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The Potato Princess & Her Siblings

23K views 203 replies 13 participants last post by  Lilysmommy 
#1 · (Edited)
So I thought I'd start a thread for sharing pics & stories of Bindi. And because I take as many pics (more, to be honest, since Bindi spends most of our social time sleeping) of the snake & crabs, I'd like to share pics of them here too, if no one minds! I just like showing off my babies. :lol:

Pictures of the Potato Princess first, of course!

I got a fantastic selfie with her a while ago. I can't remember if I posted it here, but I don't think I did.


Got these very cute pics of her a couple nights ago before I put her away for the night.


Peekaboo!


And I swear, she doesn't know she's a hedgehog. She's so SNUGGLY! I meant to put her away to go to bed...and instead I laid down with her on my chest and she immediately crawled up to my neck and snuggled in. So of course it was 15 more minutes before I actually put her away. :lol:


Next up is the crabs. Here's a picture of their new tank set up!


I love it so far. Easy to get the water dishes out, they have a ton of shells available, they can go from one end of the tank to the other without touching the ground if they don't want. Lots of cover too, but still a few places of clear sub where they can dig down. Here's hoping they'll soon forgive me for putting them in prison while I did this and actually come out to enjoy this! :roll: Sam and Pippin are the only ones I've seen all week any time I've checked the tank.

This is Pippin hanging out in the DIY mangrove tree I made. First time I've caught someone in it, so I was really excited! Not a very close picture, but I couldn't get closer without the flash reflecting off the glass to hide the whole picture.


And here's my pretty girl, Sam, hanging out on the mopani log. She just moved into this shell since I rearranged the tank, it's one of the new ones I put in. She was super excited about all of the new choices!


And finally, Charis, our ball python. I have a bunch of pictures of her because she's just so photogenic! Her social time is mostly spent with her exploring & checking things out, so I also have more opportunities to get pictures in the first place. She's been out every day this week since Tuesday (she ate Saturday, so no handling Sun or Mon) and has done awesome. She's just such a calm, sweet snake. She really seems to enjoy coming out & checking things out. And I love it because a) I get to interact with her and b) it's super easy enrichment!

Here's my snake selfie to match my Bindi one. :D Took this a few days ago when I first got her out.


The same night I handed her off to the roommate after a while and she ended up like this for a short bit before it was exploration time again.


Not a great picture at all, my roommate was too far away from us (didn't move closer to avoid scaring Charis back) and I had to crop it. But she spent last night's social time exploring our chair & had a great time. Here she is peeking out around the arm.


She also curled up under & behind one of the pillows for a bit. She matches the chair color so well. How fashionable! :lol:


Tonight's social time was great for me. She was in her hot spot warming up when I went to get her out. She decided I was an acceptable replacement & was content for once to snuggle up in my hoodie and stay put for the most part. I got these adorable pictures of her peeking out of my sleeve!





I got so lucky with both of my "big" girls (big compared to the crabs :lol:). They're both huge sweethearts!! So calm & good-natured, especially compared to usual behavior shown by both of their species.
 
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#2 ·
Oh my goodness Bindi is so cute! I can't believe how snuggly she is! Her poor eye looks a little goopy in the first picture. I hope she's all better soon!

The crab enclosure looks fantastic. The mangrove you made is so cool! Hopefully everyone else resurfaces soon. And Sam's new shell is super pretty. I'm guessing the racing stripe down the middle makes it go faster :grin:. I haven't caught my smaller crab in the front of the tank yet, so I don't have a picture, but he picked one of the thick black and white shells you gave them.

Charis is such a sweetie. Most ball pythons are pretty laid back, but the fact that she chooses to hang out with you is awesome. I have to scoop Illidan when I want him. He'd rather climb out of his enclosure himself and go for a stroll. I love sleevesnake! It's the best kind of snake. You know where they are, they're warm, they're comfy, they can't get into trouble. And it's super cute. Perfect. Her head is so little compared to Illidan's. One day his head just wasn't baby sized anymore. I'm not sure what happened :lol:. Do you know how old Charis is? She's such a big girl with such a little head!
 
