Yafe - Albino Carpet - FINAL - Progression Thread

Yafe is doing really well; much better.

I hope everyone understands that I couldn't move him sooner (vet said no infection for 4 weeks post antibiotics to ensure he wasn't contagious) and that I wasn't neglecting him, and did the best I could to keep humidity up in his quarantine tank, but the new tank is making a big difference.

He sounds 80% better already - after 4 days in the new tank. The temps are the same as the old 10 gallon, but, obvisouly, there is much more of a gradient for him. Additionally, humidity averages about 55%, even in the dry winter here in CT and with the heat running, and I mist once a day to keep it over 60% for a good portion of the day. The consistent humidity is helping him tremendously, I believe anyway. A few pops today, a couple small "puffs," but no major wheezing or frequent puffs.

It occurred to me that even if he has permanent scarring in his lung, etc. As he grows, the scarring will stay the same size, but his lung, etc. will become larger, making it (the scarring) less significant, and allowing him to become more comfortable with time. He's all of 130G or so now. He will be 10X+ that size when full grown.

He also may just need more time at proper and consistent humidity levels and temp levels. That's my hope anyway.

I had him out for all of 3 minutes today and he was calm as can be and seemed comfortable. However, I did not push it. I did talk to the breeder, who made a good point about the squeezing and uncomfortableness, etc. He said that part of that could be increased stress as he is not used to being handled much. He wasn't handled much at the breeder and hasn't been much here with me and Katie. Not sure how to balance that with giving him time and low stress to heal, but I plan to lean more on the letting him heal and keeping stress levels low (i.e. not much handling) for a while.

Here's a video from today of me taking him out of his new digs for the first time: https://streamable.com/ti5ak

Here's happy tongue flicks! https://streamable.com/8x2yq

Pictures of him from today and enjoying the new digs:


https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/3L9qDQu.jpg

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/ij6Hd7m.jpg

[IMG]https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/ZPsYazX.jpg[/IMG]

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/ScARCkv.jpg

For what it's worth, a friend took in a young carpet that was passed on to a rescue from a breeder that has to downsize for some reason. No RI, but for a while he would suddenly constrict very hard on whatever he was gripping, almost as if killing prey, but no food around or other feeding response signs present. That has pretty much gone away with time and handling now and we're pretty sure he had barely been handled before.

My carpet does tend to grab more tightly for a short time when I try to move him off of where he has a good grip (i.e. one hand to another while cleaning). The tight grabbing may be somewhat reflexive to him trying to keep himself in his mind safely anchored to his tree. We move more tha their cage decor, so even if we feel like we are still, they probably still feel the minor shifts of muscles and stuff beneath them.

I'm far from an expert, but I'm inclined to agree with that being related to his relative lack of handling. Since he isn't defensive or nippy, even with infrequent handling while he heals, it may start to fade away as he gets used to you even without any rigorous handling.

So glad to hear he's doing well; all his threads have been a roller coaster to follow.

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Most breeders don't tend to handle much at all except for basic maintenance, he will soon get used to it, nice to see him chilling in the open in his new Viv, obviously feels comfortable in there, great little video
Really love his heat pits

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Originally Posted by pretends2bnormal

For what it's worth, a friend took in a young carpet that was passed on to a rescue from a breeder that has to downsize for some reason. No RI, but for a while he would suddenly constrict very hard on whatever he was gripping, almost as if killing prey, but no food around or other feeding response signs present. That has pretty much gone away with time and handling now and we're pretty sure he had barely been handled before.

My carpet does tend to grab more tightly for a short time when I try to move him off of where he has a good grip (i.e. one hand to another while cleaning). The tight grabbing may be somewhat reflexive to him trying to keep himself in his mind safely anchored to his tree. We move more tha their cage decor, so even if we feel like we are still, they probably still feel the minor shifts of muscles and stuff beneath them.

I'm far from an expert, but I'm inclined to agree with that being related to his relative lack of handling. Since he isn't defensive or nippy, even with infrequent handling while he heals, it may start to fade away as he gets used to you even without any rigorous handling.

So glad to hear he's doing well; all his threads have been a roller coaster to follow.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

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pretends2bnormal,

Really good info here. Thank you!

These made me feel much better (the part about the squeezing while getting used to gentle handling). I really appreciate it.

Thank you for the kind words; he's been through a lot! I think between everything, he has a lot of good time ahead to relax and enjoy life and to get used to a gentle and loving Dad and Momma.

It's also hard to pinpoint exactly what is or might be causing any one symptom because of all the variables!

Thank you again!

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Originally Posted by richardhind1972

Most breeders don't tend to handle much at all except for basic maintenance, he will soon get used to it, nice to see him chilling in the open in his new Viv, obviously feels comfortable in there, great little video
Really love his heat pits

Sent from my TA-1024 using Tapatalk

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Thank you Rich. It's funny. The lights are out for all of 3 minutes and there's Yafe, all over the place, and all over those PVC "branches!"

Don't get me wrong Rich, I love me some boids! However, who doesn't love some nice heat pits! Hence, two pythons in the collection!

We haven't been able to handle Bridget (Granite IJ) much due to her still not eating consistently, but the couple of times I have had to move her to a tub for cage maintenance, she's had a pretty good grip. Not one that's constant, but off and on. If you think about it, with carpets being semi-arboreal, especially while young, they rely on that tail so much. Makes sense for him to use it to hang on. :)

Yafe peed and I took him out briefly to clean his tank.

I found him on his perch (in the warm spot) this morning - see below picture.

When I went to take him off of it, after a gentle rub with the hook, he distinctly hissed at me! I was pretty sure he did a little yesterday too, but there was no mistaking it today!

He hissed continually until I got him off the perch and then stopped and curled up around my arm and chilled.

He is all "bluff and puff" and absolutely no bite whatsoever. I am not concerned. Even Shayna, sweet BP Shayna, played that game when I got her at 200G. They like to test limits, I get it. However, I don't play that game with them. They get scooped up gently and I work with them so they know a) that doesn't work/fly with me and b) I will never hurt them. It took about 3 times for Shayna to grow out of it and quit that hissing nonsense. We will see what it takes with Yafe.

Fewer pops today and some puffs, but he seemed very calm and relaxed and was tongue flicks galore. To be clear, I did not have him out more than a minute or two, aside from the holding container to clean the tank, and that included weighing him.

I am very happy, he is putting on weight. He is due to poop, but was 150G today after a pee. He was 115G before he started eating with me after all the RI treatments were over. That's not all poop. He's definitely putting on some weight; excellent.


https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/2Ugn6ds.jpg

That’s such great news he is putting weigh on Dave, funny when the little one hiss. I always used to still scoop them up too. As say shows your not going to harm them.Remarkable loud for something so small sometimes


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Great news Dave. Sounds like Yafe is getting bigger and better.

I'd take his hissing at you as a positive sign...it means he's feeling good enough, feisty enough, to defend himself. Sick snakes tend to be overly-passive.
Go Yafe! :snake2: hahaha! (And it's not "personal" either...once you re-connected with him via touch he settled right down.)

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Originally Posted by Bogertophis

I'd take his hissing at you as a positive sign...it means he's feeling good enough, feisty enough, to defend himself. Sick snakes tend to be overly-passive.
Go Yafe! :snake2: hahaha! (And it's not "personal" either...once you re-connected with him via touch he settled right down.)

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I had the same thought.

Good to see him show some chutzpah, as we say in Yiddish.

Sure beats the alternative of him not having any spunk!

I absolutely did not take the hissing personally. If anything, it looks like he really likes the new tank and he’s defending it. That’s good news.