Cuddling Teh Gomez

Yes, we caved today and gave Gomez a few cuddles... He didn't ball up once, and was just very curious, strong, and all over the place! First two are me, second two is Karen. :love: I just realized we were both wearing grey today... weird.

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Wasn't sure he'd eat after that, but we gave it a shot anyway. He struck the mouse, constricted a little while chewing on the mouse's butt with it's legs splayed on either side of his head. After about 5 minutes of this he let go and peered around as if to say "This isn't working". Then eventually he began cruising and exploring again, ignoring the mouse which apparently had a rather nasty tasting rear end. I would imagine so. I gave it a little zombie dance w/ tongs for him anyway, but Gomez just looked at me like I was stupid. :weirdface "...You're kidding, right?" That's okay, I'd rather he eat one of the yummy new fuzzy rats that arrived in the mail today from Big Cheese anyway, and we'll give him one of those a try tomorrow sans cuddles. :)

It felt good to finally give handle him a bit though. What a sweetheart he is! We're so in love with the little guy. :hug:

Gorgeous little guy, but be careful. It's not very safe to have 'em around your neck and face. Even Snoopy who had the bestest, gentlest personality, would flinch and tighten up for no (known / understood ) reason. It would be the pits to find out you or Karen got hurt accidentally...especially when Gomez gets bigger.


:twocents:

D'oh! We'll try to be more careful, we were mostly just letting him do his thing today and trying not to scare or stress him. We were watching close though, it's quite obvious already how strong he is!

He's still handsome!


I let Kashmire around my neck, especially if I've had a rough day, because it feels like a little snakey massage as he moves on the back of my neck. If he starts to make a necklace of himself, then I gently grasp him at his tail and unwind. He's so busy exploring, that rarely happens.

But, back to Gomez - he is such a cutie pie! I hope you have many, many, many happy years with him! So ------ when are you getting another? :P

Gosh Gomez is looking cute! Don't worry about the around the neck thing. I seriously doubt a healthy adult would be at any physical risk from a ball python unless it's a very large adult snake and you're a very weak adult human or something of that sort. Sure adult snakes are strong but easy to dislodge if they get themselves where you don't want them to be. As in anything, just go with good old common sense LOL.

Good luck with the f/t feeding. Let us know how it goes. If you have any questions about how to feed f/t just holler.


~~Jo~~

Aw, cute snakey!
I put mine around my neck all the time; even my big guy. But not my BCI; I learned the hard way when he got stuck in my hair :)
I just keep them loosely draped around my neck; if they start to tighten up and get nervous, I lift them off of me. It is better for me and them if they don't get caught in my hair :)

He's a real cutie.. nice pattern too!

I agree about the around the neck thing.. it's fine. I even put my 6' boa around my neck. I used to hold 10' burms around my neck too! lol just don't let them completely circle around, that's all.

Yeah I put all my snakes around my neck no biggy

Gotcha, neck okay, encircling neck not okay. *nods* :)

Well, I just tried to feed him and he's ignored the rat fuzzy so far. I'm thinking he felt more secure in the feed tub the first time because he had the skull to hide in... We defrosted the fuzzy in a plastic baggie in warm water, then hairdried it to make sure it was nice and warm, but he appears unimpressed. So I put the fuzzy in the mouth of the skull -where there's no substrate- put him back in his tub, and am letting him be for the moment in hopes that he'll eat it. I'm worried we stressed him out yesterday... :petting: Poor lil guy. He's being real active and curious, his temps seem fine, so that's all I can figure.

If he doesn't take the mouse, wait a full week until you offer again.. and try to handle him as little as possible until then.

Oop, there he goes! He's eating it :) That's the lil piggie we know and love. He just didn't want to be out in the open in the feed tub to do it. I might rig a hide for the feed tub for him, just because I don't want him to accidentally eat some substrate in *his* tub. BPs... all about the patience... lol

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rabernet

So ------ when are you getting another? :P

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:P Not for a long while, lol! This apartment is at maximum capacity! Be tempting to get a "Tish' though... ;) If we ever had the money and a bigger place... we'd *love* to get an axanthic. *drool* purdy...

Glad to hear he ate his meal for you. Sometimes you just have to find what method works with each snake. Some of ours are major ambush hunters, waiting for their live prey to wander by and others of ours will aggressively pursue their live prey the second it enters their enclosure. When we fed f/t, some liked it "danced", others would recoil if we moved the f/t prey much at all....each to their own I guess.

As far as ingestion of substrate, it's been said here many times. Small ingestions aren't likely to cause a problem for a creature who easily digests bone, hair, teeth, etc. If you are concerned though, you can always pop a small pad of newspaper in over his substrate and remove it once he's finished eating and gone off for the post feeding nap. We did that for awhile with Ri when she was small and we were feeding f/t, but soon realized a dry prey item isn't normally going to pick up any huge amount of substrate.

Congrats on the successful feed!


~~Jo~~

I have one girl that likes her food wet! I have no idea why. She's been so interested in her food, but just not struck. She'd only been eating every other week or so. Well one week, the bag leaked so the mice were wet. I dried them off, and she struck them fast. So this week I purposely dunked the boogers and she took them again. Weirdo. I'm going to try doing the same with a rat next week.

Congrats, on the feeding!

That's great that your Lily is eating Christie even if she does like her food washed and dried first LOL.


~~Jo~~

As long as I don't have to iron the little boogers, I'm fine. :rolleyes: I just think it's funny that she prefers her food that way, when most don't like their food to get wet at all. But hey if it works, it works! :D I guess that's why it so important for people to eliminate all enviromental issues, and then look at other factors when trying to get a non-eating snake to feed.

I think mice and rats are permanent press...no starch required, hehe. =)

Glad you found something to get your bp interested in the main course!