My trip went very well, i won´t go into details for fear of boring you but i found many ammonites, numbers in the hundreds and some special finds.
An ammonite chamber that is comprised of green calcite ( a type of crystal)
An excellently preserved crinoid (sea lilly)
And some Icthysaur vertebrae
please see the pics

The worst has happened during a house move my cornflake disappeared. I looked everywhere but alas 2 weeks later i moved again and thus she is lost. It really shook me but i try not to think on iy too much.

I spent the last week in shropshire/wales looking at all sorts of palaeoenvironments and various fossils not to mention lots of wildlife. Including a few common lizards which despite there name are quite rare, amoungst the ancient i saw and collected some trilobites and some orthocones which are a first for me.
more soon.....

Lots of coursework and revision so i'm afraid not much time for writing articles on stuff i promise they'll start coming soon.

Well i just realised that i have learned an awful lot these last two years at uni and that very soon i will be able to be called an actual palaeontologist well i supose i'm one now but i can but BSC next to my name which is awesome................ anyway onto stuff that may actually interest you,i love all life on the planet, it all interests me well apart from zooplnakton bored the hell out of me but everything else.  The history of our planet and the changing inhabitants is pact full of interesting beasties.  anywhoo i'll possibly be posting a few articles on bits and bobs but more importantly ask! if something or some creature has confused you for years just ask,....now i don't pretend to know anything i have barely tickled the surface and what i right on hear is in no way a scientific text just trying to be interesting.Oh P.S. I will be doing my dissertation field excursion this summer so if your lucky you'll be able to see me scouring the beaches of charmouth and lyme regis and other less known locations near by, don't be scared just say hi and although i'll be busy my ego normally gets the best of me and no doubt i'll help you dig out a little treasure.P.S.S if you are goin to charmouth please for the love of god do not hire a hammer you'll destroy more than you'll find with out knowing what your doing  swear a little bit of me dies when i see some people hacking at rocks.i'll be putting up some of my drawings soon as well.

I was going to create a group about this but looking around at the support for these sorts of ideas on this site i decided to place a little article here to save people's feelings.  Firstly i am an atheist, you can either hate me for this as i assure you alot of people do, or not care either way.  A common myth is that us atheists believe in nothing.  Ultimatly this is not the case those people are called nialists.  Anyway I believe in reason, logic and careful scientific study of everything around us to bring oneself to a logical conclusion.  I spend hours a day in a lab going through dust with a microscope helping to give my thoughts on various stages on the life of our planet.  Thus when someone turns round and without a shed of proof says some ethical being clapped it into existence i don't take my work being brushed aside to well.  And i have been called a heathen once or twice.Anyway to the matter at hand.  I saw the artical on homeopathy and just couldn't keep my mouth shut.  I fully respect peoples beliefs but i don't except their reasoning.  Firstly the whole principle of this medicine was dreamed up in the middle ages the idea being you could counter ailments with small amounts of a diluted substance which caused them.  For instance snake venom caused swelling but when diluted in "magical" water it cures swelling.  Twisted logic but at the time it was acceptable.  But today????  Secondly has anyone one actually looked at the dilution factor on any of these bottles.  I'm not going to bombard you with maths but it equates to one drop of substance in the ocean.  That means you are not getting one molecule of the actual cure in the water in your bottle.  You are effectivly drinking very expensive water.Mad??? It certainly is.But what annoys me more than anything is the fact that there is not a shred of scientific proof for it.  And if you ask anyone high up in any of the companies they will not be able to give you a sensible reason why it works, it just "does" supposedly.Don't get me wrong i don't agree with any of these things, aromotherapy, astrology etc all just as barmy.But what really angers me to high heaven is when real genious' spend hours in a lab developing drugs that work, and possibly save lives but at the very least improve our lives ten fold.  Imagine where we'd be if instead of discovering pennicilin he decided to just go sod it and give homeopathy a try. The world would be very different indeed.  Please use your head, take what works and say thankyou at the same time.I'm not trying to be preachy but no one sees the effort behind the scenes of any scientific movement, the problem is science is no longer trendy it doesn't go in any of the glossy mags.  But it accounts for your very computer, your light your heat every part of our lives took someone a lifetime of devotion to develop."There are two things you can do when you see a light in the sky, believe them to be fairies or travelers from a different world and tell everyone your tale and be much loved.  Or you can get a telescope and find that its a comet, be utterly boring and be despised by everyone. - Which way is easier and which is the way we choose?For all slaves to reason out there.

