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Cute hoggie nibble! Those can be "fun." I keep lyres and they can make the arm swell apparently, but I've had no such experience yet. Has anybody here kept false water cobras? I've been charmed by a few juveniles and can see their appeal. Size isn't so much the question. I was curious what their digestive input/output was like, whether it was on par with other large colubrids like indigos that have pretty swift digestive tracts. With indigos it's always recommended to have a spare shirt on hand, as human warmth helps to keep things moving during handling. I know French Post kept them, but he's been AWOL from the herp thread for awhile.
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Feb 2, 2012 09:00
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Cowslips Warren posted:I just want to add a private gently caress You to craigslist responders who 'really really REALLY' want one of my Kenyan sand boa babies. This girl has been in contact with me for loving months, always asking for more pictures and if I was 100% sure on the gender and if I'd guarantee the genders and more. And of course always wanting the price to drop. I finally told her it was tonight or never, so I waited 20 minutes for the bitch to show up. She never did. CL is a parasite farm. I wouldn't wish it any of my animals. I've met more remedial morons and half-wit abortions via CL than any other means. "I know you wanted $60, but I only have $20." "These eat crickents right?" ("experienced" snake keeper re: ball pythons) CL is the online leper colony. While there are some awesome folks out there, the ratio of good vs bad will shatter any faith you have in the hope of humanity, and the notion that, as a higher species, we might be evolving to a higher form. Calculate the price vs your worth per hour x the # of hours it will require to agree on price, take the additional photos they want, give directions in triplicate, settle the sale, deal with the stupid "I couldn't make it today. Can you deliver it to me?" type questions. If that comes out to worth your time, then and only then consider dealing with CL.
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Feb 6, 2012 10:34
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Warm desert temps on Saturday brought forth the first two snakes of the herping year, coinciding with some terrific poppy blooms thanks to winter rains. California King:  Sonoran Gopher, roadcruised at 7:30pm:  The earliest snake I saw last year was a juvenile diamondback on 3/6. Several small earless and zebra-tailed lizards have been scurrying about the past week, staking their territorial claims.
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Feb 14, 2012 17:33
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Big Centipede posted:Very nice finds, but I'm seriously shocked I found a snake before you. I found a little redbelly snake in my yard almost a month ago, but that was when our temps were in the 70's. Very cool. The redbellied always eluded me back east. I found tons of northern browns, but never the redbellied. It's been a weird winter. 2 snakes on Saturday, yet we got sleet, then snow flurries today.
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Feb 14, 2012 23:49
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Shachi posted:So I'm thinking of getting back into herpin.' I've really caught the bug for Crested Geckos Turn back now, my friend. Run while you can. Those adorable little shits are more addictive than you can imagine. I was never a lizard person prior to them. I liked lizards, but never quite held them in the same light as snakes. Well, that all changed this past year tenfold and now we have 3. They're a blast. I defer to the experts on the best instruction of care, but it's tough to go wrong with these buggers if you have the basics right. On another note, I finally scored a pair of Charina bottae. Rubber boas.  I've wanted to work with them for years, but they're surprisingly hard to come by in the trade. I had a pair of pretty pink neonates in the palm of my hand at a show years ago, but ultimately deferred their purchase to another herper since I had already spent more than intended. I haven't seen even one at a show and rarely in classifieds since. The male arrives tomorrow. The female early next week. Xmas in March! Photos coming soon. On another note, Big Centipede, my folks bought a place out here and have found several scorpions in it. We may have to work something out here if you can describe best methods of catching and shipping these fiends.
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Mar 8, 2012 07:19
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Big Centipede posted:Awesome news on the rubber boas. They fill the "so-ugly-they're-cute" snake niche. I've decided to basically stop getting snakes for a while, but I had considered maybe strating a rubber boa project some day (as of now though I think my next project might be Eryx jayakari). Wow! Big news -- congrats! And good luck with the planning! The new arrival:  More pics after he settles in a little. He's had quite a journey overnight.
