Monday, November 16. 2009
Tuesday, October 27. 2009
This is my last baby of 2009. She came from a Pied to Het Pied pairing. She is eating live rat fuzzys every week like clockwork. 125 grams. $200 plus shipping.
Monday, August 31. 2009
As I mentioned in my other update today, my second Albino clutch of the year hatched. Albino bred to a Het Albino. Only there was one small problem. Out of 6 eggs there were zero Albinos. To make a long story short, I am a bonehead. I got snakes mixed up. I bred my Albino to the wrong snake. A Normal. Which means I bred my Pastel to the Het Albino. And have for the past two seasons. So anyone that has bought a Pastel from me in the last two years, your Pastel is also possibly het for Albino. Just wanted to give folks a heads up about that.
Monday, August 31. 2009
About 3 weeks ago I herniated a disk in my lower back, which in turned pinched my sciatic nerve. An issue I have been dealing with off and on for over 20 years. Truly intense pain and near complete immobility. Nasty stuff. I would not wish it on anyone. Over the last couple of days the pressure on the nerve has released and I am finally getting some mobility back and the pain has lessened considerably. So hopefully things are headed for a complete recovery over the next couple of weeks. Just need to force myself to take it real easy.
Updates. First I need to give a great big thank you to my 14 year old daughter, Madison. Without her over the last month I honesty dont know what I would have done. She sure stepped up to the plate during this family emergency and showed maturity, dedication and understanding well beyond her years. I am quite proud of her. Not only did she have to play nurse maid to dear old dad, but she pretty much maintained the entire snake, leo and rodent collection. Granted with a little supervision on my part, but she did all the real work. Not to mention taking care of the litter of pups we just had 5 weeks ago. I'm really proud of her.
Ok, first lets update the puppies. They are 5 weeks old today and all are doing great. I will get some new pics posted soon. We are going to start house training them this week. Anyone ever tried house training 10 Pit Bull pups at once? lol. All well wishes will be appreciated.
Snakes. The last Albino clutch hatched. More on that later. Most of the previous clutches have all had at least two meals in them, although I do have a couple of slow starters. Should be a big month around here. May see as many as 5 Pied/Het Pied clutches this month. Keeping my fingers crossed.
Saturday, August 15. 2009
Quick update on the season. Had my first Albino babies this week. 4 Albinos and 2 Hets from a 6 egg clutch. Truly awesome after 4 years trying! The second Albino clutch should be hatching this week sometime.
I also had a Pied clutch hatch. 2 Pieds and 4 Hets from this clutch. I dont have any other Pied clutches in the incubator, but I could see as many as 6 more Pied clutches laid in the next 4 to 5 weeks. I will try to get some pics posted this week.
Tuesday, July 28. 2009
Well last night my good deed (Kayla) had 11 puppies. Kayla and the pups all appear to be in great shape and are doing well. From what I can tell they appear to be pure bred Pit Bulls. One is all white, 5 are primarily white with varying amounts black splotches, 3 are black and 2 are a brown brindle. All are just adorable.
I do plan to adopt most of these pups out to good homes. Anyone interested in adopting a pup can contact me at 317-289-4067. If you want me to get their shots done I will require the cost of the shots as an adoption fee, if you want to handle the shots yourself then there will be no charge at all to adopt these pups.
I will be picky finding homes for these pups. People looking for anything other than a loving addition to their family need not apply.
Friday, July 17. 2009
Flashback to millions of years ago when the earth was..... ok lets not go back that far. Roughly 2 weeks will actually do.
We noticed a Pit Bull running loose in our alley. Didnt really think much about it, a loose dog roaming the alley is a pretty common sight around here. 99% of the time the owners of such loose dogs are usually not far behind. Well for three straight days we noticed this dog running loose in the alley. Kinda hard not to notice when my Jack Russell goes nuts barking at the Pit Bull every time it gets near our fence line.
Saturday July 4th here was a very rainy day. The fireworks celebration in downtown Indy was postponed until July 5th because the weather was so bad. The morning of July 4th was wet out the gate and I noticed my dog going nuts in the backyard. Right across the fence by my garage is a blue tarp covering some miscellaneous items. The Pit Bull had bedded down there trying to avoid the elements.
My daughter got to feeling sorry for the Pit Bull and took it out a bowl of food. She mentioned it had a collar on so I decided to go see if it had any tags. As soon as I walk up on this Pit Bull it looks up at me and...... hands me its paw to shake. That is just not fair. So needless to say I get to looking the dog over and it is cold, wet, hungry, a little on the thin side with a couple of obvious signs of being on the loose for a few days. It also looked like she had recently weaned some puppies. Yeah of course I took it in.
