Viewing 1 - 8 out of 8 Blogs.

June 10, 2008:

I got some used Reptile displays from my local petstore as they were getting new ones.

I'm using these mostly to keep my African house snakes in, as well as our baby Dumerils boas.  But the best thing was, as a bonus, a baby amel corn apparently was left in the cages!  The little squirt has a spinal kink and one eye larger than the other, but he's sweet and eats like a champ.

August 2, 2008:

My girlfriend and I attended the Repticon in Pensacola.  It was an okay show, about what I expected for it being the first in that area.  I'm sure it will grow in the future.  Anyway, we picked up a cue little western hognose from Guardian Reptiles (Thanks and kudos to Jenea Wood!)

 

August 8, 2008:

Despite my need to conserve money, I could not help myself and got this gorgeous black rat snake for a great price.  He doesn't have a speck of brown on him, and he's pretty tame to boot!

Current:

T-shirt sales are rising.  Once again, check out my ad in the classifieds.  I'm taking requests all the time!  

 

...for future blogs...

 - my company van is almost completed! Pics to come soon.

 - still can't wait for the Daytona show in a couple weeks!!!

Tags: African House Snake Black Rat Corn Amel Cage Racks

I've just got incorporated as a business: Art REX Designs, Inc. I can do many things, but to kick things off, I've decided to sell custom shirts display my artwork. I initially wanted to target the herp community as a whole, but wanted something original. I mean, how many different types of ball python shirts are there already, right? So...my first series involves one of my own passions that I draw best as well as something herp-related thrown in there. Its Dinosaurs that colored like modern herps. The first two are: "Mandarin" raptor (after the Mandarin ratsnake) Green Iguanodon (no brainer...lol) http://www.cafepress.com/artRexdesigns ...more designs soon to come! I also will take requests if anyone is interested. My home page is: www.artREXdesigns.com

Tags: Art Herp Shirts Awesome

EDIT:

Check out my new website: www.ShiningSnakes.com

Tags: African House Snake Species Taxonomy

For everyone that doesn't know me (which is a pretty darn big group of people), my name is Michael and I am a 3-D digital artist by trade.  I graduated last year with a B.S. in Character Animation with a minor in graphic design.  My forte is 3-D modelling and character development, but I also enjoy traditional and digital illustration work.

So I am making myself known to the herper community as an artist for hire.  I have designed logos for two snake breeders thus far, as well as T-shirt designs and ad illustrations.  I can also do some wicked tattoo designs as well.  So if you think you may be in need of my services, let me know!

You can view some of my work in my gallery, as well as the gallery in the Herp Artists group: http://reptilegeeks.com/groups/view/id_72/   - You can also check out my online portfolio to see even more: http://www.ArtRexDesigns.com

In addition to my own freelance business, I currently work at the Intelligent Design Studio in Mobile, AL: http://intelligentdesignstudio.com/  - We do some really cool stuff there; no one else in the country does what we do.

Sooo.....yeah, check out my stuff.  I know there's a lot of up-n-coming breeders out there who are wanting to turn their hobby into a business.  And getting a really cool, original logo design that sets you apart from the rest is just one of the steps. 

Tags: Art Herp Reptile Logo Tattoo Design Freelance Graphic

This April was the third annual HerpFamily.com Field Herping Trip to Snake Road in southern Illinois.  From what I'm told, this is one of the Top 5 places in the U.S. for prime field

herping.  This year, we had about 16 members from the site altogether, staying at separate sites.  The "ninjas" stayed at Devil's Backbone while the "pirates" stayed at Giant City. 

This was the first camping experience I've had in 8+ years as well as my first official field herping trip.  The following is our chronology of the trip.

Friday 4-18-2008 (times are approximate)

12:30pm:  Arrival at Giant City.  We managed to get most of our tents up right before it started to rain.  And boy, did it rain!

2:00pm: The rain let up for a little while, so we explored a small creek near our site and turned up this little slimy salamander and a cool rock that looked like a skull.  There was also a small cricket frog, but it started to rain, so my camera stayed in its bag.

4:00pm: We returned to camp, and one of the pirates discovered several leaks in their tent along with a soaked sleeping bag.  So a trip to the nearest Walmart followed.  Here we first met up with the ninjas.  Good times.  Several of us also invested in rain jackets.

6:30pm: Arrived back at camp with our Walmart booty.  We ate some red meat, and one by one, we all made our way to our tents for a good night's sleep for the next day.

Saturday 4-19-2008

7:00am: I woke up with a nasty crick in my neck.  A fellow pirate woke up at the same time and he proceeded to wake up everyone else.  A small breakfast of generic-brand poptarts and an apple followed.

8:15am: We all pile into vehicles and head to Snake Road about 30+ miles away.

8:45am: We arrive at the Winter Park entrance of Snake Road.  Shortly after exploring a bluff, we turned up 3 ringneck snakes.

9:20am - 12:00pm: During this entire time period, we traveled the entire length of Snake Road, and found several salamanders (redbacks & caves), a frog of the ranid variety, a large puddle full of tadpoles, and a red-eft.

12:00pm:  After receiving a tip from the ninjas earlier that day, we had reached the south end of the road, and turned left to investigate a site rumored to be full of cottonmouths and copperheads.  Along the way, we discovered a few more redback sallies.

12:30pm: We had reached the lakesite right next to a steep bluff, and after several minutes of flipping rocks, I came across a juvenile cottonmouth.  He was a very well-behaved little guy, and put up with our meddling to get better shots of him for a period of 30+ minutes.  The first shot is him in situ.

1:15pm: Myself and 3 other pirates were tired and hungry and decided to walk back down Snake Road to our cars.  At some point along the way, we came across a boy and his family who found a yellow-bellied water snake.

