Just acquired a rat mualed BP last night - Advice pls!

Ok, a few things here. First, her mouth/nose swelling looks fantastic! To the point where she will most likely have a normal looking nose again. :D

Second, she still has that dorsal old skin hangin on to her lower half. I have read that soaking/spraying them helps loosen, but my priority and top concern are the open wounds. My humidity is 53-57%. I live in OH and try as I may to keep it stable, it fluctuates here quite a bit. Should I just leave it be and let the next shed take care of it, or should I try to do something about it?

Thirdly, she just shed sunday night. This, Monday, evening, I gave her an antibiotic injection and treated her wounds with the cream as I have always done before. I then presented a warmed and fluffed small rat instead of a mouse. She smelled it and drew back into a defensive strike posture, like the hatchlings do at work. She then started to shake...like shivering when one is cold or scared. She yawned paused, smelled, yawned again and then moved off. If I made the rat move she would lie very still...then move off. So I am now left with a small rat that my Hog Island Boa was MORE than happy to dispose of for me :snake:

Thoughts?

my bigg girl refuses rats for the same reason, had a liiiiiiiitle bite from a rat who i snapped its neck while she was constricting with tongs and now she will not even sniff a rat. only feeds on 5-6 lg mice.


some of them just get tramatized from what i have read and been told.

maybe when he/she gets bigger she might or if she beggins to get into breeding season and feeds more aggressively u could try to switch back to rats.

Our male won't touch rats even though he never got hurt by one. He ate one once and then after that wouldn't take another one. Got him mice and he gobbled them up. And that was a few years ago and he still won't touch rats. If she was mauled by a rat, I think it's totally possible she's afraid of rats because she doesn't want to get hurt again. Try offering a couple mice. Our male takes three to four mice depending on how moody he is. He's such a drama king. I've heard of bp's being strict mousers and they'll eat up to 6 or so mice in one feeding if I remember correctly.

i just read this post last night. it scared the hell outta me lol. i had 2 children that i dont know at my house last night that were aparently trying to drown my feeder rats in cheese its :mad: and obviously a couple extra feeders since my two little ones are in shed wich isnt normal for me to have in my house. then i go to sleep and have this crazy dream where i open up my snake room to my only adult snake having 4 or 5 huge open wounds on her back like yours had, i instantly start crying for some reason, maybe cause i hod no idea how it happened and no idea how to start treating it and then i wake up. for some odd reason there is a half empty tube of tripple antibiotic on the floor next to my bed and i can feel dried on tears like i had been crying (lol would have been scared if it were vasoline :O ) so i start to panic and go racing into my snake room. everything was fine, thank god. point is, your story is traumatic to snake lovers

AWESOME job :gj: on fixing that snake up like that.

LOL @ deadsmiley! Funny, I just had a dream about this snake a couple nights ago. I was sleeping in my dream, my male ACD and cat were snuggled in my bed as they usually are, but when I pealed back the covers, there was my BP snuggled right in with us! lmao

Follow up at the vet today...continue shots, cream and salve. Everything's looking good and like she'll make a full recovery. He was very pleased to hear she ate 3 mice. I will give her another tomorrow night.

With the open wounds and chance of infection, all parties feel it best to not soak her for her remaining shed pieces. Let em come off next time around.

Since she is embarking on a new and better life, and is pretty much out of the woods, I think it's time to change her name. I'm looking for suggestions if anyone has any :P

Everybody calls their first bp Monty for some reason... :D

I would call her faith.

You had faith in her to pull through with your loving care, and she has faith in you to turn her life around.

Plus people like you give me faith that there are still good people out there :)

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zina10

I would call her faith.

You had faith in her to pull through with your loving care, and she has faith in you to turn her life around.

