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 #1955411


SammySnake
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 Normal bull colors?

I know this forum is kinda dead, but I’ve a question/confusion.
My bull, Taurus, is a gorgeous snake. Easily p/o’d, but nonetheless attractive.
His colors are brighter than any other bull I’ve seen.
His head is yellow, and body is yellow/tan, and his tail fades into orange.
I don’t think the people I bought him from knew what they were talking about, because they also sold me a young bp who was a stargazer, and told me she was perfectly healthy.
I fed him exactly a week ago. He rubs himself all over the place like he needs to shed, but his eyes have yet to cloud over, and he’s pretty soft. How often do bulls shed?
This is my first bull, so if I sound like a newbie, please, bear with me. I’ve had ball pythons and corns my whole life.
Anywho, here are some pictures of him.
Orange tail



Body



My baby!



Aw, so cute when he’s mad...


So my question is: Is he some sort of morph, or just a pretty bull snake?
I’ve wanted on since I saw a shampoo ad [go figure].
It’s a natural ingredient-based shampoo made by this guy with long hair. Not Fabio.
And his son was holding this big, venomous-looking snake.
I was like, WHAAA?!
And in microscopic print at the bottom, it said
"---- is holding a harmless 9ft bull snake"
That was about 6 months ago. I got my bull at a herp show in Orlando back on 1/31/09.
I even got him probed for free. I wanted to be sure about his sex, because when he gets about 2 ft bigger, I’ll be looking to buy him a girlie. And you know the rest.
He’s about 3ft now. Give or take a few inches.


If you’ve read my posts before, I’ve shown off his mean-ness, and how much I am absolutely infatuated!
Thanks for reading!



02/18/09  10:51pm

 #1955449


Concolor1
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   Message To: SammySnake   In reference to Message Id: 1955411


 Well, I Saw Your Hollerin’ Over on the General Forum . . .

I do keep an eye on the Pits section here because those are what I have the most of and where my likely ambitions lie . . .

I only got my first bull, though ("Mrs. Edward Abbey") about a year-and-a-half ago, at a show here (forty years ago I kept the local W/C gophers for a time, however, and I’ve recently acquired two Great Basin gophers, one W/C. My original efforts were way back in the Stone Age of snake keeping, however; no UTH heaters, and if we wanted a cage, we built one in high school wood shop). She was sold to me as a "Texas Bull," and I was able to get a yearling because I didn’t care if (and really didn’t want) she was a "het for amelanistic" individual.

Her colors are very similar to yours, BTW, although your male has more numerous dark markings . . . I’m still looking to score a suitable camera for some pictures or persuade my dad to take a few I can upload (he’s retired but doing photography stuff professionally, and taking the snakes out in the cold is problematic).

I think Taurus will likely settle down with some gentle handling and husbandry; Mrs. Abbey did, and my two gophers are absolute wusses compared to how she was at a similar size . . . She did hiss briefly when I lifted her from the cage for today’s afternoon feeding . . .

As for you BP, I have no knowledge on that score . . .

Have you looked at the "Pine, Bull, and Gopher Snake" section over at kingsnake.com? That one is fairly active, and there are quite a few although a couple over there gave JackAsp a bit of a hard time about the growth he’d observed in his bull snake . . .

Good luck; it’s a nice-looking snake, and I’m impressed by your enthusiasm . . .
02/18/09  11:40pm

 #1955643


SammySnake
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   Message To: Concolor1   In reference to Message Id: 1955449


 Well, I Saw Your Hollerin’ Over on the General Forum . . .

Thank you!
Finally, an answer. LOL
Usually, JackAsp answers me, but he hasn’t been on this forum in a week or so.
I was holding Taurus for a good 3 hours last night. The only time he’s a bit cranky is when I take him out. After 30 seconds of holding him, he’s the sweetest snake. He fell asleep on my shoulders [again] and he’s out roaming his cage right now.
JackAsp said to keep him where he can keep an eye on everything, because keeping him in a low-traffic area won’t help getting him used to people.
But again, thank you.
I just joined kingsnake the other day. I find the way they post quite confusing, but I’ll get used to it.
02/19/09  09:55am

 #1955734


JackAsp
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   Message To: SammySnake   In reference to Message Id: 1955643


 Well, I Saw Your Hollerin’ Over on the General Forum . . .

