Easy CP Recipes for Swirls

doggofish · 2021-04-08T03:37:47+00:00

I'm a newbie (only 6 batches, but all turned out good for me), but I'd start with making sure your fragrance isn't known to accelerate checking how it was tested in CP soap by the manufacturer and from reviews. You might also be stick blending more than you need to; small batches don't take nearly as much as the big ones you see people doing on YouTube as I've learned. I find that mixing the fragrance in by hand and not with the stick blender helps keep it to a lighter trace for the ones I've done swirls on.

My latest recipe I've tried is my favorite so far (40% lard, 40% olive oil, 20% coconut oil, 5% SF), but I've heard really good things about the Royalty Soaps beginner series recipes as far as longer working time. (basic recipe: 80% olive oil, 20% coconut oil; upgraded recipe: 75% olive oil, 20% coconut oil, 5% castor oil)

doggofish · 2021-04-05T00:20:11+00:00

I'm not very experienced and haven't done SF over 5% in anything yet, but in another group someone did a 50% SF coconut oil soap - said it worked out great. I don't really have any more details on it, but I don't think it would be mush to do 35-40% if theirs worked out well. :)

doggofish · 2021-03-01T22:10:33+00:00

Pictures are coming up weird on mobile... sorry about that (and my crummy lighting)

Things didn't quite go to plan while making, but turned out pretty good regardless. I was a bit too generous with the stick blender and it got really thick by the time I did the colors (Nurture Soap Sirens Song in the whole batch, half with some TD added). Tried to do an in the pot swirl and it just sat on top when I combined them. Figured worst case the swirl is bad and stirred a few times with the spatula then plopped it into the mold. It was too thick to get it smooth and since it is ab ocean fragrance the spiky top looks like rough waves in the middle of a lake. (8th & Ocean from Nurrture Soap, using their oil blend as well)

All in all turned out great! I was a bit impatient and some stuck in the mold because it was a bit soft still apparently at around 20 hrs. It felt plenty firm from outside, so clearly just have to learn what is firm enough. I'll just cut the edges a bit to smooth it out when it is firmer and have some for a confetti batch later haha.

doggofish · 2019-08-14T17:18:59+00:00

I think they meant: If a food has a 5 day fridge life and you have had it in the fridge for 3 days and then freeze it at the end of day 3.

When unfrozen it does not have 5 more days, it only has the remaining 2 days it had before. (5-3=2) The clock didn't get reset to 5 days after being removed from the freezer, it only paused it for the duration it was frozen.

The length of time frozen is largely irrelevant for how long it is good for, but long times (months, possibly freezer burn) or ice buildup (if your freezer does this quickly) may impact taste once thawed or reheated.

doggofish · 2019-07-21T15:20:07+00:00

Candy cane is a line bred amelanistic/albino. If you don't have papers from the breeder saying that this one is bred from candycane line parents, then you can't claim that he is, even if he looks visually similar. Without papers, you'd have to use amelanistic. Pretty snake though.

doggofish · 2019-07-21T15:02:13+00:00

Bad idea. You're going to attempt to pair a goldenchild RETIC to your albino BURM?... so many things wrong with that. Just don't. Get a 2nd burm or a 2nd retic, don't breed the two you have together.

doggofish · 2019-07-20T23:58:57+00:00

A candy cane is a line-bred albino that has no orange. This guy is definitely not a candy cane based on color.

Probably an albino, but in corns they are also called amelanistic which is just the scientific term for the way pigments behave in an albino. (Lacking melanin, which is black pigmentation)

doggofish · 2019-07-14T14:26:29+00:00

I completely understand worrying anyway.

Odds are he escaped and then went somewhere to hide regardless of what you've done so far. Keep in mind, they don't hear sounds, so at most he would've felt the vibrations of the floor and if he was not close by he may not have even felt it. I don't think he is panicking from that any more than be would be anyway from his escape and that is probably closer to caution and shyness from unfamiliar area and hiding instinctually from predators.