#3 ·
Me too. :( I still feel like she's a little snufflier than I'd like...I'm switching to fleece today to see if it helps at all. I've been getting teeny splinters from the Reptibark when I put a hand down and lean in to grab things, so it's made me a bit paranoid! So we're going to see how fleece works for now until I have time & money to finish plans for a bioactive set up & see how it works.

And thanks! :D I keep meaning to make it a little more open one of these times when I'm redecorating, but I always have too many things I want to cram in. :lol: Seems to work out well though! And yes, the racing stripe totally lets her zoom around, heh. I'm so glad your crabs are enjoying the shell selection!

I still have to scoop Charis out, though I've thought about leaving the lid open to see if she'll come out on her own. But the lid isn't lockable or anything and I'm paranoid that if she gets in the habit of "hey neat, I can CHOOSE to get out that way?", I'll forget to put the heavy box back on top one night & she'll get out. Her enclosure has to be snake-proof since Bindi's isn't!! Totally not trying out that animal meeting.

But once I have her upgraded enclosure that actually has lockable doors, we'll try that out & see how much chooses to come out & explore. She does seem to enjoy it, but it's so hard to tell! I mostly go off the fact that she's not showing any distress or panicky movements or acting super defensive or nervous while exploring & does want to explore & smell things. She does seem to like hanging out on us though, until she finds something more interesting...like underneath the couch or behind bookshelves. :lol:

Yeah, I have no clue about her head! She's 8 years old, so she's fully grown. But her head does seem really small compared to the rest of her. It's what made me panic over whether she could actually eat the rat the first time I fed her. :lol: I know they unhinge their jaw, they can stretch really wide, etc. etc., but none of that helped my first-time snake mom jitters.
 
#4 ·
Well I'll be sending good vibes her way until she's all better! That's too bad about the reptibark, I haven't been getting those at all. But I do know what you mean. I get them off of some of the brands of reptile and amphibian soil and they are AWFUL.

Yeah you may want to wait on teaching Charis how to escape :lol:. Definitely don't want a surprise introduction to Bindi to occur.

You really can tell the difference with whether they like it or not. I find if they're not just looking for warm dark places, or they are, but then they stick their head out, they're enjoying it in at least some sense of the word. When I let my skink go, she dives for the nearest dark place and vanishes. One time she couldn't find anything so she "hid" behind the 1" wide leg of a stool. She clearly prefers to be held or in my clothing.

Wow, Charis is a bit older than Illidan then. I guess she just has a cute little head :lol:.
 
#5 ·
Thank you!! I'm debating whether to call the vet this morning & let them know my concerns or wait until I've switched to fleece and see if it helps at all. I gave her less Wellness meat last night hoping she might eat more of her kibble, but I'm not sure she really did. I need to get it out & measure, but there's still a lot left...

I agree, I really do think she's enjoying it or finds it to be interesting. I was a little worried at first that maybe I would miss some small body language or signals of distress since I'm so new to snakes & reptiles in general, but nothing she does gives off any warning signals to me. She'll jump a little if one of us grabs her to move her if she's not expecting it, but that seems pretty justified. :lol: She doesn't really freak out or get super defensive or upset about it.

Maybe her head is similar to how my ****er spaniel kept her blunt little puppy nose for her whole life? :lol: It was really cute!

