Let the wild snake go yo’! It could have all sorts of nasty illness and such. Kenyan Sand Boas are good starter snakes, but require high temperatures, and sand as bedding - which some snake owners don’t really like to keep since it can be messy sometimes.

Otherwise, they’re really charming snakes, and I would without a doubt say yes to getting one. c:

spartadog:

Reptile Love: Looks like I’ll be making some phone calls tonight.

chupicron:

spartadog:

chupicron:

spartadog:

Tomorrow morning, 9 representatives are meeting to discuss a law banning 9 more snakes, including Boa constrictor imperator, Boa constrictor constrictor, Boa constrictor longicauda, and Boa constrictor occidentalis. I have a B. c. imperator and I plan on focusing my breeding project around them in the future.

Some reasons this CANNOT be allowed to pass, so you have no excuse not to call and fight: 

• Boas are one of the top three most popular snakes in the breeding industry, along with ball pythons and corn snakes. They and the supplies necessary to care for them rake in hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars a year.
• Reticulated pythons, also on this list, are also extremely popular.
• This ban claims it is intended to protect against invasive snakes. However, it has been scientifically proven that these tropical snakes cannot survive in the US outside of Florida. Preventing snakes from being transported from Maine to New Hampshire will not fix a problem in Florida. It’s a Floridian problem, not an American problem. 
• It is estimated that a great majority, if not the entirety of the Burmese python population in the Everglades was destroyed by low temperatures over the past two or three years.
• The Burm invasion in the ‘glades was traced back to the destruction of a zoo and breeding facility by Hurricane Andrew, not irresponsible owners releasing their pets.
• There is no scientific evidence pinning Burmese pythons as the main cause for the declination of native Florida species. Burms, gators, and Florida panthers share many prey animals. Gators are far more overpopulated than Burms, and gator and panther sightings went up around the same time.
• The writers of the original bill have openly admitted to fabricating the scientific evidence in it to sway in favor of banning them.

If you want to help, we need as much as we can get, whether your state is represented or not.

Lamar Smith (R-TX)-            202-225-4236       

Sensenbrenner (R-WI)-             202-225-5101     

Coble (R-NC)-             202-225-3065       

Issa (R-CA)-            202-225-3906       

Gohmert (R-TX)-             202-225-3035      

 Chaffetz (R-UT)-             202-225-7751      

 Gowdy (R-SC)-            202-225-6030      

Poe (R-TX)-             202-225-6565       

Goodlatte (R-VA)-             202-225-5431

Though I agree with many points and that the banning is stupid, wait. What? Alligators are overpopulated? No proof that it’s the Burmese that are the cause of wild populations sharply declining explicitly after their introduction? This is just as bad as the “outdoor cats are FINE for the environment! There’s no evidence otherwise!” twats!

Alligators are far from overpopulated, they’re just overcrowded by us moving them to a select few small areas to get them away from us. It’s a big problem, because it’s exactly what put them on the endangered species list before we got them to recover last time! And a lowlands population of foxes in national parks decreasing to what was it? 2.5% of it’s population a decade ago? Yeah, that’s not from natural predation or human hunting. Nor is it from environmental destruction, obviously. The one new factor involved was the pythons.

The bans aren’t gonna do shit other than cause problems. But not as many problems as plugging your ears and repeating “I can’t hear you!” Burmese pythons in the wilds of Florida are a huge problem. The pet industry not being something that should be held accountable for that specific fiasco does not change that or excuse smearing the facts to protect it.

Before you accuse me of “smearing the facts”, ask for my sources. I’ll admit, the alligator overpopulation is just what I’ve been told, not what I’ve read or seen. But the effects of pythons on the environment have been extremely skewed.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/24/us-usa-pythons-everglades-idUSTRE81N24120120224

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/frank-mazzotti/pythons-everglades-study_b_1257911.html

All of this information sprang up on the www.ball-python.net forums. Feel free to check out other threads there for more discussion on the topic.

Mm, fair point. And good links, I apologize for that outburst then. But the alligator part still gets me. The way we’re currently treating the American alligator is a big problem that so many people seem to turn a blind eye to. Our procedures of dealing with them are, step for step, exactly what made them endangered last time. So hearing them called overpopulated set me off.

Honestly I’m kind of embarrassed to have put any stock in a study that apparently had such an… Atrociously bad method of getting head counts. Road sides at the parks, really? Ugh…

No hard feelings. It was all news to me too until just a few days ago. And yeah, like I said, the overpopulating gators was just what I’d heard. I Googled it and couldn’t find anything reliable backing it up, so I edited that part out of my posts on two other websites and am about to do the same here.

Sure. :>

reptiglo:

IMG_8311 by nigel.cole on Flickr.

IMG_2166 (by xanthorn)

Corn Snakes- Norm het amel, lav, motley pr, courting (by Arboreal Boids)

animals-animals-animals:

Timber Rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus) (by Frupus)

animalkingdomlife:

(via Top Animals)

69herbs:

Natural Handcuffs by llnanooll2 on Flickr.

lilmissstrange:

a happy camper on We Heart It. http://weheartit.com/entry/10442590