Cuddles

1999

Acquired	2000
Source	Gary Sipperley/San Diego Reptile Breeders, San Diego Reptile Show, July 2000

Cuddles was a bit defensive in her early years and still earns an extra dose of respect when being handled. However, she hasn't bitten me for at least a decade. One memorable bite from her came on a night before our family was heading out of the country for a trip. It was about 1 AM and I was trying to get all of the animals fed before leaving when Cuddles in her zeal to attack everything that came close to her cage, bit my arm and constricted. I couldn't pry her off. I ended up holding my arm under cold water in the bathtub for about 15 minutes before she'd let go. This was on a frantic night when we had to get up at 5 AM to drive a family with little kids to the airport. Nice timing.

2002, Cuddles with my son

But Cuddles has been an amazingly prolific momma snake. As of this writing she has produced 7 litters of babies and looks like she'll produce again this summer. I don't breed her in back to back years, and she tends to produce 9-11 babies each time. It's interesting that there has been a decent amount of variability in appearance of some of her babies. A few times she has produced really high pink animals, sometimes there are animals with especially dark saddles.