Taiwanese Beauty Snake Caresheet

Someone on a kingsnake.com forum asked me just that, my reply:

A number of reasons actually, life putting things on hold mostly. But in that time I tried to narrow down exactly what I was looking for in a snake, attribute wise, and researched the laws in my state regarding them. 

What I ended up trying to find was: 
Diurnal or mostly diurnal 
A large snake that was still manageable 
Very low heating and humidity requirements 
A snake with a good temperament 
A snake that would make a good pet with children 
What I would consider a beautiful snake 
A snake that fit into our current budget 
One that would fit in our big enclosure (6'x6'x2') 
Semi-arboreal 
A higher level of intelligence 
Doesn't mind being out in the open 
One that's curious 

While life took over (married, two kids, etc) and I couldn't have one, I still had time to research all of these criteria, figure out exactly what I wanted. Turns out it was a taiwanese beauty snake with a good disposition. 

From there, it was a matter of finding one for sale. Harder than it sounds. There were a few big name sellers of them, most with bad reputations on fc boi, and I do pay attention and research that as well, so they were out. 

The next were private breeders inside of the US, few and far between, some wanting a bit too much for them, one (not named) on facebook wanted $250 $90 shipping, and that's just outside of my price range. A couple with the response of "they'll get back to me" and never did. 

Then I turned to craigslist, got burnt, seller said he had one for $100, great, we agree on a day and time, I drive 3 hours out of state and by the time I get there he said he already sold it but he had a ball python if I was interested. I wasn't. 

Jump a year later from all of that, and basically giving up on getting one, my wife says that the narbc show is coming up and that we should go, she knew about me looking all of this up because I had pestered her with all of it. 

We go and she was there and I consider myself lucky.

Actually have a beautiful 0.1 yearling I bought at the 2014 October NARBC show in Tinley Park, IL this last Saturday.  She was $125 for those wondering.  I'm not releasing the name of who I bought her from for another week or so and a vet visit, if everything checks out and she's still doing good, then I'll let everyone know.

She's about 3 feet long, and surprisingly placid.  Very easily handled, doesn't fuss, and generally doesn't mind when the kids come over and play with her.  I honestly don't know if we lucked out or if something else was at work, maybe she wasn't fed enough, or warm, etc.  But we now have her in a temporary tank and are just waiting to sell off all the fish so we can move her into the 125 gallon tank.

Yesterday, Sunday, I fed her two medium f/t mice, and she had zero problem eating them.  I'm wondering if she couldn't have eaten more.  The booth we bought her at said that they were underfeeding her, twice weekly, Sundays and Wednesdays, with 'mice'.  They didn't tell me what size.  So I guessed medium, although with the ease at which she took them I might go larger next round.  That's another odd thing, she's a lazy eater.  I've watched many videos about them, and they tend (every video with feeding) to be crazy-go-nuts with eating.  She's just laid back, took her time, and eventually came over and scarfed them down, no coiling, no thrashing around, it was a little disappointing actually.

I'll try and get some pictures of her up on here soon.

It's an odd feeling finally getting the snake of your dreams after years of looking and research.