The formal introduction!

[the.badger]

Aww thanks guys, how'd I stumble upon such an awesome group of people??

 

[the.badger]

and just wondering with tattooing, how did you get into it? like were did you practice and that?

Haha, age old question!

My partner is a tattoo artist so he started teaching me the technicalities and health and safety issues etc in his spare time. I put an art folio together and went around to some studios and showed them my stuff, landed myself an apprenticeship (no, it's not a real apprenticeship, you don't go to school, you don't get a formal qualification and YOU DONT GET PAID), started practicing on pig skin and then on the derros from the train station who wanted free tattoos, and after a while I was good enough to start charging (thereby getting paid, YAY).

Good times.

 

[the.badger]

I found them on the net. They were just cheap snakes and I like the big ones. The female was a bit skinny but I figured a good feed would solve that. The enclosure was big and cold to spite a 275watt bathroom heat lamp. The first owner kept them out in the shed in nothing more than wardrobe with chicken wire on the back. At least this guy built a enclosure for them and kept them indoors. He had lots of herps before but no snakes. He seemed pretty genuine, but uninformed/misinformed. He was going to a new "live on site" type job.

So I got these snakes home and started to plan a new enclosure for them because this one was to big and impractical. It became more urgent when the male starterd excapeing from the back which was that flimsy wood/cardboard stuff found on cupboards/wardrobes.
I was nearly finished the new one when the electrics died in the old one. So they cooled overnight and it got a little messy, but as I was warming them up again I noticed Bonnie hissing when she moved and yawning a lot, and the hiss didn't sound clear. As said, Clyde started eating but Bon just became reclusive, staying in her hide. So off to the vet and he gave me antibiotics to inject every second day and some F10 which I used in a 1:500 dilution via nebuliser twice a day. Last Sunday she had the fourth and final dose of antibiotics. This week she has still refuses to eat but she comes out of her hide at night and peers out of it during the day (so cute) the way she did when I brought her. The hissing and yawning has stopped also and her breathing sounds clear. Both snakes have had a wonderful shed, (had a bad one just before I got them) and they really look nice. Now we just hope Bonnie eats as she is only 1.9kg. Again, she has only just shed and I will allow a week for her body to get up to speed before taking her back to the vet. The vet mentioned something about possible liver damage and a bad prognosis if this was the case. I am hoping that her improved activity is a sign that the liver is ok.

Any way, I better go to bed.

Wow dude, that's some hard core savior stuff! Way to go. Hope she comes good for ya with no lasting damage. I'll cross my fingers. How's their new enclosure coming along?

So are they smaller than they should be? Like shorter I mean?

It's scary what you see on the trading post sometimes.

 

[daniel1234]

Enclosure is good, needs more decorating but Bonnie and Clyde seem to like it. Yeh I have not really measured them but they are not noticably longer than myself (6ft). Proberbly not to bad for Clyde but Bonnie should be noticably longer, but some one will proberbly ad that coastals range from 6 to 9ft or something. As implied before I did not plan such a rescue but would I do it again? In a heartbeat I think the trip is worth it.

Yeh three foot is small for your MD, mine is comfortably over 2ft (maybe 14 or 15 inches or so) and barely 8 months old. Saw a 2yo advertised once that was 5ft long. Mind you my male still looks like a hatchy and he is apparently a few months older:?.

Hope I'm not hijacking this thread, just answering questions as they're asked.
The comment about pictures is true, we love 'em (well most of us any way), and not just of your herps, some of us would love to see your work also (have been some awsome rep tatts posted recently and other tattoos as well).