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Mar 8, 2012 21:31
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Joonami posted:
Regarding question #1. He may just be a nut. But heightened or hyper activity can sometimes be attributed to temps being too high. You may try lowering the temps of the cool end to the low 70s and see if it favors that spot. Rosies can be found under cover when air temps are in the 60s. Regarding #2: It sounds like it may have simply been irritable being in mid-swallow. Snakes are largely defenseless with a meal in their jaws, so it was probably more nervy than usual.
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Mar 9, 2012 19:06
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Nice herp adventure, OneTwentySix! That spring sallie is incredible.
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Mar 10, 2012 19:21
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Celery Face posted:He said something like "We have a cat, a dog and a lizard which itself is over the top. We aren't running a zoo here." Not with that attitude.  Parents too can be trained. The front is sternest when they are about to break. A baby crested gecko could break their spirit. A huffy baby hognose would melt their heart. But you're wise to fall back, give it time, and strike another day. Take them to a reptile show sometime. Just to browse. I've taken non-buying folks to shows who have enjoyed them more than zoos, getting a taste of the herpetoculture market, getting the hands-on feel of docile rat snakes, boas, kings, pythons, and so forth. It can change a person's perspective on the spot, seeing how benign these animals are. The most cold-blooded thing about reptiles is humanity's general perception of them. But that tide is turning.
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Mar 13, 2012 05:27
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I wouldn't use guinea pigs as a food source as lab-bred rats and rabbits are an established, available food source. No need for alternatives. Red-tailed boas (and larger boas and pythons), cribos, indigos, large ratsnakes and bullsnakes, and large old world rat snakes could make a meal of guinea pigs. My eldest male everglades rat is near or over 8 feet. I wouldn't want him to try a guinea pig, but am sure he, never quite the brightest knob on the door, wouldn't hesitate to try, given the chance. Rather, I stick with feeder rats. They are perfect units of nutrition for that purpose and snakes don't benefit from food variety say the way birds do (offerings of seed, fruit, veggies, fingers, etc). For larger boas and pythons I would opt for lab raised rabbits. For uber-sized pythons, well, I guess I'd find a goat farmer if I kept such things, which I've never had the slightest inclination to do.
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Mar 19, 2012 08:49
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For the SW, the monsoon is pretty impressive for toads and frogs. When cruising during the summer monsoon, the roads become a minefield of frogs and toads, curiously spaced out at regular 20-30 foot intervals. Driving becomes a slalom of dodging and swerving. It blows the mind how much amphibian life the Sonoran Desert supports. In S. Az, the diamondback may well be the most common snake found, along with the gopher snake. Some herpers in jest call them rats with rattles. Familiarity makes it pretty disarming how a smaller diamondback is still a big stick of TNT by copperhead standards. Making matters worse is how disgustingly cute and mesmerizing sidewinders are. To watch a neonate, all 5 inches of it, stomp around me with its coils to get back onto the road I removed it from, like a 2 year old in a stomping tantrum, was stupefying. You can't help but laugh. But then you remind yourself that one mistake can easily amount to a 5 digit hospital bill. Still, it's a pity they're venomous and ever so trigger happy. Otherwise they could beat hognoses at their own game.
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Mar 20, 2012 07:54
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ZarathustraFollower posted:
Congrats on an awesome gig! Is Dale Marcellini (sp?) still there? I had met him ages ago during a behind-the-scenes FONZ tour of the reptile house.
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Apr 13, 2012 15:45
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ZarathustraFollower posted:Bobbaganoosh, I work mostly at the SCBI for my internship, but my PI is getting me to help out at the reptile house next week. The guys that run it were out of town this week, but I'll find out sometime next week if he is still around. No sweat. I don't know him per se. I just recall a few odd details from the discussion that stuck with me, Thursday 4pm being feeding time for many of the snakes, and so forth. Ask around about the nut who stole 2 Gaboon Vipers from the reptile house in 1980. That was something else. He broke the glass of the cage, threw 2 of the big vipers into a plastic trash bag. Stepped on a DC bus, but was bitten in the shoulder as he boarded and slung the bag over his shoulder. He asked the driver to dial 911 as he slunk to his knees. From that episode I was mostly impressed to learn that a plastic trash bag could even hold 2 adult Gaboon Vipers.
