#Sumatran short tail python

[sunfish-exotics]

Chai Latte ☕️

[fimbry]

This is going to be a long post, a mix of what happened and then what Charlie meant to me. TW pet death

Charlie has passed away after eating 2 bad rats from Big Cheese Rodent Factory. She regurgitated 3 days after feeding and died two days later. I have been purchasing f/t rats from Big Cheese for years, and if my friend hadn't been having these same problems with the same batch of jumbo rats I would have thought this could be a freak incident or a mistake on my part. However, my friend's snakes are also regurgitating and one has died after eating these jumbo rats, and we bought them during the same Mother's Day sale. Same batch. I'll be getting a necropsy on Charlie to see if that has any answers as to what was off with the rats.

Now I get it that sometimes food safety measures don't get carried out every time and most suppliers have some kind of scandal like this, but the company's callous response and refusal to even entertain that it could be their rats at fault is pretty fucked up and has me a bit heated. It's just a "coincidence" my friend's and my snakes are getting sick/dying after eating rats from the same batch. Eye roll. The money doesn't even matter to me at this point so I may not message them further about this, I'm just so upset over the cold response and the loss of Charlie.

The email response from them:

With that out of the way, I do want to share what Charlie meant to me. She was a very special animal, I thought of her as the "matriarch" of my collection as I have a good number of her kids and grandchildren still with me. Four of each actually if I'm counting, and I love them so very much.

When I got Charlie I was still pretty green in the hobby. Yes I'd had snakes for years, my cornsnake and then a couple ball pythons, and even a Sumatran short-tail, my beloved Svid, but these were all very "easy" snakes... I learned with them, but I was not challenged the way that Charlie challenged me. I got Charlie as a full adult, she was my first blood python and I had not even planned to get into bloods until I saw her. I was planning to focus on Sumatran short tails, but Charlie changed things.

Charlie came out of the shipping bag striking and bit me on the finger immediately. Now I'm not sure if anyone remembers this but that video of the two little brothers "Charlie bit my finger" is how Charlie got her name lol.

The first 4 months were... challenging. I could not even touch her directly. I was so afraid I'd made a mistake. Charlie was a 17lb adult blood python, far bigger than my other snakes, and she was TERRIFIED of me. She wanted me to go to hell, and would send me there herself if only she could. We spent a lot of time together, just me sitting near her open enclosure and her glaring at me. Over the months we went from no contact, to minimal contact, until finally I was able to at least clean her without too much trouble. She liked routine, liked to know what was going to happen next. Any deviation from the routine and the trust would be broken, she'd be full of fear again. It was a few years of doing things purely by her strict rules.

Around 2014, something clicked. She began to actually trust that I wasn't going to hurt her and didn't have bad intentions. We seemed to have an actual understanding where if something happened out of the norm, she wouldn't react badly. I could even take her out for pictures and she behaved! Soon I was able to pet her, touch her tail (which I was doing a lot about now since I was trying to figure out why my "male" was not breeding, ha), even pet her head. I was still a bit wary of her, but we were in a good place. As the years went on, our trust grew deeper and I knew she wouldn't bite me, and she knew I was a safe person.

She also showed me how intelligent these snakes could be. She could tell people apart which became obvious if she saw anyone besides me. While I had earned her trust, others had not, so I refrained from taking her out if others were around. While she was a big beautiful animal, I couldn't take her out to show guests. I respected her all the more for it, if I'm honest. She knew what she was about, and I didn't push that.

Over the years she ended up giving me three clutches of beautiful babies, she did such a good job. After her last clutch in 2021, she started showing her age. She was nearing 20 years old, if not over, and had begun getting wrinkled scales and grew a cataract in one eye. I decided to retire her from breeding and let her enjoy her golden years in peace. Pythons can live a very long time, so I expected to have another ~10 years with her.

