Yeah Heather, I'm a major Ovaltine consumer... lol That's my favorite way to consume my daily quota of coffee.
Thanks for your kind words everyone! I had never seen Tri-colored Hognoses either (these are Lystrophis pulcher) until about 6 months before I got these two. I was immediately smitten with them for a couple of reasons; one, because they are so dang cute [those little pointy noses just SLAY me] and two, because I am a color whore and get immediately drawn to creatures with such vibrant colors. This is the exact reason that I want an A. versicolor tarantula as well.
These are the smallest snakes I have ever kept and like I said before, the first colubrid for me of any kind. Their personalities are soooo sweet! I don't know about all colubrids, but Tri-colors are rear fanged and mildly venomous, like the Western, Eastern, Mexican and other Hognose species. (Although, as I understand it, Mexican Hoggies are not really mild, more like moderately venomous.) If I were to acquire another Hognose, I would choose a high red Western variety because I think they are really cute and they are less picky about feeding than the Eastern.
One of the reasons I chose the Tri-colors as a breeding project is because of how uncommon they are in the hobby. I'm not one of those people that is super into breeding everything [myself included lol] and generally would rather just keep my reptiles as pets; so many species of reptiles are being reproduced by so many people anyway that it seems like kind of a waste for me to do it too. I am please with Ophelia's coloration; she has stayed pretty high red. Many of the Tri's fade in color as they age, as you can see in Hamlet's pics, some even lose the red band completely.
