Tirel, Ghost Boa

This is one of my two new arrivals! She's a poss super ghost 66% het albino, born 5/27/15. I bought her from Dave Green at Green Constrictors. He was easy to work with and gave me several updates on her. There was a bit of a mix up on schedules when it came time to ship, causing me to wait an extra week, but there were no other delays and she got here safely. :)


Like Morzan, she came out of the bag swinging. Snapped at my face a couple of times, and eyed my hand if I made any movement, but I didn't get bit and she wasn't overly intent on murdering me. lol Slightly more laid back than Morzan.


She's a lot bigger than my other June 2015 girl Nymeria, already on small rats, roughly 3' long. I'm ordering a shipment of rodents here in a couple of weeks, since Nymeria is moving up and I need to get smalls for Bud, so for her first feeding she'll get a jumbo mouse but by her next feeding I should have the proper rats in. I'm thinking of giving her a weaned rat first before going straight to smalls since I like to feed a bit smaller, but I'll see how the rats look when they get here. She's definitely going to be fed every 2-3 weeks since she's a year and on the larger side of average, and I'll try her on a mouse next Thursday.


The other new arrival is an anery motley 66% het albino male, and he should be here Tuesday. The weather in Texas delayed his shipment, otherwise he'd be here with her.


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Nice new pickup there.


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Very nice addition CTB.

Sweet!

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I find the ghost gene very interesting in how it effects tails and it's different snake to snake.

Beautiful snake!

Grats, nice boa. I'm debating on trying to catch one of Vin Russo's pure Hog Islands when his female has babies this year. Figure I'll have 2 smaller cages laying around as I just ordered 2 AP T10s which should be here in 3 months :( Hopefully the Hog females doesn't baby by then as I've been told, he sells out of them pretty freakin quick as they are purebreds. If not, I've been eyeballing one of Nick Muttons jungle carpets since I've never had a carpet python.

Thanks everyone! She's a bit more distrusting than my other snakes but I guess she's pretty enough to forgive. lol

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sauzo

Grats, nice boa. I'm debating on trying to catch one of Vin Russo's pure Hog Islands when his female has babies this year. Figure I'll have 2 smaller cages laying around as I just ordered 2 AP T10s which should be here in 3 months :( Hopefully the Hog females doesn't baby by then as I've been told, he sells out of them pretty freakin quick as they are purebreds. If not, I've been eyeballing one of Nick Muttons jungle carpets since I've never had a carpet python.

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Empty cages are the #1 way to convince yourself to get more. lol

Do you know when she was bred? Gestation is only ~106 days, so 3 months is nearly the entire gestation period, minus a couple weeks. She could hold onto her babies for awhile but that would be cutting it kinda close. I take it he wouldn't have a wait list since they're in such high demand?



Well, I went ahead and fed Tirel since I'm working tomorrow, and it's only a day early. The jumbo mouse was bigger compared to her than I though it would be, so weaned rats may actually be perfect for her for awhile yet.


https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7234/2...c695476b_b.jpg


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A few hours after eating:


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Good looking boa there.

You have a nice collection all around.

@Cloudtheboa. Yeah he isn't doing a wait list or pre purchase option since they are in high demand from him. I guess he has people who are still trying to catch one from his last go round. It seems you gotta catch em when they go up for sale and be fast or lose out and have to wait until the next round lol. But like I said, that's just one option. I got a few "maybes" going on. Like maybe one of the lavender albino SD/D retics from Vital Exotics or one of Nick Muttons Jungle Carpets or maybe search around for a male motley 100% het kahl albino boa to possibly breed to Vicky the sunglow when she gets old enough and shoot for some motley sunglows. No real rush though as I got months until the AP cages here and then I gotta set them up and let everyone get settled in before I go shopping lol. I've also really been wanting a GTP but the quarantine/temp cages that will be vacant aren't set up for a GTP so I would have to start from scratch. Not to mention the price for CBB GTPs as they aren't cheap from breeders unless you roll the dice on a farm hatched one which I was told is not the way to go for a first GTP.

beutious!

