New Pictures of the Gang

It finally warmed up here in New Jersey this weekend - upper 80's! Time to break out the shorts and show off those blinding white legs...I took full advantage of the great weather and took some outdoor pics of some of the gang. The picture above is of Whitesnake the sire, a.k.a. "The Stud", of the April 23rd litter. He was the first Sharp Snow and is now 2 years old. I took pictures in the shade as well as in the direct sun to help compare. I really like how the Sharp version of a snow seems to keep its pattern as it develops. The lavender that was once in his tail is now a bright bone white and really looks good (of course I am a little biased...).

Speaking of lavender, I took new pictures of my other Sharp Snow, Snow White, in the sun with Whitesnake to compare how her tail looks against his. She still has some lavender in her tail, and she is almost two years old now. Her mother, Cartagena, is the one who just had a litter so it will be interesting to see how these latest snows develop. There are a few standout snows in this latest litter that have a ton of lavender in their tails even before the shed...I can't wait for them to shed, that's for sure!

During my outside photo shoot I also took some new pictures of Camo, Pinky, and some of my holdbacks from last years' Colombia litter. I haven't come up with names for the new additions yet, but I will soon. The new holdback pics were of ANE1 (an anery), ANE3 (anery), ALB6 (albino), and ALB8 (albino). I'm sure I will be commenting on each of them in future blogs :)!

I hope you all enjoy the latest updated pics of the gang. I always enjoy seeing pictures of people's boa collection, especially as a boa ages. I think it is a good thing to see how an animal develops as it matures, and it is important to let existing and potential customers know what they might be seeing as time goes by with their animal that they purchase. Some breeders do an excellent job of taking pictures as an animal gets older, others seem to never take new pictures of an animal after it is born....OK, I'm getting down off my little soap box now......

More Sharp Snows Born Today & HR669 Defeated!

Wow, what a day! HR669 was defeated today at the Insular Affairs Subcommittee hearing - WOOHOO! A huge thank you to everyone who took the time to write those letters, and call/email those Representatives!! A big thanks also to USARK for getting the word out and keeping people motivated. Tom Wolfe also did an excellent job getting those letters to the right people in D.C. and helping get this defeated. It's only a matter of time though, before this will be presented again in some form or another...Hopefully we will continue to be able to keep reptiles as pets!

As for my great news - Cartagena had her litter this morning at about 6:30am. Whitesnake did a great job - the little stud! There was 1 Double Het Sharp Snow, 1 Anery Het Sharp Albino, 4 Sharp Albinos Het Anery, and 8 Sharp Snows! There was also 7 sweet potatoes and 1 not-fully-formed baby. Holy cow what terrific odds! She was nice and calm when I took her out of the cage this morning. I was able to get her out about 15 minutes after she was done with her contractions/delivery. She went to one end of the cage away from the babies, so it made it a little easier. She looks great and took a rat with no problems which is always good. She went 111 days POS and had been cruisin' around her cage for the past couple days so I knew she was close. With her going full term, none of the babies have yolk sacs and they all seem to be in great shape. I had put a tub in the cage, but of course she decided not to use it (which is why there is a dry spot on the corrugated cardboard in the picture of her). Below is a "pile of snow" and additional pictures of the litter can be seen here.

HR669

So, what is HR669? It is a bill currently before the House of Representatives entitled the "Nonnative Wildlife Invasion Prevention Act". The bill states "The purpose of this Act is to establish a risk assessment process to prevent the introduction into, and establishment in, the United States of nonnative wildlife species that will cause or are likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to other animal species’ health or human health."

In a nutshell, this bill as currently written would make it illegal for anybody in the U.S. to HAVE, BREED, SELL, PURCHASE, import or export animals not on the "approved" list (which currently only has cats, dogs, cattle, donkeys, ducks, goats, goldfish, horses, llamas, mules, pigs, rabbits, and sheep). Since the "approved" list doesn't include ANY reptiles, exotic fish, birds, hamsters, gerbils, pocket pets, you name it - so much for having those types of pets. The bill would also make it illegal to transport any of the unapproved animals between any State.

If you haven't already, you need to join the letter writing campaign to the Representatives behind this bill to let them know that you oppose this! This letter writing campaign was started by USARK (United States Association of Reptile Keepers), and more information (sample letter if you don't want to write your own letter, list of Representative addresses, etc) can be found on their website at http://usark.org/hr669intro.php. I already have sent my letters, as well as my wife and a few of my friends - please do your part ASAP! The deadline to get the letters to Tom Wolfe is April 21st. It only takes 20 minutes of your time, and it is definitely needed. Spread the word and get all of your family members and friends to sign letters as well. After you have sent the letters, try calling and emailing the Representatives, especially if any of the bill sponsors are from your state. Spam filters are filtering a lot of emails to the Representatives, and they can easily delete the message without really reading it. For this reason it is important to make sure to send a "real letter" to make sure the Representatives really get the message.

Ralph Davis (a MAJOR breeder of Ball Pythons) has uploaded some videos of the process of sending in the letters - the first one can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UVAOuJz9aY&feature=related.

Thank you for helping keep our rights to keep our reptiles and all exotic animals!