I'm devastated that her retirement was cut short like this, devastated that I was robbed of more time together. We had both grown and changed a lot over the last 12 years together, and she really was a picture of "to be loved is to be changed." My sweet old lady who knew me, and I knew her. ♥

[fucxingcuties]

Sumatran Short Tail Python (Python curtus), Aceh Province variety, family Pythonidae, from Sumatra, Indonesia

photograph by AC Exotics

[earth57]

an introduction...

...through photos!

i have many reptiles; ball python, mexican black kingsnake, sumatran short-tailed python, and many mourning geckos!

i love watching tv shows like the office and himym and my favourite movie is dirty dancing. my favourite fruit is strawberries 🍓

[roll-a-troll]

Name: Mx. Fuclal Prozac Ancestor: The Attitude Strife Specibus: yoyokind Blood Color and Sign: Olive; Leza Handle: colorfulApricot Lusus: cameldad Pronouns: they/them Age: 6 sweeps Interests: soccer and journaling Sexuality: indecipherable Class: Sylph Land: Land of Granite and Cities, a comely place, with bewildering Sumatran short-tailed python consorts. It is a place full of bottomless cliffs and rivers of stigma. Nyx seeks rest. Quirk: speak with perfect diction via roll-a-troll https://ift.tt/8J6pDse, do as you please

[homestuck-human-generator]

Name: Mr. Gwen Kersey Color: Powder #Fbfcfa Symbol: diamond Strife Specibus: hosekind Handle: agentTrick Animal: ibex Pronouns: he/him Age: 15 Birthday: 96th day of the year Sexuality: straight Interests: bouldering and painting Dream Moon: derse Classpect: Witch of Life Land: Land of Ruby and Flow, a fierce place, with grotesque Sumatran short-tailed python consorts. It is a place full of migrating dunes and fetid swamps. Iapetus has recently awoken. Instrument: terpodion via homestuck-human-generator https://ift.tt/tyEevcB

[calamityofsolongwinter]

Someone also seems to have an interest in gardening.

[sixlegnag]

1494g. . .

[verifiablebot]

bad decisions were made

[sunfish-exotics]

Pic from the show today I thought turned out okay

It’s like she’s watching a lovely sunset

[fimbry]

I adore your snakes! I've been considering (in the farish future) a borneo python or blood python, but I've heard short tailed pythons in general are quite bitey and being quite large can actually cause damage to wrists and such, is that your experience?

Hello! The Borneo and Sumatran short tails tend to be more mild mannered than Blood pythons, but even bloods can be calm! I have super sweet and spicy bloods, it'll depend on the individual and I'd go to a breeder and ask for their friendliest hatchling available. The innate personality is pretty apparent early on, though you can always earn the trust of more high strung ones too. A good breeder will be able to help you out with a wonderful pet of any of these species.

That said, they have very small teeth. I've taken some bites, including a feeding bite from an adult female, and it was pretty much nothing. The force behind the bite is strong, it'll bruise, but I wouldn't say it's too bad. They leave the same size tiny pin pricks as the teeth of a ball python.

[kayserj]

Handsome boy <3

[roll-a-troll]

Name: Mr. Rascei Canaba Ancestor: The Cautious Strife Specibus: glovekind Blood Color and Sign: Jade; Virnius Handle: tallCurio Lusus: mongooseda Pronouns: he/him Age: 11 sweeps Interests: philately and kitesurfing Sexuality: nb4nb Class: Bard Land: Land of Medicine and Vapor, a jealous place, with kind Sumatran short-tailed python consorts. It is a place full of helpful vallies and redacted. Typheus hungers. Quirk: use 3 whenever E might be used instead via roll-a-troll https://ift.tt/OoSRb0H, do as you please

[fotoaventyr]

[goodnight-moonlight-ladies-blog]

My Sumatran male being curious 😂

[reptiliaherps]

A quick shot of Jeri's "l'll bite you" face shortly before I locked his tub up for the night.