Draaken Cove

11/24/2025

In May I had a clutch of twelve babies hatch. At the time I announced them all as male. Well I was double checking and… meet the one lone girl! Imagine having eleven brothers 😵‍💫 I don’t typically name babies that I am not keeping but I feel she deserves one 🤔

**p **plife

11/24/2025

Brumation is here and 2026 season right around the corner. Goodnight my sweets, see you in a couple months.

11/22/2025

Got some new art for the office/reptile room. A beautiful piece from that my husband got for my birthday and a perfect shed from my Solomon Island Ground boa, Jolene.

10/30/2025

For those who are always in pursuit of knowledge be sure to tune in tomorrow. Hosted by Dr James Bogan who is arguably the leading expert on Cryptosporidium. Our beloved hobby will only benefit from us continuing to educate ourselves on this wretched organism.

🐍💻 Upcoming Webinar Alert! 💻🐍

Join Dr. James E. Bogan of the Orianne Center for Indigo Conservation (Central Florida Zoo) for an in depth look at gastric cryptosporidiosis in snakes. 🧫
Drawing on decades of experience in reptile medicine and conservation, Dr. Bogan will explore the pathology, diagnosis, and management of Cryptosporidium serpentis infections. This is a must attend session for anyone working with with snakes!
📅 October 30, 2025
🕛 12:00 PM PST (check your timezone!)
🔗 6b8454ed-2a36-46db-ae68-dc019c2ced84@7d5e58fa-aff7-4d93-857f-9f98d9361443" rel="ugc" target="_blank">https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/6b8454ed-2a36-46db-ae68-dc019c2ced84@7d5e58fa-aff7-4d93-857f-9f98d9361443

10/08/2025

Need some help there little dude? 😄🐍

**p **plife

10/08/2025

For the better part of my h**p keeping years I have used Herpstats. After this year I am reminded why this is the best decision I could have made and I will never use a different brand of thermostat. I’ve had a big problem this year with bad storms causing power surges and frying electronics. When Spyder Robotics states lifetime warranty he really means it. The red unit is at least 10 years old and has already been repaired once before. He has great customer service every time.

**p **plife

10/06/2025

Superarctics have the most drastic color change in hognose morphs. Starting dark brown and turning more white with each shed. The first growth shed has the most noticeable change, but a superarctic’s color can continue evolving over the first 1-2 years. These two are from the same clutch and the brown one is due to shed any day now.

**p **plife

09/27/2025

Update 10/9: I received test results yesterday for all 60! snakes and every single one came back negative! This is a huge step in having a clean collection again. I am going to do a second round of tests in a few weeks and I am confident it will also come back clean.
Update 11/20: second round of tests came back negative which means my collection is officially crypto free again!

I have been absent from posting much as the last few months have not been kind. I made a grave mistake earlier this year that exposed my collection to a keeper’s worst nightmare. Crypto.
I had been getting slack with my quarantine practices and inevitably it bit me in the butt. My collection was exposed for approximately three weeks before I caught on something wasn’t right and had a positive necropsy a couple weeks later. I have had a very stressful, and expensive, time of it since then.
I wish I had made better choices, but this experience has been an eye opener for me as to where I am lacking in not only quarantine, but cleaning and general cross contamination preventions.
Unfortunately my carelessness cost me my beautiful twin spot caramel, Ignis. He was going to sire his first clutch next year….. As of yet no one else has tested positive but I am still in the early phase of testing.
I am incredibly grateful for my vet as she has been invaluable as a resource for information and spearheaded testing. I’m at the point where I can finally start seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and I am hoping, praying, for more good news when the latest tests come through.

**p **plife

08/15/2025

I’ve had this guy for a hot minute but haven’t gotten around to posting him yet. Introducing Halos the Arctic Sunburst Conda from JMG. He is such a sweet little guy, drop dead gorgeous and I hope to have some babies by him next season.

**p **plife

06/14/2025

The last babies of the season are making their way out! Seven superarctics one of which I know will be albino. I see some fantastic patterning already.

**p **plife

06/13/2025

Three years in a row now one specific pair has produced what I currently believe to be a mutation of the Cinnamon gene. I also believe this mutation is acting in a co-dominant (I think I’m using that term correctly but I’m no scientist) fashion with the Anaconda gene.
This gene shares many similarities to Cinnamon but there is some difference too.
The snake hatches out quite dark and lightens as well as pixelates as it sheds, the same as Cinnamon
The brown ones have black eyes. However the Albino has red and Axanthic has dark but not black eyes.
The head stamp is solid with a small simple band
The belly has a blueish grey tint and white mottling
The biggest difference and reason why I think it is a mutation is because classic cinnamons still have a distinct pattern and saddles. Every single one that I have produced have no saddles and the pattern is reduced to two stripes on either side of the dorsal and sometimes faint spots on the sides. In my 2023 adult these have faded and are barely visible now. I believe it is only expressing with Conda and the two together are creating an overall patternless snake, much like a homozygous conda (superconda). This also makes sense to me since only the mom has conda and I believe, but have not proven, that this new gene is coming from the father. Statistics wise if this gene were acting on it’s own I would think I’d see more of them rather than the scattering and low numbers I have as of yet and I would also have produced more “classic” cinnamon with pattern.
For clarity, this is a theory I have. I could be totally overthinking it and they are just weird cinnamons. I had hoped to learn more from the offspring of my 2023 male but unfortunately he missed the females window. I am also suspicious it may be s*x linked as all seven I have hatched so far are male. I hope I’m wrong on that but time will tell. I believe there are at minimum two other people who have produced similar animals, and I hope it can be proved out as a new line of Cinnamon.

06/13/2025

This post is about two weeks overdue, but unfortunately life had kicked me down for a bit. All twelve babies from Fleur and Neville’s clutch that hatched over Memorial weekend. I must have atrocious luck this year as the entire clutch is male 😳 they are doing fantastic and most of them are already tong feeding 🥰

**p **plife