WIth the success of the hide boxes we are making the need for some new sizes has become apparent.  Definitely one of those things that took off better than I could have hoped for and the current “small” is just a tiny bit too small for balls and boas once they are several weeks old.  Of course, the medium is way too big for them-can’t win.  I like the mini ones real well for the colubrids.  Lasts them till they are about out of a shoebox so they have worked out well.  Pretty ideal for juvi-mid sized leopard geckos as well.   We have already introduced the XL size in the last week or so and I have the new small hide being made next week.  Hopefully I will have them up next weekend.  I will have a couple of hundred in time for Daytona which is the target date.  Looks like we will have to shuffle names aound some-the current small is going to be the “mini” and the new one the “small”.  Should create a good amount of confusion for me to unravel but that’s what keeps this fun!  I think/hope that will do it on the hides.  Should be something for about everyone then. 

Building show displays all week.  Not my favorite task, in fact it is about as tedious as anything can do.  With Daytona coming everybody needs them though and Neil Golli being his usual self has sold several.  That guy makes me work too much.  Frank came up with a few nice ideas on something new that we can try out that should look pretty nice and be a bit less costly than the traditional 3 tier acrylic setup.  Looking forward to trying it out.  Got it pretty well into the CAD software so with a little more tweaking we can give it a try next week.  Got to finish up the ones in progress and get the misting system display for Daytona cut up and built as well.   Oh yeah, also got to finish up the new ABS cages as well. 

Speaking of Neil, he has gone a done it now.  Hatched Cinnybees and super cinnys, killerbees and all manner of crazy stuff.  Kind of makes me sick!  Not sure I will be able to talk to him anymore……..most disappointing - www.gollireptiles.com

That time of year.  About everyday when I check the incubator or snake room something is either laying or hatching.  Been so busy I have been somewhat out of the loop.  Found two “surprise” clutches last night.  One from a Leucistic TX rat and another from a normal female ball to a Mojave male. 

Ball clutches seem to be all over the map this year.  Was talking to Stu about it and he has had the same thing.  Normal I have them all clustered together in a 2 month period and most are hatched by Daytona.  This year I am still waiting on one or two to lay and also have hatching’s already out.  Strange critters.  Hard to predict what they will do sometimes.  About when you have it down to a science.

I have certainly hit the odds on both morphs and sex ratios this year.  4 out of 5 spiders, 2.3 het albinos -though the poss het mother didn’t prove out    Can’t beat it!  Looks like I have a shot at super Mojo’s this year as well as some bee’s.  See if the luck holds up.  At this rate I will be hatching them in November!  Time for her to hit the road along with some more normals this year.  Gonna trim back the BP’s quite a bit after this coming season to make room for some more colubrids.  Time for something new again.

Seems it never ends.  Got a bulletin in the mail from PIJAC (www.pijac.org) over the weekend.  Just got around to reading it.  Seems they are alerting members to a couple of things.  One is a seemingly inevitable rate increase on importation of animals.  While it will be a hardship on smaller importers it is likely inevitable, in my opinion anyhow.  Probably worth commenting on (info is on PIJACS site) just to let them know someone is watching.

Second item is a proposal to turn the F/W Service loose on banning any species they decide through scientific study is potentially invasive or damaging.  You know, the Burms are going to take over New Jersey crowd.   Well, where to begin on this one-  From my reading of it I doubt even F/W wants this one.  Talk about a nearly impossible task and they know that they won’t get the $ to do it.  F/W would pretty much have to drop everything else (who is gonna count the geese?) and just chase their tails on this project.  Oh yeah, everything non-native would pretty much be suspended coming in UNTIL they get around to studying it.  That could take a lifetime-maybe longer.  House committee seems to think 3 years! 

If you aren’t already a member of PIJAC I would strongly suggest you join.  I am not typically a contributor to too many organizations of this nature, I feel most of them are highly wasteful and watch out for themselves more than anyone, BUT PIJAC really does seem to keep their eye on the ball but most importantly they often go for the good compromise in legislation which is where reality often lies.  You can read up on this one here:  http://www.pijac.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=175.   I would keep an eye on it and follow any recommendations PIJAC makes on response, contacting legislature, etc.  If nothing else it is well worth a visit to the site from time to time to keep up on the madness our elected officials seem to find important.  Job security maybe??