My first escape- good ending

[bad-one]

Last night I held my little spider Ivy, just about 200g. I put her away after about 15 minutes and did my normal stuff and went to bed. Today was feeding day so I defrosted her f/t rat pup and went to feed her. But as I opened her little tub I noticed the front side wasn't clipped on and even before I opened her tub I knew she wasn't there! I didn't panic, but I probably looked like this --> while telling myself I'm an idiot for not double checking her cage. (I'm usually almost obsessive about double, triple and sometimes even quadruple checking cages I've opened recently )

So I started digging aroung the nearest most likely places (I've had my adult male crested gecko get out twice {my mom's cat is the culprit there...}and I just have this instinct on where to find them). Well 5 minutes later I find her coiled up in a mesh tarp that is bunched up under my bed- so she had only gone about 6-7ft from her cage. I was incredibly relieved, she only spent the night outside her cage.

And to make me feel better, I put her in her tub and offered her the f/t rat pup just to see, and she took it like nothing had even happened She seems perfectly fine so I'll just keep an eye on her and be thankful for my good luck!

- I must admit: I was really scared, she is so small it would be easy for her to get into something. I kept worrying about having her get crushed or if I couldn't find her soon that she'd get a RI or get injured/killed by one of our 3 cats.

[Jessandyballs]

Hi,

I am glad it worked out. Scary. By the way I hope you are not really feeding a 200 gram ball python a Rat Pup. You need to be feeding Weaned or small rats by now. Ivy can easily be eating a 40 to 50 gram rat each week.

Good Luck,
Bill

[bad-one]

There's absolutely no way she could eat a weanling yet. It is probably my scale that is a bit off (has a line every 25g). She has a big fat lump in her belly (the food is as wide as she is at the thickest), perhaps I should call these rat crawlers since they have opened eyes and are somewhere between a fuzzy and a weanling in size.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Hi,

I am glad it worked out. Scary. By the way I hope you are not really feeding a 200 gram ball python a Rat Pup. You need to be feeding Weaned or small rats by now. Ivy can easily be eating a 40 to 50 gram rat each week.

Good Luck,
Bill

And because they can does not mean they need to, animals that are overfed will fast no doubt about that.

40-50 grams is what I feed adult male, females get 85+ grams rats weekly. Doing so result in animal feeding with consistency and growing at a steady rate.

Nothing wrong in feeding rat pup at that size.

[Jessandyballs]

Whatever.....

I have a 1500 gram Spider het for Albino that is a year old. No fasting with this girl. And I will fax or send copy of her feed card. She eats once a week. Don't shoot the messenger, just trying to help. I fed a 25 gram rat pup to a 130 gram pastel tonight and she barely shows. Not sure what you are looking at but I believe you. Must be a really thin 200 gram ball. You should change her name to Courtney Love....LOL.

Bill

[bad-one]

Oh yeah, she is starved alright.

Quick photo I had taken after she had finished eating:


Normal:



You shouldn't assume things and attack my husbandry skills.

[rabernet]

She looks awesome! FWIW, I can't think of a single animal in my collection that I offer prey that's 25% of their body weight. You're doing just fine!

Glad you found her so quickly!

[bad-one]

Thanks! I'm just counting my blessings and now I'm going to be super paranoid about checking the darned cages!

[h00blah]

wow nice spider!!! love that pattern
and i honestly have on idea wut i would do if one of my pythons got out ;_;...
wait i do.. i'd probably cry a bit, the start looking while crying =p

[Jessandyballs]

Hey,

I was just thinking. I never had a snake escape. I think they are all too fat.....LOL. You know what they say about opinions.....

Regards,
Bill