Saoirse - An Update

That's great that you've taken such good care of her!

Do you have any pics? :)

Don't have to ask me twice to share pics of any of our snakes LOL.


Saoirse being shy back in early June of this year. This one shows the original scar but it's so much less noticeable than it used to be....
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...07922grams.jpg

Saoirse in Jan of 06 (she wasn't overly impressed at being woken up from her winter snooze for a picture session LOL)....
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...rseJan06-1.jpg

There's the face that we adore!....
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...eFaceAug06.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

She had no history of eating in captivity. She was at some point harvested somewhere in Africa, imported to the States and ended up in a pet store in southern Michigan. She had a large wound perhaps from a hook injury, we'll never know and her first owner, a vet tech had her treated for both internal and external parasites and got the wound to close properly. She never ate for the store or that owner.

She was then taken on by someone with a snake collection and that lady tried very, very hard to get her and another wild caught adult to eat. When the other wild caught passed away, that lady was heartbroken and didn't want to face this female possibly dying too. I knew her from another forum and Mike and I offered to take Saoirse and do our best with her. We had spoken to Adam, a few other folks and our vet first and determined that if Saoirse never ate and nothing could be done, she'd be humanely euthanized rather than watch her starve herself to death.

Due to some wonderful advice and support, we got her to eat and it's been a steady progress ever since from a once terrified, balled up skinny adult to a confident, comfortable with handling and lovely female whose almost back to good breeding weight. Even her scar, once so big and white, has healed quite a bit.

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Ah - W/C. She USED to eat in the wild. Duh.

So I'm curious about the wintering activity. She quits eating AND sleeps all winter? Like a bear hibernating? If so that must wreck your nerves! I know it would mine.

I'm not sure if it's a true hibernation or not but basically she retreats into a hide and just pretty much doesn't come out from fall to spring. She very occasionally is seen having a drink but does not pass feces or even many urates during this time. She's done it both winters we've had her and nothing much affects it. We were warned that being an adult WC this was a likely thing to occur. With her wonderful snake body though, she loses little to no weight during her winter fast - usually only 80 to 100 grams at most. Once she starts eating again in the spring her body seems highly efficient and tracking her weight gain over this past two years, she seems to get more out of her prey than some of the captive breds (she gains quicker on the same volume of prey). We intend to track our other WC adult to see if this is a pattern with them.

I doesn't bother us really. We were prepared for it, we did what we could to avoid it, but it does not seem to impact on Saoirse in any harmful way so as long as she's okay...it's okay.

She's lovely! Milton is thinking "How YOU doin'?" ;)

How big is she? I know a lot of people go by weight, but I still haven't got a concept of how big 1000g is... :) Do most people know how long their BP is as well?

check out the Snake Measurer program!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Swingline0.0.1

She's lovely! Milton is thinking "How YOU doin'?" ;)

How big is she? I know a lot of people go by weight, but I still haven't got a concept of how big 1000g is... :) Do most people know how long their BP is as well?

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1000g = 1kg = 2.2lbs

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Swingline0.0.1

She's lovely! Milton is thinking "How YOU doin'?" ;)

How big is she? I know a lot of people go by weight, but I still haven't got a concept of how big 1000g is... :) Do most people know how long their BP is as well?

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I don't. I only measure weights. I used to use the Snake Measurer software to measure lengths, but not any more. I'm more concerned with weight and also the general condition of my ball pythons (as far as how they feel to me - too chunky, too thin, etc) which just comes with time. For example, there's one girl in my collection (in fact, she's my avatar) that looks like what I call chunky, but she feels solid as a rock, so I know that she's in good condition and just a solid girl. She also happens to be my shortest female, so while I have two others the same age as her, and same weight, they don't have the solidness to them that she does, they are longer and leaner.

That's interesting... I really haven't handled that many different BPs either... just when I was looking to buy one.

On the conversion front- yes, I know how many grams to a pound and all that, but I was really talking about the girth and length of a 2.2 pound snake, for instance. :)

Do snakes get fat? I've read that you shouldn't overfeed them- right now he gets two large hoppers a week- he's a little over an inch thick and around 21" long... also, i posted a post-feed pic and a few people said it looked to be about the right size for him (no large bulge, etc).

I am planning to get a scale soon- I'd like to record his weight gains as well.

Sorry forgot to respond in this thread. Saoirse is just hitting breeding weight so just under 1,500 grams at her last weigh in. We don't measure length all that much here, just track weights and go by the feel of the snakes. Girthy but not mushy feeling, strong, fit...that sort of thing. :)