Wolsal Exotics

Hi! I’m Wolsal, an artist and animal enthusiast! This will be my blog for all exotic pet (primarily reptile) related content.

What animal related things do I do?

I rehabilitate wildlife when I can, go to reptile expos a few times a year, own a bunch of pets (who I’m sure you’ll see lots of here), herp in the wild in order to study and admire different species, volunteer at a nature center in the animal care and education department, and am currently trying to become a snake breeder!

What animals do you have?

I will make individual posts for each animal, but as of right now the total count is 6 snakes, 2 lizards, 3 cats, and 1 mouse!

How long have you been in the reptile hobby?

I’ve loved reptiles ever since I was a baby, as a toddler and up it was all I wanted to learn about. I’d go to reptile zoos as a young kid, where my love and passion for reptiles only grew. By age 5, I was certifiably obsessed with reptiles (with a special interest in snakes). I’d always wanted a pet snake, and in late 2022, I adopted my first snake! Ever since then, it’s grew into the collection I have now.

Art account: @wolsalwastaken

Important post links:

Pet name tags (full list + info)

Rosa’s introduction post

Mr. Sir’s introduction post

Petunia’s introduction post

Ken’s introduction post

Queen Elizabeth II’s introduction post

Unfortunately Petunia slugged out this year! No babies this year. Not surprising since it’s her first time! The important thing is she didn’t become super thin after laying and is perfectly happy and healthy! Look at those gorgeous freshly shed colors. Still a perfectly healthy weight and is acting like she’s an energetic yearling!

Even if we didn’t get any babies I’m still very proud of her! She did great and did all the right things. Plus she’s also such a sweetheart! Fingers crossed for next year.

(And I may have another boy to pair her with next year too….)

Meet my pets, part 5:

Meet the newest member of my family, Queen Elizabeth II (or just Queenie for short…). Queenie is a 6 month old female ball python, albino het pied. I actually adopted her only a week ago from my local expo! She caught my attention because of those beautiful colors, and the moment I held her for the first time she tried to eat me. That sealed the deal and I immediately adopted her.

I’m hoping to raise her up for a future breeding project for my boy ball python, but that’s a project many years away. For now i’m working on socializing her and getting her used to humans (since, to be honest, she’s very bitey. And as adorable as it is with such tiny teeth, she can’t still be doing this as an adult lol).

She’s settling in well in her new home, getting ready for a shed, and has already won over my heart with her beautiful colors and sassy attitude.

Snake eggs can develop incredibly quickly after ovulation depending on circumstance!

The photo on the left was taken March 17th, the photo on the right was taken March 27th. That’s only 10 days of different and you can just see how much she’s bulked up! This is the same portion of her body (lower third, near the tail) with her curved in the same way (a bit less curved in the second since she can’t be as coiled given how full she is).

One thing I’ll draw your attention to is just how spread apart her scales are in the second photo as compared to the first one. This is an indication of an incredibly pregnant snake!

Her skin and scales also look a bit crusty. Don’t worry- she’s fine. Just about to shed. She has access to a nice damp spot, she’s just choosing to sit in the dry aspen under her heat lamp. Oh well, nobody accused her of being the brightest, she’s so cute that she can get away with it though!

Nametags for all my reptiles! It’s important when you have a large collection of reptiles to have ID for all of your individuals. Helps keep track of name, gender, morph, hets, etc etc. Also helpful if you need to hire a pet sitter!

You don’t need anything fancy for them, as an artist I simply like to just do little drawings digitally on the nametags and then print them. Just an index card and pen would do fine though! Feel free to use this method for your collection, as I find it’s super helpful!

We’ve got eggs cookin! Petunia is very heavily *gravid right now and going into her *pre-lay shed, so we should expect to see eggs in about 2 weeks! Make sure to stay tuned for more updates on our expecting mum.

Snakes tend to get quite moody when gravid, as understandably it’s not exactly a fun process. It’s one they go through every year after reaching maturity whether or not they’ve been paired with a male, and it’s part of their natural reproductive cycle. Even with that being said, it doesn’t make it any easier for the mum and in captivity we do everything we can to make it as comfortable and painless of a process as possible for them.