 Plato is actually a girl.  So much for my knowledge of snakes :)She laid eggs so i feel wrong giving her a male name, and well... the snake doesn't exactly care so i'm changing it to shake, so i now have a corn flake and a milk shake, lol.Made me giggle anyway but probably because i've been shut indoors all summer due to lack of money.

Well thought i would move into the 21st century and make a few videos on my reptiles ;).  This ones on Cornflake, just to show you how calm and placid she is.

I have added loads more pictures so make sure you view them as they won't all show on the main page.

Today being a wonderful day i decided to give all the reptiles a swim around the bath.  It all started to just let them drown any critters they have on them and at the same time clean those scales.  Anyway i did the usual whereby i fill the bath with enough water to swim in for the snakes, and they did their usual.  Plato speed off the moment he hit the water and launched himself out at the overflow, then pulling himself out, after 2 minutes of this we both got tired so i put him back.  I think its 5-0 to Plato on baths at the moment.  Anyway Flake went next and she did her usual, swimming quite happily round and round until she gets bored and swims over to me like a kid would asking to be pulled out.   SO anyway i bet your thinking "what has this got to do with the title?" well i'll tell you.  Next came the geckos and being a desert species i try not to do too much with them when water is involved but i like to give them the oppurtunity so what i do is i fill the bath with a very small amount of water and as all baths are sloped it creates an almost beach effect, so the little geckos can go in or stay out of the water as they wish.  In they went and no problems the little one and the one that is sort of known as art gecko (names are still coming as i like to see what their personalitys turn out like)  were very happy at knee depth in the lovely warm water basking away.  But as we know all pet collections have somewhat of a black sheep, that rebel that just doesn't think and has to be different.  Well the gecko we now call guttsey because it eats all the food and is about twice the size of the others is said black sheep.  As i stand aside scrubbing pooh and god knows what out of tanks i see said gecko go charging into the water making a direct line for the deep end.  Now geckos can't swim very well as they have very inflexible tales which don't move and little legs so they sort of just float.  So he seems happy enough so i continue what i'm doing. THEN all of a sudden i hear this little squeak coming from the bath so i tumble over and the fat little gecko is thrashing around like mad clearly just realising its feet can no longet touch the bottom, so i reach in and grab the little guy and he makes no attempt at wriggling free, which is a first.  The squeaking then changed into well if you've ever heard baby crocadiles call to their mother i can only say it was very similar. Well this got me thinking, gecko's are stupid, in the eyes of the world supposedly barely a light on in that little brain, they are solitary and have no parental system so babies have to fend for themselves, yet this gecko definatly called for me as it obviously realised i was the only thing that could save it.  yet it shouldn't do that in the wild squeaking wouldn't do it any good at all and ive never heard of them being vocal at all i mean NEVER they  are supposed to communicate through tail movement.  So this gecko not only asked for help but also figured out the way of catching my atention and i would respond to.  This all freaks me out as now i think there is more going on inside those tiny skulls than we give them credit for .  Is this the same for all animals, do we underestimate them?  I think so and i'm guessing they really do learn from watching us.

The other day i moved back home from uni with my large manajory of animals, only to my horror realising that i had forgotten the snakes mice.  So i thought that it was no problem and immediatly set off to find a pet shop.  My first stop was pets at home which i hadn't set foot in for about 8 years maybe.  Wow had it changed virtually no exotic pets apart from some hermit crabs which i found a bit random.  I asked the girl working there where the frozen mice chest was and she just looked at me like i was an alien.  Now i remember years ago when said store was under many different names like pet city, petsmart etc there used to be a limitless array of weird and wonderful pets and no problem in acquiring food for them.  Now pah have come under a lot of slack and pressure to change due to poor animal care of which i have no quarrel with as they deserved it.  But has this caused pet stores to become paranoid in a sense?  Well i continued my search and i visited 5 pet stores i remebered from my youth all of which were devoid of their old stock and merely a pet accessory store in my eyes rather than a pet shop.  So i had to travel a long way out to a place where i new they had exotic pets and the necerssary supplies.  Even they were sporting only a few tanks of geckos and corn snakes.  I found all this saddening in a way as i rember not all to long ago when i was young (er) and the joy and amazement that was felt when we went on a visit to the pet shop.  And if i was good my parents would ask the man at the store if i could hold say one of the snakes.  It really started my passion for these animals.  But now it seems a witch hunt has begun, and please don't mistake these words for support of bad animal care as i know of and strongly oppose what used to take place in some stores.  But have we gone to far, are we scaring the good ones into changing their tack?If this one store changes then i will be forced to go further and further afield to feed my animals ultimatly affecting them as i no longer have a choice about the quality of their food.So good or bad you decide.Thankyou