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Apr 14, 2012 07:45
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Cowslips Warren posted:I just realized that my female hognose Alice is twice the size of my male, Cheshire. Probably helps that she gorges as often as I feed her and he's loving picky about everything. Hogs are drama nuts. When not hooding, hissing, dying, getting better, they drive their keepers utterly mad. I think females get larger than males. My lone male has finally been feeding steadily for the past 18 months. But he was on-again, off-again for the first year or two. I need to get a female for him, maybe at the Tucson show this year. Pipping hogs would be among the cuter sights on the planet. It's been a good spring so far in the desert. Purple tongues are in bloom:  Meeting a gila in the wild is always a thrill.   
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Apr 23, 2012 07:00
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Interesting riddle you have going, OneTwentySix. Keep us posted. I've learned more about amphibians from you in this thread than decades of nosing through field guides. The only marbled sallies I found was a pair under a rotting log, while herping with the Va. Herp Society in Caroline Co., Va. Just awesome animals. Hope you get to see a gila in the wild someday BigCentipede and Greycious. They're as awesome as they come across in photos and more. BigCentipede, I'm trying to ignore your crocodile skink post... those things are just too awesome, as are all these posts on Gargoyle Geckos. The temptation here isn't helping.  I have a pair of juvenile Tarahumara Boas arriving Thursday, pics coming then. These are true boa constrictors whose range comes within 50 miles of the US border. Tarahumaras are the smallest locality. Females top out at 4 feet, males at 3. The opportunity to work with these legendary dwarf boas is a thrill.
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Apr 25, 2012 07:13
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Tarahumara boas are a dwarf locality of Boa constrictor imperator, the smallest of the dwarf B. c. i. variations. Females top out at 4 feet, males at 3. This pair is 6-7 months old. The female is the sweetheart of the two:  The scar is from my female everglades rat snake about 2 weeks ago. She's likely gravid now and apparently wanted another rat instead of a refreshed water dish when my hand reached in. The male needs a little work, but is coming around after a few short handling sessions.  Their defensive display is impressive, a hiss on par with a gopher or bullsnake. It isn't a bluff. After sizing up his teeth, I opted for oven mitts, as leather gloves weren't immediately available. To his credit, he never once struck.
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Apr 27, 2012 08:21
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Big Centipede posted:Beautiful snakes, but I can't help but laugh at the oven mitt. Come'on you sissy, snakebites build character. Haha! Tune in next week when I break out the shark cage for close encounters with tadpoles.
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Apr 27, 2012 19:10
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Big Centipede posted:The male was doing these slow motion rear end slaps. LOL! You've forever befouled the memory of the first pair of wild reptiles I found mating under a blackberry bush. But yes, it's quite as described.
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Apr 28, 2012 19:44
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Based on the above photo it appears to be a banded gecko. http://www.reptilesofaz.org/Lizards-Subpages/h-c-variegatus.html
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May 6, 2012 20:00
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ZarathustraFollower posted:
Pines are absolute lap snakes. Gophers tend to stay on the move when handled, but pines are pretty lax. My male and female pine would just lay on my shoulders and stay put. That's great to hear the internship and volunteer work is going great!
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May 25, 2012 05:45
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Big Centipede posted:First clutches are often duds in my experience, and the second bad clutch could be a fluke. If she's ignoring the laying box, try stripping her cage bare except for the box when she's about to lay. I appreciate this advice and will try this. My female trans-pecos rat ignored her egg box too with her first clutch last year. They were all slugs too. I just paired the two up this weekend. Knock on wood. I haven't bred milks before, but just paired up 2 of my scarlet kings. This should be an adventure.
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Jun 3, 2012 22:17
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Cowslips Warren posted:Question regarding ant poison. I swear by corn starch. It's non-toxic to our pets and kills ants. Ants will take it back to their holes and queens and share it with the rest and poison the whole colony. In a few days the ants will be gone. Apparently they can't digest it. Whatever its magic, it was a champ in ridding our kitchen of them.
