#snakeblr
Super bendy and adjustable King Snake bracelet available here
Hand-sculpted polymer clay rainbow Boelens python bracelet. He’s made from Cosclay and super bendy. He’s got a wire inside so he can be adjusted to custom fit better.
Bug eyed but beautiful
Picked up Calliope yesterday, 0.1 bumblebee ball python. She’s a rescue and has some issues but she is absoloutly gorgeous to me
Kratos the cinnabee ball python and his adorable snoot
Juniper has a smol moustache!!!
snake checklist:
- 20gal long tank
- fitted screen top with clasps
- zoomed uth
- digital probe
- aspen bedding - like a lot of aspen bedding i’m so used to aquarium sand that i’m following my aquascape rules of ‘you’ll need twice as much as you think you do’
- 2 hides - a funky little root formation and a half dome wooden thingy, one of each side of the tank
- some fun silk vines and plants and sticks
- water bowl
- a light because i have blackout curtains that stay closed all the time since they’re STILL doing construction on the balcony outside my room and heck if i’m going to let them see into my room an see all my cool tanks
- two vet clinics in the area, one that specializes in exotic pets and a general vet that also does reptiles
things I still need to get:
- a thermostat because silly me who’s never used a probe before thought that they somehow also controlled the temperature! i know the spider robotics herpstat is highly recommended but since it’s the end of the month an the bills are being paid i can’t afford that YET so the basic jump start will have to do for now
- fireproof mat since the tank is sitting on the floor, and even with the little bubbles that come with the heat mat to suspend the tank up a little, i dont trust like that and i’d rather be safer than sorry when the lease ends
If you were waiting for these, my LE white-lipped python stickers are available now! ♡
starrypaige.com
Paradise flying snake [ Chrysopelea paradisi ] with Sampaguita and male Danaid eggflies ✿
May is Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month ♡ I want to take this month to celebrate my Filipino heritage, as well as share some of the beautiful snakes and flowers found in the Philippines.
Paradise flying snakes can be found throughout Southeast Asia, from Bangladesh all the way to the islands of the Philippines. They are able to use their ribs to flatten their bodies a surprising amount, to then glide from tree to tree in the moist forests they call home. These snakes are mildly venomous, and feed on lizards and bats in the wild.
Sampaguita (Arabian Jasmine) is the national flower of the Philippines; it is beloved for its scent, and symbolizes purity, fidelity, and hope.
I’m looking forward to sharing with all of you more of the amazing snakes that call the Philippines home ♡ Keep your eyes peeled for the release of something special from @thewashistation and several AAPI artists, including myself ~ ❤️
Half of the noodle bebs Fern, Ginkgo, Maple.
Happy earth day ✨️
May’s Patreon-exclusive sticker & print design ☻️ Lavender conda hognose with lily of the valley~
Joinbefore May 1st to receive this cutie in your mailbox!! ✨️ Open internationally ✨️
Patreon.com/starrypaige
Help I can’t stop making shiny stickers fjdbfbjdjs
starrypaige.com
Made some new business cards 2day~
starrypaige.com
Ginkgo, my chinese beauty rat snake
Juniper, my malagasy cat-eyed snake
Newer stickers that I’ve made, including some LE patreon-exclusive leftovers!! Lots of shiny holographic goodness~ All of my stickers are made of thick-durable vinyl and are UV-protected and weatherproof for up to 4 years.
Find all of these and much more at starrypaige.com~
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Snekmas & Geckmas merch has returned to my shop!
Sweatshirts, hoodies and long-sleeved tees in unisex sizes Place your order before Nov 1st for guaranteed holiday delivery!!
starrypaige.etsy.com
When your childhood obsession foreshadows your adult obsession.
Nothing major, I don’t think, but we’re going to the vet today (several hours away but that’s the closest one in rural hell) to get him checked out and do a fecal float. The nature of his illness pertains to the contents of his stool, but trust me friends, you do not want details.