Side story - after I posted about Charis biting me on my family Facebook, apparently I freaked several family members out despite my assurances that it honestly was not bad at all, it was my fault, she wasn't aggressive, etc. etc. I've had at least three family members plus my partner keep telling me to be careful, especially with the snake selfie picture. So I finally got annoyed and posted a status pointing out that Bindi's bitten me 5-6 times more than Charis, it hurts more, and she's way more likely to bite me in general than the snake! :lol: Might as well tell me to be careful holding the hedgehog, people! But my snake is not a threat to me, so please stop acting like she's a monster, seriously. Bites happen, it healed in less than a day, and she's still a perfect angel. Though I did also mention that so far no one has told me that my baby is gross, ugly, or creepy, and no one's made comments about how they would hurt or kill her if she was near them, so that's appreciated, at least. I've heard too many stories from snake/reptile owners who have friends & family members think it's okay to say that to them. :( I think everyone on there knows me well enough to know that Charis is also my baby and I would NOT take that well.
 
#6 ·
Omg Kelsey, be careful of hedgie bites, and snake bites, and hermit bites, and mosquito bites, and bee stings, and clowns, and door to door salesmen. I think I covered all major threats in your area.
Common sense says if something bites you over and over, keep it away from things you really don't want bitten. I'm sure that if Charis was biting you everytime you had her out, you would keep her away from your face. It's not like she is a copperhead!
 
#7 ·
Aww your puppy dog sounds like she was adorable!

Ugh, people drive me nuts sometimes. Yes, snake bites can be really awful, but all the commonly kept ones (balls, corns, other small colubrids...) wouldn't be commonly kept if they were dangerous, or even if they hurt all that bad. Hedgehog bites are way worse in comparison. Those little demon teeth are scary. Worse than that is when I upset my parrot. Now THAT hurts! And sometimes she prefers to not let go. My last parrot (only 5 inches tall) punctured my finger to the bone once and then chewed. I know some reptile people who keep massive monitor lizards but won't go near parrots because they're scary :lol:. I don't plan to experience my green tree python's bite. I got to see those teeth when I was force feeding him, and yikes. No thanks. But with my other two snakes, I let them lick my nose and wrap around my face, so that tells you how afraid of their bites I am. My family has just given up warning me, and instead has decided to come watch me feed them.

I'm glad everyone has at least been polite about Charis. Telling you your snake is disgusting is practically the same as telling you your human baby is disgusting. It's just not nice. And those weirdos that need to share the fact that they would kill your pet if it came near them... They worry me. Do they not see that you care for it, and does that not have any weight at all in their minds? When my boyfriend rescued Shaw the Salamander from the pipe plant (he's named after the company) where he works, one of the female employees threatened to stomp on it. She then discussed in great detail how she would like to cut it into small pieces so it didn't look so gross anymore. She's also threatened to hurt ... well, most of my "creepier" pets. So she's never welcome anywhere near me. I'm one of those people who catches and releases tiny spiders in the house though. Or I just say hi and then ignore them :lol:. That drives my arachnophobic other half nuts.
 
#9 ·
He was a little rose crowned conure. He was a rescue, I believe an illegal import, and he was a mess. I only had him 4 years before he passed away from who knows what. Avian medicine and diagnostics have a long way to go. Screaming, biting, feather plucking and mutilation, you name it, he did it. One time he seemingly intentionally snapped a blood feather during rush hour and the vet was an hour away in normal traffic. I loved him to bits, but wow he was a butt. Here's a video of him playing basketball while he was an absolute mess: . He got better gradually, and then when I thought we were through the worst, he passed while I was right beside him. Once second he was fine, and the next he wasn't.

Though I was in contact with a breeder regarding a parrotlet before I decided to rescue. I hear they latch on pretty good.
 
#12 ·
I'm with you on that. Ball python bites are so minor compared to some birds. The little ones can't get anything solid to bite. Only had one big bird that preferred to bite just skin. That was one of my ekkies. But with him it was just one week a month he would do that, and it was only me.