Hopefully the next update will be her going into blue!

Note how in the lower third of her body her width increases drastically- usually with hognoses their entire body remains the exact same width (kind of like a worm or a sausage). However, when carrying eggs, the lower third of a snakes body balloons up in size (as is the case here) where the eggs are stored!

Note how far apart her scales are in the wide section of her body- that’s known as “scale spread” and occurs when a snake is either fat or gravid (and occurs to a lesser extent in some species naturally). This however is the first one!

*Gravid- the term used when a snake is carrying eggs, as opposed to “pregnant” for mammals and live bearing snakes

*Pre-lay shed- 1-2 weeks before a snake lays her eggs, she’ll go into shed and get rid of her old skin. This is one of the best indications to look for when you’re waiting for eggs

Snake breeding stuff:

It’s been a few days since Petunia has been separated from Borat (her boyfriend) and I decided to finally set up a nice lay box for her! She’s not expected to lay for another month or two, but better safe than sorry right? I’d like her to get used to it to ensure she’s comfortable enough to lay in it when it’s time.

To anyone curious how I made this lay box, it’s made of a Pokémon card tin that came with a pack (bought from Target in 2022? A while ago lol) with the little plastic window popped out. The edges along the little hole are already smooth making a perfect lay box (plus a lid for easy opening!)

It’s filled with a mix of sphagnum moss dirt, spanish moss, and sphagnum moss all dampened with water to create a soft humid environment for safe egg laying.

If anyone wants to make a lay box, really any enclosed container will do. Make sure the entry hole is completely smooth and not sharp, as you wouldn’t want sharp edges to cut the snake. You then just need some damp material, my preferred medium is a mix of mosses (as listed above) but I know other breeders use different things. Up to personal preference and availability!

Make sure the box is big enough for the girl to fully fit inside and properly lay the eggs, but not too big as to make her feel exposed and stressed. A happy medium is what you’re looking for!

Now I just need to cross my fingers that she’ll actually use it when the time comes…

Fun fact!

T- albino animals have red eyes not because of red pigmentation, but because there’s no pigmentation! While the color of the eyes appears red, this is not because of any pigmentation but because you can see the blood vessels behind the eye, reflecting it and appearing red! In reality the best way to describe the eye color would be clear.

This however is only applicable to t- albinism, the type of albinism where pigment is not present in the eye. For t+ albinism, the eyes do actually have pigment! This can be seen in lavender hognoses, toffee hognoses, or hypo snakes! Alongside lots of others. T+ and T- albinism are distinctly different from one another, and both are equally beautiful and fascinating!

(Pictured below is a photo of my super hypo boas eye, which has been featured in a previous post. This is an example of t+ albinism as opposed to the t- albino ball python eye pictured above!)

While both are distinctly very light pale eyes, one clearly has more pigment than the other! You can also see that the pupils of a t+ albino snake remain black, where on a t- they are red

Meet my pets, part 4:

Ken! Ken is my (sex unknown) super hypo boa constrictor, I adopted her in September of 2024 after finally deciding I was ready to take on the challenge of a boa.

I’ve always loved the species but had been waiting until I felt I was more prepared for the size and requirements of one. While she’s still tiny, only 1 year old as of writing this, she’s grown an entire foot since I adopted her and seems to have no intent on stopping that momentum.

She’s probably the friendliest snake in my collection, constantly wanting to be brought out to explore and hang out. She likes to climb water bottles and push stuff off tables. She also loves watching tv! She’ll sit with me for hours just staring at the screen intently. She’s honestly a joy to own and I absolutely adore every moment I spend with her.

Her favorite things in life are food, mason jars, water bottles, and YouTube videos. So, in that regard, I think we can all relate in a way.