So we spent much of Sunday walking and driving the neighborhood trying to find an owner with no luck. Didnt think much about it being a holiday weekend. Monday we do the same thing, as well as throw up a couple of fliers in the gas station and convenient store right in front of our neighborhood. Nothing. So I take it the local vet about two miles away and have them see if there is a micro-chip in the dog. No luck.
The vet was nice enough to put up a flier as well and gave the dog a quick look over. The vet said the dog was in general good health as much as he could tell from a quick once over, but he said the Pit Bull had a pretty bad bacterial infection in her ears. He gave me a homemade solution for rinsing the ears to get the dog by until I found the owner.
Over the next several days we keep walking her all through the neighborhood and hoping for a phone call from a worried owner. To this day that call has never came. This Pit Bull is the biggest baby in the entire world. Very well trained, affectionate and LOVES kids. Truly one of the sweetest animals I have been around in my life. And I am no stranger to big powerful breeds having owned Great Danes and Rottweilers much of my life.
Well it has been almost two weeks now and I refuse to call animal control. They will put the dog down almost immediately just because of the breed she is. I refuse to let that happen to such a gentle animal. The Pit Bull (Kayla is what we are calling her now) has adapted well to our home and has been the perfect house guest. So my daughter and I decided we are going to go ahead and adopt her as we are losing hope that this Pit Bull was not just dumped or abandoned.
So yesterday I take her to the vet to get a proper physical and to get her ears properly treated as well as get her shots since we dont know the dogs history. The vet remembered me and the Pit Bull from the week before and immediately commented on how much better her coat looked and how much weight she had put on in just a weeks time.
Well as it turns out they cant give the Pit Bull her shots nor give her the antibiotics to treat her ears. I ask the vet why not and he said that the steroids in the antibiotics could kill the puppies. And I reminded him that she is a stray and dont have puppies. He said, "not for about two more weeks she dont."
Yeah thats right, she didnt just get done nursing a litter, she is about to have a litter. I was left speechless thinking what the hell have I got myself into now. So now we are preparing for puppies.
As the old saying goes, no good deed goes unpunished.
Friday, June 26. 2009
Got my second Albino x Het Albino clutch on the 23rd of July. Another 6 eggs. Rock on!!
Wednesday, June 10. 2009
Clutch #3 came on Monday the 8th of June. Het Clown to Possible Het Clown. Got 4 eggs but one did not look very good and this first time momma was not coiling any of the eggs. 3 of the eggs candled fine and the 4th is probably a dud. Hopefully the other 3 turn out some healthy babies.
Clutch #4 came on Tuesday the 9th. Pied to Het Pied. Got 7 good eggs from this pairing. I was kinda surprised this girl laid so early this year after laying so late in the season last year (August). This is 4 straight years this girl has given me nice healthy clutches. This years 7 eggs being the smallest clutch yet. She will be getting this upcoming breeding season off.
Clutch #5 came on Tuesday as well. Albino to Het Albino. 6 good eggs from this clutch. Finally!! Been breeding this guy for 4 years and never had a single clutch from him. So needless to say this is a very satisfying moment for me. He is one of my favorite snakes with his calm yet inquisitive personality. Truly looking forward to seeing my first Albino babies!
I will add some pics of the clutches here in the next few days as time allows.
Thursday, May 14. 2009
And just a week later comes clutch #2. We got 6 nice eggs from this Pastel x Normal #2 pairing. That should be the last Pastel clutch this year.
Friday, May 8. 2009
Got our first clutch of the season on May 7th. We got 7 healthy eggs from a Pastel to Normal breeding.
Saturday, April 11. 2009
Well I did the last of my pairings for the season this week. Could not be happier with the amount of copulations I had this year. Now it is just a matter of wait and see if we get some healthy clutches out of all those copulations. I have had several girls shed in the last couple of weeks so hopefully I will get some eggs on the ground soon. Getting excited as usual. After all, eggs in the incubator never gets old.
As many folks know I quit actively selling African and Domestic rats. However, my good friend Richard Prater is now selling them locally here in Indy. Richard is a great guy to do business with and I highly recommend him if you are looking for live rodents here in Indy. Richard can be reached at rue712@comcast.net.
I also want to give a shout out to my many good friends over on Fauna. I have actually missed some of you folks. Wish I had more time to get online and shoot the BS with y'all but I have forgot what free time looks like. On top of all the other crap I got going on I recently bought a new house as well. A bi-level. We are in the process of gutting it and starting over. And I mean completely gutting it. We are tearing out the carpeting, drywall, windows, roof, etc, etc. The nice part about this though will be putting it all back together. Particularly getting to completely design and build a herp and rat room from scratch in the lower level. This is going to be a good 6-12 month project (and more work and aggravation than I ever wanted) before it is all said and done. If I ever remember to take my camera over there I will be sure to snap some pics as we go along.
Oh, I finally broke down and got a cell phone again. I am just gone entirely too much now to not have one again. So you can reach me at home (ha ha good luck) at 317-908-7595 or on my cell at 317-289-4067.