Still to this day, most pain is compared to bird bites. Hedgehog bites aren't even on the scale
 
#13 ·
Yeah, the hedgehog bites seriously hurt more, even though I'm lucky & Bindi doesn't hold on long. I mean, seriously, while I was running water over the cuts from Charis's bite, I was already comparing and contrasting it to other animal bites. :lol: Everything else has hurt worse - hedgehog, turkey vulture, parrots, woodchuck, hermit crab pinches...everything. The parrots were definitely worst, followed by the hermit crab pinch. I've been bitten by an Amazon, a Quaker, budgies (okay, they really weren't bad to me), and a conure. The Amazon was definitely bad. She held on - she was ready to take my finger off. I still feel bad about it, but I actually shoved her off with a branch because I couldn't take it any longer. And then a few weeks after, I had a conure bite the exact same spot. :roll: It belonged to my friend's brother & is highly unsocialized (among other problems...I'm still so tempted to go steal the bird, but they're in Virgina). The Amazon was going for crushing, the conure sliced me pretty good.

Okay, I'm glad I'm not the only weirdo who does comparisons of animal bites. :lol: I knew I found my people on here.

I do hope my family will eventually get used to Charis and stop being so nervous about her. I don't even know if anyone will end up meeting her, as I'm not likely to take her on a road trip to Michigan anytime soon. Depends on if anyone comes to visit me, I guess. Unless someone has an outright snake phobia, I may try to convince them to meet her - I really don't understand how someone could dislike her unless they do have a phobia. Phobias I understand all too well though. And your boyfriend's coworker sounds absolutely awful!!! :-x I don't blame you a BIT for not wanting her anywhere near you or your babies. I'm the same way with spiders, but my roommate is also arachnophobic - they have a general insect/bug phobia, worse with somethings, not as bad with others. It's bad enough they can't even kill most bugs, they just get the heck away from them. We established long before we moved in together that if they have a spider or other bug in their room, they should come get me, even if they have to wake me up. The only thing I can't handle is centipedes...one of my two phobias! If we get house centipedes, we're both living on the street. :lol:
 
#15 ·
Ahhhh nope nope nope. Terrified of them. Millipedes I can handle & suppress the shivers. Centipedes are No Way. I did read a post (I think on Tumblr?) from someone who once got one specifically because they were afraid of them. And they discussed how they learned more about their behaviors & how the centipede would actually move empty insect exoskeletons all to one pile, and would move colored stones & other little things around the enclosure, etc. It was very interesting...but still don't want one anywhere near me!

Also...I meant to mention, and I may add this to my original post so people see it there too. I have an animal-related Tumblr blog - http://fantasticbeastsandhowtokeepthem.tumblr.com/ I try to keep it well-maintained & have my queue set to two posts a day. I have posts about my animals queued up for one a day for at least the next few days still. I also have tags for each of the animals if anyone is only interested in searching for those posts. Other than my pets, I reblog animal pictures, and a lot of animal care & health things. Everything from dogs & cats to birds, reptiles, wildlife, small mammals, etc. Fish stuff too, occasionally. I mostly reblog right now and I'm trying to get better about posting about my own creatures! I plan to post about my bioactive and raw diet research too, once I get going on that again. (Also if anyone doesn't have a Tumblr & just looks through the blog, I apologize in advance because some of the text is screwed up and shows as the same color as the background...no clue why, and I keep meaning to find a better theme!)
 
#16 ·
That's so weird. I can do millipedes too. I actually had that in my last post and took it out. Centipedes are interesting, for sure. But I don't want to own one the way I do with pretty much everything else on the planet.

Ooh I know what I'm doing the rest of the day! :grin:

Edit/Addition: The betta you reblogged a few days ago looks exactly like my first betta, Miso!
 
#17 ·
I married one of those "the only good snake...." People. Growing up we had them as pets, caught them in the wild. In eastern Kansas you could see that being an issue. To me that was normal growing up stuff. Now living in rural Appalachia, I can't teach my boys to go snake hunting, we have too many copperheads.

I am glad other people catch spiders in the house and let them go... It's irrevelant that we let 5 more bugs in while we take the one out.
 