Well i thought it was about time i posted something since i've been a bit quiet of late.  Being the end of the student year i've had exams and a lack of money has caused a lack of alcohol which is just awful.Anyway all the animals are back in Derby and doing well although as the geckos age its becoming clear that the breeder probably gave me three girls and not 2 and 1 boy.  I don't know!  Plato's doing fine after his little great escape and we (when i say we i mean him) have hours of fun trying to convince him the mouse is his dinner not my fingers.  Cornflake is doing well her usual tame self and thats about it really.Oh and on to serious things.  The summer seems to be fast approaching and so will the activity of Britains snakes.  So be on the look out, people who have big natural ponds don't mistake the grass snake for an adder, they do look a different the grass snake has a greener appearence and has a distinctive yello collar.  Adders will mainly stick to dry grassland but if you think you do see one remember they have the zig zag pattern going down their back.  Just leave them alone and they'll go eventually best not to antagonise them.  Just remember they aren't there on purpose to bite you they just like to lay in the sun.  Oh and count yourself lucky i go looking for them and i've only seen an adder twice and a grass snake once but that ad been caught so probably doesn't count.Till next time.

Petstreet seems to have gotten a bit stale recently i know i haven't been actively participating as much but from the exotic pets side i havent noticed anyone activly posting for some time, i hope it picks up.Well i'm going to try and get my snake factsheet finished and maybe one on leopard geckos although my experience is fairly limited i tend to absorb all info i read or hear so it should still be helpful.

yes he has been found and the joy!! I really had given up but something just possesed me today to get up and search again.  Low and behold i lift the circuit breaker board out and i see a tail disappear behind the board into the dry wall.  Well much careful chisseling later we came upon a stale mate Plato was jammed in good and tight but i had hold of his tail and would not loose him again.  Well i think he was cold and hungry and thought his tank wasn't bad after all so he let go and within 5 minutes had eaten a mouse and culred up on hid sleep mat.  Amazing he's been there a week and i never saw him.Well this is a major topic really as i'm a strong believer in that your not a hardened snake keeper until you've had an escape.  I have had a few minor ones during cleaning but never a full blown great escape.  Well i think it important for people to be able to "track" their snakes should they escape so i'll probably post a few pointers up on here in a few days when its not the middle of the night and when 'm not covered in dust and plaster from excavating a snake.Until then.

Well none of my make shift traps and lures have worked in capturing Plato, plus there are no signs of him around the house.  It looks like he's gone under the floorboards or somehow gotten outside.  Being an old house theres just a thousand unreachable places he could have gone.  Its horrible as everything i know about snakes is exausted i suppose in situations like this you need that little bit of luck and i just haven't got it.  Being summer it may be warm enough to sustain him but if he's stuck somewhere...... well its probably to late he's been gone a week plus.  Well Lost but not forgotten.Raise a glass to Plato one hell of a pet.

The knightmare has happened! During clean out today Plato's tank was empty.  No broken lock no gaps, just an empty secure cage.  Puzzling as well as distressing i've torn the house apart to no avail.  It is a sad day and not a good start to the bank holiday.  Not holding on to much hope as he could be anywhere.

Why not keep snakes?

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Well there
are many reasons why snakes make good pets and I will try to outline a few.

 

Compact

It may seem
a strange thing to suggest but they really are. 
Most “beginner friendly” snakes can live quite happily in a 3 ft long
vivarium.  This means they won’t take
over your house like some other pets.

 

Silent

They make
almost no noise, and being generally nocturnal animals (with the exception of
some species) this means they can be housed in bedrooms and not keep you up all
night like hamsters and other rodents. 
It is worth noting that snakes are generally nocturnal but with a
daytime feeding schedule your snakes can learn to be more active during the day
or more usually the evenings.

