I came up with this week’s blog idea last week at work, when it was very quiet and I had not much else to do other than think. As a result, I now have over a good fifty photos piled up of my lovely boyfriend’s extensive range of animals. These animals are also pretty exotic, and are not what springs to mind when you say ‘pets’. So, because not everyone has snakes and geckos and pretty awesome fish (he also has a dog, but this blog probably won’t feature him – even though he’s super sweet), I’ve decided to create today’s blog to give you insight into what it’s like knowing someone who owns uncommon pets.
Currently, C has ten reptiles and two fish tanks. Now, I hear you all asking why does my boyfriend have so many exotic animals? My answer? I have absolutely no idea. He just likes them. There’s nothing else to be said.
And with that, let me introduce them, starting with the snakes…
Noodle
Noodle is a Bredls Carpet Python and is probably one of the most chilled out snakes
ever. He will sit curled up on his log pretty much most of the day unless it’s feeding time, or he wants to wrap himself up around his lamp (like he did this morning).
Despite being super chill, he’s one of C’s most lively snakes and will eventually grow up to about eight feet long. He can also live up to 20 years, but is currently only about a year old (C has just told me this and it’s actually really surprised me because he’s already pretty huge for being a year old). Noodle could also be a girl, however we think it’s more probable that he’s a boy.
Lucifer
Lucifer is an Anaconda morph western hognose (honestly, why do they have to have such long names?). He’s currently about four years old but can live up to eighteen. Despite his young age, though, he acts like a teenager. Lucifer is probably the moodiest snake ever to exist. If he’s in a bad mood, you’re getting hissed at, even if you’re standing three feet away. He will hiss no matter what, especially at the moment because he’s going into shed. But, it’s actually pretty cute.
I think Lucifer is probably my favourite snake, but I’m not going to volunteer to hold
him as he’s slightly venomous and if he bites me it’ll apparently feel like a bee’s sting. He also has a habit of not eating.
Tyrion
Tyrion (yes, it’s taken me nearly six months to learn his name) is C’s smallest snake, and was a rescue. He was originally going to be put down because he’s got
a deformity in his tail and was most likely never going to be sold. He’s very gentle, chilled as anything, and is a snake I’m more than happy to handle. He’s also an escape artist, and has escaped from his locked vivarium before – but this was back before I knew him.
Tyrion, like the two I’m about to talk about, is a corn snake but is more of a caramel
colour compared to the other two. C thinks he will live for about 20 years, but he’s currently only about a year and a half old. He’s likely to get bigger than he currently is, but his growth is most likely going to be stunted because of his deformity. We also don’t know for sure if he’s a boy, but we’ve got a feeling he is.
Viserys
Viserys is a corn snake, with orange markings down his back. He’s very calm, and
likes to stretch along the back and side of his vivarium. He’s pretty long, about three foot, and will most likely get to about four or five foot in total. He’s very easy-going and was also the first snake I handled.
Viserys is coming up to three years old, and can live up to 20. I’ve never seen him strike at C, except if he’s holding food (but then he’s only ever striking for the food), and is probably one of the most lively corn snakes C owns.
Daenerys
Daenerys is easily the most chilled out corn snake out of the five. All she ever seems to do is sleep, except from when she’s eating – which she will very happily
do with a lack of manners, unlike her vivarium mate Viserys,
Daenerys is a much paler colour, she’s more pink and white compared to her companion. As you can see from the photo, she tends to regularly sleep in her log (which it was impossible for us to get her out of, so we didn’t bother in the end). She also managed to wrap herself around her light unit when we first moved her into the vivarium with Viserys.
Moving on from the snakes, we arrive at C’s angel fish (which are definitely my favourite fish – however his clown fish are also pretty cool).