Thanks everyone! Despite her awkward start, she's proving to be the more docile of the pair. I actually got bit by the anery motley and he's struck at me more times than I can count on both hands now, despite being so docile out of the bag. haha

She reminds me a lot of my retic, but she moves slower. I went up to her tub one night to see where she was, and all of a sudden this head comes creeping out of the vines ever so slowly. If I blinked, turned my head, or waved my hand, she'd come closer, until her nose touched the tub. She does this every time I come up to her tub. She let me take her out without any problems beyond grabbing the vine with her tail. She moves a bit jerkily, in that she'll suddenly whip her head to the side to stare at movement, or jumps at sudden touches, so she's going to take a bit of getting used to. It's hard to tell if she's moving defensively in a way that means a strike is coming or she's just nervous from meeting a new person. She's quite different from my other snakes.

I began handling her last Friday, and the handling session went well until I wanted to put her up. -.- Once I set her down, before I could get her off my hand, she shot up her tub and grabbed onto the lip with her head. I tried to pick her up off of it and she got ready to headbutt/snap at me, but pulled away halfway through the strike. After that, she let me put her up with little hassle.


I got to take her outside so here are some daylight photos. :) She's in her dark phase here.


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She seems weirdly intrigued by my camera, whenever I have it out taking pictures of her (during the two actual handling sessions I've had with her), she keeps bumping at the lens and trying to climb on the camera even as I'm pulling it away from her. (You can see her belly in the corner because she was crawling on it.)


https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7240/2...10017c81_b.jpg


Here she is again investigating the lens, while I take a close up of her tail.


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And here's from the following night. I got some fake plants in that day and I put one in her tub. She was all excited over the washing machine going earlier that day, so I took her out to try to expend some of her energy.


Unfortunately, I must not have had her out long enough because she once again shot up out of her tub, and grabbed onto her water dish, knocking it over while I tried to retrieve her. I ended up just leaving her there so I could take a photo and change her bedding.


https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7409/2...a1a5819d_b.jpg


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And some from the handling session before becoming a problem child yet again.


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Some that were a bit truer to color. She was in a light phase, so she was looking whiter/grayer than ever, with the brownness a little less pronounced, on her back.


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This feeding day she got her rat. :) I gave her a small rat this time since that's what the breeder had her on, but I think the bulge is a little large so I'm going to give her a weaned rat and see what sort of lump that leaves. If it isn't too small, I'll step her down to weaned rats, if they are too small I'll keep her on smalls but space her feedings out to every 3 weeks.


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And the bulge after (it's cool seeing these pics side by side because she goes through such a nice color change).


https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7282/2...b46a9327_b.jpg


It didn't look too impressive from that angle, so here's a side view. Considering how large she is for her age, and the fact she's a year old, I'd like to see a barely noticeable bulge. I like to feed smaller prey items rather than feeding larger and having to space out the feedings even further.


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These photos are from the morning of. Whenever I open the window and turn on the fan, it makes her antsy for awhile and then she settles down at the front of her tub. Well front for me anyway.


Heard a thump in the night and found this. She was belly up but rolled over when I opened her tub.


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What are you looking at?


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And one from later on that morning, when she ended up dumping her water dish. She was not happy at all, and actually hissed at me when I went to pick her up. She didn't put up a fight at all and immediately stopped hissing when I lifted her up.


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Well today we had to take a vet visit for Tirel. :(

I woke up at 1 pm and Tirel was doing fine, she had her head hanging out of her vine. At about 2:30 pm I noticed movement in her vine: she was switching her tail around. I thought she was pooping so I came around to the side to look under her vines and see. I was greeted by a very swollen head, a loud hiss, a strike to the side of the tub, and then she violently jumped away deeper into her vines.

I lifted the vine out to look at her and I freaked out because her face was all puffy and she was still swinging her tail around.

