He is 13 years old and loves to flop onto my eyes for some reason. He also loves hair and hiding, even hiding in hair. My youngest son could be called 'curly' and he has a lot of it. Pancho is known for hiding in the nest of curls. I could not hide a caterpillar in my locks.
Last post was about Goldie the 7 year old Albino Burmese Python and this post is about her best friend Pancho.
This picture depicts Pancho playing on the 'tender' which is a thing used to dry clothes. There was some reflected sunlight coming in the window while he was playing there and I decided to try and capture his most beautiful feature - his iridescence!
Though he is tan, brown and beige, he turns every color of the rainbow when in direct sunlight. It is too frigid to take him to the park right now, but I saw enough of his iridescence to warrant a post today. The bright light made me want to highlight it.
It is hard to capture in photos because, like a diamond, you need to move your head to see the brightest flashes of color. This one shows his eyes and how the pattern of his colors goes right through the iris. In bright sunlight, his eye narrows to just an up and down slit. In the evening, his eye is nearly all black as the pupil is exposed.
For those who think snakes are disgusting, wet or slimy, I would like to inform you that they play on the clean clothes and leave nothing behind. They are as dry as a leather coat. Each scale is separate, but part of one full body skin covering. I think I talked about snake skin a bit when I was caring for Goldie who was burned over 60% of her body. She is all healed up now but her scales are not perfect. She is a klutz and finds many ways to injure herself.
For those who feel that snakes are just too dangerous to have as pets, I have been breeding them for the last thirty years, including a period of 7 years in a row selling baby Boa Constrictors. The first clutch was 32 and the largest was 55 with a couple of abnormal babies. One was like a runt, and it just stayed small for years, it grew but very slowly. I am just saying, I know snakes and they only attack at meal time or when they are cornered or harmed. Incidentally, we are not considered food until they are big enough to swallow us whole.
My snakes are around children who pass them from one to the next. Goldie has bitten several times, but only when someone smells like raw meat. If one has not been cooking or playing with a hamster, she will not bite them. If the reverse is true, biting a sure thing. Pancho has never bitten anyone. He is a bit jumpy when you get close to his face, but he is very tolerant. Many hundreds of people have held him at parties, in the streets, and mostly at the parks. I never worry about him biting or squeezing too hard. He loves humans.
Pancho eats full size rats which I buy frozen every couple of months. Goldie eats rats too, but she learned to eat any kind of raw meat including chicken, rib-eye steaks, brisket, turkey legs or even sashimi, I had to feed her very small prey when her skin was healing.
I am planning a post about letting them roam free in my office after 'child proofing' it. Until next time.
馃悕 Snake love to all! 馃悕
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