What a difference a year makes....

Well it's been almost a year since Saoirse, our adult female WC rescue came to us and what a difference a year has made. She was a mess back in September 05 at only 620 grams but here she is today at 1,200 grams (even with a 5.5 month winter fast in there just to make Mike and I worry ourselves sick). She isn't really getting much longer, just packing some weight on that frame.

We have no clue how old she is, whether she bred in the wild or why she ended up in a pet store in southern Michigan with a bad injury likely from a capture hook, internal and external parasites, etc. The only information we could gather is she is an adult female WC, she went through importation and at least two owners before us without any successful feedings in a timeframe of at least 8 months to possibly a year.

She's not in perfect shape yet and may not breed this year. We'll see how her weight gain comes along. For us it's just really about watching her blossom, learn to accept captivity finally and begin to thrive in that environment.

September 05 - Saoirse at 620 grams.
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...wegother-1.jpg

August 06 - Saoirse at 1,200 grams.
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...61200grams.jpg

Oh and last night when I checked to see if she was done shedding...she hissed at me again! Go Saoirse go! LOL

Ooops forgot her head shot. We love her unique "wrench" shaped neck stripe.
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...oirsesFace.jpg

Wow, Joanna, you guys have done an excellent job with her! She looks so much better.

Thanks Sarah. We've always just tried to be really realistic with Saoirse. We did a lot of talking with Adam and our vet about her and what could be done to help her accept captivity and begin to eat again. We just set little goals and try to get to them with her. First it was eating, then getting the mess of old shed and stuck eyecaps off (one eye had 5 caps and thanks to Adam and a panicked phone call that got dealt with), then it was just getting through the long winter fast and working slowly to 1,000 grams.

Along the way Mike was able to get Saoirse to trust him enough to come out of her protective ball and allow human contact. He spent a very long time just sitting quietly with her in our bedroom where she was quarantined just letting her get to know him at her own pace. She still seems to prefer Mike over any other human being though does not ball up anymore.

Now we're waiting for the next step of 1,500 grams and then I think both Mike and I will finally feel we've succeeded fully with her.

She looks great. :sweeet:

Her little wrench is pretty awesome. I'm glad You and Mike were able to help this snake out the way you did. Thats patience for ya. :rockon:

I've always said Spaniard "if you didn't have patience before you got a ball python, you are about to learn some" LOL

a fine job by all concerend indeed. well done.

Boy, that is surely the honest truth! Trey (or Emily, as she has been renamed...my daughter has a lot more faith in my newly aquired probing skills than I do!) has forced me to learn whole new levels of patience I never knew existed.
I'm pretty sure he has stuck eyecaps, I'm not sure how to tell for sure. Most of the rest of his stuck shed has come off, though. Should I do anything about it?

You learned to probe! How cool! Trey may be a girl? What a nice and wonderful surprise that would be. Personally Sarah if none of the stuck shed is fully encircling and considering Trey aka Emily is so small and still being tube fed I wouldn't even worry about it. It's nice to get off stuck shed and caps but you're in a pretty fine balancing act of already having to stress out the little one with the needed feedings to keep it alive. I may be wrong but a bit of stuck shed and some eyecaps wouldn't be something I'd worry about till I had the baby going well and able to withstand more stress of soaking and so forth.

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Originally Posted by snakey68

a fine job by all concerend indeed. well done.

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Thanks Snakey, kind of you to say. It's been a bit of a road with her but all good things take work and committment so it's very worth it to see her all full of pee & vinegar these days and acting like a normal snake (whatever normal is LOL).

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

You learned to probe! How cool! Trey may be a girl? What a nice and wonderful surprise that would be. Personally Sarah if none of the stuck shed is fully encircling and considering Trey aka Emily is so small and still being tube fed I wouldn't even worry about it. It's nice to get off stuck shed and caps but you're in a pretty fine balancing act of already having to stress out the little one with the needed feedings to keep it alive. I may be wrong but a bit of stuck shed and some eyecaps wouldn't be something I'd worry about till I had the baby going well and able to withstand more stress of soaking and so forth.

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Thanks for that advice, Joanna :D
Ok, I'll quit worrying about the shed and concentrate on the feeding, because he or she is pretty stressed these days.
And yes, Becky was nice enough to teach me to pop and probe at the show in Arlington! I tried both on Trey/Emily, and both of my results came out female. I still want it double checked, since it was my first solo flight, so to speak ;)

Just make sure the stuck shed isn't encircling any part of Trey/Emily's body Sarah and if you are at all concerned that it is and could be a problem, please have someone there (vet, experienced herper, breeder) do a visual check on the snake. Over the internet it's impossible to judge and we wouldn't want the pretty baby having any further troubles.

Wow, you guys have come such a long way with her.. it is awesome to know that there are such caring keepers like you out there. So many stupid stories of BPs being neglected, so many you see perishing in pet stores.. you really made my day with your post! What a cool story.

Congrats Jo. It always feels good to get a WC or rescue to turn around. I've got a WC female that I had for 55 weeks before she took a meal. She has now been eating for about six weeks, 4 mice a week. Congrats again on a job well done.

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Originally Posted by muddoc

Congrats Jo. It always feels good to get a WC or rescue to turn around. I've got a WC female that I had for 55 weeks before she took a meal. She has now been eating for about six weeks, 4 mice a week. Congrats again on a job well done.

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Odd thing is Tim that after all this refusing Saoirse started eating for us within 2 weeks and eat solid till her winter fast, then started up fine in the spring again. We can't quite figure out what actually triggered her. We did pre-scent the area, we did offer her a hopper gerbil and then immediately when it was consumed a wean rat so she seemed to imprint on the rats just fine after that and we did set her up as Adam suggested. We just aren't sure what actually was the trick to it but heck whatever it was...it worked LOL.

The one thing we did find out through trial and error was Saoirse could not tolerate being in the same room with other snakes or in a rack type situation (after her quarantine of course). She had been racked by the previous owner. We tried many times to move her into the BP room and no matter where we placed her tub, it seemed if she could sense other snakes nearby....she immediately stopped feeding. We'd haul her and her tub back into our bedroom, she'd eat again. After a long time she did finally accept being in the BP room but that's only been really since our move here to Toledo recently.

We've often wondered that because she was wild and an adult if she just wasn't used to being in close proximity to other snakes like that. She could sense them but not get to them or see them. We wondered if that perhaps freaked her out sufficient enough to stop her eating everytime we tried to relocate her in with the others.

As well, when she was doing this, if we had her out for handling and took another BP out...no matter even if it was a way smaller one than her....she would immediately freeze up and appear very cautious and "nervy". A whole different attitude when that snake was removed from her vicinity. Now that she's in the BP room, she acts just like any of the BP's if they are near another one, just totally unfazzed by the whole thing. In fact she's recently shown a marked interest in our yearling male LOL.

Awesome Joanna .... It shows what someone who really cares for their aniamls can do. I am in awe of what you and Mike have done.

Neil