2010 Male ghost

[bigsnakegirl785]

So I'm a bit hesitant to post this right now, but I have fingers crossed everything will work out. Basically, I just bought a 2010 male ghost boa to use in a project with 2008 jungle female I should be getting later this year. This is the first time I've bought from an individual without a BOI or reputation history, so I'm a bit nervous, but he wasn't priced very high and I used the buyer's protection through PayPal. I see no reason it won't work out but until he's here, I'm going to understandably be a little nervous. lol

Now, the situation with the jungle female is basically I'd have to choose between paying on her or going to the Atlanta show, so I contacted the breeder to let them know I was interested in buying her and that I would pay as much of her asking price when I got back (assuming she's still available) and pay off the rest after that. I decided not to put a down payment on her to ensure I can buy her, as I would need that money to be able to make it to the trip. Just a down payment is one thing, but making payments would suck too much money and I'd have to forgo the reptile show. I'd rather go to the reptile show. I do have a couple other adult females in mind if she has been claimed. Whatever female I get, I plan on picking her up rather than having her shipped, since I've been advised shipping is hard on adult females and the breeder only lives a few hours away. He says he plans on coming out this way to hike in Nov or Dec anyways so he'll be able to bring her with him. With any luck, I'll be able to pair this guy and the female sometime in 2017! They'll all be jungles, hypo jungles, hypos, and normals, but all het for anery so I can keep some holdbacks.

His owner says he's 4'-4.5' eating small rats, so for now I'll be getting a tub the same size as Tirel's, and upgrade him to a 4'x2' later. The jungle female I'm aiming for is 7', though, so she will definitely need to take River's 4'x2' so I'll have to have River moved into her 6'x2' before she arrives.

This is him, and when he arrives I'll be able to post my own photos! This photo belongs to his owner, Leslie Barron. Right now it's too warm to ship but hopefully it will only be a few weeks or he can be shipped after the Atlanta Repticon.

http://66.media.tumblr.com/288114861144b1f2ae6f158fea6b84c7/tumblr_od7fhuHNT31sjttato1_500.jpg

[Minkness]

Oooh! Very pretty! Congrats on getting the ball rolling on some awesome boas! Hope that seller turns out great for you!

[bigsnakegirl785]

Thanks, I'm really excited! The female I'm looking at makes some really awesome babies. Not very aberrant, but her first litter had very clean, bright babies. Hoping this guy throws some nice hypos, too.

[Albert Clark]

Sweet pickup bsg! He looks really good. That ghost gene just seems to give a calming appearance to a animal.

[Tsubaki]

Nice! I can see why you like him so much :D curious to see the pairing later!

[bigsnakegirl785]

Thanks everyone, I'll make a thread for the female once I put some money down on her, if she's sold there's a couple of others I may consider. The jungle female I'm looking at is a clean solid girl, she throws colorful and clean babies. Not much abberancy, but I like the clean look her and her babies have better.

As long as I have my money intact, I plan on putting a lump sum of however much I can down on her after the first day or on the second day of the show.

With the male, for now it's a waiting game. I'll have his tub set up soon, ready to go for when he gets here. I'll also need to pick up more rats with these two coming, if they're cheap enough at the show I'll get them there.

[bigsnakegirl785]

So just to make sure this thread doesn't close, it's getting close to shipping time. It looks like the area his seller is in is starting to get into the 80's during the day, and my nighttime temps are already in the 40's...I'm hoping I'll be able to get them to ship him next week, the following week if temps are still good. His heat tape and thermostat is in, I just need to clean out the tub and set it up.

[bigsnakegirl785]

Looks like he'll be arriving this Thursday if the weather holds out! Otherwise we're planning on next Tuesday.

[Tsubaki]

Fingers crossed :D

[bigsnakegirl785]

It's official! He's been picked up by Fedex and should be here tomorrow. ^.^

Also, here's a teaser for the jungle female, I'll be sending in the majority of her asking price tomorrow. She should be here Nov or Dec (the breeder is going to drop her off on his way to hike the mountains, or I'll go out and grab her). I'll make her profile thread closer to when she's due to arrive. Photo belongs to William "Gray" Rushin.

http://allboas.com/pictures/id504.1329.0.jpg

[Tsubaki]

She is gorgeous!! What a beauty :D

[bigsnakegirl785]

Idk why but everything is being a royal pain today where uploading photos is concerned. Everywhere I tried uploading either took forever to upload or never uploaded the photos. Except Photobucket, which is ironic considering it's been the only website to give me troubles all year.

He's got a bit of nose rub, and looks a bit dry around the face, but overall appears to be in good health! His face has already improved a bit in the ~7 hours he's been here, so I think it was just from the ride here. The nose rub maybe not, in my experience with River it can be hard to tell how old a rub is, but his eyes look better at least. I'll see how he does over the next few weeks, and offer him a small rat in about a week.