Here's a video of the tail wagging (hopefully it works I've never uploaded a video on Tapatalk before.)

https://vimeo.com/172488521

Here are some photos from before I took her to the vet.

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And at the vet's waiting to be seen.

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The vet said it's probably cellulitis and it's usually caused by a bacterial infection. He said we'd need to put her on antibiotics and and I asked him if it was possible to get some cultures done on it. We were unable to get any samples from the swollen area, so he got some from her throat but says that probably won't tell us what's going on with the swelling. He contacted the place they send the samples to see if there was any worthwhile samples he could get and we'll decide where to go from there.

For now, she got a shot of Fortaz so she at least has some sort of treatment overnight. Depending on what happens we'll either be staying with him for her treatment or going to the one in Asheville if we need a more experienced vet. I should be getting a call tomorrow to see what to do with her next.

She absolutely hated the visit, I thought for sure she'd bite or hiss or poop on us but the most she did was one very soft hiss and musk us. She had her pores WIDE open smearing it everywhere, it smelled heavily of fish in the office after that.

The weirdest thing is it went away as fast as it came on. Even before she got the shot he swelling went down. Her chin was so swollen it was hanging open slightly before I left but by the time I got to the vet office it had gone down enough to allow her mouth to close. By the time we took her out to give her the shot the swelling was almost completely gone.

Here she is when we got home.

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Hopefully everything goes well and we'll easily have her treated with a round of antibiotics. I'll post more tomorrow.


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Poor Tirel! Hope she feels better fast


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Hope everything is ok with Tirel and maybe she just needed some attention.


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The little gal certainly gave you a scare! I'm glad it appears to be passing so quickly, whatever it is. I hope she gets well and stays well!

Thanks everyone! She appears to be doing very well, every trace of swelling is gone and her mood has improved (she's still her touchy self though).

I didn't get a call so I called the vet office and the testing place said the throat swab was good and to send that in, so the vet is sending in the sample we got yesterday. We should have the results by Friday, so I made an appointment to bring her in then so she can be looked at and get her next dose of Fortaz if needed.

I'm so glad she's looking better, I was worried there.


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Well the test results came back with Pseudomonoas aeruginosa. The bacteria was found to be sensitive to both Baytril and Fortaz, but since we've already started with Fortaz we'll continue with that. She's getting 10 injections every 3 days, and the vet says if she's showing no worrisome signs we should be fine to just put her back to normal husbandry.


I've increased her hot spot, it's going to take a bit of tweaking with the thermostat to get it to where I want it, but I'm aiming for 93-94F rather than 90-91F.


I cannot find much information on this bacteria at all on Google, but it seems to mostly be associated with mouth rot and RIs, and a lot of snakes seem to die. From what I've read it's not contagious, it's an opportunistic bacteria, but she'll still be in quarantine of course. It seems they often refuse food, but she took 2 meals readily, so the infection either started after her last meal or it wasn't affecting her, or this bacteria isn't the one causing the infection.


That said, she was making some clicking sounds at the vet's today, but I'm not sure if that's from the stress of 2 vet visits, the way she was sitting (she was curled tightly in a ball from the injection), or what. I'm just going to keep an eye on her and see how she develops.


Today she pooped for the first time since getting her, and it was disgusting. It was smelly and large and rather runny. Not sure if that's from the Fortaz or not. She's also starting to show signs of dehydration from the meds or possibly wetness exposure, as she's dumped her water dish 2 or 3 times now and pooped today. Her scales are bending and curling up all over. I've washed her off and I'm hoping she doesn't keep dumping her water dish so it can stay dry in there.

CTB, hoping all goes well and Tirel recovers quickly.


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And I just realized I probably wasn't too clear: she's getting 10 total injections each spaced 3 days apart. Lol


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Well Tirel is down to 3 shots left now, and she has become super super grumpy. The past 3 or 4 shots she has come out of her tub hissing and striking. I feel really bad, but she needs to finish her shots, and at least her grumpiness is a good sign she's healthy. She also went into shed soon after the second hissy/strikey shot session, so that could be partly causing her moodiness.

