Number four home today...

[Hoomi]

I suppose this is kind of like a "rescue" snake. A relative of a co-worker had a young ball python that she claimed was getting aggressive, and just wanted to find a home for it with someone that could handle it. I talked it over with my wife, and we agreed we could find some space for it.

The snake was brought down to Tucson this weekend, and I picked it up from my co-worker today. She's a pretty little normal colored ball, probably around 24" to 30" long (they never want to cooperate by laying straight when you want to measure them, do they?), and I'm guessing around a year old, as she's comparable to Phil and Magellan in size and that's how old the two boys are.

She came complete with her ten gallon terrarium set up, which I'm likely going to replace very soon with something more appropriate for her size. It was obvious her previous owner had been a bit intimidated by her, as she clearly had not been taken from the enclosure lately for any housecleaning. It looked like at least a couple of sheds worth of skin remained on the substrate, along with several excremental deposits.

She was no problem to take out and check over when I arrived at my co-worker's place. She needs a good soak, as she has some residual skin from a shed still stuck to her, but all in all she appears healthy. She explored my arm and my shirtsleeve extensively as I held her, and showed no signs of aggression or timidity.

When I got her home, I placed her in a Sterlite box for a while so I could give her terrarium a clean out. The old bark substrate went bye-bye, replaced by some clean newspaper. Her water dish got a good scrubbing, which I think she greatly appreciated, as the first thing she did when I placed her in the clean enclosure was to check out the water and take a drink.

She now joins Phil, Magellan, and Dixie in my collection of scaly legless friends. I'll watch her for a few days, and think of some good names that might fit her.

That, and look for a better enclosure to house her in.

[iceman25]

Good Job!

[Smulkin]

Nice work and grats on the new addition!

[Marla]

Congrats! Sounds like you got her none too soon before she got some nasty bacterial infection from the dirty enclosure.

[ffighterstu]

It amazes me sometimes how people can neglect things, especially other living creatures. I guess they just don't have the love for animals that we all have here.

[led4urhead]

Congrats and Good Job Hoomi!

[Hoomi]

Heh... the new snake may not end up being my snake. My wife was saying last night that she thought about "claiming" it when I brought it home. I told her if she wants a snake of her own, she's welcome to make that one "her" snake. She started thinking of names for it already...

I still have to take care of feeding it, though. My wife still dislikes having to feed rodents to a snake. I don't think it's the feeding of the snake that bothers her; it's dealing with rodents. When we had a mouse infestation in the house, and the cats left a dead one around, I was usually the one who got called to remove the remains.

[Anonymous]

Aw, well you can always come to my house and clean my ball pythons remains too. I'll give you part ownership to the snake!

[Hoomi]

Well, the new snake will definitely NOT be my wife's snake. I had her out today for a few minutes, and she let my wife touch her a couple of times and then for some reason she decided to bite. She caught my wife's hand on the inside base of the thumb, leaving a few puncture wounds and some bruising. Nothing really serious, but enough that Mrs. Hoomi isn't going to give her another chance to nail her again.

[sophie42204]

That's too bad, I hope the Mrs. won't be put off all snakes b/c of the one incident. Glad it wasn't bad and she's ok! Maybe the new girl is still not completely comfy in her new home yet?