He is quite pale and clean, though, which I love. His eyes are also different than I was expecting. Tirel's are silver and very bright-colored, his are more of a dark steel gray.

These photos were from when I unboxed him, he came out docile but extremely curious about everything. He took several long gulps from his water dish and explored before I left for work. When I came home, he was under one of his paper towels.

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/Other%20Photos/IMG_2155_zps887jsstr.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/Other%20Photos/IMG_2155_zps887jsstr.jpg.html)

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/Other%20Photos/IMG_2159_zpsgrfy47fc.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/Other%20Photos/IMG_2159_zpsgrfy47fc.jpg.html)

I checked on him long enough to make sure he was still breathing and take a few clearer photos.

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/Other%20Photos/IMG_2162_zpsqjbjym6p.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/Other%20Photos/IMG_2162_zpsqjbjym6p.jpg.html)

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/Other%20Photos/IMG_2160_zpsvfbns3kz.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/Other%20Photos/IMG_2160_zpsvfbns3kz.jpg.html)

[Albert Clark]

Man he really looks magnificient! I know you are proud of him. Haha.

[Tsubaki]

He sure looks amazing!! Congrats!! :D

[bigsnakegirl785]

Thanks! I knew he was pale but didn't realize just how white parts of him were going to be. I can't wait to see his offspring. ^.^

[richardhind]

great looking ghost there, his grey's are superb especially on his tail. he should produce some nice babies ,that's for sure

congrats
and that female jungle your getting looks fantastic great chestnut browns on her

[macandchz]

he is so pretty! the babies will be gorgeous.

[bigsnakegirl785]

Thanks everyone!

After looking at some pics online, I'm beginning to wonder if he's a jungle ghost....he's just so bright, so clean, and his saddles have those circles in them that I don't really see in regular ghosts. His saddles also have a slight purply hue (which was much more pronounced as a baby), and although his side and back don't have the most extreme differences, they are bit contrasted. Hard to tell if his head spear is broken with the rub, but that doesn't always seem to appear on jungles.

Only way to find out is breeding him to Dominika, and I just sell any super jungles as pet only. I have been told super jungles breed just if slow grown like a BC(C) and not bred until they're over 5 years old, and they're otherwise healthy. He's clearly slow grown. haha If I have problems getting her to take I'll just push him off to the side and use him with the other girls, and then maybe Crona will be ready to go or I can find another male temporarily.

Him as a baby (here you can see a broken head spear with clear outline).

http://arachnoboards.com/gallery/ghost-boa.13592/full

[bigsnakegirl785]

I'll have to ask the person I bought him from if she knows who the breeder was.

[bigsnakegirl785]

He successfully ate a small rat 3 days ago. A day late because I fell asleep pretty much as I got home on Thursday. Hopefully I'll be able to get a few new photos of him and upload them whenever I can.

Unfortunately I have no clue when I'm going to be able to update any of my threads with photos because I've had nonstop problems uploading photos to Photobucket, Tumblr, Flikr, and Facebook for over a week now.

[bigsnakegirl785]

Here's a feeding photo. I've been sick the last couple of days so I may take him out later today or tomorrow now that I'm feeling better. I've decided to name him Howl, but never addressed it in this thread apparently.

The small rat left a decent lump in him, so I should be able to keep him on smalls like his previous owner.

https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5801/30719061095_48c87551fd_h.jpg

[bigsnakegirl785]

I made sure to handle him last, but I wanted to get some more handling time in with Howl and get some more photos. He's quite sweet, and although he's still getting used to everything he has yet to hiss, huff, or strike at me. Makes slow, deliberate movements, too. Very curious about anything that comes within reach of his head.

I'm going to wait to weigh him until he poops, but I'd put him at somewhere around 2-3 lbs.

https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5459/30469154380_fed6e6ea5a_h.jpg

https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5785/30769794855_6a79a0f4bc_h.jpg

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https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5599/30769786015_1d918eeb33_h.jpg

[dannybgoode]

Love the colour of this guy. Such subtle beauty.