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Jun 4, 2012 20:56
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Cowslips Warren posted:
Does she actually bite? My male has been doing the same thing for years, but it's always bluff. He has never bitten. He carries on in my hands when I remove him, then calms down a bit. If I put him down, he starts back up. He must have been a hissing cockroach in a past life. He has been a great ambassador for folks unfamiliar with snakes. Also, BigCentipede -- love the pics! That king is a champ. Let me know if you ever breed that rosy. Also are the gray geckos the gargoyles you've been mentioning? Horrible temptation to see those. Those colors and patterns are incredible. On the road two nights ago, I came across this rare fellow. Their known range is in only 3 counties in the US, all in AZ. Pima Saddled Leaf-nosed snake:     This is only the third I've seen, all on hot nights. I'm convinced it takes high desert heat to cook them to the surface at night. They're surprisingly stout-bodied for a small snake. More akin to a hog than, say a ringneck, worm or brown snake.
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Jun 13, 2012 05:07
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Cowslips Warren posted:No change in my female milk. I'm sure it's an egg as opposed to a large poo poo, but why would one appear after all the rest were laid, over a week later? It isn't hard to touch either. A similar thing happened with my Trans Pecos Rat last year. It was her first clutch. All were slugs. She passed a single solitary mass about 2 weeks after the slugs. Like you, and per my vet's advice, I gave her lukewarm baths. After that she resumed feeding and living normally. We'll see if she fares better this year. If not, I'll retire her from breeding plans. I hope she produces a few eggs. She's a sweetheart and a beauty.
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Jun 19, 2012 20:21
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Cowslips Warren posted:Did you use a needle to 'pop' the egg, or let it pass naturally? I'm just worried because, and it's only one source, yes, but Mojave Reptiles told me that even if a vet cuts her open to remove the egg, the stress could kill her still. She worked it out on her own. The vet said needling was best left to worst-case egg-bound scenarios, that she should be able to pass it naturally. Another trick is to give her something to crawl through or between that's wider than her, but not wider than the lump. Or anything with a tight squeeze. I think that's what mine did to squeeze it out or squeeze it loose, as I had interrupted her once, thinking she was stuck. Her egg box was almost as high as her rubbermaid. I caught her squeezing over the top of the box against the cage lid several times, before I realized what she might be doing, and let her have at it. Once I let her handle it on her own accord, she passed it after a few days. Greycious -- will do! Bogey hatchlings would be pretty cool. She and the sire are pretty animals. Classic yellow with the black ladderback.
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Jun 20, 2012 04:47
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Big Centipede posted:
That's interesting to know! I've been feeding my yearling Tarahumara boas a mix of small rats, rat pups and XL adult mice. My female has a distinct preference for rats. My male (Sir Oven Mitt, aka Sir Bite-a-lot) prefers either the mice or rat pups, but not small rats yet. In other news, my female lyre must be gravid. She's looking quite hefty in the hindquarters for a notoriously slender species. I've just added an egg box with sphagnum. The prospect of Trimorphodon eggs is too cool! Also, I've just paired up my high-black female scarlet king with my giant male (22"). I hope they hit it off.
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Jun 21, 2012 05:57
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Woohoo! Congrats Greycious! Healthy looking hatchling! I hope to breed those a few years down the line. But mine are still neonates.
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Jun 22, 2012 06:26
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Greycious posted:Oh yes, I'm ready for a long ride trying to get them to regularly feed, if it comes to that... You're well-prepared. I got 2 pairs of non-feeder hatchlings at a great rate last year. One female fed on gecko-scented right away. The others didn't so I cooled them down for 3 months. All 3 took gecko-scented a week after warming up. Tragically, one morning one of my males turned up RIP. I've no idea what went wrong. He had fed twice before expiring. On the bright side, it wasn't long before the others were all hammering unscented and begging for more.