 

Clean

Snakes are
clean creatures since they have a slow metabolism they only excrete probably
once a week.  If the faeces are cleaned
out as they happen there will be no smell at all and the tank can be cleaned
out once a month.  Snakes are also
hypoallergenic so anyone that is particularly allergic to cats, dogs or any
other furry animals might want to consider snakes as a pet.

 

Completely Tameable

This is
truer for some species than others but most popular species such as the Corn
snake are tameable.  Snakes have a fairly
primitive brain in comparison to dogs and cats and will never show true
affection for the owner.  However they
will respond to certain factors.  For
instance my Corn snake will happily curl up on my lap, not because she feels
affection for me but because she knows I won’t hurt her and she feels safe and
more importantly warm on my lap.  The
same is said for my scent; my snakes know what I smell like and will come out
from hiding when I enter the room as they identify my scent with feeding
time.  So as you can see snakes will
respond to you like any animal but it is important not to misinterpret this as
emotion etc.

 

Cost

Most people
I have met think buying and keeping snakes will cost an arm and a leg.  This could not be farther form the truth.  A corn snake hatchling and set up could cost
you under £100.

Upkeep is
unbelievably low no injections to pay for and no overly special requirements
like the latest filter etc like you would need for fish.  About 50 pence YES 50 pence a week for food
and a slight amount of electricity for heating.

 

Educational

 Unusual pets that will captivate younger and
older owners alike they can help teach us about the world around us and help
squash the image of snakes being relentless blood-thirsty killers which is
total rubbish.

Beautiful

They really
are just search on the internet for Corn snakes they come in more colours than
cars do (Perhaps slightly over exaggerated).

 

 

 

 

Bad points

I do have
to mention if you can’t face the idea of feeding your snake frozen thawed mice
then snakes aren’t for you.  Alternatives
can be found in the form of what are called snake sausages but I do not agree
with these as they aren’t a natural diet.

 

What are the best species to start with?<

YAY!The geckos have arrived still tiny at the mo but so much fun hehe.The male is so active and curious i keep forgetting he's a lizard he hasn't gone to sleep yet like the others.Its going to many months till breeding age but i'll keep you posted.

Just got word after my last post from another breeder, i now have my male leopard gecko :) big smiles

Well found a female gecko from a breeder thats of breeding age and weight so just got to find a male.very exciting i'll keep you posted once and if any babies are on the way  ;)

Well Plato ate his dinner and seems to have kept it down. AND he shed last night and it was perfect all in one piece.  Im baffled how that happened with condition his skin was in but ones again he seems to be on a recovery, amazes me.

Well the ordeal continues.  Plato has been a sickly snake ever since i got him or rescued him from a very unsavoury condition in a petshop.  But now i fear the end maybe nigh.  A respitory infection has basically sprung up out of no where and has left him coughing and gasping for air that as well as very dry skin which i cannot cure with humidity due to his bad chest and i have a feeling the mites are back but no real proof yet.Hmmmmmpf Gonna be a tough one, going to get some anti - bios from the vets for him but don't know i just gotta bad feeling about this.

Every now and again when feeding i like to see if i can get my snakes to constrict their food as they would if it were alive (just to clarify i feed them frozen thawed mice) i just think this gives them a bit of a work out.  I do this by grabbing the mice with tweezers and wriggling them near the snakes to imitate movement.Now i'm always wary when doing this with Plato as he is very eager but hasn't got the best aim.  He always strikes at his food even when i just leave it lying there as normal but he has been know to headbutt the wall of his vivarium as he trys and fails to hit the mouse.  So when going through the constricting motions as it were i do occasionaly have a very confused milk snake hanging of my hand with a look that says "Hmmm this doesn't taste right" bless him he tries.Cornflake on the other hand is twice as hilarious, i did it for the first time with her the other day as i don't do it when their to young as they can fall in love with it and insist on a wriggly mouse every week.  So i wriggled the mouse and she crawled over had a sniff and then very gently put her mouth on it, well when she felt the mouse wriggle she looked positively offended she let go and just stared at it.  Then tryed again but this time what should have ended with her coiling around the mouse to give it a squeeze turned into a tug of war that ended in me giving up and her with a full tummy. Ha no fooling her into excersise.

