Preparing for my First Snake

[Kryptic]

I'm very glad I took your advice to work with a breeder. I'm also very happy with the decision that I should go with someone local. This turned out to be the best of both worlds. I also appreciate your primer, Bogertophis, on what to look for. I used all the info in inspecting the animals.

I spoke with the breeder over my lunch break on Wednesday and we texted back and forth for hours after work. He was extremely helpful regarding my setup, what I should change up, and what I still need or should get. He has a lot of snakes, lots of different morphs, and helped me find many I liked within my price range. We narrowed that down to 2 males, a Mojave Pastel Gravel (born October 2021) and a DH Dreamsicle (born December 2020). We met up so I could meet the two and I decided on the younger boy, whom I tentatively named Twizzler.

We actually met up on Thursday because it worked out to be more convenient for both of us. I looked the snakes over, we spoke for a while about care, feeding, how to check its health and any issues, body language, sexing the animals, and more. As for feeding, he actually feeds most his snakes on Wednesday, including mine, but didn't feed either I was interested in, in case I took one home. He feeds live and assured me that his snakes are good eaters. He actually gave me a feeder to offer it later that evening after settling Twizzler in along with detailed instructions, including to text him. He assured me that if there was any issue like the snake not eating, he would happily exchange the snake. I brought Twizzler home, made some enclosure adjustments the breeder suggested, settled Twizzler in with no fuss, minimal handling, placed the lid on, and left for a few hours.

Later that night, I came back, saw that Twizzler was half out of a cardboard tube by the water bowl. I texted the breeder to let him know I was going to feed him and placed the feeder in the enclosure with him, having no idea what to expect. The feeder ran around the tub for a minute or so. At one point, it got a little too close to Twizzler. He so slowly and deliberately pointed his cocked head in its direction over a couple of seconds, then in an explosive movement, struck and wrapped his prey. I texted the breeder that he struck and sent him progress updates he requested every few minutes along with photos. I watched him eat, sent one last pic of the food bump, watched him move into a hide, then put the lid on and left.

I left him alone all day yesterday, only removing the lid about 24 hours after feeding to see where he was. He was in a hide over the heat map where he had crawled into after eating. Today, just over 36 hours after feeding, I finally went to take him out so that I could clean the tub (the feeder had dropped a couple of turds). I checked it all over, including the hides and enrichment, for any signs of a regurg or snake feces -- all clean. This time he was settled in a tube on the cool side. I removed the tube with him in it and placed it next to me, emptied out his tub, and cleaned it. He poked his head out, so I gently took him and placed him on my leg. He seemed fine with just laying there and looking around. I picked him up and took a few pictures, let him crawl around on my arm, including crawling up around my neck, left him there for a few minutes, then put him back. He didn't make any attempts to ball up or run away when I was handling him. I plan to check up on him again tonight at the earliest or otherwise tomorrow night.

I should be meeting the breeder next Wednesday to pick up some frozen feeders from him and one more live one. He assured me that plenty of people he's sold his snakes to have transitioned them to F/T and that he would help me out with any problems.

So far, it's been a great experience.