Wiggles, the Children's Python

[Homebody]

@ Homebody- As I say, I've never tried offering them, but aren't the Reptilinks also a different texture than an actual rodent? I'm guessing they're more dense & stiff, & less flexible & soft- so maybe that's part of the problem too? Snakes go by both scent & sense of touch. Of course if they were too soft, they'd probably fall apart too, since they're a composite?

No. Reptilinks are pretty soft once thawed and they don't have bones, intact ones anyway. I think it comes down to scent. Snakes have to be taught to recognize the Reptilink scent as food.

[Homebody]

At Wiggles's quarterly weigh in, he tipped that scales at a bruising 225 grams. That's 38 grams more than last quarter. That's a bit of a pleasant surprise for me. He only grew 23 grams at his last weigh in after recording previous gains of 44 and 39 grams. I thought his growth was slowing down, but I guess not.

Sadly, the news isn't all good. According to serpwidgets, he shrunk two inches (31.79 - 29.9) since the last time I measured him on 10/17/22 (post #180).

[Bogertophis]

I've never used Serpwidgets, but I don't think he actually shrunk- could it be that's the part of his body (in pic above) that's behind something else that didn't get included?

[dakski]

Great on the weight gain! Not as cool on shrinking, Widget!

I think serpwidgets has some margin for error, but stranger things have happened, right?

[Homebody]

No. Wiggles didn't shrink. I screwed up taking the picture. In the picture above, the ruler is closer to the camera than the snake is. That makes it look relatively larger. Our brains understand this. The computer's brain doesn't. So, if you use Serpwidget to get a length on your snake, you need to make sure that the snake and the ruler are the same distance from the camera, as I did when I first tried Serpwidget (pic below).

[Bogertophis]

Too bad he didn't shrink...you could have marketed that trick to dieters everywhere, lol.

[Snagrio]

Too bad he didn't shrink...you could have marketed that trick to dieters everywhere, lol.

"This snake shrunk three inches in one week with this one simple trick. Veterinarians HATE him!!!"

[Bogertophis]

"This snake shrunk three inches in one week with this one simple trick. Veterinarians HATE him!!!"

That would come in very handy to keep snakes from outgrowing their enclosures (or their humans, lol).

[Homebody]

Wiggles took his Reptilink tonight. It's been two weeks, so he was good and hungry. I tried feeding the Reptilink unscented. He was interested. He kept coming back to it, but wouldn't take it. I tried rubbing it on a hopper to scent it. He still didn't take it. Then, I tried dipping the link in hot water. Curiously, that did the trick. I'm encouraged that he didn't require me to scent the link with mouse guts. That's progress.

I think the key factor is hunger. The hungrier he is the less he's going to care what the link smells like or what temperature it is. I may wait three weeks next time to see if he'll take the link unscented.

[Homebody]

How big does your snake's hide need to be?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSEbm3HButY
Answer: Just big enough.