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  1. #226
    CCBW Stumpy's Avatar
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    ^

  2. #227
    I'm in Jail

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    Quote Originally Posted by TheRealKW View Post
    go take your family stalking elsewhere
    How does you whining about your kids to a Thai forum convert to me stalking your family?

  3. #228
    Thailand Expat Saint Willy's Avatar
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    Whatever Dilly.

    I'm not going to get into trash talk into this thread. Buzz off will ya.

  4. #229
    Thailand Expat armstrong's Avatar
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    Best hope LD doesn't read that as there's quite a lot to unpick from it.

  5. #230
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    It was a strange one today... and a first for me.

    But firstly I want to say if you're a bit squeamish then don't read on. I make no apologies if you do.

    To my mind there's nothing any meat eater should find offensive but you never know these days. My ten year-old, posh school educated daughter was well involved... but I know there are sensitive types out there. Some pictures could be taken as a bit graphic, I guess... for a townie.

    Anyway...

    This afternoon I was sitting in the sala going through my daughter's science books before her final exam on Monday, when Yogi and Max went mental with their snake barks... somewhere over the other side of the chicken run.

    I rushed over to find this...



    Max and Yogi had nailed a an absolutely beautiful radiated rat snake.

    I eventually managed to get the dogs off the poor thing. It was around 2.2 metres long, or 7 feet, or a little over a fathom for Shutree. But sadly she was mortally wounded.



    She may have been dead already, or near death. No way could she survive the wounds the dogs had inflicted.

    I laid her out and was still moving but the muscles on these animals continue to expand and contract after death.



    This brought me back around 45 years... when I was my daughter's age and took a dead eel into my rural Somerset village primary school. I'd caught the eel in the local stream the night before, cut it's head off and put the body and head in a bowl of water and took it in to school the next day to show the teacher. One of my class mates stuck her finger in the bowl and the head bit her finger and wouldn't let go. She was shaking her hand about, screaming, with this eel head latched on to her finger... the class laughing... me getting a bollocking later. Amazing how these memories come back. Good times.

    But anyway... I had to do what was necessary... and made sure the poor girl wasn't suffering any longer.

    Anyone who knows me will know I hate to kill any animal, but also you have to do what is humane. It is kinder to end a mortally wounded animal's suffering that do nothing, and once that's done I have absolutely no qualms about using the animal... in fact I think that's your duty.

    So, I think I mentioned some time ago that when I next had an unavoidable snake death I wanted to make a nice meal and a nice belt...

    Once she was humanely dispatched I slit her with a sharp knife along the belly. The reason I keep using the feminine gender is that when I gutted her it soon became apparent that the poor thing was a girl... she was full of eggs.



    After that I quickly separated skin from body. I've never done this to a snake before having only skinned rabbits when growing up in Somerset... bit the basic principal was the same.



    And there we have it... potentially my new belt.



    At this point I was considering how to cook up the snake meat... I asked the gardener and he didn't seem overly keen. I asked the wife and she also didn't seem enthusiastic... and she eats absolutely fukkin anything... so I started to question things. I mean... eating this stuff could be how pandemics start... so maybe I was better not eating this wild snake? After much consideration I bagged it up and off the meat went to the oulaws.

    A mini 'family' pandemic would be wonderful.



    Before I got started on the skin I wanted to do something to make amends for the poor mother-to-be. I really do hate stuff like this and am way too soft for living in Thailand. I managed to save nine of her eggs and put them in a flower pot. The cup is only for scale... the snake eggs are weird... like half empty sacks, and big, around 2 inches long I reckon.



    I put the eggs in a nest of leaf litter and stuck the play pot in the corner, out of the way. I stuck a plant pot saucer on top to keep the rain out. I have no idea about a snake' reproductive cycle... do they lay already fertilised eggs like a tortoise or need a male to get involved while laying, like a frog?

    JPPR?

    We shall see... I forgot to mention to the wife about the snake nest!



    Now I concentrated on the skin, and at this point I started to wish I hadn't started on this. I pinned out the skin on a plank of wood - just as I did with rabbit skins 40 years ago in Somerset - and scraped off as much of the subcutaneous fat as I could.



    I rubbed in a load of salt... and at this point it was evident how many bites this poor girl had sustained.



    And the finished stage... for now. Yogi the hunter and the unlucky radiated rat snake mother to be.



    I left the skin here at 5pm but I need a sunny day tomorrow to dry the skin out. The salt will help to cure and dry the skin but it is so humid... I need sun.



    But all said and done... much as I hate to see a beautiful creature such as this killed, it was no coincidence she was heading to the chicken run. As anyone who has seen 'My Splendid Cock' thread will know... we've just had a batch of chicks hatch. There was no coincidence the snake was here today... if it wasn't for Yogi she would have wiped out the newly hatched chicks.


  6. #231
    I'm in Jail

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    That belt looks like it will go pretty well with your sandals, Quentin

  7. #232
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    Mendip's Avatar
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    Quentin?

    I was gonna gift it to you but is 7 ft long enough?

  8. #233
    Thailand Expat Saint Willy's Avatar
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    it's gonna be a holy belt.

  9. #234
    CCBW Stumpy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mendip View Post
    do they lay already fertilised eggs like a tortoise
    Mendy,
    The eggs are fertile and alive. They look in good shape. Need to check incubating temperature. Reptile eggs are sensitive to temp and humidity. Her clutch would have been put in a pile of leaves like you would find around the base of a tree.

  10. #235
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    ^ JP, I've put the eggs in a nest of leaf litter in a plant pot, with a saucer on top. I moved this to a covered storage area underneath our water tanks.



    This is out of direct sunlight and will stay dry, so hopefully will avoid any extremes of temperature.