The rubbing around sounds like he’s trying to find a way out of the cage. Try giving him more to do in there. PVC tubes to go through, upside down wicker branches to dig under, sit on top of, and spy on people through the openings, hide areas underneathe water dish so that section of cage-floor does double duty, and any kind of premade buried tunnel is always a big hit too. Take any kind of pipe or elongated box or whatever, something open at both ends, and bury it except for the ends. Chances are your snake will spend far less time patrolling the edges and far more hiding one place while peeking out lke a Loch Ness monster, then going to another spot to watch everthing from, then to another, but at least they’re GOING to somehwere each time. If they aren’t sure just what kind of spot they’re in the mood for but they know it’s not in there, then you get pacing and nose-rubbing. Digging through substrate accomplishes the same thing, but that means getting less light, which can have negative psychological efffects on what in nature is a diurnal basking animal.

Lots of different TEMPERATURE hiding spots is a big deal too. I keep a few clumps of dried Spanish mpss from the dollar store in there, becasue they’re not only easy to dig under and even through but thye spread out pretty big, so he can choose warmer or cooler ends within the same type of microhabitat.

I know there’s a zillion people at the opposite end of the spectrum who have good results using tubs, newspaper, two hide boxes, and a water bowl. But unilike many other snakes, I’ve never seen a Pit that didn’t respond well to having more to do. Just in the time it took me to typoe this, Winkle has come out of the warm end of his Spanish moss pile, climbed slowly over a tall wicker breadbasket, hidden for a while over at the cool end, come out agai and circled the tank one time, taken a drink of water, and is now leaning against the water dish wondering if I’m going to feed him. Okay, actually now he’s got his nose pressed against the front so he can sniff at me, but he’s not actually rubbing. Since I’ve got time, though, I think I’m going to walk away from the computer and take him out to play.
02/19/09  02:07pm

 #1956682


RePtiLOVER
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   Message To: JackAsp   In reference to Message Id: 1955734


 Well, I Saw Your Hollerin’ Over on the General Forum . . .

Not a morph at all. Looks like a typical sonoran gopher.
02/21/09  11:10am

 #1958444


Concolor1
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   Message To: RePtiLOVER   In reference to Message Id: 1956682


 Nope, Not a Sonoran Gopher . . .

Look at the slight "hoods" over the eyes and the ever-so-slightly shorter and broader snout; that identifies this one as some manner of bull snake . . .

Not that the colors aren’t found in Sonoran gophers as well . . .
02/24/09  03:29pm

 #1958479


SammySnake
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   Message To: Concolor1   In reference to Message Id: 1958444


 Nope, Not a Sonoran Gopher . . .

I was about to be very confused.
My exact words after reading other post:
"The man sold me a bull snake, I demand a bull snake!"
-whew- okay, thx concolor.
02/24/09  04:15pm

 #1967689


Concolor1
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   Message To: SammySnake   In reference to Message Id: 1958479


 Okay, Here’s My First Effort With Uploading a Photo . . .

Here’s "Mrs. Edward Abbey" (Abbey for short, of course), who’s about 2 1/2 now; at least I bought her at a show here in Utah in 2007, and she was sold as a yearling "Texas Bull."

Her colors seem similar to your snake’s . . .




She’s almost four feet long at this point, and I usually feed her a diet alternating one or two adult F/T mice or a single small rat (either live or F/T) every two weeks or so . . .
03/13/09  01:47am

 #1967829


Greatballzofire
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   Message To: JackAsp   In reference to Message Id: 1955734


 Well, I Saw Your Hollerin’ Over on the General Forum . . .

Maybe another reason the snake is rubbing around on things is his skin is bothering him. I give my pits a quart tub of moist sphagnum moss with a small hole cut in one end near the top, and I bury this in their aspen substrate which is about three to four inches deep, and put a cardboard hide over it. They like to go in there and coil up. Gonzo is in full blue now, and is using his moss tub a lot. All my other snakes (kings) get moss tubs, too, and nobody ever has any shed troubles. In the wild they would be able to find humid spots on their own, like down rodent burrows and such.
03/13/09  10:18am


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