AHH! A frustrating and gross day for Irwin

[dkatz4]

I am hoping that the rule of 3's is in effect and that my bad luck got all used up in one day.

~This morning Irwin had shed, as expected, but for the first time it was not perfect. No retained skin or eye caps or anything, but the skin was shredded into pieces, he's only ever given me perfect rolled up socks in the past. I think it has to do with the spot he was occupying in the enclosure and i suspect he may have shed the night before and been sitting on it for a day b/c it was rather dry.

~This evening he fights me getting out of the enclosure, as always, but this time gets all snugged away behind a shelf and i'm pretty sure scraped his head a bit. No missing scales or injury, but some marks on his head that i've seen before once when i actually watched him get his head stuck in a tight spot - so literally less than a day on his fresh skin and its marred.

~ and then...
~~ and then... ...
HE POOPED ON THE DAMN COUCH!!!
Its just 5 days short of the one year anniversary of the last time he did this, although this time he didn't actually get me, just the couch, so i spent 45 minutes cleaning and scrubbing, and i cant find the febreeze so i jammed a bunch of dryer sheets between the cushions (that covered up the smell of weed when i was a teenager, so why not the smell of snake piss in my 30's?) and tomorrow i'll man up and tell my wife that i need to use the upholstery shampooer b/c the cat threw up on the couch because, hey, the cat throws up all the time - and i need more snakes.

-BUT, on a positive note, i measured Irwin tonight, as i always do after a shed, and finally, after hovering within an inch and a half for 6 months, we have officially hit 4 feet!

[Sauzo]

Hahaha, I've never had any of my boas poop outside their cage. I did have Caesar piss on my foot and he pooped on the floor but thats about it. Luckily Caesar has pretty solid poop so it was easy to just pick up with a paper towel and didnt leave a stain or anything.

I would definitely blame the cat. They can get away with it where as your snake would probably incur the wrath of the wife haha. You could really go wild and say you were sitting on the couch commando and tried to rip a big fart and accidentally squeezed a hershey kiss on the couch lol. Although i would probably stick with the cat puke

I've never had the problem with the boas marring themselves. But Caesar, my god that guy is always getting himself into trouble somehow. He finally got a nice clean scuff free face and then after the 2 week no food experiment, he is back to scrapes on his chin and a scrap on the front side of his face. Luckily they have healed fine but he needs to shed to get rid of the blemish/scab.

[dkatz4]

I feel kind of guilty b/c i realize in retrospect that in the past when he really really puts up a fight to stay in his enclosure there is usually a reason like he needs to poop or he's going to shed that very night. But I had left him alone for 2 or 3 days to shed and I wanted to make sure there was nothing stuck so I kept pushing. Luckily the scales are just sort of scraped a bit, no effect on his actual skin (I think). I was playing with his head a lot to see if it was painful at all or if it was just stuck shed, but he didn't even seem to notice, sonibfigure he's probably no worse for the wear.