the Fires here at Poppycorns

[poppycorn]

All of the Fires here are products of South Mountain Reptiles (Don Soderberg). First up is Habanero, who has been an absolute delight to raise up and watch blossom. He will be going back home to Don where he can be the sire of many wonderful projects where maximum diffusion is part of the mix.


Although Habanero is going home to Don, my booty from the same clutch is this fellow and I do not feel deprived in the least. He is so RED! I haven't come up with a name for him yet, for now we just call him "the Red Boy".


Here is the female I got to keep from the fire clutch. She is missing her parietal scale, the one between the eyes. It's genetic, and I think it's neat. It looks like the blaze on a horse's face. So her name is, obviously, Blaze. She'll be plenty big enough to breed this coming season and I am torn between breeding her to Red Boy and going for very very red or getting Habanero back on breeding loan and selecting for very very diffused.




This photo shows her "blaze" better. It was taken in early June, and you can see how much she has colored up since then.


Next up is Strawberry, my 2005 male fire. He is the father of all this year's bloodred projects, including the fire x sunglow stripe hets. A beautiful, gentle snake who gets more richly colored with each shed.


An, although she's not a fire, she's bloodred het fire. This is Wild Cherry, my '05 female who I nearly lost to egg binding this year. She was bred to Red Boy, who was only about 100 grams at the time and she was nearly 450g, full of eggs. She held really still while he tried to mate with her but he was so small no way could he reach as long as he insisted on slithering up near her head. So he kept biting her in frustration and all the while it was his own fault! But the eggs were too big and I couldn't save any of them and ultimately only Don's skill saved her. She is such a sweetheart she never fought or retaliated during all the procedures we used to get the eggs out. She just looked at me with pleading eyes that said "you're my keeper, I'm trusting you to help me". We'll try her again with Red Boy this spring.

When I ordered her, I told Don I wanted one just like the one on the white rock on his website. She's finally turning that lovely maroon and here is my attempt to replicate his photo.

[Joanna]

Marsha,

These snakes are absolutely gorgeous! I am so glad all your hard work paid off. I can't wait to see the babies you get in a couple of years. Your collection is growing more and more spectacular every day.

[desertanimal]

That last one is quite a beautiful girl!

[Jessicat]

Wow, your background is amazing! It looks like a never ending field! Beautiful pictures of absolutely STUNNING snakes!

Wonderful project!

[desertanimal]

I agree. I'm always impressed by Poppycorn's backgrounds. She also has that one that looks like a dark lava-type rock. Would you mind talking about your photo techniques/props a little? I would really love to shoot photos of my snakes that remotely resemble yours.

[midnightline]

She is missing her parietal scale, the one between the eyes. It's genetic, and I think it's neat.

Really? Is it recessive or dominant, do you know? Has anyone metioned this to Chuck yet? (Mebbe you can get your snake pictured in the morph guide!)

Very cool snakes, BTW.

[vanderkm]

Very stunning group of snakes - great color and great photos,


mary v.

[Jessicat]

Hey Marsha, I'm just curious.. why are you giving Habanero back to Don? Did you guys work out a special arrangement from the begining, or did you just give him an update and he asked for Habanero back?

[Tom Thompson]

Great looking group! Hope you have a successful season!

[Serpwidgets]

I can't tell for sure from looking at the pics, I was wondering if it's an actual missing scale or if it's just missing pigment there?

I expect that it's possible, through selective breeding, to eventually get a "blaze" type marking like the white area on the foreheads of dogs and horses and such.

(Horse markings - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)