new rescue case, big female...

[Ginevive]

Here's a pic of our recent rescue case, Ginger. She came from a REALLY stupid guy who had her in a 20-g long aquarium with a tiny heatpad, paper towel and NO hide. (She was VERY hissy and snappy when we moved her to the rubbermaid, and I can't blame her.) She was pathetically half buried under the towel and it was all ripped up; poor girl. (she's around 5 feet long.) They bought her a few months frrom a shoddy pet store and she was obviously wildcaught.
I had her for a few weeks now. She was about to go into shed when I got her, so I put her in a saturated rubbermaid with a big waterbowl and moist sphagnum moss. A perfect shed resulted! I had pulled about 6 ticks off of her prior to that.
Don't you just love the ring of light scales that goes completely around her? Anyone ever see this kind of thing proven as genetic? More questions about her will go under the appropriate forums; for now, you can look at her pic.

[Ginevive]

Haha! didn't even realize that this is the same photo I used for my icon!

[RPlank]

Don't you just love the ring of light scales that goes completely around her? Anyone ever see this kind of thing proven as genetic?

I don't know that it has been proven genetic for anything, but as an interesting coincidence, I have a male with the same type of marking whose grandfather was het pied.

[JLC]

She's a beauty! I'll bet she's a much happier snake now. How is she settling in? Does she eat? Is she getting less defensive around you?

[Ginevive]

I have not tried feeding, but his wed. i am getting a rat to see how she responds. I am sure that she has never seen one in her life, but we'll see. Pray to the snakie gods for me! I'm going to try a fresh-killed one.
She has settled in ok, she is always in her hide, but if I were her I'd be doing the same thing

[JLC]

No kidding...she's probably thrilled to have a hide! Good luck with the rat...let us know how it goes.

[Marla]

If the guy and the pet store had her previously, they most likely tried feeding her either mice or rats and if she's already been in your care a few weeks she's probably started to de-stress somewhat and think about getting hungry. I'll bet you have a pretty good chance she'll eat for you.

I stopped off yesterday in the pet store that ticked me off before with their ball python husbandry (before several of you joined, so you may have missed it) and saw once again several juvie balls (including 2 that looked like new hatchlings) being housed in the same tank with no hides, no water, no heat mat. This time, though, to make it worse, there was a bigger bp in a separate tank (probably 800 g or so) with no hides, no water, and two big heat rocks -- the poor thing was curled up in the back corner, trying to hide. I wanted to bring him home, but didn't want to support the store and their treatment of him. I'll bet he was turned in to them because somebody didn't want him anymore and they just set him right up to sell. What makes it even worse to me is that the rodent cages actually had hides, as did a couple of the lizards, but not the poor bp's.

[Ginevive]

I hate pet stores like that. I really wish that I could somehow get all the suffering BPs in those kinda stores and make good homes for them. But that would involve financially supporting the hell-holes by paying them money for their snakes. Grr, this makes me so mad. But at least I have this gal in my care now, and I can give her a good setup and maybe make her life tolerable.

Wow, Rplank, that ring around your BP looks similar to the one on Ginger. Maybe they're from the same locale? If they got together now, they might say "hey, did you go to that bar in Ghana? I think you look familiar..." !

[Marla]

Yep, it's hard to fight the instinct to bring home the snakes, but I really do not want to support those stores with my money. Of course, there's also no telling what that poor guy could have that I'd be bringing in to my collection, and that's risk I don't want to take either. Still, I wish I could ensure that he'd have a good home and proper care. I'm glad your rescue now has you to do this for her.

[CTReptileRescue]

Yep, it's hard to fight the instinct to bring home the snakes, but I really do not want to support those stores with my money.

Beautifully written Marla,
And Ginevive she is lucky you got her. I hope all works out for her, I am sure she is much happier!
Thanks
Rusty