The Thawmaster!!

I only feed frozen/thawed rats & mice. You can argue about that if you like but it's the most efficient way for me to pursue this hobby so I don't want to hear it. For me thawing is essential. For years I've just used a pan of water which had to be filled & refilled with warm water from the sink that wasn't too hot (don't want to cook the mice) but wasn't too cold so that the rats and mice could be close to a natural body temp when fed to the snakes. Tiny pinkies and large rats thaw at different rates and on feeding night I have to repeatedly stop the other things I'm dong to check up on my thawing rodents. BUT NOT ANY MORE! Because I have built the Thawmaster! (I'd trade mark it but it's just a heated water bath built with stuff from Amazon)

I rounded up a 150W heating element, a PID temp controller, a submersible thermocouple, a power cord, and some miscellaneous fittings. Then I just drew it up in CAD, plasma cut the stainless steel sheet metal parts, broke them and TIG welded the whole thing together! Voila! anyone can do it (if they can TIG weld and have a plasma table & press brake)

I know I'm being an ass but an industrious person could use a metal wash tub, pop rivets & JB weld to build basically the same thing.

I didn't document building the tank but here's the leak test. All good.

Then I wired everything up, figured out the programming and tested out the heater. (note: the K-type thermocouple that came with this PID controlled was NOT stainless and quickly rusted, so I replaced it with one that can handle the job.)

I mounted up the controls and ran it to see how it would hold temp. There's regularly a few degrees of variation on this completely un-insulated water bath but it's amazingly accurate for the <$100 total price tag. I was also worried that I might need a pump to circulate the water but it does amazingly well without one.

Here are some pics from right now as I type this. This is my finished prototype and it has runs 6 nights a week for the last month with only one problem which was caused by the thermocouple I replaced.

final note: I put my rodents in ziploc bags and the little mice & rats do just fine but the big rats have sharp nails that always poke holes in the bags so you always get some leakage. Dead rat water that is regularly heated to 100 degrees is a text book example of somewhere to grow horrible bacteria. I change the 6 gallons of water twice per week after thawing large rats and I wash the whole thing out with soapy water at least once per week! I need to find something better than ziplocs. Maybe something washable and reusable.

...but that is a problem for another day.

Snake omelettes?

After my terrible showing with last year's eggs I decided to make 2 changes.

1) I fed more frequently

2) I didn't cool my snakes for as long

The hope was that more food would yield more eggs in females and the short cooling would preserve more sperm in the males.

It's hard to argue with success!

April 21: Female 2012-01-04 / Male 2010-01-02 (10) eggs (0) slugs

April 23: Female 2014-01-02 / Male 2014-01-08 (6) eggs (4) slugs

April 23: Female 2013-01-03 / Male 2014-01-01 (9) eggs (2) slugs

April 24: Female 2013-05-02 / Male 2014-01-04 (13) good eggs

April 27: Female 2006-01-01 / Male 2013-01-02 (19) eggs (0) slugs

April 28: Female 2014-01-03 / Male 2014-01-08 (3) eggs (6) slugs (this as her first time laying)

The youngest snakes (particularly the 2014 males did the worst. Snakes who were at least 4 years old did very well. A lot of factors lend themselves to this, for example how much you feed and how large the snakes are. There's a large body size difference between the 2014 snakes and the 2013 snakes and this translates to success in breeding. (I was once warned by an actual herpetologist that breeding females who they are too small can shorten their lives and stunt their growth so I have always waited until they looked like adult snakes but the breeders I know insist that 2-3 years is all you need and then get to making eggs!)

I still have 3 more females that have not laid yet and I face the problem in 90 days of what to do with all the babies that hatch but that will be this year's challenge and I am starting to plan for that now.

A few folks have contacted me about buying snakes and I certainly need to sell some but I needed to document what I've done and be able to tell people what they are getting. If you look through the pics most of my adults aren't much different than typical Texas ratsnakes from South East and Central Texas so I really wanted to document how these babies change over the first couple years of their lives. I am seeing a spectrum of ground color running from silvery/grey to lemon yellow to pumpkin orange and the dark dorsal patterns vary from typical to almost completely washed out. But which will be which when it's a bucket full of grey babies?

If I've learned anything about life, it's that when you think you know what's going on, start to document & chart it and you'll quickly see that you only knew part of what was going on.

More pics soon!

Easter Eggs!

