I got into snakes in 1993, when my ex and I found an injured snake in the road. (More accurately, he found it in the road; I wasn’t about to get near the thing!) We put it in a plastic bucket and took it home.
A year or two later, we had 21 snakes, ten or twelve chameleons, and breeding colonies of various chow creatures: mice, tomato hornworms, and giant tropical cockroaches. (Anything worth doing is worth overdoing…) When we split up, I ceded most of the collection to Rob, taking only Isis and Vulcan, of whom I had grown quite fond.
For more information on keeping snakes, see Simon’s Snake Site, a great introductory site for beginners. Snakes are graceful, gentle, beautiful animals, and very low-maintenance pets.
I no longer keep snakes, but this page is dedicated to Isis, Vulcan, Astarte, and Hestia, whom I kept for many years.
Isis, my pride and joy. She's a Brazilian rainbow boa, Epicrates cenchria cenchria--a tropical rainforest boa. She's not only gorgeous, but tame, friendly, and inquisitive--everyone's favorite critter. Even people who don't like snakes generally love Isis.
Vulcan, Isis's mate, showing off his rainbow iridescence. All pythons and boas have some iridescence, but rainbow boas are particularly bright. (The iridescence results from a natural diffraction grating in the skin--it splits up the light beams into a rainbow, just as in peacock feathers (which are really colorless). Physics in nature!)
Sadly, Vulcan passed on in July 2003--I still miss him.
Astarte, their daughter, at 1 year. Babies are born with very little coloration (much like human babies) and take up to four years to reach their adult color.
Hestia, my Dumeril's boa. Dumeril's boas are a ground-dwelling Madagascan boa, one of only three snake species on the island. They have beautiful patterns that resemble a forest floor...but they are desert dwellers in nature.
I bought Hestia at a gem show about a year ago. Well, actually there was a gem show next door, where I was planning to buy beads...
I sold Hestia in mid-2004, as she was outgrowing her cage and I didn't have space for her anymore.
Isis pregnant with her second litter. Unlike pythons, boas are ovoviviparous--they don't lay their eggs, but carry them about inside them, eventually giving birth to live young. But 15+ babies means there's no room for food--so Isis won't eat at all for the four months of pregnancy. Fortunately, this won't hurt her at all--she can go 1-2 years without eating as long as she starts in good condition. Neat, huh?
Newborn baby
Another newborn.
Astarte at 1 year. Notice how bright she is compared to the newborns!
Ultrasound of a baby boa. See the coiled-up spine?
Very newborn baby boas. The yellow thing in the foreground is an unfertilized egg...
