True to Myself

I have been dreading revealing to my blog readers about a part of my household that not everyone sees. In our basement my husband keeps his business/hobby of raising/breeding snakes. People ask me many questions about this and here are some of the most popular questions: 1. Do you like snakes? Yes, but they are not my favorite animal. I prefer furry animals. 2. Do they ever get loose? Yes, doesn't any pet sometimes get loose? Being in the basement has it's advantages namely, the snakes stay down there! They are actively searched for if one gets loose because they are a source of money and part of a business. We have lived in this house for six years and have never had a snake come upstairs that was lost in the basement. 3. Do you have nightmares of snakes? Once in a while, but they aren't bad. 4. Do you let your kids handle them? Yes, they love snakes and the older two are able to help out with cleaning the cages and giving them water. They are paid for their work and know it is much easier than getting a paper-route. They keep track of their time and are paid by the hour. They only work when they want too. 5. Do you have any poisonous snakes? No, it is illegal to have them in Utah without a special permit. 6. Do you hold them? Yes, occasionally I do if I am showing them to someone. 7. How big is your largest snake? About 8-9 feet long. 8. What types do you have? Many different types. Rubber Boas, Rosy Boas, Arizona Mountain King snakes, Dumeral boas, Brazilian Rainbow boas (my personal favorite), Corn snakes, Gopher snakes, garter snakes, Red-tailed boas and many subspecies. Many have special color patterns and are bred for their potential color patterns. 9. What do you feed them? Mice, rats, guinea pigs, mostly frozen, but a few are fed live mice. Ryan breeds our mice in a shed in our backyard. Otherwise, it would cost about a thousand dollars a month to feed the snakes if we didn't breed our own mice. The frozen rats and guinea pigs are ordered in from a huge rodent breeding company called Rodent Pro. So, now that all of this is off my chest, I hope I didn't scare away all of my friends that are just now reconnecting with me. I went 9 months without saying much on this topic. I don't intend to post a bunch of snake pictures since I'm not really that interested in it and I don't think people who read this blog are either! But, to be on the safe side, I am posting a picture of some missionaries that came to dinner last Sunday and got a personalized tour of the basement. They are holding a baby dumeral boa. They think we are a pretty cool family and want to come back and see more. I just had an air conditioner service guy come and he wanted to see more of the snakes but I said we need to wait until Ryan is home.

This next photo is of a Leopard Gecko. They are the coolest little things. Very pretty for a non-furry animal! We do have more of these little guys and will be selling some at our Utah Reptile Expo in October.

Now, to leave on a more pleasant note- here are a couple of photos of the roses on my rose bush. They are taken from the same photo.