Saturday, February 21. 2009
Been pretty busy around here lately. Breeding is in full swing, I am involved in starting a new business outside of the reptile world and I found a new hobby that I never would have thought I would be into.
With so much going on I have had to really prioritize my time and make some adjustments. One of those adjustments was to cut my rat and ASF breeding colonies in half. I now plan to produce just enough for my own use and will no longer be actively breeding rodents for re-sale. However, I am sure I will have small quantities available from time to time so it never hurts to see if I have any extra on hand.
Breeding season has really been going well with lots and lots of copulations across the board. That's right, even my gay Albino has been a breeding machine!! I honestly could not be more pleased with the amount of breeding activity I have witnessed this season. It has been constant and consistent week in and week out. Now lets just hope that translates into some nice healthy clutches.
I got my sulcata torts back in November and decided that I would grow their food for them myself. Little did I know what a great hobby indoor gardening can be. I had always been a "its mowed and weedeated, that is good enough for me" kinda guy when it comes to my yard. Rakes, shovels and other instruments of destruction.... well, that always just plain looked like unnecessary work to me. But indoor gardeing...
What started out as growing a variety of grasses, clovers, hibiscus and dandelion for the torts has morphed into also growing strawberries, tomoatos, peppers, chilis, several different herbs, 4 different types of cactus as well as a few house plants. I never knew it could be so fun, involved and rewarding. Almost makes me want to be a farmer. A farmer in Indiana, now thats a stretch....
Thursday, January 15. 2009
Well I am now officially sold out of all my 2008 babies and am looking forward to 2009. Also I would like to give a big thank you to all my customers. I try my best to produce the best critters possible and I hope you all are happy with the snakes you received from me.
Looking forward I cant help but be excited for what is cooking for later in 2009. I should have several Pied/Het Pied clutches, a couple of Albino/Het Albino clutches as well as 2 or 3 Pastel clutches. I also have a dinker project going, Het Clown to Possible Het Clown.
This past Summer/Fall I added 1.1 Spiders to my collection as well as holding back a nice female Pied as well as 2 female Pastels. Not to mention some miscellanious possible hets and a couple of Normal girls.
Oh and how can I forget, I added a female Red Tail Boa from Laura and Bryon at B & L Exotix. That project is still a couple years away from attempting to breed, but it should be real interesting to see what comes out of this. I also added my first Western Hognose and plan on adding several more this year. I have became a big fan of these interesting little snakes and hope to be able to offer some quality babies here in a year or two.
I also have been bitten by the Crestie bug. I doubt I get into breeding with these, but much like my Sulcata torts, I fell in love the first time I spent any real time around them and now they are a must have addition to the family.
Again, I would like to thank everyone for a great 2008 and am looking forward to another great season in 2009.
Saturday, December 20. 2008
I spent a lot of time this past year studying the weather of the African regions in which Ball Pythons come from. First I went and studied the weather records of the last several decades for temps, rainfall, humidity, sunrise/sunset, etc for three separate regions in which Balls come from. Also, last January I started logging weekly weather data as well as exchanging weekly emails with my friend, Joseph, in Enugu, Nigeria. Joseph is a native of Nigeria as well as a lover of Ball Pythons.
After all this research and countless conversations with Joseph I decided to completely change my breeding procedures this year. I have literally either altered or completely changed 99% of how I went about breeding in the past. Thus far I could not be happier with the early results.
I have had more early copulations than I have ever had this Fall. By far. Even my 5 year old Albino male, the one who has not bred at all in three seasons of trying, has copulated almost every time I have put him with a female this season. He has literally went from showing no interest in breeding in years past to being a breeding machine.
How much my changes in breeding procedures has triggered this dramatic increase in sexual activity I cant honestly say yet. But I have to admit that it is very encouraging and certainly makes me think I have interpreted the data correctly. Only several breeding seasons with these kind of results will prove me right. Oh and lots of healthy clutches.
Here is a quick break down on early pairings. My Albino male has been ROCKING with the two het Albino girls he is breeding this season. It is just constant. My Pastel male has been just as solid with the 3 Normal girls he is breeding this year. My het Clown male has been steady with the possible het Clown girl he is proving out this year. My Pied male has been doing very well. He has been locked up many times with my two oldest possible het Pied girls. I also have 4 younger possible het Pieds that are all between 1500-1750 grams. I have been putting him with them as well but have not seen as much activity with these younger girls (17-18 months old). Hopefully there will be more interest as the season goes on and hopefully get a couple of these possible girls proven this year. I have yet to attempt to breed either of my proven het Pied females this season. With them not laying last season until August I wanted to wait until after the new year to get started with them.
So that is where we stand right now on the breeding front. More updates coming as the season progresses.