Here she is just starting to go into a blue phase, around 2 weeks after the swelling incident (it is now almost 4 weeks).

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This is from her last shot session, she just grabbed onto the nearest thing and squeezed, and it happened to be her. She tried to pull her head free, but just squeezed tighter. I had to get a photo of the ridiculousness before freeing her.

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She was especially bad this time, striking and hissing at the TV and her own shadow on the bed. Usually she calms down after a minute or two, but she wouldn't let up. I think that's just because she couldn't see so well. She ended up bucking under the needle pretty hard, causing me to accidentally tear some of her skin under the finger I was using to hold her down and feel for her spine. It was just the old layer, not her new skin, so there's that at least. I'll be keeping an eye on it and make sure she gets most of her shed off ok, she should be shedding by next weekend.

I really hope after her shots are done I can get her to calm down again, I feel really bad only taking her out to stick her, but handling her outside of that would just be overhandling and probably make it worse.

Poor Tirel, and poor you. You're doing great taking care of her. If she could understand how you were helping her, she would be very grateful for your care


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Originally Posted by cristacake

Poor Tirel, and poor you. You're doing great taking care of her. If she could understand how you were helping her, she would be very grateful for your care


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Thank you, I can only hope for the best. Hopefully either after she sheds or her shots are done she gets a little less moody. I can open her tub without her getting mad at me, but once I grab for her that's when the hissing starts. She doesn't start striking until I've got her out and bring her to my mom's room for her shot. I don't need a hook or anything, but I don't like knowing she's being so stressed she feels like hissing and striking every time I have her out. I'm trying not to bother her tub too much either, she's torn the squares apart on her paper towels, but she hasn't pooped on them or anything so I'm trying not to change them out to reduce any additional stress to her. Plus, she can still hide under them, she just bunches them up in a corner. I may go ahead and do that Friday or Saturday anyways, so I can give her new paper towels and spray them down to help with her shed, since I'm sure I messed it up. :(

Her previous swelling:


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Versus her shed cycle swelling:


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So, as you can see the two are very different, and that's why I didn't think it was a shed cycle when I first posted about her condition. I had a few people make the suggestion that maybe she was just shedding. I have seen many many shed cycles, start to finish, and I've never seen swelling of that degree.


Plus, again, in this photo you can see the swelling was so bad that her lip was being pulled open. Here, it was just that one side, but after a few minutes both sides of her mouth was open, with her lips pulled out.


http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...7d14dfa031.jpg


I want to take her for another check up just in case, but hopefully she's in the clear. It's just so weird that it happened so quickly and then disappeared on its own.

Her shots are all done and she's shed, so I've started handling her again. :) Her defensiveness went way down since she shed, but she's being rather strikey, and she's been even less so since her shots have ended. I still want to get her to the vet's one more time to ask about her poops, as she pooped earlier this week and it was runny again, and her urine was a dark yellow. I've read that Fortaz can cause this, so I'm assuming she's just a tad dehydrated, but I wanted to double-check and possibly re-check her mouth. She's definitely looking a little dry, but not as bad as when I first started the medicine, and her shed was whole.

Here are some post-shed pics (more like a week later but she looks quite pretty in these):

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She was quite interested in the camera, and actively strained to reach it, going out as much as 2/3 of her length, never seen a boa so determined to get at something. She didn't strike the lens like Crona has, just rested her nose on it and then tried to climb on top. >.>

Well her shots are over and she's shown no sign of any more swelling. The vet just said to keep an eye on her and bring her in if anything else pops up.

I'm still waiting on another poop, but since she hasn't had a shot in a month or so, I'm hoping it will be fairly normal, otherwise I'll see about having a fecal done if the vet doesn't think the medicine is causing it.