While snakes don’t feel human affection, love, or care- this snake is as close as you’ll get to that! She genuinely enjoys being out and about and being allowed to explore and hang out with people. She even knows her name and will come when I call her! I’m not convinced to this day that she isn’t a misshapen dog, but whatever she is I adore her nonetheless!

Meet my pets, part 3:

This is Petunia, my prized hognose! She’s a big girl, 7 years old and living her best life! Hognoses have always been one of my favorite species, so getting one was a huge deal back when I adopted her in August of 2023!… that was 3 hognoses ago, and she’s only cemented my lifelong love for the breed.

She had a rough start to life. Similarly to Mr. Sir I saw her ad on Craigslist, and decided to make the 6 hour drive to pick her up! I was warned she had severe temperamental issues, which to this day I honestly have yet to see. She’s one of the nicest animals in my collection. Once I brought her home, it immediately became clear her living conditions were poor at best. Without going into detail (as it is graphically gross) her tank had not been cleaned in what appeared to be around a year.

Her life improved quick after though, getting a bigger enclosure and a nice clean habitat. She’s an incredible eater- absolutely loves eating, and is spoiled rotten in her home.

This year is an exciting one for Petunia- as this year, she is an expecting mother! After 2 successful confirmed locks with her new boyfriend, she is expecting to have her first year of producing fertile eggs! I’m thrilled to get to experience this milestone with her in her life and am so grateful to get to continue her bloodline. Realistically, as she is already 7, she only has a few years left of breeding. But we’re gonna make those few years count! (Pictured in the last 2 photos is her pairing).

Once she has reached 10, she will be retired from breeding and live out her golden years as a pet.

Meet my pets, part 2:

This is Mr. Sir, he is a 5 year old super hypo leopard gecko! He is a hands off reptile since he likes biting a little too much (the only animal that’s ever given me a permanent scar!). Despite his enthusiastic love of food and temper, he’s well beloved and absolutely spoiled.

For the first 2.5 years of his life he lived in an incredibly neglectful and abusive household- starving, full of parasites, he would have died if a lovely rescuer didn’t swoop in and save him. She nursed him back to health, got his parasites treated, and then adopted him out to me to live in his forever home after I saw his ad on Craigslist!

He loves food and loves eating- a little too much. He has a habit of trying to eat inedible things or eating so much food he makes himself sick. Because of this his diet is heavily monitored to prevent him from overeating. It’s still unclear if this food response is a result of his previous neglect or simply his personality, but either way it makes him all the more endearing.

He’s a chunky boy with a personality to match his big frame! I adopted him back in July of 2023 and he’s been a member of my family ever since. Don’t let those big eyes and winning smile fool you- he is a beast! But we love him nonetheless.

Cool facts about snake eyes!

Did you know that snakes with vertically oriented pupils (as pictured above) are nocturnal? Snakes with round pupils are diurnal/*crepuscular! Cool huh?

Snakes also don’t have eyelids and don’t blink! Instead, they have a clear scale over their eyeball (kind of like a contact lense) that keeps it dry. This is why their eyes go blue during sheds!

They also will dilate their eyes like a cat when they’re in low light places and will contract once in high light places! Snake eyes are incredibly fascinating and beautiful. They’re so unique and special to this individual species of animal. Do you know a cool fact about snake eyes? Drop it in the comments or replies!

*Crepuscular- an animal that is awake during dawn and dusk primarily.

Meet my pets, part 1:

Rosa!

Rosa is a male ball python, morph unknown. He was hatched in the summer of 2022 and is my first ever pet reptile! He is incredibly sweet and friendly (if not a little shy). He’s done a few mini-programs with me, meeting people and teaching people about snakes!

He’s a ravenous eater (maybe a little too good an eater) and has never refused a meal. He likes to sit with me while I work or use me as a jungle gym. He’s my garbage disposal if other snakes refuse a meal!

He is, as of now, 3 feet long, but is certainly not done growing (he’s getting there though!). He’s growing quick and sheds enough to tell me he doesn’t plan to stop.

He’s the snake that made me want more, and I love him to bits! Hoping to have him sire some babies.