic is not housed in this room.)






I used the rubbermaids for the smaller snakes that are not done growing (kinda pointless building a small cage if you're not gonna use it more then a year) Or I used them when snakes are breeding. It keeps more humidity then the wooden, glass or  fiberglass cages.

Right now my Albino and Hypomelanistic boas are breeding

[Amy]

Wow! Great collection! I've just started to collect snakes and reptile, but these ones are crazy!

How do you plan on on housing the retics and burmese etc once they hit 15'? And how do you manage to handle a blood python? From my experience they're not exactly the friendliest of snakes... the burmese can be tamed but I've never successfully tamed a blood python...

Great looking snakes though, keep us updated!

What snakes do you own?  Post some pics

[washefuzzy]

Beautiful snakes. Very exciting collection.

[Amy]

here are some other pictures of reptiles I used to own in the past (2006-2008):


The varanids:

1.1 Varanus Panoptes horni







Varanus Salvator female





Southern scrub python, a massive female 16ft in length



Yellow anaconda





Liasis macklotti, meanest snake ever!! lol




Had to sell those guys when I was pregnant and moved to Ottawa, it was way too much work for me alone... it really broke my heart to give away the varanids, they we're awesome


Here's some more pics of some I still own today:

Little burm eating her chicken (don't worry, I only feed frozen/thawed food)



Emerald tree boa, corallus caninus





Anery boa



Black blood in shed with blue eyes



Boa constrictor smile



Albino b.c.



Hypo b.c in 2009



Baby pictures of them together (2008 I think)



Baby albino burm in 2006



T+ Albino blood  last year




If anyone is interested in getting a reptile and you need more info on how to care for them, whatever the species , Feel free to contact me!   

[Cheebs]

Very beautiful! And the reptiles aren't bad either

But really, I am impressed. I've always had a fascination for reptiles, and the guy that rents one of the rooms in my house has a couple leapard geckos and a bearded dragon, but I've never tried to keep any myself. I just might after seeing this! And I know who to ask for advice!

[Amy]

Very beautiful! And the reptiles aren't bad either

But really, I am impressed. I've always had a fascination for reptiles, and the guy that rents one of the rooms in my house has a couple leapard geckos and a bearded dragon, but I've never tried to keep any myself. I just might after seeing this! And I know who to ask for advice!

lol 

Try it! Worst case scenario is you fall in love and want more! haha 

[salvini55]

My great danes cost me twice as much as that and I only have two, so no complaining here

I like you already, can I see pics of your danes?

Ironically enough, I have a great dane and his name is..... BOA! LOL. He is 15 months old.

[Amy]

He's so cuuuute!!!! I love his white patchs!

I have two females, one that is not entirely pure but she's the most beautiful dog I have ever seen!!

I got my first dane Cassie at a rescue shelter two years ago, she should be around 6 yrs old. She was OBESE, cause she had a litter then they got her fixed, so she kept all the fat... I put her on a diet but she still looks huge. She's around 120lbs, very small dane with short legs and tiny paws, she's around the size of a male lab.

This is my beautiful, calm, affectionate, loyal and very well-behaved Cassie:









And I got a baby dane not too long ago, she is 14 months, weighs around 105lbs. (mother was 140lbs, father 175lbs)

this is my crazy girl, Shiva!








I love danes so much... Not a fan of dogs in general, especially the smaller breeds... But these guys are too awesome!

[salvini55]

cassie's eyes are like rings of ice and shiva's are rings of fire! they look like best pals

[az]

nice.