Here's what happened at repticon today. Disregard my journal please as it was my original intentions.

When I got there I decided I wasn't going to get the ghost bloodred or the hatchlings I originally intended from the one lady. I said screw it -I can wait. I've got one breeder male coming and I can always prove out hets/genes on my normal boys. So, I began checking around.

I walked around a bit...ALMOST ALMOST brought home a 2011 carpet python that was beautiful. The guy was gonna give me it for $40.00 (had them priced at $50 but because I'm a regular there he offered)....so I told him to keep the one I liked behind the table until I came to a decision. I kept checking out possibilities and I KEPT going back to the ghosts. There were two at one vender - who I have bought from EVERY reptile show now - and then there were two labelled at another vender. The first vender had females - the second had a pair.

So, I'm trying to decide...should I get the boy? Or what? He was $40.00. The female they had was $40.00 and she had my attention too. This is why. My friend,  runninghorsespirit finally showed up and I showed her all the ghosts I was interested in. She literally grabbed the one female I was interested in at the second booth and paid for it without thinking. Wondering wtf just went on (because I had intentions of buying her originally if I didn't find a male I liked), she explained to me...that 'Ghost female" was a Bloodred Ghost. And it was being sold as a simple 'ghost' for $40.00. Only problem we didn't know about until after....it has a slight kink in its spine so it wouldn't be good for breeding.

The male, which she checked out, may just well be the ghost bloodred female's brother...why?? Well, guess what? The male ghost I was interested in is a freaking GRANITE!! Granite is a bloodred anery. The ONLY thing it was missing is hypo and if the female is related..he may have potential to CREATE ghosts. Either way, he was ALSO priced at $40.00! AND he's a boy! So what did I do? I nabbed him up immediately. NO kinks. DEFINITELY is eating since he had a pudgey belly and was in the process of shedding.

I was stunned I managed to grab him for the price of a ghost motley. So far several have confirmed he is indeed a granite.

So what about the other two in the picture?

Here's the other good news. I finally cut down on the hatchlings I was going to keep. Six corn snakes were chosen as well as the last two grey rat snakes to go with me to the vendor I've dealt with in the past. He offered me a trade - roughly $65.00 in credit. I could pretty much choose anything so long as he more or less had more than one.

What were my choices? Few types of adult cali king females, several choices of different morphs of black rats (hypo, albino, hypo albino, albino white side, and leucistics), a sulcata tortouise, or two smaller snakes (various common king snakes, common morph corns, house snakes, etc)...and he even said I could even trade for a rosy boa if I wanted, or any of the sand boas. Of course, the rat snake morphs DID interest me. My eyes were glued to the albino white side but my issue is...NO MORE NEW SPECIES!!! Then my friend pointed out the two motley snakes.

A female ghost motley (possibly hurricane motley), and a hypo motley. Both are females. I asked him if he'd consider that and he said yes! So I ended up essentially trading several corns with hets for two morphs with motley. It really wasn't a bad deal. I cut down on what I have at home and am still going to have less than when I started. =)

So, long story short? GOOD DAY AT REPTICON. MADE OUT LIKE A FUCKING BANDIT AND CUT BACK ON SNAKES WHILE STILL GETTING NEW BLOODLINES :D

Now for introductions. I am a big fan of Anne Rice. I love Queen of the Damned, Vampire LEstat, Vampire Armand, Interview with the Vampire, etc.

I had a boy and two girls to name. Lestat is used WAY too often so I figured I'd call my little granite boy Armand. He's awesome..such a sweetheart (labelled).

I decided to name the hypo motley "Claudia" after the little vampire girl in Interview...and the last one is "Madeleine" aka "Saint"...who is the ghost motley with possible hurricane patterns (can't see all in her pic)....Saint was added only because like four people told me her head markings resembled the saint logo or something. So there you go. Forgot to mention that Armand is a smaller 2010 and the other two are this year's babies.

They are awesome. I love their temperaments and markings. Tomorrow I have one final pick-up because the guy didn't show today and that's for my male that is breedable this season. I'll toss up pictures tomorrow when I get him. I may also be selling a few more rats so that'll be nice.

AND I STILL GOT MY FROZEN FOOD :D :D :D

It all worked out. I ended up not getting what I originally intended but its worth it. No more worrying about placing the snakes...got a few new ones in that'll be great to work with in the future, and starting to dig further into the bloodred line. :D YAY!

Maybe next time I will consider black rat morphs...That albino white-sided was absolutely beautiful..