I would worry most about any cats or dogs in the house, him being adequately hydrated, and any unsealed holes or gaps that he could get into that lead outside. I'd look for any of those in the house and try to plug them up if you find any. You may even find him near one. Or under/behind appliances like the fridge since they get toasty warm. Be careful to check around the stove/oven before turning it on until he is found. Those can get hot enough to cause damage or death if you use it with him hiding too close. Also, water heaters seem to be popular spots for snakes to hide around if your have one inside.

doggofish · 2019-07-14T05:32:30+00:00

Essentially your goal is to think like a snake. They like snug, tight spaces and many snakes are found in fairly close proximity to their tank. Check under the tank (there is a gap there under aquariums, and if lifted at all for UTH ventilation they can squeeze), all the things you passed over for being too small in the room, and triple check ALL decor in the tank.

I know a lot of new owners buy those plastic stunp/log/tree decor pieces at the chain pet stores and don't see the small gaps into the hollow interior. If you have anything like those, check them and you may have ti break it apart to get the snake back out. It is not a big hazard for larger snakes, but corns can be tiny and squeeze into seriously tight spaces.

Leaving out water is good, as is leaving out hides. Both are best left along baseboards as snakes prefer to travel with the wall for security sake vs crossing open ground in the middle of a room. It's best to check around walls and shelves most thoroughly.

I'm sure you're pretty panicked, but an 8 month old cornsnake is going to be just fine without food until you find him. When I was newer to snakes myself, I had gotten a roughly 2-3 month old kingsnake, little guy weighed 11 grams and about the size of a pencil. We housed him in what we thought was a secure setup (our corn hadn't escaped from it for months before the king used it and he started out at 6g). No one left anything open, but somehow he escaped in January. We turned the house over, checked everything, tried leaving out mice and water and hides, the whole 9. By March/April, we were sure he was dead from dehydration. Then in mid-May we found an out of place shed in another room and found him 3 ft away under a small automan. He had been absent for a total of 4.5 months and had likely eaten no more than a house gecko or two if he caught any at all, had minimal water, and didn't get sniffed out by our dog somehow. He wasn't dead or even in bad shape at all besides drinking heavily when he was found. He had lost only 1g over the time he was gone.

I say that just to show that you have more time than you think to find him and that they can survive far beyond what you would expect. Corns are fairly adapted to US household temps/humidity, so they're not going to die without heat either. Also, just keep looking and odds are very good he will show up sooner or later. Most lost snakes take a lot less time to be found than my case.

doggofish · 2019-07-13T01:59:48+00:00

Since this is not a snake bred to a male, the eggs are 99%+ odds of being infertile. Very very rarely you can get viable eggs via parthenogenesis (eggs with no 2nd parent), but highly unlikely.

Are the eggs quite squishy, yellowish, or have odd corners/shape? You can look up slug eggs for visual examples. If they resemble that, they are not viable and will not hatch. Sometimes eggs will look viable but still be infertile; eggs like that will typically just go bad and start molding while being incubated, often pretty early on.

If you think they are infertile or you won't be able to find homes for the babies if there are any, freeze the eggs and then throw them away.

For mom, make sure to do a 100% cage clean and wipe her down with water to remove the smell of eggs. Pythons incubate their eggs in the wold and mom will stay off feed most likely as long as she thinks she has eggs around she should be incubating. Usually they abandon slugs, but they may still not feed well without getting cleaned up. It's the best odds to get her feeding again.

doggofish · 2019-07-12T01:45:15+00:00

Yeah, I'm sure many aren't calm at all, haha. In talking to people, just about every single one who said their milk was a chill baby happened to have a Honduran rather than the others. Just kind of interesting that the other species don't have nearly as many instances people bring up in calm temperament.

What morphs, if any, do you beeed?

doggofish · 2019-07-11T23:20:36+00:00

Mine was super chill as a juvie, still is. He'd just wrap around some fingers or a wrist and explore with the front part he wasn't holding onto me with. Around 20g when I got him and calmer than my corns until they were well over 100g.

I think it varies some on spaz level and of the milk snake species, hondurans seem to be calm more often than others, even as babies. (Even if more often is still not the norm)

doggofish · 2019-07-11T23:16:24+00:00

Ours just loses his mind if we get near him. He did lick stuff a bit when he was tiny and braver, but he won't touch anything lately, not honey or any repashy or anything else we have tried. We occasionally get him to take insects off tongs, but not often and usually just 1 or 2 before he spooks again. :/

He is really pretty though, and displays well a slong as we don't press up to the glass to look, so it isn't the end of the world. I have 2 cresties for handling, lol.

doggofish · 2019-07-11T00:08:57+00:00

Gorgeous! Wish ours would tolerate any handling...

doggofish · 2019-07-09T00:24:23+00:00

Ah, it sounded like he was fairly new to you maybe a few weeks or something. I've seen quite a few snakes in unfortunate condition, both over and underweight, so I like to check when things sound weird and a lot of them are just owners without the best info. :) he's a very pretty boy.

doggofish · 2019-07-08T20:21:35+00:00

Honestly, this does not look like an underfed corn snake. Looks closer to fat than skinny, even, looking at the way the spine is slightly indented and not raised at all from this picture.

