Morzan and Homura - BRBs

[Caspian]

Not gaping - they were trying to drink the mist, they were so thirsty. Mouths open a little bit, then closing to try and swallow, and opening again. Made me pretty angry to see them like that, but at least one of the employees was pretty furious when I pointed it out, as well - they'd just come in that day, and the guy who stuck them in there put a heat lamp on them... with no source of any water or cover. Lady was planning on chewing him out, too. I hate to see any animal kept in bad conditions - even if it's just food, it deserves quality of life while life lasts.

[CloudtheBoa]

Morzan seems to be settling in nicely, no regurges so far, and he's eaten two meals with me. His last meal was a full-sized fuzzy mouse and his next feeding is later today. He's gotten over his snappiness, but still gives me the stink eye the entire time I have him out. haha

From his last feeding.





And some photos from his first real handling session!





This photo was taken 3 days after he ate, of the bulge from his fuzzy. It was barely noticeable in photos.



And I've finally got that Canon Rebel I was talking about getting! haha So here's some photos of Morzan that I took with the "new" Canon.







It's hard to believe he's almost a month older than Homura!

[CloudtheBoa]

I went to get Homura out, and she snapped at me! I must have really surprised her, because that's the first time she's done this. She didn't connect, and once I got her belly on a finger she was back to normal.

I've had to put her back on paper towels for the time being, with just a bit of moss bunched up under one hide. I'm going to drill a few more holes down near the bottom to aid in air flow, because I went to get her out this weekend and her moss was covered in white! I had taken her out the day before without a sign of mold anywhere...picking up the moss sent a thick cloud of spores everywhere....

SOOO yeah, I'm hoping adding air flow near the level of the moss will keep that from happening again. She's had two bedding changes since I got her, but I've never seen her's mold like this....All the water from the moss seemed to just gather in a pool on the bottom of the tub instead of evaporating. Very strange, the same problems aren't happening in Sanji's or Morzan's tub, and they've got about the same amount of ventilation.

I don't spray their bedding, I drop the moss in a bucket of water, pick it up and squeeze it until no more water comes out, and put it back in. I've found the color drains away and the moss goes brown if I just spray it.

She's a chubby girl, easily has the biggest girth out of the three of them. Hasn't turned down a meal yet, and I was told she's a pig. You can certainly tell!

She's also very strange to handle. She doesn't really grab onto me like the other two rainbows and my boa constrictors, and when she does grip, her grip is weak. Not sure if that's because she doesn't feel the need to, or because of her chubbiness, or just because she still needs to get the hang of holding on. I'm always feeling like she's gonna fall, and she just lets her body loosely hang off my hands and doesn't always try to grab anything when she does start to fall, that's all on me.







And these are the photos I took yesterday.

[ratchet]

I really like how much lighter Homura is compared to Morzan! Both are very pretty, though. And congrats on the new camera! I need to get my snakes outside more this year and get some pictures of them with the good camera...

[CloudtheBoa]

I really like how much lighter Homura is compared to Morzan! Both are very pretty, though. And congrats on the new camera! I need to get my snakes outside more this year and get some pictures of them with the good camera...

Thanks! Homura's my lightest rainbow, and Sanji is my darkest. Haha Morzan sits in the middle.

All the warm days are on my work days (go figure), but I didn't have to go in until late in the day, so I managed a few snaps yesterday. I'm hoping today and Thursday are warm, too, so I can get some more outdoor shots before I leave for the Atlanta Repticon.

[CloudtheBoa]

I've made a few changes to their bedding since my last post. First I tried pure cypress mulch, now I've got roughly 1/3 cypress mulch and 2/3 EcoEarth and I'm a lot happier with it. No mold and it holds humidity better than cypress by itself. Looks nicer, too. haha

Here's Morzan threatening to bite on his pure cypress mulch (with a padding of moss in the corner which molded quickly so I had to throw it away).





He's a little dramatic sometimes. This was after I changed his bedding and placed him back in his tub.



Ever since that handling session, he's been a doll! He's still nervous, and almost never comes out of his ball, but he's getting better. I can even gently brush bedding off his head now without him freaking out.





And Homura looks prettier and prettier every shed.





Her white walls have been way more impressive than I thought they were going to be! Everyone has always said they don't stand out so much with hypos because of their light color, but her white walls just glow!





He's still on small meals.



The bulge after 2 days.



First sign of shed in Homura.



I fed her anyway, because at the time I wasn't certain she was actually going into shed. Her behavior made me think she was. She's a lot less enthusiastic about food when she sheds, but she still eagerly takes her food. Here, she didn't strike, just gently took the mouse and set her belly on top of it instead of wrapping.



Homura about a week later.



And the following day.









They look like they're in the middle of mitosis.



Reeaaaaach. One of the few times he felt adventurous enough to explore.



I was checking up to see if Morzan was going into shed because everyone else was, and at the time he didn't seem like it. He also didn't appreciate me rubbing his tail. Earlier this week, he looked bluish though so he's getting there!



Post shed Homura. She was very pink, but looks orange in these photos.



You can see it a bit better here.

[CloudtheBoa]

It doesn't look like I updated on Morzan here, so the short story is:

Morzan has always been thin, and he's undersized due to his stomach condition. He hasn't gained a single gram since I got him, so I wanted to try to increase his prey size so that he was getting more food and put on some weight. Unfortunately, I probably didn't take it slow enough, because 3 feedings in, he regurged. He wasn't even up to hoppers yet, the mouse I gave him may have been a 5-6 gram fuzzy. He was 55 grams when he arrived, and at that size Sanji was being moved up to hopper mice no problem. Morzan can barely take fuzzies.

So right now, the plan is give him pinkies for 3-4 feedings with NutriBAC, then give him the smallest fuzzies I have and slowly move him up in 1 gram intervals until he's taking 4 gram fuzzies. Each time I move up a gram, I give him that first mouse with NutriBAC. I am hoping he can at least take 4 gram fuzzies at his max, he really needs to start gaining weight if he's going to move up a size. I'm worried about him slowly starving to death over the course of the next couple of years.

As far as the regurge therapy goes, everything is going well with Morzan, and judging by this photo he may be going into shed. He's taken 3 pinkies in a row so far, and I plan on giving him 1-2 more feedings at this size before stepping him up.





Last time I fed Homura, I thought she was going into shed because she wasn't as enthusiastic about food as usual, which is a sure sign she's shedding based of previous shed cycles. But, I never saw her go blue so I thought I was wrong. Nope! Right after feeding her today (yesterday), she left me a nice gnarly rainbow poop, and a shed right next to it, that I found when I got off work.

[CloudtheBoa]

Here's Morzan just coming out of his blue phase, he shed last week and took another pinky. I plan on making his next meal a 3 gram fuzzy mouse since he hasn't had another regurge. He also continues to be active, actually crawling in my hands rather than just sitting there.



Here's Homura a few days after a meal.

[Sonny1318]

Very very nice, congrats.

[CloudtheBoa]

I am continuing to slowly up the size of Morzan's meals, but I'm getting worried as he's losing weight. He arrived at 55 grams but now sits at 50 grams, there's been no regurges, but he's not getting a whole lot of food from 2 and 3 gram fuzzies.

These pictures illustrate why I'm so worried about upping his food intake, he's looked like this since getting him, as his whole life he's had to eat such tiny meals, he's quite underweight. I'm really hoping going as slow as I am will work to getting him eating more food and initiate some weight gain. He seems to have gotten bigger since getting him, but he's lighter.






Homura continues to grow and was 175 grams last I weighed her.