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Jun 22, 2012 19:24
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Cowslips Warren posted:Despite the reptile gods taking Lonesome George, I want to thank them for Rorschach passing that final egg. You know what Silly Putty comes in, right? It was that size, dark black and green. I about screamed when I saw her without the swollen mass and yes, she's still in shed mode. That's great she passed it. She'll be good as new in no time. Yeah, that blockage can be a nasty mass. My suboc's final mass was part amber, part brown. Miraculously, this luckly little lass was missed by several vehicles including an 18 wheeler that went right over her, and still alive in the road as I swerved to a stop beside her.  Understandably, she was a little rattled.   A sense of her size is conveyed via the USB chord, and the useless thermometer sticker that pet stores make a fortune overcharging novice keepers for. She is approximately 12 inches, hardly the monster of western mythology. Large adults top out at about 2 feet. She sang the whole ride home, her rattle being a high-pitched nasal buzz. The sidewinder's song differs from diamondbacks, whose heavier maraca-toned rattles promise "Somebody's about to die."  Here she sits atop one of her hides, a partial shoebox lid buried in sand with a rock slab adjacent to the hole, emulating a pack rat nest, favorite homes of sidewinders. Sand is not recommended for most snakes, but it is the preferred substrate of sidewinders. Their natural range stops wherever the sand does. They coil up and snuggle into it the same way you would your favorite spot on the sofa. After just a few days she took her first meal, a f/t road-killed packrat. A dead packrat is an easy find. Literally the stupid things will run right into your wheels. Rats and packrats are extremely common to see on the roads at night in the desert. I expect she will switch to f/t rodents with ease. But if not, the desert is in no short supply of free meals. Anyways, it's a pleasure and a thrill to be working with an icon of the Old West, a journey over 3 decades in the making. I'll get better pics and video as she settles in more. 
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Jun 26, 2012 07:46
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Wasn't he the one who tried to ride it out sans treatment? That would exacerbate the effects of any bite to the extreme. Venom left unchecked is insanity. Unless you're Bill Haas, of course. Nevertheless, I don't underestimate these TNT sticks. Never have. I'd sooner mistake mistake my .45 for a Q-Tip. As a musician, I've a vested interest in not losing any fingers or limbs. And I'd prefer to not work the computer keyboard with a straw for the rest of my days. Having rescued, removed, released and photographed hundreds upon hundreds (probably thousands at this point) of crotes in fields and washes, on roads, from garages, yards, gardens, greenhouses, and once even a pool skimmer, and having had exactly zero close calls, I'm confident in my safety protocols. More valuable than experience and knowledge is the mentoring I've had from a few local hot keepers on making the decision and on best practices. The clincher was restoring power to our climate-controlled poolhouse that nobody but I ever uses. The perfect Herpetorium.
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Jun 26, 2012 17:12
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Big Centipede posted:Haha... he waited to be sure it wasn't a dry bite instead of going to the hospital. He's my friend, but he isn't too bright. Ouch! Costly error! Their bite has been described as dipping the afflicted limb in hot fryer. Unfortunately, their venom is highly evolved to dissolve tissue and destroy blood cells of mammals and other vertebrates. Barring anaphylaxis, they aren't likely to kill you. But as those photos illustrate, there's no such thing as a "safe" hot, a diet rattlesnake, a one-calorie mamba. Sidewinder rules couldn't be easier to understand: enter their Death Zone, and they will indeed bite the hell out of you. Without hesitation. hypnotoad posted:She's beautiful, Bobbaganoosh! I'd love to see more pictures of her. I love hots, but having no experience with them or anywhere to start, I don't think I'd ever keep one myself. But I love seeing pictures of everyone else's! Thanks hypnotoad. I'll take more photos and video soon, once I get better lighting in there. And feeding photos as soon as she starts taking f/t hoppers. Near-daily exposure to buzztails 9 months of the year for years upon years helped to perfect best practices. The sidewinder is only one of 3 hots that I'd ever consider keeping. One of the others, the Sonoran Coral Snake, I tried keeping last year, but couldn't get it to feed on blind snakes (its preferred food) nor night snakes, neonate longnosed or euthanized kinked rat snake hatchlings. As such I released her shortly after capture. Ol red touch yellow:  Refreshments are served:  Having the stand-alone hot room was an absolute key requirement for keeping a crote. If anybody gets tagged, it will be from stepping on a neonate diamondback in the driveway in the dark, and not from any of my mistakes. This happened to a buddy of mine in his own driveway while taking out the trash. He doesn't wear flip-flops after dark anymore. It's rarely the one you see that gets you; it's the one you don't. Back in 2007, a diamondback tagged somebody in the garden center of the local Walmart, as bad luck would have it.