Plus people like you give me faith that there are still good people out there

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Agree:sweeet::sweeet::sweeet::sweeet::sweeet:

Unfortunately I can't bring myself to calling her Faith, because it reminds me of this girl I went to HS with....she's been through so much...I don't want to do that to her! lmao

Before getting into snakies, I did ACD rescue and in my opinion the names Hope, Faith, Courage, etc have been overdone. I love native american spirituality and am thinking of Anapo...it is the Lakota word for "the dawn". It is the front runner at the moment as it is the dawn of a new chapter in her journey. Not to mention, it is also the dawn of my journy into the world of snakes.

On another note, I got a nice, quick strike, no hesitation what so ever on a mouse just now....so no rats til she's stronger. Then I may start with a small one scented with mouse bedding. How many should I try to feed in one sitting? I was thinking about bumping her up to 2. I wasn't sure if she'd eat tonight, so I only bought one mouse. Would it be alright for me to give another tomorrow....or should I wait 5 days and present 2 or three at once?

I understand, you don't want a name with a bad association. I like names with meanings and I love the meaning of the name you chose.

About the mice, just try it ! Try again tomorrow, or try 2 next time. But if she is not interested immediately, I would remove them right away. You can always kill and freeze the leftovers for trying f/t later on :)

She's already on F/T....that's all she gets from now on lol. She was so week when I presented the first one...it was a good thing it was dead or it couldda got ugly all over again. Her strikes are getting progressively stronger and faster. When she gets atleast half as fast as my HIB Syke, then I'll say she'd ready to try F/T rats. I half wonder if she's instictually goin for smaller prey due to her weaker condition. It's going to be interesting :D

We named our husky we got at the shelter "Kaiya" which is Eskimo [I think it's Eskimo I can't remember because it's been a while] for stay and don't look back. We took it to mean don't look back on where you've been. It's supposed to be spelled Kaya but people we talked to pronounced it wrong so we changed the spelling to slightly more phonic...

Yeah, I'm actually going to change Syke's spelling to Psych. I named her that because when I bought her from my LPS I was so sure she was a male....so did everybody else, including the vet that checked her! lmao He said he would've laid money down that she was a boy....checked four times to make sure. So she Psyched us out....Hence the name Psych....plus it is my favorite TV show too. lol

For my BP, I think Anapo may be it.:)

The Great Coils of Anapo
http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/538...ilsofanapo.jpg

The Ever Wise Psych
http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/9677/img4130zu.jpg

How many mice should I present at once on a weekly feeding schedule to get this girl back to a healthy bulk.

What does a nice bodied, healthy snake feel like. For example, should I still be able to feel ribs or just chords of strong muscle....I'm thinking I should just feel muscle, but I could be wrong! lmao After she is bulked up and hopefully on rats, should I keep her on the weekly or back off to bi-weekly since she is an older adult?

Depending on her size, between 2 and 4 should be good for now. The only concern there is she'll refuse so many small items. My big mouser girl is eating 3 at a time now, but it's not really enough for her. She used to be a great ratter but she went on a three month fast and now she only wants mice. At least she's eating.

I'd just offer her as many as she'll take. She'll refuse if she doesn't want any more.

All my healthy snakes are just solid tubes of muscle. Every once in a while I can feel ribs when they bend just right.

Gale

Weigh-in at the vet today...first visit 1446 grams, this visit 1545! :banana: She's MUCH more active now too...she's starting to explore now. :D

A trick you can try to switch to rats is thaw the mice with a rat

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Originally Posted by sisble50

Weigh-in at the vet today...first visit 1446 grams, this visit 1545! :banana: She's MUCH more active now too...she's starting to explore now. :D

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Remember, being active isnt always too good, it ussualy means the snake is stressed or hungry, because bps arn't supposed to be that active.

She's only active when I have her out or she pottied in her tub and she's trying to GET out! lmao Now that she has a sanitary enclosure, she really prefers it that way.
She's active looking for food or a hiding spot...once she gets either, she's golden. Before, she barely moved for that.

Took all 3 mice tonight...a wee hesitant becaus they were thawed with my hog's rat, but she took em. :banana: