Finally done!

I am so close to clicking that Publish button! I’ve been sitting on this for a while, truth be told. This whole creating a website thing is pretty new to me, and I wanted to make sure all my Ts were crossed, my Is dotted, and all the options to make things were there. Holy cow it’s been a journey! I have this bad habit of starting things and not finishing them. I was honestly worried this would be another one of them. But here it is, after midnight, and I am writing instead of clicking that little button.

For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Di. Dare I say it… Owner of Hoodie Goodies, creator of crafts using my and other’s snake shed. I’m a queer single parent of a kiddo on the autism spectrum. As my About page says, I (and my kiddo) own three snakes right now. Soon to be seven. Yeah. Seven. I got into the snake keeping hobby almost exactly two years ago today, when I bought Alex as a little six week old from a breeder on MorphMarket, a popular reptile sale platform. Kiddo was really interested in snakes; we watched a lot of Snake Discovery, Green Room Pythons, Clint’s Reptile Room, Wickens Wicked Reptiles, and other youtubers. At first, kiddo wanted a garter snake. After doing my research, I found garters can be a bit unforgiving to new keepers. They’re a bit fragile, and have young for quantity, not quality. Chances may be that you get a garter and it just happens to not make it. So I decided we would go for a corn snake. After finding the breeder, and picking our beautiful girl, I had her shipped to us. After some flailing, throwing money I didn’t have around to get an enclosure, hides, heat lamps, and some things I didn’t really need, we had our cute little corn.

Fast forward to summer 2026. I decided I wanted another snake. I got lonely when Alex was in shed or digesting a meal. I started looking into a Bredl’s Python, or bredli as I will refer to them here on out. I found Riley Jimison, a paragon in the world of carpet pythons, and as luck would have it, a notable breeder of bredli. So I did what any sane person would do, I followed him on Patreon, got onto his Discord, and told him I wanted a bredli and it would be really cool to have a relationship with my future snake’s breeder. Joining the Discord and meeting all the amazing people there kick started something in me that made the need for more snakes a lot more urgent than it had been. Soon after joining, I was at a local reptile shop, and they said they had house snakes. Before then, I had been in some contact with Nicole Klein, wife to Warren Klein, the famous house snake breeder. I got one of the house snakes at the shop that was labeled as “amelanistic”. I picked him up, along with a little cage intended for inverts, and took him home. I got the cage set up as quickly as I could, put him in there, and he was acting a little lethargic. He had no problem with me picking him up, but when I did, I noticed some very odd bumpy lines that seemed to be under his skin. Alarmed, I took some pictures of him and sent them to Nicole, asking if she could identify what kind of house snake he is and to ask if she would know why he was so lethargic. She replied that he was a black house snake from central Africa, and not a cape house snake. She said that they often are imported wild caught, and he may have a parasitic infection. So I called the reptile shop I got him from, told them what I had found out, and decided that I wasn’t okay with having a wild caught snake that was probably riddled with parasites. So I took him back. I have never been so happy then so sad so quickly. I haven’t gone back to that particular shop, and have kind of sworn them off. I go out of my way to get feeders for my snakes now. But in this horrible fog of sadness and disappointment, I got my two other snakes.

Deci (soft C like in City) was sort of an impulse purchase. By that, I mean that once I decided I was going to get her, I ran to Home Depot and got her a gasket tub and some pvc pipe parts for a hide, water bowl, and some other things like wire mesh to make a spot for a heat lamp. Kiddo was with me, and I don’t think I have ever felt so frenzied at a Home Depot. With the new makeshift tub parts, we went back and got the little cute. And she was small. Weighing her after we got home, she barely weighed 150g. I felt so bad. That must be a sales tactic, get the snake people to see these snakes and go “OMG you’re coming home with me!”. But I can say now that after having her for over 3 months, and a steady diet of African Soft Fur rats, she is now a little chunky and I should probably pull back on feeding her such nutrient-dense meals. Gosh I love her so much! She was the spicy one, where the first month I had her she would strike and bite me whenever I let my guard down and had my hand near any opening she might be hiding in. She was a little hissy missy too! Now, aside from maybe getting a little huffy now and then, she is so well behaved! I could honestly hold her for hours if she wouldn’t be completely exhausted after the first hour.

Now little Peach. She was about as much of an “accident” as you can have with a snake. Shortly after I brought Deci home, I was watching a Palmstreet live with Warren and Nicole Klein. They were selling some really cute little house snakes, and they were warning that it might be their last live for a while as they were moving to another state and were trying to get rid of stock. Well… I really did want a house snake, but I just got a ball python, so it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to try for a house snake. Money and all that. So out of sheer grumpiness, maybe a little spite, I thought I was going to drive up prices a little bit. It worked a could times. I would toss in a bit, and it would get overtaken almost immediately. I kept doing that, barely paying attention. I don’t remember what I was doing instead, but I was genuinely not paying attention. Then suddenly, my handle gets called out, along with an “oh, good!” I look down at my phone… I had just won the bid on the snake they were auctioning, a little T+ albino girl. Yep, that happened. A few days later, and Peach was here, my tiny little princess.

So now that catches up to today and the plan for seven snakes total. In the waiting for my bredli, I’ve put my name in for a hognose produced by Riley, a little Papuan carpet with a kinked tail and a history of prolapse because I’m that gross kind of bleeding heart that can’t say no to a special needs baby (see above about kiddo), and my bredli finally hatched and I picked him last week! And then there’s the pied ball python that I am getting from a friend of a friend. And last and I’m sure Riley would say least, a crested gecko for my little brother. Technically not mine, so doesn’t count.

Before I officially pass out, huge shoutout to mylifewithsnakes and jennamcgeoghegan on Instagram for providing me with their amazing collections of snake sheds! So much love to you both, and I will have Thank You gifts coming soon!

And with that, it’s now 10 till 2AM. I should click that publish button.