Jasper
Jasper is the first angel fish I ever met. He’s been in C’s tank for almost seven months and he is definitely a character. Jasper is a little bit of an idiot, and likes to bully Sparkle, but other than that he’s the first fish to ever swim following my finger and he always swims over to say hello when I turn up. For a long time, he was the only angel fish that C owned, until recently.
Jasper, as you can see, has a mix of colours on him from white to orange to black. He’s also the biggest angel fish, about three inches, and I think he likes to think of himself as the king of the tank.
Sparkle
Sparkle was named by me, I am very proud to say, and is my favourite angel fish (yes, he did have to battle that title with Jasper). Sparkle is by far the most photogenic angel fish and will always swim up to me when I say hi. He’s slightly more adventurous than Jasper, and will spend most of his time roaming the tank as well as chasing his two friends.
Sparkle is a lovely colour. He’s sparkly and white. I don’t really know what else to
tell you.
Shadow
Shadow is a bum. Out of all the angel fish, she is the one who will actively swim away from me when I try to say hello. She’s a beautiful colour, and is a thing of admiration for both Sparkle and Jasper who regularly compete (and argue) over her attention.
I’m not the biggest fan of her, because she makes it so difficult for me to say hello, but other than that she’s chill.
Finally, we have the geckos. At the moment I’m writing the first draft of this blog, C
owns three geckos, two Crested geckos and one Leopard gecko. However now, on the second draft, he has five.
Cinda
The one thing I can tell you about Cinda is that she likes to hide. She can go days
without popping out to let us know she’s still alive and well. I think she has a thing about humans as she’s generally pretty shy, even in the evenings when she wakes up _ she won’t come out until I’m asleep. She is the oldest gecko C owns, he’s had her for two years, however she can live for up to 20 years.
Cinda is a Crested Gecko and can grow up to ten inches long, which she is definitely
(can someone please tell me why I can never spell that word even the slightest bit correct?) getting close to. She currently shares a terrarium with Gizmo.
Gizmo
Gizmo is also a Crested Gecko like Cinda. He is, however, a lot younger, and hasn’t reached his full length yet. We’ve only had Gizmo for about three months and he’s definitely settled in comfortably.
Gizmo is quite possibly one of thee cutest geckos I know (I say that like I know all the Geckos. I only know five). He’s very chilled out, and isn’t fussed in the slightest with humans. In fact, he regularly sleeps on the door of his terrarium, out in plain sight. He also does this upside-down because he’s a weirdo – which you can see from his photo.
Clover
Clover is a Leopard Gecko and is probably the odd one out when it comes to C’s geckos. She can live up to 15 years, and is currently around five or six. Similarly to Cinda and Gizmo, she can also grow up to ten inches, and is already that length. She also has a very thick tail which is used as a fat storage because if she was living the wild she’d be in a very dry climate.
I don’t really see Clover all that much, as she spends most of her time sleeping, and out of all the geckos I’m probably scared of her the most, as C has told me she’s not afraid to bite. However, when I do see her awake (on the rare occasion), she’s usually chasing Locusts which don’t stand a chance against her.
Pongo
Pongo is one of the newest geckos that C brought yesterday. He is a Dalmatian gecko and from what I gathered yesterday he’s a lot more chilled out than
Perdy.
Perdy
Perdy is the other newest Dalmatian gecko. She shares her terrarium with Pongo and was pretty lively yesterday on the journey home, as she kept trying to flip herself over.
There you have it. A blog all about my boyfriends exotic animals. I know it’s not very
interesting to many of you readers out there, and it’s not my best work, but only having a week to come up with a blog idea is pretty difficult when you have no ideas, and I’ve been struggling a little lately with trying to be productive which hasn’t helped.
If you did read this blog, thank you, you’re pretty awesome.
If you didn’t read last weeks blog, and want to, you can find it here: My Weekend In London.
While you’re waiting for my next blog, feel free to keep up to date with my life on social media. I use my Instagram the most, but I also have Facebook.
Instagram – @emilybrownauthor
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See you next time 🙂