Biting and pooping

What a weekend. I started off on rescuing a large female ball python. I had to pick her up about a hundred miles from my house, but I'm glad I made the journey. The guy took the snake in about 8 months ago from a friend, but he didn't seem too much into snakes. She had a large tank and one hide, but only a small strip of heat tape to keep her warm. The humidity must have beeen pretty low because she has an eye cap, and she seemed kind of thin. He told me that they only fed her one or two mice every other week, and she weighs about 1500 grams. I'm glad I got her, though, and she doesn't seem nearly as shy as my other balls.

About the pooping... I have one ball that hasn't pooped in almost 3 months. The weekend started with my GTP (the one that was HOTM last month) messing up her cage pretty bad. I got that cleaned up, then my little RTB decided to empty out later that afternoon. Okay, get that cleaned up. Then comes my constipated ball. She let loose and once again I got out the paper towels and had to clean up her cage. I'm sure they must have been talking to themselves and planning this whole thing way in advance. :P

About the biting... my new big female has been very friendly, but I wanted to quarantine her from my other snakes just in case. I have her in a large Sterilite box and have been tweaking the temps and humidity. The guy I got her from did say it was time for her to eat, but I didn't give it much thought. I was going to offer her food tonight just to see if she would take it. Anyway, I was in her cage on the OTHER side of her hide. She had her head sticking out like she has been, and I had my tempgun getting temps from around her waterbowl. In a BLINK of an eye, she had her jaws clampeda around my thumb and I was screaming like a little girl... okay, maybe a big girl. I can not believe how fast and how far she moved to tag me. She had me wrapped up and looked like she already decided thumb was on the menu. After about a minute she let go and went back into her hide leaving me to clean up the blood. That was my first big bite, and I'm sort of glad it happened because I don't have to wonder about what it is like anymore. It wasn't that bad, but her speed really shocked me, especially over that distance. I made a mental note to NEVER use my tempgun with the dangling mouse-like tail strap in a hungry snakes cage.

And people say snakes are boring. :banana:

Geeze we spent Sunday morning cleaning up snake poop too....how fun is that LOL.

Ummm I guess you could say she has a lovely feeding response.....


~~Jo~~

I knew that girl would poop for you!! .... bet she's gonna have one heck of a feeding response next time you feed her!

Congrats on the new big girl .... breedable females are worth gold!!!! (right Vaughn? <wink><wink>)

-adam

Thanks, Adam. The new girl supposedly only eats live mice, but after her attack on my thumb I don't think I'd put money on her pickiness. Jo: You're right about that feeding response. Which is yet another reason why I'll probably never get a burm or retic.

I think I gave up worrying about my non-pooping girl a couple weeks ago. I gave her a couple baths, but she was still eating anything I put in front of her and didn't seem like she was backed up. Believe it or not, she almost doubled her weight (from 241g to 435g) between bathroom breaks. :crazy: