I don't know what went wrong...

[Shenzi Sixaxis]

Posted this two days ago on CS.com, and finally feel like posting it elsewhere. And yeah, she was a corn snake for anyone who's not into the colubrid snakes.

A few minutes ago I decided to do a check on all my snakes (excluding the 20 gallon tank since Apotos is currently MIA) because of a weird smell that was making both my mom and I think, "Smells like something crawled in somewhere and died," and found my big okeetee girl dead. She threw up the last meal she had, too. I don't get it... she was an extremely strong feeder and perfectly healthy just three days ago...

When I first knelt down to where her bin is kept I noticed a stronger smell, but that's where the rats are too, so I didn't think much of it. Opened the lid and saw her tail sticking out of her favorite log hide, and since I'd just turned the light on, still didn't think too much though I thought it was weird I didn't she her jerk a bit at the lid opening. Then I noticed the regurged rat by her upper body sticking out of the other end of the log. 'Why hasn't she moved?'

Then I moved the box in front of her and saw her sunken and dried out face. I don't even know what to do with her body. It's already started decaying and I don't even want to be in this room. It feels so stupid to be crying so hard over a snake, but I can't stop. I've had her for a year and five days.

I can't think of anything wrong I could have done that would cause anything to keel over dead. She was a bit weird in the sense that she was something like 34 inches long but only about as thick as two pencils tied together.

I do remember that not long ago there was an instance where the lower 1/4 of her body or so was plugged up with rat fur so much she was a little squishy and made me wonder if she was pulling a BP trick and ovulating with lots of swelling. My theory is that she got plugged up with fur for some reason, got an impaction, and her last meal aggravated that or maybe even made her gut burst. Or maybe she just wasn't supposed to live a full life.


Here's some more photos I felt good enough to post earlier today.


This was the last picture I took for weighing her. About a month ago.


This was one of the better ones I got that everyone seemed to like.


One of her usual character shots. She did this whenever I was taking a while to give her a rat or when she wanted more. Usually she got more. :p


First one is another good character shot. Both of these last two were taken a day of the fondest memory I had. I was sorting and culling rat pups, and Daemon wouldn't eat, and Apotos only wanted one, but Lotem was unusually hungry that day and was just pounding them left and right. I think she ended up getting four rats that weren't quite up to size for her. She'd curled up on a box on one of the rat bins and kept poking her head out when she wanted another in the funniest or cutest way she could.




I guess it's like someone said: she probably had a really good year with me. I can see her in snakey heaven telling all the other corns, "Yeah, that's right, I got RATS every week, suckas!"

I think my main regret will end up being that I didn't get a chance to breed her at all. She had such a wonderful personality and seemed to have unique coloration for okeetees. Either they're a line bred, or are mucky looking.

Now I'm just waiting for the ground to thaw before taking her out of the freezer to be buried where some orangey marigolds grow every year.

[rabernet]

So sorry for your loss - she was a very pretty girl!

[TheWinWizard]

I'm sorry, she was a beauty.

[Juliemay13]

I'm very sorry for your loss-she was a beautiful snake.

[SlitherinSisters]

That's so sad Sorry for your loss.

[DellaF]

So sorry for your loss. She was a really pretty snake.

[Sammy412]

So sorry to hear.....I love corns and she was a beauty!!! I especially like the one of her peeking out of the box

[lisafoster2510]

Sorry to hear of your loss. I can see it must be hard to know exactly what went wrong.

[dragonboy4578]

Sorry for you loss....

[Bones]

Awwww, I am so sorry for your loss. She was a beautiful snake and she had the cutest face! I love the third picture where she's looking up at the camera and it looks like she's smiling. Soooo adorable.