Progression of Mr. Noodle, my Abbott's Okeetee corn

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Hey everyone!

If Like to introduce Mr. Noodle, my Abbott's Okeetee corn snake.

He was my first snake, and I got him as a 5 week old teeny noodle in August of last year. He was such a tiny baby, weighed only 6 grams.



I had such a good experience with him, that I now also have 2 ball pythons (each to have their own thread sometime, though I have one up already complaining about my spider, Obi).

He was a super fast little worm at 6 grams, and I just took the breeders Word that he could handle pinkies... I would swear it was impossible, but he always managed. Though the lump after the first few times was comical.

I'm a bit surprised I've only gotten 3 "bites" from him, all under 12 grams, when I went to pick him up before we knew he was blue. Oops. Can't say it felt like anything other than velcro, so no real pain.

Right after this pic, he proceeded to drag the mouse right into his water to eat, and did 70% of his eating it underwater...



I didn't know to start that I should put him in a smaller bin, so he has always had a 28qt size bin. No issues at all and he loves exploring the space, so I never changed it. I love this bin with the 6 latches and the foam seal, makes it escape proof as long as no ventilation holes are too big.



I'm amazed looking back at these pictures how small he was to start and how dark his pattern was. It's like night and day to now at 7.5 months old.

Back at 6-10 grams (12 inches):


A week or two ago, at 35-40 grams (20+ inches):


He's much calmer than he was as a baby and loves moving and exploring, although he tends to flinch dramatically when his first 3 inches of neck or tail get touched at all the first 30 seconds he's been picked up. Working with him on that and it seems to be improving. Now it's mostly him looping around my hand and trying to sniff anything nearby, especially my phone's camera.


Back in December, I think, I was handling Noodle with long sleeves. Not sure if he was cold or just curious, but I ended up with a very happy sleeve-snake.


His favorite Hide is an old cottage cheese container. I filled it with eco earth, moist originally, to help him shed originally, but left it in with it dry since he liked it so much. Easier to tell when a shed is coming or he's not done digesting, cuz he buries into it and becomes invisible. If he's just chilling, he curls up on top of it.


I almost forgot his nutty food response. He has always taken frozen, but he wraps it up so many times that he becomes a ball. It was hilarious, until we started feeding 2 pinkies and had to wait for him to finish. He'll wrap it for 10 or 15 minutes before starting to eat, as if the dead mouse needs to be more dead. Interestingly, his first half dozen meals he would take from the tongs and just start to swallow. Swapped over to this post-strike response about 3 months ago.


As of tonight he is 41 grams! So proud, he's more than 6 times his original weight.

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