This Poor Python

[Nixon]

So, my friend's step dad owns three snakes. Two normal ball pythons and a red tail boa. One of their ball pythons, named Dave Strider, is eight years old and roughly only two and a half feet long. How he got this way is that his previous owners, before my friend's stepdad took him in, couldn't feed him often enough and he was practically starved.

...That never changed when her step dad took him in.

The cage was disgusting, there was shed stuck to the walls and grime I didn't even know of. The plastic on the tank was melted for some reason, and the bedding was covered with shed and poop. It looked like they hadn't cleaned it in over three months. The water bowl was covered in algae and the water had changed color because of it. It was a similar scenario for all of these snakes but what made Dave special is that he was still starving. My friend's stepdad feeds him too big of prey for his size since the other two snakes he has are over four feet, and Dave is only half that size or less. He threw up two of the rats it had been fed a couple nights ago as they were too big.

And so I went over to my friend's house yesterday and well, their stepdad offered me to take Dave, as I have two ball pythons already. I told him I didn't have the supplies or another tank and such but he said he'd give me everything that Dave had, including his lamps, logs, tank, etc. But, feeling super bad for the snake of his condition, I took him in hopes that it would work out smoothly.

But, when I was there I had held Dave for the first time. He is a python and is as skinny as a corn snake. I could easily feel his ribs by lightly running my finger against his side. It was bad.

I took him home, immediantly cleaned his cage, getting all the schmuck off of the sides of the glass on both the inside and outside and replaced the bedding. I scrubbed the algae off his water bowl and cleaned his log. His heat lamp isn't as strong as it needs to be, but the only heat bulb I had for him broke and so he needs to wait a bit before getting better heat. This poor guy has been living in possibly 75 degree temperature the whole time he was at that house. I'm changing that.

His cage is cleaned and I fed him yesterday. I'm going to watch him carefully for any signs of illnesses but so far he seemed oddly healthy. He's very active. I'll make sure he digests this mouse before feeding him another. But, my goal for this month is that he gets a bit fatter. This poor guy is so underweight.

I know he's going to make it out of this. He's a fighter to be here for this long.