Tuesday, November 11. 2008
I have long been wanting to get back into tortoises and this past weekend all the stars lined up and fate took over.
I went to the Indy Reptile Expo looking to get a couple of Normal baby Western Hognoses. There were less than a half dozen Hognoses total at the show and 3 of those were adults. Needless to say the pickings were slim and my search for Hognoses continues.
So I go back on day 2 of the show to pick up a rack I bought from my good friend and master rack maker Jason Hess of Jasons Jungle. Best racks in the biz, folks. I tell you no lies. I decide to take a quick lap of the vendors hoping I missed some Hoggies in the throng of people that was there on day one but found nothing.
As I was headed back to Jason's booth I stepped off to the side of the aisle to allow a lady with a baby stroller through and what did I see right in front of my face? Right there, right there in my face was a big deli with 4 baby Sulcatas in it. Oh my I said to myself. I decided long ago that when I did finally get torts again that it would be Sulcatas or Leopards and I would get two. And just on a whim, not really planning to buy, I asked what kind of deal I could get on two. $100 for two he said. Oh my I said to myself. Oh my!! Aint they just the cutest damn things!!
Tuesday, October 28. 2008
A long busy Summer has came to an end. Immediately followed by a just as busy Fall. I am actually looking forward to Winter hibernation this year.
Well the Pastel clutches are all now sold and the The Pied clutches are now all established eating every offering and are ready to go. I did hold back a couple snakes this year. A Pied female, a couple of possible het pied girls, a couple of normal girls and this little Pastel girl.
The last snake was not even out of the incubator before I started preparing snakes for this season, which has got off to a pretty good start so far. I have already had several lock ups and hope to see some early clutches this year.
My plans for this season, in a nutshell, are to prove out a few more possible het Pied girls, hopefully get something out of the Albino/het Albino girls this year, throw the Pastel Male at a single Normal girl and breed the het clown to three Normal girls and hold back some females. I am not sure if I am going to breed the het Pied girls this year or not since they both laid so late in the season. Might just give them the year off.
And as a special thank you to all of you who actually read my journal (thanks Mom and Grandma) I will knock $100 off the listed price of any Pied that is not marked "sold" or "on hold".
Thursday, October 9. 2008
Clutch #4 (Pied x Possible Het Pied) could not have been any better. Ended up with 3.2 Pieds and 1.0 Het Pieds. I guess I can officially stop listing this girl as a Possible Het. There are individual pics of these snakes in the Gallery.
Friday, October 3. 2008
Well clutch #3 (Het Pied x Het Pied) has finally hatched. Ended up with 1.1 Pieds and 3.2 Possible Het Pieds. There are individual pics in the Gallery.
Monday, September 29. 2008
Well all of the Pastels have taken at least one meal and I now have them listed for sale on the Available page. I would still like to get a couple more meals in them before shipping, but they all look like they are doing real well.
The Pieds eggs have all been slit and I am now just waiting for them to emerge from the egg so I can get the first set of pics. It looks like I might have 5 or 6 for folks to choose from this year. I cant wait to see what they look like. That is the best part about breeding Pieds, every snake is so completely different.
I also have a 3 very nice Normal males, from my Pastel clutches, for sale on the available page as well. If anyone is interested in all three I will cut you a very good deal on them.
Saturday, September 13. 2008
All is right in the world once again!!
Sunday, September 7. 2008
Group picture of my second clutch. I will post more pics once they get their first shed out of the way.
Thursday, August 28. 2008
I have been asked this so many times I figured I would just make a post about it here. Keep in mind my colony was HUGE and my colony was kept in my home. At my peak I had roughly 10,000 breeding adults and upwards of 250,000 nymphs to sub-adults at any given time. That is a lot of roach tubs.
Starting back in the Summer/Fall of 2007 my daughter starting having shortness of breath problems, very similar to asthma. This also coincided with the time period where my colony was in the middle of getting really big. Over the winter it grew much bigger... as did my daughters breathing problems.
Back in April of this year I was awakened in the early morning hours by my daughter who was literally turning blue from not being able to breath. We rushed to the hospital where she was given several asthma treatments before she was breathing correctly again. After discussions with the doctors we thought she may be having a reaction to the roaches. Specifically roach droppings polluting the air in our home.
I immediately killed off 99% of my adults and sold off the remaining nymphs. I did keep a very small breeding colony for my own use, which is now kept down in the basement. Since that time my daughter has not had a single sign of any breathing problems what so ever. And she is a competitive swimmer so she uses those lungs of hers in a big way. The doctors even said she shows no signs of asthma what so ever now. Her breathing problems were purely an allergic reaction to the amount of roaches I was keeping and not asthma at all.
Wednesday, August 27. 2008
Since I am getting out of the roach biz I have decided to sell the Discoids.com domain name. If you are interested please contact me at info@sammygreggreptiles.com or call me at 317-908-7595.
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