She has calmed down quickly since her shots have ended! I've only handled her maybe 3 times, but the first day after her shots were done she came out without any hissing and only struck a few times at my mom whenever she moved too fast (don't worry she likes snakes and knows there's a chance of bites, plus I was standing well far enough away she couldn't land a hit) and nobody got bit. The other two times she did give a little hiss grabbing her, but didn't strike at me and let me bring my hand up under her head to touch her chin without freaking out at all. She does nibble the camera a bit, though....

Her last weight was 502 grams, so after shooting up in weight by 100 grams in a matter of weeks, she's holding steady now, and I expect she'll go back to shooting up like a weed now that she isn't getting antibiotics. SerpWidgets says she's only 3.5' but that seems really odd considering:

1) she came to me already dwarving Nymeria, who had just hit 3'
2) with Nymeria, 100 grams roughly equates to just over half a foot of growth thus far

So if 100 grams is roughly a foot of growth with her, it seems odd she'd only be half a foot longer than Nymeria...I'm not doubting it's possible just seems weird considering. haha Gonna have to brave her teeth and try to get her stretched out along the wall to measure her by hand.

She's looking so pretty after her shed, though. :D

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Tirel weighed in at 639 grams a few days ago, not bad weight gain at all! That's ~240 grams since I got her about 4 months ago, and that's just eating a weaned rat every other week rather than the smalls she was getting when I got her. She nearly completely engulfs my hand now, and is quite a bit more docile. She hasn't huffed or hissed at me in a long time, and only recently struck at me. I was typing on the computer with her on my other hand. She struck at my moving hand, but didn't land a hit despite my hand being maybe 4" away, so she wasn't too worried, and she was fine the rest of the handling session.

With her being 1.5 years old in December, I've decided to go ahead and get her conditioned for fasting. Over this winter, I'm going to be feeding her every 4 weeks instead of 2, starting with the meal I gave her the day before. I've also bumped her back up to smalls considering all the size she's put on and the reduced feeding frequency. Hopefully she won't take it too badly. lol

I had a hunch earlier this week she was going into shed, and today she proved me right!

She was not happy at all about being taken out, but I had to change her paper towels. They were bloody from her feeding earlier, but I was giving her a few days to let her feeding response die down and give her time to digest. These two photos are before and after she struck at the camera.

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And back in her tub. When I change her paper towels I like to spray them down flat because if I don't she bunches them up in a corner. I would have done it before putting her back, but she was in shed and grumpy and wanted to get out of her hair ASAP. She didn't like the spray but didn't strike at me so there's that.

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...a44816d9_b.jpg

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The shipping box is the box Guin was shipped in over a year ago. I just repurposed it into a hide.

Still quite blue a week later.

I picked up her hide to see if she was done shedding yet or not, and when I put the hide back over her I touched her tail and that was the last straw. lol

Better safe than sorry spraying her, she look a bit dry, and it's the only way to affect humidity on paper towels. She didn't mind the spray just did NOT want me touching her.

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Well I've been having internet problems for about 2 weeks now, and our upload speed was so slow I was unable to upload my pics anywhere...finally had the internet company reset everything and everything's working again. So more pics!

She shed on the 29th, and she's really gaining some respectable size now. She doesn't have a lot of natural girth, but once she's on larger rats that should change. Even when she first got here, her tail was oddly tapered from the rest of her body, and now her body tone is more uniform. I think she's just one of those gangly, tall teenagers atm because she is packing on the weight and gaining size quite a bit faster than Nymeria, who is fed similarly but of much stockier build.


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Here she's pulling her mouth open trying to drag herself across her back.


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I took Tirel out again tonight, and she gave me a single short hiss in protestation, but was docile and quiet when I picked her up.


I thought she had to have been close to 4' by now, but after getting Howl in, I don't think she is. He's quite a bit bigger than she is and comes out to an inch or two at most over 4' on SerpWidgets, she comes out at just over 3.5'.


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She was worried there for a bit that she might fall and was really flexing those tail muscles. When she let go her tail was red. haha


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And her big fat head.


