Comments | herpers: my snake ate! :D

sunshinenorcas in herpers

my snake ate! :D

May 01, 2013 18:35

Apparently the key to the KSB eating is a live fuzzy, lights off and me gone to get her to eat. I do NOT like feeding live, and I don't intend to keep on doing it, but she hadn't eaten since christmas and refused all sorts of sizes and variations. I tried fresh killed and it didn't work- this was the last resort. I mentioned to a reptile guy my ( Read more... )

Comments 16

chaosrah May 2 2013, 02:19:45 UTC

Hehe, that's nothin! Beautiful snake, glad she's eating!

sunshinenorcas May 2 2013, 20:57:09 UTC

Thanks! So am I, I was starting to get a little stressed with the no eating for nearly four months thing. I know it's not super uncommon and that she didn't lose weight, but it was definitely sparking new mom anxiety haha.

chaosrah May 4 2013, 11:33:49 UTC

My male western hognose still hasn't eaten since I got him.. It's been 6 months.. I need to find someone who knows what they are doing, I've tried everything with him, nothing works. :/ *sigh*

somniumdraconae May 2 2013, 02:41:39 UTC

Heh, your idea of "huge" is cute =) I have a rather small adult columbian boa who is just shy of six feet. We can't take adorable pictures of him laying on my face like you did with your KSB. But I have given serious thought to, someday when he passes away, taking him to a professional and having a commemorative belt made. Is that weird? It can't be any weirder than people who have little purses made out of their cats' fur, right?

sunshinenorcas May 2 2013, 20:55:51 UTC

Haha, I meant that I didn't realize male kenyan sand boas could get that big, not that snakes in general could get that big- most everything I'd read/seen showed males as pretty small and... not that guy haha.

somniumdraconae May 3 2013, 03:21:11 UTC

Oh, I know, I was just teasing you :)

desugoji May 2 2013, 02:57:20 UTC

Wow, so envious that you got to handle an alligator like that! What a well behaved boy. Even if he's not showing affection, the fact that he's so tame and trusting is pretty incredible!

Kings (and rats, for that matter) always strike me as very "in tune" with what's going on around them, smart buggers!

Your KSB is looking good too, hope you can keep her eating!

sunshinenorcas May 2 2013, 20:46:39 UTC

He's in his 30's and has been being handled since he was a little guy so he's very, very used to it. They do fairs and groups allllll over the west coast, so he's had lots of kids and people all over him for years. I've done outreaches with shelter dogs for years and they were so much more work then he was. It was pretty much reassuring parents that no, he wouldn't eat the kids, and making sure no one was petting his face. It was a neat experience. Definitely changed my mind about alligators. I grew up in the south and used to be TERRIFIED of them. It's gotten better, and they aren't an animal I'd be like 'OH LETS GO TAKE A FACEBOOK PICTURE' with in the wild, but it was cool to be that close to one and just be able to hold it and look at all the textures.

Thanks! I hope so too.

neumeindil May 2 2013, 06:13:55 UTC

YAY! Eating is good. :) So is getting familiar with other types of snakes.

sunshinenorcas May 2 2013, 20:54:13 UTC

I had a little mini party when I came back, checked on her and she had a mouse lump ngl. I know that months at a time isn't terribly uncommon, and she wasn't losing weight... just not a good feeling haha. I was worried I'd come home to a dead snake at some point :( And she's quirky about f/t- she ignores f/t fuzzies and hoppers, but strikes at adults. Which she then can't eat. But she eats live fuzzies. She's weird.

Haha, it's dangerous because then I want ALL THE SNAKES even though I know I don't have the room for them. But kings are definitely on my 'someday' list (which is rubber/rosy boa, kingsnake, ball python atm) when I get the room... I need my own house with a reptile room haha. They really are addicting.

gaiaeagle May 2 2013, 11:35:47 UTC

Glad your snake is eating. And I also thought it was funny that the male is "big". My blood pythons are much bigger than that and neither of them are anywhere near full grown. But I guess it is all a matter of perspective.

sunshinenorcas May 2 2013, 20:59:09 UTC

xD I meant that I didn't realize male KSB's could get that big, not that snakes could get that big in general. The pictures and what I'd read had made me think that they were much smaller (though, I think that is an older animal). I know most snakes are much larger then that :P and thank you! I'm glad she's eating as well.

gaiaeagle May 2 2013, 23:41:43 UTC

One of my friends used to have a KSB which would only eat live. She said it was because most KSB hunt by vibrations and not so much by sight/heat or smell like other snakes. I have heard they can be tricky with switching to f/t.

And I understand how snakes can be addicting. Little over 2 years ago, I had one snake, then I got one more, then another one, then a few more, and now we are up to 12 snakes. I totally blame my boyfriend for most of them. ;)