I was just re reading the welfare act to see if there was anything that would effect reptiles specifically and one sentence caught my eye " No animal should be housed in view of a predator" potentially very important as countless owners and pet stores alike keep lizards for example in cages above those of snakes.  I've read through it a few times and hadn't caught this just shows how careful you have to be.I don't do this as it can cause countless problems in both prey and predator but lots of people do as they so no danger or problems but this is going to be law soon so be careful  checkout Rosie's page for links to the act etc.

I noticed something in plato the other day that all reptile keepers dread, he was spending all his time in his water bowl, oh o i thought and quickly pulled him out and checked the water. Sure enough drowned in the bottom where several tick sized mites.  I don't know how he got them but i knew i had to be quick and i moved him and his tank into quarantine straight away got on the net and ordered some treatment.  Unfortunatly Corn flake had already got them as well and being a baby it looked a lot worse.  Mites are bad news for captive snakes as they have no where to run and quickly get overun by the little suckers which can carry many diseases.  I immediatly began my old treatment, covering the snakes in vegetable oil for 30 minutes then soaking them in warm water with a little soap to break up the oil.  The oil coats the snake suffocating the mites but i makes sure to bath them shortly after as we don't want to clog the snakes scales.  Disenfectated the tanks and two days later although not in the clear the snakes look a lot happier and i'll use the treatment to finish any lasting mites off.  However it was feeding time last night and i awoke this morning to a smell all snake keepers dread.  REGURGE yes Plato had thrown up his mouse which is one of the worst things that can happen! So now i've got to go through the very careful feeding schedule for a regurge which generally takes six weeks to get back to normal its that bad.  I hope its not caused by a transmitted disease from the mites!Wish him well.

Another common question  thouht i would answer.There is no fixed answer it depends entirely on what you want out of your new pet, however there are some species which are popular with the novice due to temperament and ease of care.Num 1.  Corn snake Elpha guttata guttata.This is the most popular novice keepers snake for a few reasns.  A Great temperament.  Corn snakes are usually very tame, inquisitive, active and are gentle. However as always with any animal you get the nasty one that just seem to be on a vendetta to bite your arm off so check the animal thouroughly when you purchase it.  They aren't fussy when it comes to their tank room humidity is fine and they need a standard heat mat at one end and a couple of hides and a water dish. Simple.Finally they are as common as Labradors their are breeders everywhere so they are generally easy and cheap to buy and come in many different colours but generally these are just different albinos.Disadvantages - Not small snakes at 3 years old they are 4-5ft long not massive for a snake as they aren't very wide but they do need a 3 ft long vivarium at this length.Num 2. Kingsnake (many different species)Very similar to the cornsnake but a little bigger and slightly more skittish, i would stick to the cornsnake.Num 3. Pueblan milksnake.  A species related to the king snake but only grow to 3ft in length making them smaller than the corn snake.  They are also very brightly coloured (just look at Plato).  Being smaller they need a 2ft tank and the same conditions as corn snakes. They also have a great temperament if a little skittish.Disadvantages are they are very small as hatchlings making them hard to feed and are very skittish when young so you generally have to buy them as adolescents which is a little more expensive.Num 4 Royal/ball pythonI've never had one of these so i can't say to much however they grow big to about 6ft in length and are a lot thicker and more stronger than the others.  They need a large enclosure and have larger heads so if you get taged by one it will sting that little bit more.  Basically as you can tell i'm not a big fan of suggesting these snakes for beginners as they are the ones you fined dumped in boxes.  They're the ones you read about where the owner bought a tiny hatchling and ended up with a big snake they can't cope with.Hope this helps and if anyone wants more info you know where to ask.

Ok so quiz number one was answered so lets see if we can make it a bit harder.What is the longest OFFICIALY recorded snake.I can bet on what people are going to say so be careful common knowledge isn't always correct.

Thought i would post some questions about snakes and see if anyone can answer.Today's question what are the names of the three Uk snakes i'm guessin everyone knows 1 and possibly 2 but as for the third be careful there is a snake imposter out there.

