Marty’s photo of the day #2807: When I acquired Adam and Eve, back in 2001, I selected a male and a female, because rainbow boas were supposedly difficult to breed in captivity. Needless to say, Adam and Eve didn’t read the same snake books that I did, and put that rumor to shame. This is one of their litters from several years ago—thirty little snakelets!

Adam and Eve now live in separate vivariums. Eve has her own, and Adam shares one with his son Little Snake. As I write this, Adam is going through his horny phase. At night he searches every inch of his vivarium for a mate (pulling down and flattening the plants), and he’s also fasting—now into his third month without eating.

We’ve been through this before with Adam, so we know not to worry. Last time he went through his horny phase, he didn’t eat for six months. Deb puts it in Star Trek terms and says he’s going through “pon farr.” Sometimes it’s tempting to let Adam hop over to Eve’s place for a conjugal visit. But do I really want to put thirty snakelets up for adoption again? Do I really want to deal with getting bit over and over by snakelets that are like little piranhas for their first few weeks of life?

Sorry Adam, you’re just going to have to put up with pon farr like Spock and Tuvok.