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She's beautiful! It looks like she's calming down quite a bit, too. You've worked miracles with her, I don't think I could have handled giving shots to any living thing, but Tirel looks to be one healthy gal now :)

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Eavlynn

She's beautiful! It looks like she's calming down quite a bit, too. You've worked miracles with her, I don't think I could have handled giving shots to any living thing, but Tirel looks to be one healthy gal now :)

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Thanks! I haven't had any further issues with her since then, and luckily the shots were fairly easy to do. I did get worried the one time she bucked while in shed and tore the old skin, but overall it went well even if I had to deal with a hissy bitey snake. lmao


Had Tirel out last week, she was in a dark phase. She's growing nicely, but is probably my scrawniest boa. haha Even when I first got her, she didn't have a whole lot of girth. For a time there she had this comical body where the main part of her body was thick and square then you get to her tail and it was like a piece of spaghetti just randomly attached to her. lol After awhile of feeding her conservatively, her body is a lot more proportionate she's just not a thick girl at all. I'm thinking once she gets bigger she should start putting on some girth, but she will probably always be a lean girl.


She's also doing pretty good on monthly feedings, gaining weight rapidly and growing in length pretty decently. Howl is still a bit bigger than her but she's closing in on him.


https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5581/3...f569cba1_h.jpg


https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5784/3...af8718e0_h.jpg


https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5648/3...35473c3a_h.jpg


https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5601/3...00c9e5a4_h.jpg


This one shows her iridescence nicely even if the white balance is a little high.


https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5798/3...1f92900a_h.jpg


https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5462/3...4d40e735_h.jpg


I like how her tail has this one aberrant spot where the saddle is broken up.


https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5833/3...37f6b17f_h.jpg


And finally, a full bodied photo of her in her tub.


https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5648/3...a7e46fd8_h.jpg

Well she's bunched up her paper towels again. >.> She seems so clumsy on them, I'm seriously debating putting the remaining EcoEarth from the latest batch in here for her. I'm kinda worried about doing that, though. As you can see in the first photo, there's a bit of condensation along the bottom back wall of her tub. That's where cold air is moving past. No misting at all since I changed her paper towels, this is all just humidity from the room and evaporation from her water dish. It's not cold enough it's making her cold (she feels warm to the touch when I take her out and the temp gun shows her body temp in the 80's), but it does create some condensation. I'm worried about damp EcoEarth making it too cold in her tub. :/ I might try putting some plastic over my window, too, and see if that helps, but it might be cold coming from the wall of the trailer.


http://i.imgur.com/IcRcpRw.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/4bEJlVk.jpg

Tirel is looking great :)

If you wanted to put ecoearth in with her, you could always bake it first. That's what I do to dry it out so it doesn't send the humidity sky high.

You can get those plastic window sealing kits at walmart. They're kind of a pain to put on, but they definitely do the job!

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Eavlynn

Tirel is looking great :)

If you wanted to put ecoearth in with her, you could always bake it first. That's what I do to dry it out so it doesn't send the humidity sky high.

You can get those plastic window sealing kits at walmart. They're kind of a pain to put on, but they definitely do the job!

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I'm not worried about the humidity so much as the condensation from that cold draft, and baking it to dry it would defeat the purpose.

So long as there's no condensation it doesn't matter how high her humidity is. The amount of condensation she has right now shouldn't harm anything though it's such a small patch.

I may try to put something over the window or just wait until spring/when she's in a new enclosure.


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A little over a week ago I switched her to aspen as she was tipping her bowl again, and I was too lazy at the time to expand EcoEarth. So far, she seems to be doing well on it, so I may keep the aspen for now since EcoEarth tends to get moldy on flexwatt in my experience and I used up the last of the cypress in the last rainbow bedding changes.


