*sigh*

[bladespark]

I have been browsing through several galleries of odd creatures. I looked at a lot of pet tarantulas, for example. I wouldn't want a pet I couldn't handle though, so I won't be getting a tarrantula. Nor a scorpion. Nor a fish, for that matter. The site with the tarantulas also had a pet brown recluse for sale, which I regard as madness. It's not pretty, it's not huge, it doesn't look interesting, and it is tiny, so if it gets loose you'll never find it again, oh and did I mention that it can MAKE YOUR FLESH ROT?! Yeah. No brown recluses for me. I can see the appeal of a lot of venemous/poisonous pets, they're often strikingly beautiful, but brown recluses are just plain brown little spiders. I'd rather get a huntsman (which the site also had) because at least they're flipping huge! I want to be able to freak out visitors and my mother, but a brown recluse would just constantly freak out me!

Anyhhow, now I am looking at a gallery of Australian snakes. OMG there are so many gorgeous snakes from Australia! I think my favorite so far is the mulga snake or king brown snake. I love the look of the huge, distinct scales so many Australian snakes have, the combined with the countershading color, it's particularly striking here. I've always liked tiger snakes since I first saw a photo of one in khukuri's livejournal. But I'll have to content myself with the ball python and my eventual rainbow boa, because venemous + endangered means I'll never own a mulga snake, nor a tiger snake either. Actually venemous alone is enough to ensure I'll never own one, see above about pets I can't handle. But man, are they pretty.

Comments

[harliquinnraver.livejournal.com]

i had tarantulas and could handle them all the time. :) theyre very delicate and sweet....as long as you dont approach them in a threatening or foodlike manner.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Heh. Both of the sites I looked at today said you shouldn't handle them at all.

[harliquinnraver.livejournal.com]

really now? well, i handled both. didnt take them for walks or feed them kibble and pet them but they can be handled with no ill effects towards them.

[harliquinnraver.livejournal.com]

some sites also say that you shouldnt handle snakes.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

True, true! I have a book on rainbow boas that says you should never handle them.

[harliquinnraver.livejournal.com]

but handling snakes make them used to being held and touched and creates a friendlier pet. same is true with tarantulas. i love Rosehair tarantulas myself. very docile and sweet. and pretty

[khukuri.livejournal.com]

Mulgas! So nice! They are quite polite snakes to work with, and I am so getting a tiger once I get my own place. Such angry little faces. :3

I am totally fighting the urge to spam you with elapid photos.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

You can spam me all you want. I LOVE snake photos.

[khukuri.livejournal.com]

Here goes!


Green Tree Snakes (colubrids, harmless, not very green really)


Brown Tree Snake (non-medically-significantly venomous colubrid, winner of the Head Most Like A Concussed Strawberry award)


Brown Tree Snake, Night Tiger morph


Brown Snake (belly dots belly dots belly dots! yeah our most dangerous snake and responsible for the majority of snakebite deaths but belly dots!)


Collett's Snake (so very venomous, so damn pretty)


A Green Tree again. Huge eyes!


I am not actually sure about this fellow, but I think it's a Gwardar/Western Brown Snake


Red-Bellied Black Snake (venomous, related to the Collett's)


A Bredli Python, nicely showing off its pallatine teeth


Because I am biased: Black-Headed Python, QLD variety. Not venomous, but their saliva turns up positive for Tiger Snake venom on the snakebite tests!


BHP, ochre morph.


Albino Olive Python. Run about 10k a hatchling. :(


Arafura File Snake, the dopiest-looking snake on the planet.


Okay, not Aussie, but one of my favourite snake photos. You can nearly see through them!


And a bonus Thorny Devil. :3

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

So many pretty snakes! The green tree snakes remind me of photos I've seen of garter snakes all in a ball (for mating, I think?)

Obviously from the front is not the most flattering angle for the brown tree snake! I have seen other shots that look much less goofy. Like the one just below it, I suppose.

I agree about the belly dots! Brown snakes are ever so attractive. But I think I love them better from a distance.

All the really stunning colors seem to be venomous snakes. Well, except rainbow boas!

I can so see why you like the black headed pythons, those are both really awesome looking. As is the albino olive python. (The prices of snake morphs are ridiculous! Some of the ball pythons run $10k+. For a ball python!)

And I have never seen anything like that file snake. I thought hognose snakes got the "doofus" award in the snake world, but obviously not!

And... are those baby albino colbras? That's really freakish how transparent they are!

Your thorny devil appears to be ready to stomp Tokyo. Or something. That picture just begs for a silly caption.

Thanks for sharing!

[khukuri.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the GTSes are similar to garters and other New World skinny, whippy snakes. Convergent evolution!

I love their d______b faces. So smooshy, so undignified.

Rainbow Boas look amazing, and 100x more cuddly than Colletts. I am going to go to America one day and hug everything.

Morphs are crazy expensive, especially for Olives, which are notoriously slow to breed. If I had the dosh on hand I'd be all over one, because your first clutch could buy a house. What an investment! Oh well, one day.

File snakes are kind of like wet socks full of gravel. They're weird, weird, muppetty things. Hognoses, though, are just plain cute. :)

Yep, albino cobras! They remind me of those thin pale fish. I wonder if you could candle one and see all its organs...

That is its "Go away I am scary!" pose. It works!

No worries! I am dumb for snakes.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Well if you are ever in my bit of the US (Oregon) You can come over and hug my rainbow boa. Unless you plan on flying over here in the next two or there months I should have one by then! I am saving, saving, saving, but I keep having bills and customers not paying me, and things not selling. Woe! I'm considering buying one that's at least partly grown, if I can find one. I'm raising one baby already, it would be nice to have a biggish snake!

A lot of people seem to invest in morphs. I don't ever intend to breed anything though, so I'd just be looking at it. And as pretty as some of the morphs are, I can get normals that are just as pretty, and look at them. Although I do catch myself mooning over piebald ball pythons every now and then, just because the coloration is so unique and striking!

[thalass.livejournal.com]

OMG. I was terrified of Tiger Snakes when I was a kid, since we had them in the area and they're rather territorial. I had to walk through bushland too, to get to school. Though if you stomp your feet they will avoid you, if you get too close (or they get too close to you) they chase you!

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Heee. Well, I guess it's easier to like them when you've never had to flee for your life from them! Though I also still like rattlesnakes, and I've had a few entertaining encounters with them.

Another thing about the recluse spider that makes this stupid.

[crucifox.livejournal.com]

They're one of the most common spiders in the United States. Where I live, we just get used to them. They look kind of like daddy long legs, which I think is the reason behind the myth that daddy long legs are so poisonous.

Most people just don't get reactions beyond a sort of zit that won't go away.

Oh, and anyone interested in horrifying themselves should check out the book "The Red Hourglass: Lives of the Predators" by Gordon Grice.