Feeding Tequila

Just had to share a slice of life with you all about our 16 year old, 8.5 foot long female BCI - Tequila.

As some of you may remember we adopted Tequila a few months back from Jamie Glass and have her housed in a massive custom enclosure we constructed out of an interior walk-in closet in our livingroom.

Well Tequila took quite a long while to settle into her new home. She's got almost 9 feet of vertical space with a basking platform just about 5.5 feet up, a climbing tree and so forth. All that room I think freaked her a bit. At first Tequila just wouldn't eat and we got a bit worried. Granted she's a huge big female and a few weeks of refusals are not going to hurt this lady but you do like them to eat.

Anyways, finally Tequila started to eat but she's been very cautious, not climbing as much as I thought she would, eating very "quietly" for a boa (not really hitting hard or showing a lot of interest in her dinner but at least eating).

All that changed this week LOL. Suddenly Miss Tequila is up and down her tree like a mountain goat. Down for a drink and a big stretch and slither around the cypress mulch, have a peek out the mesh door cutout to see what the family is up to, a slither up the tree with a nice stop midway on the branch for a rest - it's just a joy to watch the big girl finally enjoying the home we made for her.

Tonight was hilarious! She came down, went right up to the mesh area and gave us the "hey!...you!...c'mere!...TOSS ME A RAT WILL YA!". We quickly got her first course ready and WHAMMO she struck hard and fast. Off we went to feed the rest of the collection and partway through, there's fatty butt boa parked at her door again head up, peering out at us and waiting for another rat. It was so funny! I swear if she could loll out her tongue and pant, she'd look like our dog waiting for a steak bone LOL. She hit course number two (aka jumbo rats) hard again then afterwards she went, in a stately and full bellied manner, off up her tree to laze about on her platform under her heat lamp for the night.

What a life!

We're so glad to see her taking full advantage of her new enclosure and moving around so much now. It's like having a piece of the wild world in our livingroom to watch her live in some small way like her wild cousins do. :)

Wow, Jo, thanks so much for sharing this story. :)

I have been wondering how she was doing in that big and roomy enclosure that you and Mike made for her. I have so much respect for boa owners who provide their boas ample space and climbing choices; I just know it is the best thing for them what with increased opportunities for thermoregulation and the opportunity for exercise.

I am really glad to hear that she has now fully adopted your family and is eating with all of the vim and vigor of such a big girl!!! :banana: You must be so pleased and I am so pleased for all of you!! :D

Give her a little wink for me! And thanks again for sharing!!

where are the pics???!!!

Thanks McKinsey, I never know if people want to hear about some snake in somebody's house or not, but I like to share stories obviously. LOL

Mike, I am a bad, bad, BAD BPNet member/Moderator and didn't take any pictures yesterday. You may now proceed with the smacking about of me with the large and frozen salmon. :(

I promise faithfully to get the camera out and get some shots of her over the next week. She's just shed last week and looks rather spiffy. Since she has a belly full of jumbo rat right now she'll likely not come down from her basking platform though for at least 3 or 4 days minimum. She likes to have a nice long laze about up there after feeding. With the way her door is constructed, she can lay up there and watch us through the upper plexiglass portion (which if I look over my shoulder she is currently doing! :))

Oh Jamie, you'll get a laugh out of this bit.

I fed her the first course - a nice jumbo f/t rat off my super long bbq claw tongs (these work great by the way!). She slammed that rat like there was no tomorrow. I felt the vibrations of her strike well up my arm! Okay and I jumped and squeeled slightly. I'm still getting used to tong feeding a snake of her power. :oops:

Anyways, Mike fed her the second jumbo rat. I swear if that snake had eyelids and eyelashes she'd have batted them at my husband! LOL Slithered up and ever so nicely Miss Manners took her rat from Mike off the tongs with a lovely "ladylike" grab. Geesh, he can be first up to bat next feeding. :rofl:

Now of course I have to wait for Mike to get up so I can get in her enclosure because she left a rather large and stinky present last night for me. Cleaning Tequila's home isn't cleaning - it's more like mucking out! LOL

i would really like to see pictures of her enclosure. i have always wanted to do something like you have. it sounds gorgeous. and congrats on her crazy feeding!

Here's a link from a thread where I did a post about her enclosure.

http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...=649752#649752

These pictures were taken just before we changed our original plan for her climber, which was not sturdy enough for her, to a big two limbed climbing tree (just a big windfall tree limb that we brought in, made sure was bug free then installed).