Well, it's actually the week after Easter but the eggs come when they come. This is the first batch. (2012-01-04 female and 2010-01-02 male)

(10) healthy eggs! Things are already better than last year! 

Colors & Patterns Update March (OK, April...)

Spring breeding

It's time, once again, to make matches and hatch babies. In an effort to do better than last year I have started to compile data.

First I needed to see who I have in my breeding pool and what their collective breeding history is. To do this I got a little compulsive. I posted pics of all current snakes and their lineage suing various color wires to track the original breeding pairs. I wish I could have used 2 colors per individual and tracked which half of each set of genetics went where but I have no way of knowing so it's one color per unrelated set of genes (hard to see in the pic). It's not ideal, but it's as accurate as I could get with simple observation.

This was an eye opening graphic of how inbred these animals are. To test the simple recessive traits I need a larger unrelated breeding pool and the ability to raise many more animals. To be honest, I'm not willing to commit to that.

However, this did show me who had not bred, or who had not yet been paired for breeding so this year I concentrated on the "unknown known".

I warmed early, fed more and waited for all the females to cycle through a pre-ovulation shed. So, I'm hoping for good results. The only "iffy" pairing involve the youngest snakes.

In related news, I am working on the quarterly update for the 2016 color change comparison but several of the babies where still in shed. I hope to get that done next week end. Until then put this image of my 2010 male next to any Texas rat snake you've ever seen.

Colors & Patterns Update (December)

colors & patterns

I never realized how hard it was to get accurate indoor pictures using artificial lighting. I have a new appreciation of good photography. Anyway, I did the best I could to ID older snakes in previous pics and start an accurate record of this year's babies.

One more thing before I begin. I've handled hundreds (possibly over a thousand) Texas rat snakes now and I can say without hesitation that they are typically very high strung but some of these animals are calm and pleasant from birth (much more like corn snakes). As I document the change in patterns & colors I will also be adding notes about who is calmer and easier to handle.

Enjoy the snake pics!

The Saga Continues!

I have put together a new set of slides updating my Texas Rat Snake breeding project.

The following slides document who I bred and what babies they produced.

I have also put together a comprehensive document to record the changes in color and pattern of baby snakes over their first year of life. Most of these baby snakes fall into the "typical" range with some being noticeably different in color and pattern and a small percentage whose pattern fades over a couple years to produce a "ghost" effect. I'll be posting those slides as soon as I redo some pictures. (I didn't realize how difficult it was to get good pic of snakes until it mattered)

Catching up on snake stuff: August 16, 2016

Well, I haven't been very diligent with my posts here but I have had some nice run in's with reptiles this year. I only just realized that I haven't posted since the rattlesnake back in June. So let's make up for lost time.

I've come across a few Texas rat snakes (P. o lindheimeri) since the spring.

This first snake was cruising around a pond on a nice sunny day back in March. As soon as he saw me he went into the standard wavy defensive position you see below. They normally do this if they don't think you've seen them yet.

In the shadows of a forest or grassy field this wavy pattern probably helps to break up the long sleek outline of the snake. You can see this pretty well against the light colored ground in the picture. I added a wavy red line to the picture below. Notice how the waves make an alternating light/dark pattern in the sunlight? The whole trick to camouflage is to break up your shape. Evolution encourages this.

This snake also provided good examples of several other typical rat snake defensive behaviors. Texas rat snakes are very high strung and do not like to be handled. When touched or picked up they will hiss, strike and bite. I have a lot of experience with these animals and although I am holding this snake in my bare hand you'll notice it displaying multiple defensive postures.

#1 the head is spread out to look as imposing and possibly venomous as possible. (see red triangle below)

#2 The neck is pulled back into an S-shaped. (See red lines below) He can and will strike from this position. When striking he will exhale sharply. Often the strike is a fake (meaning that he doesn't intend to bite you). Often the snake will be so aggressive with this faking, it will bump it's nose against you. The contact is meant to make you jump back away from the snake giving it time to retreat. However, if it chooses to bite you, it has very sharp, thin fish hook like teeth and it can draw blood easily.

#3 You can see in the lower left of the picture below that the cloacal opening is displayed. That's because this snake is about to dump a horrible smelling musk on me along with whatever feces/urea it can muster.  None of these things are dangerous to a grown human who washes their hands but they are unpleasant. So, let's be aware and avoid that, shall we?