I’ll post an update when I get home.
i thought of one more benefit to bins over glass enclosures and even custom-built ones- but it mostly applies to larger snakes:
when your lovable linguine destroys her whole entire house during bathroom day, a bin’s light enough for you to haul the goddamn thing out in the yard to spray out with a hose (or at least into the bathroom to spray out in the shower!)
it is the small luxuries that i appreciate most…
The Newdle’s got mites!
(You should expect this as a given with any new snake. Better safe than not.)
What do you do about mites? You get down to business. (TL;DR at the end.)
1) Quarantine, Quarantine, Quarantine!
Mites are the devil and can spread diseases from snake to snake in the same way that mosquitoes spread malaria. Whenever you bring a Newdle into the home, keep that man the hell away from all your other little buddies. A month will work for mites alone, but I’m a proponent of long-term quarantine of 6 months or greater if you can manage it, mostly for a little disease calledInclusion Body Disease, an invariably fatal, contagious monster of an illness which both Pythons and Boas are susceptible to. Don’t risk it!2) Isolation and Cleaning of the Snake Itself
Regardless of whether you were quarantining or not, you’re gonna want to get the affected away from the rest of your animals right away – and furthermore, assume that the entire rest of your collection is affected and proceed accordingly.Take the infected animal(s) and give them a soak. They’re probably already soaking, because snakes sit in water to try and kill off their parasitic little friends – but nonetheless put then into a ventilated bin and give them a soak. (Then when they foul the water, clean the whole entire thing and put them BACK in for the REAL soak.) Add a little betadine to the water after they’ve fouled the water, been put into new water, and had their fill of THAT water to help soothe all the bites. This won’t kill the mites, this is purely for the poor snake’s comfort because mite bites are like mosquito bites and clearly make the animal uncomfortable.
After they’ve had their soak, I recommend wiping them down with a product called Reptile Relief. It’s snake-safe and it can help kill off anything you miss. It’s about the only thing you can apply directly to an animal – don’t even think of trying it with the other thing I’m about to mention.
3) Cleaning the Enclosure (and Everything Else)
While your snake is safely tucked away somewhere surrounded by paper towels covered in Reptile Relief to deter anything getting out of the bin (NE Herp does this to keep mites out of their fly colonies,) it’s time for the nuclear option on the enclosure itself.If there are other animals in this room, including feeder insects, get them out before you do this. Wear gloves, open the windows, and turn on the fan, because we’re dealing with some serious stuff now, and it can be fatal to small animals and make you sick your damn self.
Deep clean the enclosure in your usual method, making note that when you’re done you’re gonna be washing whatever you’re wearing on hot. Throw out anything porous – sorry, but you’re not saving it now. Anything in there that’s got little cracks/crevices or isn’t made of hard plastic, glass, or metal is a lost cause.
This is the nuclear option, but it’s time to go nuclear. Mites are no joke.
Once everything’s cleaned, either take it outside or put it somewhere with great ventilation. Protect yourself, too – gloves, a mask if you got one, it’s not gonna kill you outright but you don’t want it on you.
Then spray every item except the water bowl down on all sides (though you don’t need much!) with a product called Provent-a-Mite.
PAM is a miticide, it’s an insecticide for mites, and if you don’t like chemicals you’re just gonna have to move past that today. It’s long-lasting, and it will kill both the mites that exist, and the ones that are going to hatch out for the next few weeks. One can will last you for ages if used as directed, so it’s always good to keep it on hand… just in case.
While the enclosures are airing out, turn to the room itself. Spray the doors, the perimeter around each enclosure, and things like snake hooks and bedding or other soft materials where snakes might have been and deposited mites in the process. Don’t spray anything used in feeding like hemostats, tongs, or (god help you) a pinkie pump, or anything meant to hold your snake’s water, as you don’t want them ingesting this shit.
(If you already know what a Pinkie Pump is and what it’s for, you probably already know everything in this guide.)
Once that’s done, leave everything to air out for at least six hours, but go to twelve if you can. You do not want fumes hanging around.