[bigsnakegirl785]

Well, Howl shed for the first time (with me) this past Tuesday. :D

This is several days (somewhere around 4-5 days) after I started suspecting him going into a shed cycle, taken Nov 25. He went blue 4 days later.

http://68.media.tumblr.com/d6f234b55004c1307b10948d654cd8f5/tumblr_oh8lpemgOe1sjttato1_1280.jpg

This was taken yesterday, he's been giving me the food face since he shed. Unfortunately, all of my snake food had to be thrown out because of another fridge failure. Our new fridge doesn't have the room for all my snake food, so I have to wait until we bring my father's chest freezer over. So for now hungry snakes have to stay hungry. So long as we can get someone to actually come over and move the freezer within a reasonable time frame FOR ONCE, I should have more snake food not this coming week because I work all day every day until Friday, but the following week.

http://68.media.tumblr.com/bd4cbe5d0177fc49fb494334db3c1a0c/tumblr_oi0651qarq1sjttato1_1280.jpg

[bigsnakegirl785]

Here's some photos of him from tonight. He wasn't happy with me because I was gently rubbing him to make sure he knew it was me. He's already wrapped my hand once, while I was putting his water dish back after changing it. haha A quick bite and release, even from a boa Cloud's size (6.5') isn't bad, but a feeding bite is another story. It burned pretty bad as he got me at the bend of my thumb and left a couple teeny tiny teeth.

You can't really see it too well because his eyes are dark, but the dilated pupils tell you he's not a happy boy.

http://i.imgur.com/Ij07yp0.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/aH217uw.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/6xyyHlS.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/NTIQbVg.jpg

I keep meaning to weigh him, but I'll get around to it, definitely before I feed him next.

[Tsubaki]

What an absolute gorgeous boy you have there, one of the best looking ghosts I've seen!

[MartinD]

What an absolute gorgeous boy you have there, one of the best looking ghosts I've seen!

Obviously not seen Macbeth or Hamlet lol

[bigsnakegirl785]

What an absolute gorgeous boy you have there, one of the best looking ghosts I've seen!

I know right! I knew it was a good idea to jump on him when I saw him up for sale. He should match Dominika perfectly to make clean contrasted babies. It's too bad I won't be able to contact his breeder, but so long as there's no unforeseen problems he should do just fine in my projects.

[bigsnakegirl785]

Well I weighed him last week at 917 grams but he pooped *again* today so he's either just barely over or just barely under 900 grams empty. I did not weigh him as I seem to have misplaced the container I used last time...

Before I discovered his little New Years present.

https://68.media.tumblr.com/763bd528cd0b0e334678c77ad1242b72/tumblr_oj54kpCKH31sjttato3_1280.jpg

And back in his clean enclosure with flattened paper towels. He hung out around the water dish for awhile.

https://68.media.tumblr.com/5e30e5e513be09940125c140bfa65787/tumblr_oj54kpCKH31sjttato1_1280.jpg

https://68.media.tumblr.com/55d71c9b21f598bec5b7cf97970e231c/tumblr_oj54kpCKH31sjttato2_1280.jpg

[bigsnakegirl785]

I can always tell when Howl poops, he's one of the most poop-aversive snakes I own. lol If he's sitting on top of his hide curled up I know he's pooped. If he's stretched out he's just laying there, especially if he moves from that spot.

So I took him out and got some photos while I cleaned up. I've slightly increased his feedings to bulk him up for this fall. He's not the bulkiest male, and with how big Dominika is I feel like he'd get squished. lol I just went from 3 weeks to 2 weeks, same size prey. I don't want him to get too big (as in fat not length) so this is just temporary to put a little weight on him. He's already shown some weight gain so I don't think I'll need to keep this regimen for much longer.

https://68.media.tumblr.com/9141402aa336c8e968f5ca5fdab6980a/tumblr_ol4sbbhdhX1sjttato2_1280.jpg

https://68.media.tumblr.com/dddd07e2817c646aef74b697bec3bf66/tumblr_ol4sbbhdhX1sjttato1_1280.jpg

https://68.media.tumblr.com/82b4f1a09b0e5b61accb73a83ba5f420/tumblr_ol4sbbhdhX1sjttato3_1280.jpg

https://68.media.tumblr.com/dfae3d44ea6aa8acd7fe78f9142cbbd4/tumblr_ol4sbbhdhX1sjttato4_1280.jpg

[bigsnakegirl785]

Howl before and after shed. I feel like he may have grown a little...at least put some weight on, I'll have to weigh him when he poops again.

Apparently he was a bit uncomfortable because he wrecked his tub. haha

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4175/34082057600_98951de758_h.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4161/33657045123_558d37aa8d_h.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4183/34425521806_2a4c95ecbd_h.jpg

Post-shed, in a dark phase. Taken the day after he shed.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4169/34466831995_51c037068a_h.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4167/33624712844_b485732cf5_h.jpg

[bigsnakegirl785]

This was also Howl's first time outside in my care, and he was pretty much preoccupied with sniffing the grass the whole time. His eyes looked gorgeous in the sunlight, though, it was actually possible to see them!

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4185/33959276234_821c2e67f0_h.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4180/34639628502_20e4284c48_h.jpg

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https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4193/34669678611_9b15af5321_h.jpg

[richardhind]

very nice pics bsg,as you say his eyes are so cool