#18 ·
Ashley - for me it's the legs. They stick out so much more with centipedes. Plus centipedes are faster and a lot (all?) of them are carnivorous. At least millipedes are just harmless detritivores and herbivores! And awww, Miso twin! :D

And yeah, Two, I really need to look up the local snakes, what they look like, and what to be careful of before spring & summer get here. I want to start going hiking & such more, but I'm from Michigan. I'm fairly certain Michigan is the tamest state in the country...we don't really have anything big and dangerous (black bears that would rather run away, wolves that are more interested in your dog & cat than you), only two venomous spiders & not in large numbers, and only one venomous snake that is endangered & almost never seen. It's also not aggressive at all & tries to stay away from people. So I don't have much in the way of wilderness skills, unless you count driving in snow. :lol:
 
#21 ·
The snakes are all I'm worried about! I doubt bobcats would come anywhere near a human anyway, and same with coyotes. They seem pretty easy to avoid. We have both in MI too, though very few bobcats. We actually have a huge coyote overpopulation right now and I still never saw them. Snapping turtles I try to help if they need it, as long as they don't eat my hand. :lol: And I have a major water phobia, so I'm not getting in the water with anything anyway. The spiders are a bit iffier - we think we had brown recluse in the basement of the house, but we weren't positive. But my friend's mom was bit by one years ago & they're both very jumpy about them, so we had the exterminator come anyway. I'll definitely be looking up the snakes though!
 
#22 ·
I don't live anywhere near you, but we have coyotes here. I've seen the buggers waiting at the corner to cross the street. More than once. Last year in the middle of the night there was a huge racket outside. My husband went to see what it was. Turned out to be a coyote having a snack from our garbage can. He was only the distance of a garage door away from it. Needless to say, my husband left him to his dinner and we dealt with the mess the next day. And we're in a cute little subdivision. Sort of on the edge of town, but still pretty well developed. They coyotes here are not shy. I'm sure if you see one they'll try to avoid you, but be careful anyway if you're going to be out and about. I'd at least want to have a stout walking stick with me.
 
#23 ·
I've encountered some back home in pretty rural areas that were pretty brave.
Here... We had a family on the farm... The female world stand about 10 feet from us...
Yes coyotes generally would rather leave you be, but you still want to be mindful of them when your out near them.
 
#24 ·
I used to get coyotes back when I lived in the city. There was one in my alley one time and the kids from the neighborhood thought it was a stray dog and were trying to wrangle it. That freaked me out pretty good. It eventually just ran away.

I hear them out here at night but I haven't seen one yet. I won't leave my dog out on his own though just in case. He'd try to start a fight.

I'm jealous about the venomous snakes. We supposedly get rattlesnakes here but I don't know anyone who has ever seen one. And that's it. Everything scary avoids Alberta because it would freeze to death. :lol:
 
#25 ·
Jeeze, good to know. I know I've heard of them being in yards & going after dogs & cats in MI, but I've not heard of them being quite that bold!! Even from friends/family in rural areas.

Come visit me, Ashley, I'll let you go first if we see any venomous snakes!! :Lol: I do think they're gorgeous, but I do admit to being a bit nervous at the thought of encountering one in the wild.
 
#26 ·
I'm so excited! I finally found something my princess likes more than sleeping underneath her litter pan.





I bought it from Petsmart on a whim, thinking it might be low enough to squish her, which seems to be what she's after. She rejected it at first and I was more than a bit disappointed. :lol: But she's been sleeping in it the past three nights!! :D Money well spent!

On a less happy note, I think she still sounds a bit too snuffly & her nose is still wetter than I'd like. :( I think I'm going to call the vet tomorrow after work and let her know and see if I can bring Bindi along when I take Charis in for her first vet appointment on Thursday. She's been on the antibiotics for almost a week & a half, so it seems like she should've had more improvement by now. We'll see what the vet says, I guess. At least she's still eating, running, pooping, all of that good stuff. The probiotics are helping as well, her poop hasn't gotten too bad at all even with the antibiotics.
 
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