Reptilian Anomaly

Recently a friend of mine, also obsessed with snakes and all things reptilian, was able to breed the unusual creature pictured here.

The product of two standard Diamond Pythons it, along with a number of hatchlings from the clutch, produced this amazing red colouring.

The anomaly being caused by a recessive gene, this snake pictured also had a pink tongue.

Albinism usually produces reptiles with this characteristic and, if you look closely, you will see the fork of the tongue is white.

A most unusual animal indeed and one that its owner plans to breed in the upcoming years with the aim of producing a full albino hatchling - one of the most sought after permutations in reptile breeding.

Snake bites part of keeping reptiles

Ever been told not to get in the way of a dog and its food?





Its much the same for snakes.





Ruby, her picture in a previous post, turned up her nose at some food recently and I was attempting to remove it when this happened.

















While not painful at this size, the bite gives you a shock more than anything else. It all happens in under 1/100 of a second. This is about 5 times faster than we humans can react.


The bite will bleed a little, and a good antiseptic is recommended followup.


Being non venomous no further treatment is necessary.
Remember that bites from venomous creatures should NEVER be washed before going to hospital, as this removes the venom traces that are necessary for quick identification.

The bite healed quickly, except for one spot.
This I investigated, and managed to remove from the area a tooth.
This tooth is pictured next to a tooth pick for scale.
The loss of a few teeth is all in a days work for snakes, as they are replaced on a regular basis.

Electrical storms put on a show

The last week has seen some of the most active electrical storms in a while.

This snap was taken looking towards Kangaloon from Robertson last night around 8.30pm.

Last week one storm in particular discharged around 20 strikes in close vicinity to my home over a 30 minute period - three of those within 100 metres.

Sorry - no photos of those!