    A quick Google search suggested the eggs will take somewhere between 40 and 75 days to hatch, so maybe August/September.

    After some debate with myself I decided not to tell the wife we have a clutch of radiated rat snake eggs incubating by the house... I think it's better that way.

  11. #236
    CCBW Stumpy's Avatar
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    Excellent. I think the bigger question is how far developed they are. Typically most snakes will lay 15 to 20 eggs. Those look pretty well along so there is a good chance you can let a few go back into the wild. Sure a pretty snake. See if you can find a thermometer and occasionally check the temp. I deal for reptiles is about 28 to 30c. I would also occasionally spray the leaf cover with a mist bottle to keep the shell soft. If not it will get to hard and the little hatchling might not be able to crack out. Like we do with our tortoises, we usually have to help the little ones out of the shell. we just mist with a water bottle and it aids along OK.

    I got it marked in my Google Calendar. Our tortoise eggs take 90 to 110 days.

  12. #237
    Thailand Expat
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    ^ The snake shed a couple of eggs during the attack by the dogs and I found the remainder insides her when I cleaned up the body. Surely that would mean they hadn't started developing yet?

    There were only 9 eggs so I'm going to have a search around the part of the garden where the dogs found her... maybe she was in the process of laying the eggs in a nest? We have a few concrete cylinders with trees growing in that area and they are full of leaf litter... maybe ideal nests?

  13. #238
    CCBW Stumpy's Avatar
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    Oh. They are developing inside her. Mostly the embryo and shell. She was close to laying her clutch.

  14. #239
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    ^ This all got me thinking so I revisited my snake nest today to make a few improvements.

    I have thought about moving the eggs to my snake house but if they don't hatch until September I'll probably be away and the young snakes would starve. I can't see anyone else taking care of them until I get back.

    So, I took a closer look at the eggs. The kind of 'tail' on this one was just a dried out membrane that seemed to encapsulate the eggs. The eggs all look a bit dirty but that's because they were all covered in this sticky mucus to which any dirt has stuck.



    Here's a hen egg, a bantam egg and a radiated rat snake egg... to get a feel for the size.



    I made a proper nest for the eggs in a plastic plant pot out of some leaf litter and lay them down. My thinking is that once the baby snakes hatch they can easily exit the plant pot through the holes in it's base, but the holes are too small to allow in rats. There were only 7 eggs, not 9 as I originally thought. Their shells had hardened up a bit over the past couple of days so I sprinkled a bit of water on them. I'll try and do this a couple of times a week, and hopefully the leaf litter will stay moist and keep the eggs hydrated.



    Then I covered the eggs in a couple of inches of leaf litter and put the pot back in the storage area with a saucer lid on top. I reckon the temperature will stay pretty constant in this area come rain or shine.

    The daughter has been sworn to secrecy, although to be honest she's very fickle and the promise of a khai jiao from the wife will be enough for her to spill the beans. With this in mind I made up a second 'dummy' nest... just in case!

  15. #240
    Thailand Expat
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mendip View Post
    and the promise of a khai jiao from the wife will be enough for her to spill the beans. With this in mind I made up a second 'dummy' nest... just in case!
    Laughing out loud.

    She would give you up for an omelet?

  16. #241
    Thailand Expat
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    ^ She'd give me up for a lot less than an omelette mate... these girls stick together.

    Unless she wants something, of course...

  17. #242
    Thailand Expat armstrong's Avatar
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    I find that if I tell my daughter not to tell her mum it makes her 100% more likely to tell her mum.

  18. #243
    In Uranus
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    I knew I did not want to look at this page...

  19. #244
    Isle of discombobulation Joe 90's Avatar
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    Have you ever eaten snake eggs Mendip?

  20. #245
    last farang standing
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mendip View Post
    I have a feeling if rats were served at Thai restaurants worldwide, peoples' appreciation may change.

    I'm not squeamish and will try a nibble on most stuff... but look at that!

    It's certainly not hangover comfort food to take to the sofa on a wet Isaan Saturday afternoon.
    Are you sure it wasnt a Siberian hampster?

  21. #246
    Thailand Expat
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    Quote Originally Posted by Joe 90 View Post
    Have you ever eaten snake eggs Mendip?
    No, and I don't really see that ever changing to be honest.


    After a few days curing in the sun, today I unpinned the snake skin and washed off the salt.

    I have to confess to being a little disappointed. The many dog tooth holes have got bigger with the skin drying out, and it keeps curling up at the edges.

    But despite that I think I still have around 140cm of semi-usable skin. The floor tiles are 32.5cm square, for some reason.



    It looks pretty good apart from all the holes.



    Although I think it will be a lot of work to turn it into a decent belt. Maybe I'll have to make something else?


  22. #247
    Thailand Expat David48atTD's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mendip View Post
    Maybe I'll have to make something else?
    A day in the life...-il_340x270-2698249274_rlkk-jpg

  23. #248
    Thailand Expat Saint Willy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mendip View Post



    Although I think it will be a lot of work to turn it into a decent belt. Maybe I'll have to make something else?

    Handy hint to avoid the spillage stains is to wear dark coloured shorts.

  24. #249
    Thailand Expat
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    ^ Whoops... how embarrassing!

    I have no logical explanation for those apparent damp patches other than the obvious... but I find it hard to believe.

    In my defense it is the weekend... and the wife has gone out today so I can properly relax.

  25. #250
    CCBW Stumpy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by TheRealKW View Post
    Handy hint to avoid the spillage stains is to wear dark coloured shorts
    Funny as hell, I saw that as well and thought " Come on man, shake your pud a few extra times or get stain free peeny pads"

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