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Jun 26, 2012 22:04
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ZarathustraFollower posted:One of the keepers I work with used to work for a private zoo. He was in charge ot the hot snakes specifically, and the owner would often go in after closing to rearrage the back room/feed stuff. Often the owner would forget/not care to relock or even close cages. The guy quit after the 2nd time of playing 'find the cobra' by himself one morning. Yikes! Smart of him to move on. Carl Kauffeld wrote of his king cobra envenomation. He accidentally hooked his thumb on a fang, trying to help it shed. He notified a fellow keeper, who promptly prepared to administer the horse serum. He recalls pleasantly drifting into a comfortable dream state. The next thing he knew was coming to, and his fellow keeper saying "Thank god! I thought you were a goner!" It was hours later. The fellow keeper recounted his log of symptoms observed, most notably violent coughing and convulsions, a sharp contrast to the peaceful dream Kauffeld experienced. Neurotoxins don't mess around in shutting down the nervous system. ZarathustraFollower posted:Anyway, she's a beautiful snake, and I can't wait to see more pics as she grows. What size tank are you going to keep her in full grown? Are you planning on setting up a lock box to herd her into while working in the cage, or just removing her each time? Yes. I chase/ferry her into a lockbox (a small rubbermaid filebox) and move that into my crote bucket -- a 5 gallon bucket with a screwtop locking lid. In the meantime I've ordered a Vision 221 for my Az. Mountain King, the current resident of the sidewinder's future cage. The hidden underlip of Visions pose a bit of a safety risk with small hots. Hidden nooks where you can't see them lurking is begging for disaster. Its adult cage is a custom oak herp cage built by a local woodworker/cabinet maker. 44" wide, 18" deep, 16" high. I got it off CL several years ago, as he was no longer keeping herps. It's a heavy, sturdy cabinet type cage, double-hinged framed glass doors wired with undertank heating, with flooring waterproofed and sealed by some kind of epoxy. The thing is heavy enough it could double as a bomb shelter. The cage originally housed my California King, who inexplicably outgrew it. Dingbat is over 66" now and resides in a Vision 322. The size is a bit excessive at first glance, but the key is to have enough room for it to truck around in. The cabinet cage was actually 2 separate cages, but I cut out most of the center dividing wall, such that only an inch lip remains around the top, front and back, while about 1/2 inch remains at the bottom -- enough to submerge in substrate. The front currently has hook locks, but those will be removed and replaced with padlocked bolt latches. I'm fitting it with a lock-in-place partition, for securely dividing the cage in half for cage cleanings. This makeover warrants a photo post of its own when complete.
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Jun 26, 2012 23:59
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Listen to these wise people. Save yourself now. Crestitis is terminal and spreads fast. Run if you can. Monsoon rains ripped thru S. Az today. Naturally the amphibians are loving it and out in force, although I don't remember them being quite this loud. This is from a retaining pond right out our window. Ignore the video (all black, basically), just crank the volume. The video doesn't quite convey the volume. http://s242.photobucket.com/albums/ff98/Verhoodled/?action=view¤t=IMG_0272.mp4 The sounds of dying sheep are Woodhouse's Toads. 