She spent a lot of time buried.


https://68.media.tumblr.com/fda90c2a...tato3_1280.jpg


https://68.media.tumblr.com/742147f0...tato1_1280.jpg


https://68.media.tumblr.com/ab43a1df...tato2_1280.jpg


And was relaxing topside today in a light phase.


https://68.media.tumblr.com/843e0b8f...tato1_1280.jpg


https://68.media.tumblr.com/87d3386c...tato2_1280.jpg

Nice little boa. Kind of funny, we both have kind of flipflopped on substrate. I used aspen for years and have recently switched everyone to ReptiChips. So far the stuff is awesome. Everyone loves it and when it dries up some, I just take out the hides and spray the whole floor down with a spray bottle including the snake. Then I put the hides back in.

And yeah Eco Earth is the devil lol. That stuff molded on me a lot. The ReptiChips aka coco husk stuff seems chunky enough where it doesn't form into a packed down cake per say. So it breaths a lot better.

I still like aspen as its easy to see poops and piss on which the ReptiChips is hard to see piss on but the stuff creates crazy humidity. In the AP cages, I sit at 80% all day long. I'm probably going to have to change out the retics stuff every month though as he pisses like a champ and I know I don't catch them all.

You need to get one of those ceramic crocks. I'm using the fancy overpriced Exo Terra extra large ones and even my big girl cant tip it although she does push it around sometimes. I see a lot using the round dog bowl ones.

Oh and dang!!! You're a high roller with that cypress stuff. That stuff costs a ton up here. Would cost me like $100 to do 4 of my 4x2 cages and that's not counting the 2 smaller cages for my dumerils and JCP. Try the coco husk stuff, its fairly cheap and works pretty darn good. I've tried the Exo Terra and the ReptiChips so far. Think I'm going to order a couple bricks of the Plant IT/Grow It brand to see how that stuff is as that stuff is $11 for a 2 cu ft block. The ReptiChips is $20 for 2.5 cu ft block and the Exo Terra is just flat out too expensive haha.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sauzo

Nice little boa. Kind of funny, we both have kind of flipflopped on substrate. I used aspen for years and have recently switched everyone to ReptiChips. So far the stuff is awesome. Everyone loves it and when it dries up some, I just take out the hides and spray the whole floor down with a spray bottle including the snake. Then I put the hides back in.

And yeah Eco Earth is the devil lol. That stuff molded on me a lot. The ReptiChips aka coco husk stuff seems chunky enough where it doesn't form into a packed down cake per say. So it breaths a lot better.

I still like aspen as its easy to see poops and piss on which the ReptiChips is hard to see piss on but the stuff creates crazy humidity. In the AP cages, I sit at 80% all day long. I'm probably going to have to change out the retics stuff every month though as he pisses like a champ and I know I don't catch them all.

You need to get one of those ceramic crocks. I'm using the fancy overpriced Exo Terra extra large ones and even my big girl cant tip it although she does push it around sometimes. I see a lot using the round dog bowl ones.

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I don't really like aspen with my boas but it was laying around and didn't require me to expand and squeeze out a bunch of dirt so I decided to give it a try. Lol I mainly only use it with the garters.

I'm definitely not putting any of the boas already on EcoEarth on aspen, but it may work for the boas on flexwatt.

EcoEarth isn't bad, I've just found that flexwatt doesn't heat the bedding strong enough for it to dry out and then it molds. It works fine in my other set ups. In my T12's freshly expanded EE does need to be fluffed until it dries out otherwise it molds, but after it dries out I can control how wet it is and keep it from being so wet it molds.

I have yet to try ReptiChip but I'm thinking of ordering some to replace the cypress mulch in the rainbow boas' bedding mixture.

Also for the water dish I plan on looking for a glass bowl for her until she's large enough for a 4'x2'. I have yet to have a snake dump the Sterilite tubs I usually use.

