Oh, To Have a Camera....

I have not been on DA a single time since I had to refresh restart my computer, this is my first time on since that happened.  So that's where I've been.  On top of that, school has started, so I generally don't have much free time except on the weekends when I also have time off work.

I'm debating on whether or not to continue posting phone camera photos, as I'd like to post photos of my animals, but I also feel the quality in phone photos are lacking.  I'm either going to buy a camera ASAP myself, or wait until my mom finds out whether or not my family wants to band together to get me a Canon Rebel for Christmas.  If I wait until Christmas, there won't be any DSLR photos until spring at least, which is the bad part.  Or at least no good quality, sunlight photos.  I may be able to find a way to use sunbeams inside, but I'm not sure.

So, new camera soon hopefully?  This upcoming Pell grant return will be going towards getting new PVC enclosures and a Herpstat 4, so no camera from that money, it would have to be money from my work pay checks.  River's outgrown her tub, so if nothing else I'd have to set up the other 6' enclosure I had and just over-decorate the heck out of it, but she needs out of her tub ASAP.  Sanji's good for awhile, but Bud also needs out of his tub set up so he's no longer heated with a heat lamp and also so he has more room.  At some point, I'd like to have everyone but the garters in PVC enclosures and River as an adult in a custom enclosure.

Some other good news, is it looks like we're FINALLY moving out of this horrible apartment.  We're getting ready to buy a trailer, and the lot owners have said we can live there, we just need to turn in background checks.  That means I'll have my own room, it will be waaaaaay warmer in the winter (if it's 30F outside, it's 40F in here, which means it's 65-68F in Cloud's enclosure despite being wrapped up in tons of blankets and sleeping bags), and there will be more room for snakes.  The lot rent is only $150, and once we have the loan paid off to buy the trailer our "rent" prices will drop from $375 or so down to just the lot rent.  Then we have our other utilities and bills to pay.  So this should be very doable, we'd be spending about the same as we are here, if not less, depending on how much our utilities come out as.

As another cool thing, we may also be getting a FREE TRAILER to move into the empty lot next to our's, which means that trailer will be mine to live in to fill with snakes as I wish.  That's just an idea, we don't know if we'll do it, whether or not we take depends on if we can afford all of the bills from two different households.

Now, a short update on each snake!

River is now over 300 grams, last I weighed her she was 315 grams, but it's been a few weeks so she could easily be 330 grams or more by now.  She's getting very close to needing another upgrade in food size, that will be 3 food upgrades in 5-6 months.  She's growing really fast, and already dwarves her size from when I got her in April!  To be expected of a retic.

Sanji is now over 100 grams, and is eating every 14 days.  I'll be tracking his growth, and if his growth slows down on this schedule I'll be putting him back on a 10 day schedule until he's 1.5 years old before putting him on a 14 day schedule.  As it is, it's only been a few weeks and he's already put on 4 grams, so his growth seems promising!

Bud has gone on yet another feeding strike after trying to give him rats (the horror!!!!), but took two live mice yesterday, so hopefully he'll be back up to speed again soon.  He lost 13% of his weight, which is why I resorted to live, he lost a lot of weight for such a short amount of time off of food, which was 3-4 months.

Demigod is as ravenous and lanky as ever, and seems to enjoy his new spot behind Draco's tank, where they can interact.  I see both of them out quite often, Draco spent several hours this afternoon hanging out at the back of his tank, where Demigod was.

Draco is over 30 grams, but I haven't weighed him in a month or two.  I am going to try to vary his feedings between rat pinks and 2 mouse pinks so that he isn't getting so much food, I feel the rat pinks are rather large for him....He's just about gone through the pinks that are small enough to eat whole as well.

I also have four snakes currently showing signs of shed: River, Draco, Sanji, and Nymeria!  This will be Nymeria's very first shed with me.