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Jul 15, 2012 05:11
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Pumpkinreaper posted:
No, but I did pose Flat Stanley with juvenile diamondbacks, a longnose and black widow when my nephew sent him out here as part of his school assignment. Flat Stanley had an assortment of hats that we made for him, if that counts. Snakes tend to not like objects on their heads. I can dig up examples of the photo series up and post them here if there's any interest. Even a local police officer helped with the lighting with one of the diamondback/Flat Stanley photo ops. He was a fellow herper happy to see dbacks on the move. Disclaimer: the Flat Stanley poses were all accompanied by educational subtext about how dangerous diamondbacks and black widows are to non-flat children. For those not in the know, Flat Stanley is a fictional character who was flattened by a falling chalkboard and later mailed (Hey, why not?) around the country by his family via envelope, hence it has become a popular geography project for kids. In unrelated news, I roadcruised not one but two gilas last night. One was a baby, about 6 inches long. Photos coming once I get my composure together and stop bouncing off the walls. Holy gently caress, I'm ecstatic if I see two gilas a year, let alone in a month.
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Jul 18, 2012 04:33
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drat. I got a RodentPro shipment in June. Fortunately the bulk was rats and rat pups. Dan Krull of HerpNation interviewed the curator of the Kentucky Reptile Zoo who brought the issue to light. Audio interview here (Warning, it autoplays). http://www.herpnation.com/audio/breaking-news-kristen-wiley/?simple_nav_category=audiof
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Aug 1, 2012 18:07
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Congrats on the house snakes BigCentipede. Those colors rival the orange on my everglades rats. They should produce a ton of beauties for you. My newest beauty, as found, a dream come true:  Tiger Rattlesnake Tigers are shy and reluctant to rattle or strike, but are not to be underestimated, given that they are the most toxic rattlesnake. Another interesting project just bore fruit this weekend, Sonoran Lyre Snake eggs:  The prospect of working with these hatchlings is exciting, capping off a decade-plus of curiousity about the life cycle of these enigmatic animals.
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Aug 9, 2012 07:10
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Big Centipede posted:Wait a week before feeding again, and try a little smaller mouse. Regurging is very stressful, and 1 regurge can lead to more if pushed. What temps are you keeping it at? Echoing Big Centipede's advice. Let time be your friend here, as the snake will require at least a week for the acids to recover. Feeding too soon will lead to more regurges. So even waiting 2 weeks won't be a bad thing. Odd as it sounds, regurges will kill a snake much quicker than starvation. And 2-4 weeks off-feed won't starve a snake at all. So let time be your ally here as the snake heals. Dial down the belly heat. If using a thermostat, drop it to 82-85F. If just using a stick-on heat, sans thermostat, unplug it and try to keep the daytime temps in the upper 70s to low 80s. Best of luck and keep us posted!
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Aug 12, 2012 09:01
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Cowslips Warren posted:So my flighty strike-everything-that-moves female hognose, Alice, didn't want to eat yesterday but did today. I offered her a live hopper (as she often refuses prekilled but am working on getting her over) and she hissed, puffed, struck a few times, always missing, and finally nailed herself. She sat for a good minute as if realizing why there was pain in her side and why she didn't taste mouse. Then I offered her a prekilled one, and she was happy with that. A textbook case of Multiple Hognosality Disorder. There's no cure. Mine prowls for food and the hissing, hooding and bluff-striking starts the moment I open the cage. Ditto for spotcleaning, water changing or even tending to animals in adjacent cages. Of course, he crawls straight out of his hide to the front of the cage too. He hasn't bitten himself yet, but he's working on it. It sounds like yours is a few education levels more advanced.
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Aug 17, 2012 23:24
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I'm really sorry hypnotoad. That's terrible.
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Aug 24, 2012 16:11
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| # ¿ May 21, 2024 12:23 |
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Ridiculously beautiful animals, Big Centipede. They're as orange as my everglades rats. Their hatchlings must be a trip to deal with. My lyre eggs are well. 7 for 7, all going strong thus far. The big test is my move on Saturday, not rocking the yolk boat and screwing things up. We'll transport them late in the evening, slow and steady. It's only a 2 mile move. I'd carry them the distance by foot, but I'd have to stop every 50 feet to shoo a neonate atrox out of the way. And perhaps a gila or two, the way this summer has been.
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Aug 28, 2012 06:52
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