3:15pm: We arrive back at our cars only to realize that none of us had the keys to access our vehicles.  So we had to wait for our fellow pirates to arrive.

4:00pm: The rest of the pirates arrive and we cook-out and eat more red meat and Oreo-balls.  The ninjas came to visit and more fellowship followed.

5:00pm: A small group of ninjas and pirates set off to explore some bluffs nearby, but the pirates were the ones who found this western ribbon snake.  The two shots are him in situ.

6:30pm:  After all the food was gone, the pirates headed back to their camp, but decided to watch the sunset atop the bluffs first.

9:00pm: All the pirates arrived back at their campsite and made a fire.  Hotdogs & smores were enjoyed and stories were swapped.  Good times.  Shortly after, all of us wandered to bed.

Sunday 4-20-2008

7:00am: We all woke up and started packing up our gear.

8:20am: Because we're infinitely more awesome and faster than our fellow pirates, my wench and I headed back to Snake Road an hour before everyone else.

8:50am: The wench and I arrive at the same place we did yesterday.  While waiting for everyone else, we explored the same bluffs and I found a ringneck under one of the same rocks we found one the previous morning.  Possibly the same snake.

10:00am: The rest of the pirates arrive along with a few ninjas and we all took group shots in front of the bluffs.  More good times and some good-byes were said as some folks had to leave early.

10:20am: We decide to drive to the other end of Snake Road to check out the location where we found the cottonmouth the day before.

11:00am:  After several detours (mostly because of faulty directions from ninjas), we arrive at the south end of the road.

11:20am:  We explored another bluff and found more sallies, this time two long-tails and more redbacks.

12:00pm: We reach the lakeside and proceed to explore a hidden bluff that was very hard to get to.  However, our only reward was this little red-bellied snake who was quite squirmy.

12:25pm: We start to head back, but along the way, we found a ranid (either a leopard or a pickeral).  And my wench spotted a small toad (either a southern or American).

1:00pm: We arrive back at our cars, and the remainder of we pirates said our good-byes and headed home.
-------------------------------------------------------

This was a great trip.  However, we did arrive a little late in the migration season, and the weather was cooler than we hoped.  So we didn't see as many snakes as we hoped.  But it was still great fun and I enjoyed meeting some of the members of our site and putting faces to screenames and avatars.  I can't wait until next year!

Tags: Field Herping Snake Road Illinois Camping Pirates

The name's Michael and I have recently embarked on a new chapter in my reptile-keeping journey.  I have always heard great things about African house snakes.  So this past February (of 2008), I purchased my first pair of dotted house snakes (L. maculatus).  These little snakes are awesome!  In my humble opinion, it's almost as if someone took the head shape, pattern and raw muscle power of a Children's python, gave it the body and personality of a cornsnake, and the feeding tenacity of a kingsnake.  And although I have yet to experience this myself (my animals are still too young), these snakes breed like rabbits!

So after a month or so of keeping my first pair, the itch was getting bigger and I picked up a baby Cape house snake at a show in March and also acquired 3 more females of the "dots".  So right now, I have a group of 1.4 dots that I plan to start breeding sometime next year.

In accordance of what this site is all about, I welcome anyone to view my animals and their progress here at iHerp.com: http://www.iherp.com/ophiuchus

My house snake experience has been an exciting one so far.  Visit my gallery to see some of the snakes in this project.

Tags: African House Snake Breeding Project Awesome

Okay...I finally went to my first real reptile show in over 12 years. This is the Dixie Reptile Show they have every month in Birmingham, Alabama. For most of the time, I helped in the booth of a guy I know (he pays me in snakes) but it was still fun. Only like 17-18 vendors with an average of 2-3 tables each, so its not a huge show.

Our original intent was to trade my GF's anorexic sand boa for a Dumerils boa of her own (because she likes mine so much). Meanwhile, I wasn't really looking forward to getting anything, but I did have my eye out for some more house snakes. I also budgeted myself a $100 limit, but really only planned on spending 50-60.

That didn't last long at all.

Most of the house snakes that were there were WC imports and looked horrible, but I did find this one baby cape house for $25 and I couldn't resist.

And then I saw some Chinese beauty snakes. So for $65, I got a fiesty little baby beauty that hopefully will learn me a little on dealing with a fast active snake (cobra training). Throw in a UTH and a small snake hook for dealing with the little squirt, and I'm like $12 over the limit. Ugh. Oh well, time to drill some holes in a rubbermaid container...

Tags: Reptile Herp Show Alabama

Snake Experience: ball pythons, red-tailed boa, Calabar burrowing python, Pacific dwarf tree boa, Kenyan sand boa, Eastern hognose snake, giant Malagasy hognose snakes, P. obsoleta ratsnakes, cornsnakes, African house snakes, L. getula kingsnakes

Lizard Experience: green iguanas, Malagasy spiny iguana, legless lizards, blue-tongued skinks, Columbian tegu, savannah monitor, plated lizards, frilled dragon, various geckos (leopard, golden, green-eyed, crested, crocodile, giant day)

Turtle Experience: Eastern box turtles, red-eared sliders, African side-necked turtle, ornate wood turtle

I've been reptiles since I got my first lizard (a green iguana) in 1991.  I got my first snake (a ball python) in February of 1993, and I still have that snake to this day.

I started working at my local pet store (http://www.bbpetstop.com/) in December of 1998, and continued to work there for nearly 4 years, eventually becoming the Second-in-Command of the Sm Animals/Reptiles dept.  I continued working there off and on for 4 yrs afterwards as well.

In the meantime, I also worked parttime at a PetSmart store for three years.

Its been a fun journey so far, and I hope the fun continues!

Tags: Hobby Snakes Lizards Reptiles Biography