The other thing not shown in these pictures is the padlock on her door with the only two keys held by Mike and I. Because we have children, we feel it's just a smart thing to have this security on Tequila's home to ensure that she stays safely in there and the teenagers don't get any bright idea about getting her out if we parents aren't around.

When I get some new shots of Tequila next week, I'll try to get some better ones of her climbing tree.

Congrats Jo, good to hear that fatty-fat-fat is eating. :)

That pic of her crushing your friend is to cute. One of these days (when we get a bigger place) I'll take the plunge and get a BCI, such a great snake, especially for thier size.

Congrats again, good work with her.

Bruce

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by frankykeno

Here's a link from a thread where I did a post about her enclosure.

---

thanks :) and wow that is awesome.

i might end up copying you eventually.

Jo you do realize there's a possibility she's even older than that from what we figure?!?! I miss having that big lug around :)

It is so satisfying feeding a big boa that truly appreciates its meal unlike some of the more picky, finicky bp eaters or should I say eaters-when-they-feel-like-it.

And I think it's so cool that y'all built her that beautiful enclosure where she can stretch out and explore. That's what she deserves and I'm so happy that she will have that for the remainder of her life. :D

Very cool Jo! Love the story!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by frankykeno

Oh Jamie, you'll get a laugh out of this bit.

I fed her the first course - a nice jumbo f/t rat off my super long bbq claw tongs (these work great by the way!). She slammed that rat like there was no tomorrow. I felt the vibrations of her strike well up my arm! Okay and I jumped and squeeled slightly. I'm still getting used to tong feeding a snake of her power. :oops:

Anyways, Mike fed her the second jumbo rat. I swear if that snake had eyelids and eyelashes she'd have batted them at my husband! LOL Slithered up and ever so nicely Miss Manners took her rat from Mike off the tongs with a lovely "ladylike" grab. Geesh, he can be first up to bat next feeding. :rofl:

Now of course I have to wait for Mike to get up so I can get in her enclosure because she left a rather large and stinky present last night for me. Cleaning Tequila's home isn't cleaning - it's more like mucking out! LOL

---

The funny thing about that is she was never an aggressive feeder up until a couple years ago. When I got her from my brother in law he was feeding her 5 jumbos once a month. He fed FT and would just put them all in a corner of her cage (a too small 55 gallon tank if you believe it) and when she was ready she would eat them. He also used to let her roam his apartment for 3-4 days at a time. Mostly she spent her time under his bed. I moved her to 2 jumbos every 2 weeks because she was overly fat. She never took them from tongs but off the floor of the cage. One time I went to feed her and she struck at the doors of the cage. Since that time she has always aggressively taken the first one off the tong and then I would throw the second one next to her to eat when she was done. She has never eaten live and the one time I tried to feed her live she was terrified of it. She is definitely odd but a good girl nonetheless! Glad that you and the family are enjoying having her around!

You promised pics! haven't fed again yet???

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jglass38

The funny thing about that is she was never an aggressive feeder up until a couple years ago. When I got her from my brother in law he was feeding her 5 jumbos once a month. He fed FT and would just put them all in a corner of her cage (a too small 55 gallon tank if you believe it) and when she was ready she would eat them. He also used to let her roam his apartment for 3-4 days at a time. Mostly she spent her time under his bed. I moved her to 2 jumbos every 2 weeks because she was overly fat. She never took them from tongs but off the floor of the cage. One time I went to feed her and she struck at the doors of the cage. Since that time she has always aggressively taken the first one off the tong and then I would throw the second one next to her to eat when she was done. She has never eaten live and the one time I tried to feed her live she was terrified of it. She is definitely odd but a good girl nonetheless! Glad that you and the family are enjoying having her around!

---

She surely does hit that first course rat hard! :O

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by mcavana

You promised pics! haven't fed again yet???

---

Well heck Mike I just posted a TON of pics on that other thread of her! Geesh....geesh...okay I'll try to remember next time to snap pics of her eating her rat. Not really all that exciting though. Once she's coiled her big butt around it you pretty much can't see squat.

One thing Mike, since I know you are looking at getting a boa. They are fast and hard eaters but most of them have this thing about settling down to actually eat their prey. They will uncoil, sniff it all over, then sort of guard it for awhile. I don't know if this is a survival thing from the wild where they might have to eat really large prey and be awfully vulnerable but every boa I've seen does this to some extent or other. If you bug them too much during that time they can just decide to break off the feed completely so watch for that. Don't be surprised if once they are done constricting it takes 20 minutes or so for them to slurp down the rat. Tequila takes forever and a day sometimes before she's sure it's okay to eat (we lock up the dog and cat during her feeding times because if one wanders by her enclosure she gets a bit put off about eating).