A month later I caught this skinny Texas rat snake in a pine forest far from any water. In the picture below it is trying to do the wavy thing but this snake is severely malnourished and probably, really distracted by its search to find food. Life in the wild is tough.

I only handled it for a minute but you will notice that this weak snake is much less defensive.

This Texas rat snake, like the first one, is very dark with very little red or yellow visible on the back.

Don't worry, the skinny snake took off like it was healthy enough. It probably found some bird's eggs or baby squirrels and is nice and fat by now...or it was eaten by almost anything else in the forest. We'll probably never know.

In mid-June I took a few trips to the Mineola Nature Preserve and found loads of fun snakes.

This little ribbon snake (T. sauritus) was catching some sun when I spotted it.

These are quick little snakes that like to hang out near the water. They hunt pretty much anything they can catch but this snake was almost certainly after the soft molted crayfish and tadpoles in the water nearby. These snakes don't strike much and are fairly placid once captured, but be warned, they are fast, so be faster.

I like the beautifully subtle blues and greens. 

This was a very mature, well fed snake.I let it go right where I found it and it ran off into the flooded grass nearby.

I caught quite a few water snakes on these trips. Most people assume all snakes in the water are cottonmouths. In fact, almost all the water snakes in East Texas as harmless, frog eating members of the Genus "Nerodia". Below is a broad banded water snake (N fasciata). These snakes display a wide variety of great earthy reds, yellows and browns ranging from caramel to coffee. Cool snakes.

The belly coloration is often much more impressive since it's the only glossy part of the snake. The dorsal scales are sharply keeled and always look "dusky"

This mottled overlapping coloration makes for a super effective camouflage. You might be able to argue that the scale keeling helps to break up the sunlight but I doubt that's th eonly purpose for this feature.

This snake was calm as it made its get away.

Closely related to the broad banded water snake is the snake below. The Yellow Bellied water snake (N. erythrogaster).

You can't find a more generic, plain Jane snake that this. It's brown. It's a couple feet long. It's a snake. No cool colors, it can't eat a whole pig, it's not on a plane with Sam Jackson. This is probably the snake Lutherans think of when they ready the bible.

It does have a cool yellow belly.

And it is aggressive. This one turned right around a bit me "for reals".

Finally, here's a happy, little baby coachwhip I caught in some leaves last week. This particular snake will look much different when it's grown.

I kind of like the speckled pattern. It looks like weaving, doesn't it?

The huge eyes and sharply contrasted scales make it look amazingly like an anime character. (there is no filter on the picture below)

Here's the little fella in his natural environment. Despite understanding how natural selection drives evolution I still think it's amazing how the hues of his skin so closely match the fallen leaves. I'll keep any eye on this area and maybe in a year or two I'll get a picture of this snake as an adult.

It's worthy noting that coachwhips (and black racers) have a super high metabolic rate that seems to help them act like mammals. Notably once they are picked up they settle down and lay in your hands. Once this guy settled down I put him back in the leaves and tried to film him running off. He just sat their until I actually touched him again. I don't fully understand this behavior but you can judge for yourself.

See, that should have been at least 4 posts.

I'll finish up with a cool video I got the other day of a hog nose snake. I have filmed them several time doing their defensive displays but they always go to the "play dead" phase. I was able to keep this one just interested enough in getting away that you can see him relax, drop the hood and make his run for it. If you've ever played with hognose snakes in the wild you might find this interesting.

my local rattlesnake

One of the first snakes I became fascinated with as a boy was our local large rattlesnake known as "the timber rattler" (C. H. horridus). (There is another rattlesnake species locally but that's a topic for another day) This handsome snake ranges from New England all the way down here to Texas and exhibits some crazy color and pattern variations across its range. The ones in NE Texas tend to have a light tan ground colors, dark chocolate chevrons along the dorsal surface and a nice crisp cinnamon stripe running most of the way down the spine. I have seen them up to 5-1/2 feet long. They tend to be very thick bodied so a snake this size looks absolutely enormous!

Growing up, I heard many "rural legends" about these snakes. Everyone had an uncle who killed one that was 8 feet long or their cousin got chased by one or their dad once had one jump out of a tree onto him. Basically, they all had some third person story about a terrifying experience with a demonic animal and that's why we should kill them all before they get us. I'm not going to type the 5000 words I want to about that, so let's move on.

