New Red Tail Keeper Questions.

[Benson_and_Hedges]

Lol, those are some funny stories.

From the moment i took him out of the cage at the store i noticed how active and curious he was. But i didn't think i would have to watch out for things he would suddenly grab on to when he gets bigger. I'm really excited.

Yeah, the nice man at PetCo said he was feeding him frozen pinkies once a week so that's what i'm gonna do til he moves up to the next food item.

Now let me see if i can get a picture up here...

Everyone say hello to Hector.


Hector, say hello to everyone.


Sorry for it being so blurry.. my webcam stinks.

[Shelby]

Pinkies? Rat pinks I hope! He can easily eat a fuzzy or hopper mouse.

[frankykeno]

Hiya Hector!

Yes they are quite the snakes LOL. Rauri is a very girthy almost 6 feet these days but can do that "I'm not moving...I'm not moving...I'M UNDER THE COUCH....BWWWWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" thing really really well! You think the dust bunnies under there would scare him off!


~~Jo~~

[Shelby]

Dust bunnies scare a boa? You're confused, Jo. The dust bunnies should be the scared ones.

[frankykeno]

But Shelby those dust bunnies scare me!!!! Oh wait....Rauri is actually longer than I am tall....well that explains that!

Next time he goes for a jaunt under the coach I'm sending him in with a feather duster. Since he's determined to get under there he may as well make himself useful


~~Jo~~

[vinnimac]

"I'm not moving...I'm not moving...I'M UNDER THE COUCH....BWWWWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" thing ~~Jo~~

That sums up that activity VERY well!! Its just like that. nuthin, nuthin, GONE!

[frankykeno]

Oh one thing I did forget to mention. At least with this big boy, he has a very long I guess you would call it strike zone (????). In other words use long tongs LOL. He seems to strike out further in percentage to his length than most of our balls do and we learned the hard way (teeth scrapes) to go for a longer tong than we thought we needed for him. One trip to the dollar store for the extra long kitchen tongs and all is well again.

The other difference we see is once he's contricted his prey he seems to take quite awhile to start actually eating it. He'll look around a lot before settling in to eat, way more than the BP's do. I don't know if this is normal for this species of snake or just Rauri's way of doing things though.


~~Jo~~

[Shelby]

My hogg does the same thing when she eats. She constricts it for awhile, lets go and makes sure no one's watching.. then sniffs around in every direction but where the rat is. FINALLY she'll eat it.

[JimiSnakes]

He seems to strike out further in percentage to his length than most of our balls do

Bcis can strike half their length...quickly. In the wild they always eat big meals and need that extra "tag" to force the prey down.

[frankykeno]

Oh well that explains that then. Like I said we had to learn the hard way that Rauri's strike is far longer than we assumed it would be (what's a tooth scrape or two or five between friends LOL).

Oh another funny story about this big goofy snake. Last night hubby was watching the Red Wings hockey on TV. Guess who spent a fair bit of time apparently watching hockey with hubby! I think all those quick moving hockey players just fascinate this snake. Hope he was cheering for the Wings in his lil snakey brain though, anything else would sadden the hubby considerably!


~~Jo~~