I was just casually watching a holiday programme where a goup of british tourists were on a tour somewhere.  They were all perfectly happy until the guide said they may see the odd snake.  Well most of them nearly laid eggs they looked that scared and eyes were suddenly flung to the ground expectant of some hissing killer.  All the tourists were British as well which is even weirder as we only have 3 snakes ONLY 1 of which is venemous and no matter what you hear it is not deadly the Adder's venom cannot usually kill, i say usually, as with all venom like bee stings some people can react badly to the venom.  Only the elderly and the very young are in any real danger.Any way why do we fear snakes so badly?Well they have always come under hard press i mean what tricked eve into eating the apple? Yup a snake.But most of all i blame hollywood! We all heard and proberbly saw a certain film last year where there was a plane with snakes on it (no i'm not going to name it :)) which procede to kill, mame and generally savage the passengers.  I don't have to stress to you that it is such a load of rubbish.  I personally shouted at all my friends that came back singing it's praises i mean it wasn't meant to be an accurate film but i mean for any of you that are afraid of it happening to you,  snakes can't stay active in the cargo hold they can't generate body heat so they would geyt very cold and go to sleep.  Venomous snakes will only bite as a last resort as they need they're venom to kill prey.  It's not just snakes either spiders /tarantulas and because they can't look at you in the eye and tilt there head like a puppy would they aren't seen as "cute".  (deep breath)Well enough ranting i just hope that the most of you, if one day you are on holiday and someone mentions snakes don't jump up a tree in fright.  No look down and see if you can see one as more than likely you'll catch one just happily sitting in the sun and if you just look you'll see how beautiful and un scary they are.

This is a question i hear a lot! And it is usually followed by "I bet its alot".  Well no its not in fact it is far less than what people pay for pedigree dogs and cats or most other pets.  Well yo prove this i'll run through the costs.  A baby corn snake you can basically buy for between 30 to 130 pounds for some of the more common colours These are very varied and there are some beautiful ones.  Just in case any one is wondering a Pueblan milksnake like plato would cost 80 pounds generally as they are sold at 1 year plus usually as they are a bit tricky to look after as hatchlings.  Any way we have our snake we need something for him to live in.  Now there are many starter kits available that are cheap but you will have to change these as the snake grows, we must remember that they will grow to an average of 4 to 5 feet maybe 6.  So i recommend buying a hand made vivarium these are generally wood with sliding glass doors and you can generally pick one up off ebay for about 50 + pounds.  These must be 6ft long as this is what the snake will need as an adult.  This will last the snake its life.  So what goes in the viv? Well you need as a minimum is a UTH heat mat.  This sits under one end of the viv providing a warm area for the snake DO not use a heat lamp these are for lizards.  A water dish is also needed and you need to provide two hides these can be purchased or be simply to shoeboxes one at each end of the viv so the snake can move between hot and cold areas.  Adequate substrate is also needed i recommend aspen bedding but do not use sand or pine or cedar chips.  Thats it your basic viv you can add decoration i would say it would be a good idea to buy some cork branches for the snake to rub on when it's shedding but is not compulsary. so lets add up the cost it comes to about 100 pounds give or take luxuries.  So not overly expensive really oh and about 40p a week to maintain.Any questions you have or advice you need on purchasing or maintaining your snake just ASK.

This is Plato my 3 year old Pueblan Milksnake.  Beautiful!  They really are stunning snakes and are smaller than corns so do make good first snakes. But caution there are many species of milk snakes that grow to 6 feet or more so make sure its a Pueblan these critters get to 3 feet in all. Oh and an older one may be better as hatchlings can be a bit nippy this doesn't hurt as they have tiny teeth but can be off putting. Thery are more shy than corns and are cannabilistic so never house them together!Soon i am going to post up some great places to get vivariums and how to fit it out on a budget snakes don't need fancy hides in some cases a cardboard shoebox will satisfy them for instance and you can pick up a vivarium for les than you might think.The place i got him from really did not keep him correctly and had ,many adult snakes housed in hatchling tanks, lucky i bought him before he grew i see this alot and wish for sterner regulations came in for the sale of these creatures.  But i fear this would cause even more people to be denied these wonderful pets.Anyway he's spoilt rotten now :).Oh and they're some pics but you have to click the view all link.

I am setting up this blog to answer any questions or concerns people may have abut keeping snakes.  I do not pretend to be an expert but have read so much (proberbly too much) stuff on snakes i am of some use ;).Being a misunderstood animal thanks to many a horror film i want to help answer any questions people may have.  So come on, ask me a question no matter how trivial, whether it is to do with advice on purchasing a snake or just curiosity and i'll do my best to answer. If i don't know or can't find the answer i know a magnitude of places to point you in the direction of.