Wiggles, the Children's Python

[Bogertophis]

I know. It looks spare. You're probably disappointed. "Where's all that wonderful Homebody creativity?", you're probably wondering. Well, unfortunately, Wiggles's activity center needs to be broken down and put away after every use. As a fellow reptile keeper you can appreciate the beauty of my creation. You say it should be even bigger and more elaborate. I agree. My wife does not. She sees a tall pile of garbage. Sigh.

Oh no, so sorry! But it doesn't need to be difficult to break down- I use pieces of coated wire (stronger than grocery-store twist-ties) to temporarily secure branches, & your snake isn't going to pull them apart anyway. You can probably pre-connect a couple things that you can easily put on & off the coat rack (even a wreath, with the right-sized holes). I see a plant nearby- hey, maybe you just need to go all the way for "attractiveness" & get a tall fake tree? Anyway- we all have challenges- not to worry.

[Homebody]

Oh no, so sorry! But it doesn't need to be difficult to break down- I use pieces of coated wire (stronger than grocery-store twist-ties) to temporarily secure branches, & your snake isn't going to pull them apart anyway. You can probably pre-connect a couple things that you can easily put on & off the coat rack (even a wreath, with the right-sized holes). I see a plant nearby- hey, maybe you just need to go all the way for "attractiveness" & get a tall fake tree? Anyway- we all have challenges- not to worry.

While each version needs to be simple, fortunately, there can be multiple versions. It's flexible like that. So this month it's cardboard platforms. Well, I don't have a lot of money invested in the cardboard platforms. So, next month, it can be branches. The month after, vines. Each version, taken in isolation, may be boring, but hopefully, by changing it up, I'll keep it interesting for Wiggles.

[Homebody]

Feeding day! I don't like dead mice and I like dead baby mice even less, but Wiggles's excitement is infectious, so I'm looking forward to it.

[Bogertophis]

Feeding day! I don't like dead mice and I like dead baby mice even less, but Wiggles's excitement is infectious, so I'm looking forward to it.

Well I'm sure the feeling's mutual- your sandwich doesn't excite him either.

[Homebody]

Wiggles had a monumental activity session on Monday. He climbed onto the activity station, shot up to the top platform, and sat there for two hours. Sunday’s session was more sedate. He only explored the first platform. This time he climbed to the top level like he’d done it a thousand times before. I was a little disappointed that he just sat there, but there was one unexpected benefit. I noticed my family interacted with him more. He wasn’t doing anything, but they all stopped to greet him and compliment his appearance, even my wife. It’s a lot easier to interact with a snake when it’s at eye level.

His activity sessions usually aren’t so long, but I was waiting for him to show me a sign that he was anything other than perfectly content. I also wasn’t anxious to get him back in his enclosure. His ambient temps have been a little too high lately due to the weather and, while the temperatures were the same on this activity session, at least the air flow was better.

After a couple hours or so, I shut off the lights, and Wiggles decided it was time to get down. I could have just put him away but he hadn’t had much exercise, so I decided to let him try and get down by himself. His efforts were impressive.

He anchored himself to the side of the top platform and extended. It must have been a full two thirds of this body length straight out, but there was nothing to grab. Prior to the session, I didn’t think he’d be able to climb down around the platform. He did so with ease by anchoring himself to a coat hook, extending himself over the edge of the platform and back to another coat hook on the underside. My confidence that the activity station is escape proof took a big hit there.

The bottom platform foiled his efforts though. He just couldn’t manage it. The sides are higher so the distance from his anchor point to the pole on the underside was further than he could reach. Though he didn’t manage it Monday, I’m concerned that with practice he will. I don’t need the activity station to be escape proof, but I do need it to be escape resistant. We’ll see how that goes.

At bedtime, I moved his activity station close to his enclosure so he could put himself away, but he still hadn’t had enough. He climbed off the station, but onto the window sill and started to follow his old track around the room. From the sill, he usually climbs down my son’s telescope, but I moved it. So, he anchored himself to the sill using this cool Centipede Tetris maneuver and climbed to the ground without it.



At his point, I’d had enough. Four hours after the activity session started, I tapped him with the paper towel roll, gently picked him up and I put him away. I was all set to do it again last night, but Wiggles wasn’t. When I opened his enclosure, he just sat there with his head on the threshold. I said to him, “After last night, you earned it.”

[Bogertophis]

Sounds like a very production & enjoyable session for everyone. That's hilarious that last night he thought better of coming out.

[Homebody]

More pics of Wiggles messing around:

[Bogertophis]

That's like a confidence-building course for snakes! And I have to say, he's racking up the points.

[Homebody]

...and many happy returns. Wiggles is two years old today.

[Bogertophis]

What a great looking cake (for a snake)-