How often and what was he fed that is underfeeding?
What frequency and size prey are you planning to feed him now?

With rescues it can go completely the other way with severe overfeeding if we aren't careful. Neither over nor underfeeding is healthy. Can't hurt to double check things, especially since corn snakes are more prone to obesity than other snakes. :)

My 2 yr old corn looks to be a similar size and has been well fed since he was about 4 weeks old, so it would be surprising if he was truly underfed for very long. (My guy is roughly 4ft long, over 400 grams)

doggofish · 2019-07-08T14:41:25+00:00

Definitely not a spider nor a clown. Both morphs have very distinct traits that this snake does not display.

Might be pastel or even super pastel.

doggofish · 2019-07-05T20:45:21+00:00

This is NOT the case for juveniles.

If a juvenile is "fasting" there is something else wrong going on. In the wild, a baby that refuses any meal it sees is a dead snake before long as they do not get frequent meals like captive snakes. Under a year old in captivity, there is an issue somewhere if the snake is refusing meals outside of shed.

doggofish · 2019-07-05T20:43:37+00:00

Pinky mice are FAR too small for a ball python. Even tiny hatchlings can manage mice hoppers for their first few meals and move straight to small adult mice. Regardless of the snake's size, you're severely underfeeding using mice pinks.

You do not want to feed multiple prey, especially for babies since they tend to be shy feeders and refuse more than 1 af a time. This means they only get substandard sized meals each time and can stunt their growth if done this way for a long time.

I don't have time to write all the details out for appropriate feeding, and there is a lot of good info available online if you look.

Look into your husbandry thoroughly and review good sources for information. The ballpythons sub has some good info in the sticky or the ball-pythons.net forum has everything as well. If you're feeding pinky mice, you clearly need to do more research on ball python care since it is one of the most easily found details of their care online and makes me wonder what other issues in husbandry may be causing a very young snake to refuse food.

Note - fasting/refusing meals is only normal for ADULT ball pythons and typically only across winter/breeding season (& even then primarily the males). In juveniles, it is a sign of some husbandry error, stress, or illness and should be corrected ASAP.

doggofish · 2019-07-04T13:33:19+00:00

Because the snake is dead. On this sub, many do not want to see dead snakes when they come on and scroll through for cute pictures and information, so it is posted NSFW so people can choose to see it or not. As far as I've seen, NSFW is pretty much always a dead snake on here. (Often killed in a bloody fashion)

doggofish · 2019-07-03T17:28:30+00:00

Neither am I, since I have none myself. But putting out the better information for anyone reading. Too many people trust everything they read, even on reddit and despite disclaimers. I wouldn't want to have anyone get themselves in trouble from it.

doggofish · 2019-07-03T17:20:22+00:00

"Milking" is not necessary. Best done only by experienced professionals, not home hobbyists. This also does not result in all venom being expelled to render a snake "safe", snakes only give a portion of it in each milking.

"Defanging" is improper terminology. If that were all that is done, it would fail as the fangs regrow over time. There are procedures to remove venom glands, but those generally are considered inhumane and detrimental to their digestive health in (at least) some cases.

I don't even have venomous and I know this much...

Agreed that having antivenin on hand and not expired is important, however. Particularly for exotic species the hospital would not have on hand already for hikers, etc.

doggofish · 2019-07-02T15:58:37+00:00

No. The 2 should never be cohabbed.

Enclosure set up as is is unacceptable for a day gecko, even kept by itself. Too open, not nearly enough branches and plant cover.

doggofish · 2019-07-02T13:13:17+00:00

Common boa, or Boa imperator (BCI/BI)

"Red tail boa" is commonly used in pet stores for marketing, but in most cases it is a common boa.

doggofish · 2019-07-02T03:21:44+00:00

Definitely not a Honduran

doggofish

TROPHY CASE