Relic - Cinder 2014

[albertagirl]

What can I say about Relic? She's my shyest most reclusive snake for sure. She NEVER comes out when I'm around and hides immediately if I happen to catch her out cruising around. For some reason her favorite hide is this little hermit crab cave I threw in her tank, which has a big tall opening. She doesn't seem to think I can see her in there. So most days I can still at least put eyeballs on her without disturbing her.

She's also probably my favorite morph out of my four. However, she's the hardest to take good pictures of because I can't just take her out and start snapping. So because she's shy and I'm lazy, I have the fewest pictures of her.

Her breeder documented her clutch hatching, so I have pictures from the breeders website of Relic from "birth" which I think is really cool.

Here she is immediately after hatching, with a clutchmate.


And how little she was when I got her.


And the hermit crab cave she thinks she's invisible in.


A halfway between then and now (september) picture.


And today!

 

[albertagirl]

A couple more pics from today.

I love her sprinkled belly.


I really need to have another photo shoot with flowers or something other than the ruler to show scale!

 

[Rigby & Marcy]

She's lovely! She has a really nice pattern of small, even saddles.

 

[cornyjo]

wow

Thanks for pics , gorgeous markings x

 

[albertagirl]

She's lovely! She has a really nice pattern of small, even saddles.

Thanks for pics , gorgeous markings x

Thanks!

 

[nancyg]

I like the spiky head spot.

 

[albertagirl]

I like the spiky head spot.

Me too. Someone called it a crown of thorns, and it stuck with me, so that's what I call it.

 

[albertagirl]

Relic is growing steadily, and seems to be getting lighter and lighter. I'm still in love with her colors, I think she's my favorite morph of my four. Some quick cell pics taken outside last week:

 

[Zeina]

Awwwwwwwwwwww
She looks so great!

 

[hypnoctopus]

Very pretty! Love her name, too.

 

[Rigby & Marcy]

Wow, look at her now! Great markings on her.

 

[albertagirl]

Thanks everyone! I just weighed and measured her yesterday. She's 92g and just shy of 2.5 feet. Not sure if that's normal for a yearling, or a little on the small side, but she seems completely healthy and growing steadily.

 

[Rigby & Marcy]

That's a nice size for a yearling, almost exactly the same size as my two and I was under the impression that they were bigger than average.

 

[albertagirl]

Relic is now my most active snake. Unless she is digesting or shedding, she's out cruising constantly. I feed her the same as the other 2 girls, but while they are growing like weeds, she is burning off all her calories so she seems to have stopped growing. She is still gaining weight, but I just measured her and realized that while the other 2014 girls have grown 5 (Raven) and 10 (Ripley) inches in the past 5 months, Relic has only grown 1. She's also gained a little bit less weight than them, and they look downright chunky next to her. So now I am concerned that I'm not feeding her enough. She's just coming up on her second birthday, so I wouldn't have thought she was done growing yet... what do you guys think? Can a corn snake be done growing by 2? She's about 3'2" and 250 grams on the nose at her last weigh-in.

These pictures are from January with a nice camera. I'll post more recent pictures in a second post.

 

[albertagirl]

Here are some less-than-quality pictures from April. I don't think she looks underweight, but feel like not growing at her age is a concern. I have read that cinders have a different body shape, but are they generally smaller as well? Does she look underfed to you? Her go-to move is the S-curve strike-ready posture, but she has never ever actually struck at me. She just likes to look tough. :grin01:

 

[Tavia]

Lots of Cinders do have a little different body shape. My Hypo Cinder looks a little too skinny on the top/spine part of her body but the bottom half looks a bit on the chunky side. I know of a number of Cinders that are just as big as other morph age mates but I have heard of a number of smaller than average, perfectly healthy Cinders. So it's possible that more Cinder morphs are on the smaller end of the size scale than other morphs.
She doesn't look worryingly small/skinny to me.

 

[Tavia]

If I remember right, which is not a given with my memory, Cinder came out of Upper Keys corns, which tend to be smaller and have at different times been considered a separate subspecies of corn. Though I think presently they are considered full corns right now, not a sub.

 

[Dragonling]

Many cinders are known to have slightly triangular body shape vs. the loaf shape of most healthy corns. I agree, her keys ancestry might also be affecting her size and growth rate.

 

[albertagirl]

Lots of Cinders do have a little different body shape. My Hypo Cinder looks a little too skinny on the top/spine part of her body but the bottom half looks a bit on the chunky side. I know of a number of Cinders that are just as big as other morph age mates but I have heard of a number of smaller than average, perfectly healthy Cinders. So it's possible that more Cinder morphs are on the smaller end of the size scale than other morphs.
She doesn't look worryingly small/skinny to me.

Thanks. She is definitely more muscular than the others who lay around all day. I have started feeding her a little more frequently again, back to every 5 or 6 days instead of once a week, as long as she's out looking for food. If she still doesn't grow with the increased feeds then I guess she's going to be on the small side too!

If I remember right, which is not a given with my memory, Cinder came out of Upper Keys corns, which tend to be smaller and have at different times been considered a separate subspecies of corn. Though I think presently they are considered full corns right now, not a sub.

I hadn't heard this before, that's really interesting! Thanks for the info, Tavia. I'll see if I can find more info on it.

 

[DollysMom]

So cute. I lespecially love her face in the last pic!