4) Aftercare
You are going to need to be stringent in cleaning everything from here on out. To quote Mad-Eye Moody here for a second, CONSTANT VIGILANCE. Check everything. Toss sheds right away. Change clothes – yes, really – between handling the infested and the rest of your collection. We’re back in quarantine mode, folks, function over form, sterilization over decoration. Paper towels, two hides, water bowl, heat source. To add more gives the mites a place to potentially hide. Your snake will be fine in this setup until you can clear the room and the rest of your house as a mite-free zone.Continue to clean as you regularly do. Fresh water every day, replace paper towels as needed, always check for mites. I recommend spraying more Reptile Relief once a week, but if using PAM you probably don’t have to do that. Do a complete teardown once a month and reapply PAM to at least the enclosure and fixtures, making sure to use the proper precautions when doing so.
Yes, it’s a lot of work. It’s a pain in the ass. But it’s better than the alternative, and it’s what our animals deserve.
Keep to the routine for at least three months after you stop seeing mites. Do not take for granted that they are gone until you can be POSITIVE that they are gone, because it only takes one missed mite to start this whole ordeal over again.
5) Prevention is Worth an Ounce of Cure
Mites are scary, and the worst. What can you do to prevent them?Quarantining new arrivals is the biggest kindness you can give to your pets, folks. I cannot stress this enough. Even if the animal you get in is sick or mitey or otherwise ill, at least by quarantining them, you prevent the rest of your animals from winding up as sick as the poor new guy. Quarantine is the single best defense between one sick animal and nothing BUT sick animals. It’s worth the hassle.
Freezing substrates can also help, though, as can making sure you buy bedding from places that don’t generally carry animals. Mites are like ticks, and they can survive for a quite a while without food. Getting something where there aren’t any other animals simply decreases the risk of encountering mites in an already-healthy collection. Prophylactically spraying down bedding and new enclosures with PAM before you even set them up can be a great help to get a head-start on killing off any mites that might be coming into your house on an animal in the mail, too, and it really doesn’t take much to get the job done, so it’s a worthwhile endeavor in my opinion.
Feeding frozen-thawed can help, too – but that’s not an option for everyone (lizard feeders, you have my sympathy.) For those who can do it (and that’s the majority of people who keep herps,) do it! It’s safer for everyone involved.
One more thing you can do, though don’t do it if you’re using PAM, is buy a bag of Hypoasis miles – mites that eat mites. I’d only do this for people with sensitive animals like amphibians who can’t handle chemicals nearly as well – especially since Hypoasis need high humidity environments to survive.. They’ll eat anything that lives on the surface of the soil and above, and they’re a self-limiting population that will feed on themselves if they run out of food. 1000% recommended if you have a problem in a planted vivarium or another setup that’s difficult to just tear down and put back together. (That said, they’re a little pricey!)
Afterword and TL;DR
At the end of the day, most keepers are probably going to run into mites at some point in their life. Whether you keep noodles, lizards, or something else entirely (’sup, backyard chicken community!), mites are the great equalizer, and even the best-kept animals still run the risk of mites or ticks. So it’s better to be prepared and aware of what to do ahead of time, rather than to frantically google it and wait days for fancy reptile products to get shipped to your home.Don’t be the me of the past, and I hope no one ever needs this guide.
TL;DR
- QUARANTINE so you don’t have this issue
- ISOLATE if you have this issue anyway
- CLEAN everything, snake, enclosure, the works
- TREATthe snake, the bedding, the enclosure, the room
- VENTILATE this step is important I’m serious
- MONITOR the animal going forward
- MAINTAIN the treatments for at least 3mo after the last seen mite
- CONSTANT VIGILANCE
This has been my PSA on mites and what to do about them.
That face! My child! Lucy’s getting so big! A precious daughter! A sweet loop! A baby!
Bonus under the cut!
God she’s even funnier out of focus.
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This is the Newdle (working title) and he likes to wedge himself into containers. He’s a Dominican Red Mountain Boa, and I’ll do a writeup of what that means…eventually. He’s got a huge personality and I love him with my whole heart. friend!!!!
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i love taking matilda out. she’s very much a shoulder snake and i always feel like i’ve had a massage by the time she’s back in her home.