What fascinated me wasn't the made-up/old wives' tales, it was the real world inaccuracies that presented themselves. This was my first exposure to how scientific knowledge works. Up until my experiences with the timber rattle snake I accepted everything the text books and experts told me as 100% truth. Then I learned that while science is the study of the universe around us, the resulting understanding of that universe is constantly growing and changing. As we learn more, you must be able to accept the new data and develop new understanding. The truth doesn't change, our understanding of the truth changes. I had quite a problem rectifying this with the local religious folks in my area but I won't type 5000 words about that either.

So, for example, I remember talking to a game warden who told me all about how a researcher had studied thousands of timber rattle snakes for many years and found that it took them 5-7 years to reach sexual maturity. I repeated this "fact" for years until I ran into a herpetologist from my area who explained that the researcher had done his studies in upstate New York and that snakes in warmer climates typically reached sexual maturity much quicker (2-3 years). I had been spreading lies! Not really, I had been spreading inaccuracies, sort of like the guy who insists a snake jumped out of a tree on to him. This makes everyone wary of the tree-climbing, person-jumping pit vipers of the Southern US, a story that typically turns out to be something like: The river flooded and to escape the rising waters non-aquatic snakes (sometimes even venomous ones) climbed up into low hanging tree branches. Fishermen running the river for cat fish in the flood waters floated under the trees, hit the branches and, voila, a legend is born!

Next is a much more scientific example of inaccuracies. When I was introduced to the timber rattlesnake I was told our local snake was a subspecies called "the canebrake rattlesnake" (C.H. atricaudatus). This was, in fact, what many text books said (a few still seem to say it) until a decade or so ago when new DNA testing seems to have proven that there is just one species.

Slightly unrelated but --> Here's a link to a super cool power-point that tracks some timber rattle snake populations through DNA testing

In my home state of Texas, the Timber rattle snake is protected but I'm not sure how that matters as anyone who sees a timber rattlesnake kills it, the easiest place to find one is DOR (dead on road) and I've never heard of anyone getting in trouble for it. As near as I can tell, their "protected" status only keeps law abiding citizens from catching and keeping them. (which is definitely a good thing). If you are an experienced hot-herp keeper, live in Texas and want a timber rattlesnake you can always buy one from a dealer in a state where it is legal but do you really want to? How can the game warden tell where the snake came from? He can't so the responsibility falls to you to provide adequate proof that your animal is legal. Seems a hassle in a state full of super cool legal animals.

As far as field herping goes, the timber rattlesnakes seem to be locally abundant, appearing over and over in certain areas while not at all in others. I, honestly don't think I've ever found one in the woods. They are secretive, ambush predators who spend most of their time on the leafy, forest floor waiting for squirrels and other rodents to run by. Their camouflage and reluctance to rattle serves them well. Typically, when I do run across one, it's in the road. Like this one I saw a couple days ago while riding my bicycle.

It occurs to me that I should have included some words of caution at the beginning of this post about NOT touching snakes in the wild but it occurs to me that all you need to know is most snakes in North America are harmless (to humans) and a few can hurt you terribly (even kill you). If you want to know the difference you will seek that knowledge out, other wise you'll just distrust all snakes regardless. I don't want you running into the woods picking up snakes because you think they are harmless. I want you to not freak out and run away just because you saw a snake.

While I'm talking about potentially dangerous snake bites I'll end with one more interesting this about this animal: its venom is sometimes incredibly neurotoxic. I have not been able to find any research explaining why it happens but I have read many articles written by herpers telling the same horrible story: experienced hot herp keeper gets bit, expects a long painful experience but instead suddenly dies. Snake venom is complex and I am certainly not qualified to go into the intricacies but as I understand it, venom is a mixture of complex proteins that attached to and destroy particular cell structures in the bodies of the organism that gets bit. Depending on the mixture the venom attacks blood, tissue (muscle/heart/lungs) and nerves.  Most North American pit vipers have a lot of muscle destroying venom and not a lot of nerve attacking venom (compared to, say, mambas and cobras). Typically what you worry about is death by hemorrhaging in the lungs or brain or infection days later due to all the tissue death. It's unpleasant but the snake's name is "horridus". Does that sound pleasant? It does not.

Wow. I ended on a low note considering I really like this animal.

OK, here's another picture to liven things back up.

Quick edit. Here's a video of this snake as he disappears into the under brush.