Okay folks, only you will understand why a grown man and woman are dancing around like crazy fools, high fiving and grinning like idiots but after a full 5 months of refusals....SAOIRSE ATE!

Not a big meal, just a nice wean rat but considering she's refused to eat since her last meal on October 8/05, though every week she was offered (heck begged, I begged LOL) - we are just thrilled!

I don't care if they say the signs of spring are melting snow and buds on trees....nah...it's Saoirse eating! LOL

Saoirse for those of you that don't know was a WC adult female that had been through it all....imported, pet store (they lied at first and said she was CB), couple of private owners then Mike and I agreed to adopt her and try to get her eating. She hadn't eaten successfully in captivity as far as we know and had been refusing to eat at least 6 to 8 months or longer when we got her. She'd also been treated for a parasite load and has a pretty impressive scar on her side.

She's not the world's prettiest ball python female but we love this snake and worry over her more than the rest of the collection all together. We did get her eating with a lot of advice from Adam and she ate steady for 6 weeks after we settled her in, going from a VERY skinny 620 to 900 grams then just....stopped. Needless to say I was upset (Mike is much more calm about such things) but we understood that she's a wild born snake and all we can do is give her the best environment and offer the food and wait. She only lost 100 grams this past 5 months so is now 800 grams and has a rat in her belly!

She's still awfully underweight. For her length and approximate age she should be well into breeding weight range but we'll just continue to work with her and if she never breeds or not for another year or two, so be it. We just feel blessed that this WC female decided to live. When she does eat, she's a good eater with a strong response to her live prey and over this winter she's learned to trust us enough so that she doesn't ball up in fear when we handle her. I was on the phone with another BPNet member one evening and had Saoirse on my lap. She reached over and grabbed my standing reading lamp and nearly yanked it over! Only another snake person can understand why anyone would be thrilled to have a snake nearly wreck a nice lamp but it was like....she's finally not scared!...she's being confident enough to finally mess around with stuff....yay for Saoirse! LOL

Okay I'm babbling...I know this! LOL Please cross your fingers that Saoirse will eat again next week. I really want to see this snake at her full glory someday.