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She recently shed, and rather than using her hide she pushed her hide to the side and dug a shallow in her bedding and sat there the entire time.


http://68.media.tumblr.com/7fb296a8c...tato1_1280.jpg


http://68.media.tumblr.com/345fe7e46...tato2_1280.jpg


Here's some photos from last night better showing her size.


https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2743/3...8382bb35_h.jpg


https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/765/32...510c80d4_h.jpg


https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/625/32...ff8bbf62_h.jpg


https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/415/32...4656f441_h.jpg


https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/603/32...e77101a8_h.jpg

So...Tirel has been in a 4'x2'x2' for awhile now, and she's closing in on or pushing 4.5' now. Her last weight was 1,009 grams. She's been on mediums for awhile, and is still maintaining her usual thin body frame. Her gripping power and coordination is sloooowly, ever slowly, getting better, but she still is very weak. She has no muscle definition to speak of, though she has a good girth. She has been this way since the day she arrived, but, where she used to flop uselessly and be unable to grab my hand at all before her body strength gave out, she can now keep a grip on my arm/wrist. She can't maintain the grip for long, but she's making progress! I need to get her out more and work with her to build up her muscles. I've been feeding her more than I do the other boas as of late, considering her naturally fast growth and weakness, in hopes of further helping her to make progress. I have a few adult quail waiting for her once she gets big enough, to help the transition between medium rats and larges.

She has also become pretty much completely docile. She hasn't hissed or struck in over year, and even while in shed she's a sweetie. I don't have to worry about how my hand moves around her face, as that no longer puts her on the defensive or coaxes a strike out of her.

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/sHWc1Eb.jpg

I'm not sure how easy it is to tell in this photo, but she has an odd shape to her body due to having a healthy girth size but no muscle. Her body is more of a trapezoid shape than a rectangle. I haven't really been able to get her to have more of a normal boa body shape even with feeding her larger meals more often than the others. She puts on weight 2-3 times the rate of Crona and Nymeria, but always maintains the same body structure. I'm hoping maybe once she gets to an adult size she'll fill out better. If she doesn't improve on that front, I'll probably keep her out of my breeding plans, since the low muscle mass may not be suited to carrying a litter.

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/O29i8pb.jpg

Some of her in her enclosure. :)

She really loves laying on top of the rock hide. The entry is so small, it wouldn't work as a hide on anything other than paper towels or newspaper, but functions well as a place to rest her head. XD

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

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/KBZwAk0.jpg

She's now too heavy to sit on this branch without it tipping over. :( I'll probably give it to Crona.

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

It could still function as a head rest. XD (This is an older photo.)

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/XWd8WYD.jpg

When her strength gave out, and she fell away from my hand, she quickly grabbed her tail with the side of her neck. She kept a surprisingly good grip here, but I still went and grabbed her to support her a little better.

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

I forgot a few. lol These are the most recent photos of her.

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/MSP88PU.jpg

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/R6LS1io.jpg

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/E1hJwwx.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CloudtheBoa

I'm not sure how easy it is to tell in this photo, but she has an odd shape to her body due to having a healthy girth size but no muscle. Her body is more of a trapezoid shape than a rectangle. I haven't really been able to get her to have more of a normal boa body shape even with feeding her larger meals more often than the others.

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I have a boa that is similar, was very thin and underfed and even after years of a slow steady diet, still maintains a rather odd body shape with lower than average muscle tone. I've also given her more things to climb on and such than I normally do but of course she just chills in her hide most of the time. Just keep at it doing the good stuff. Hopefully both of ours turn out nicely in the long run. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AbsoluteApril

I have a boa that is similar, was very thin and underfed and even after years of a slow steady diet, still maintains a rather odd body shape with lower than average muscle tone. I've also given her more things to climb on and such than I normally do but of course she just chills in her hide most of the time. Just keep at it doing the good stuff. Hopefully both of ours turn out nicely in the long run. :)

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She definitely wasn’t underfed, I’m not sure why exactly she has such low body tone. But hopefully our girls still turn out a good muscle mass later on. :) Tirel at least still seems healthy otherwise, and is growing nicely, so I’m not too worried, even if I don’t feel she can be used as a breeder.


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I don't have much experience with boas but I still think she looks nice. :)

Looking really good ,sure she will tone up


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by richardhind1972

Looking really good ,sure she will tone up


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I'm hoping. She's at least gained a little bit of strength the just over 2 years I've had her.