Muirne ate - newspaper trick works again!

[frankykeno]

Worked once again! Adam and his little gem of a suggestion about adding crumpled up newspaper just helped us get little Muirne to take her first meal with us. She refused a couple of times (no big deal she's of good weight for her length) but it's always nice to see the little ones eat. Another week of solitude with the addition of lots of newspaper crumpled up and guess who was lurking madly tonight LOL. Ate her dinner with gusto! No hesitation or playing "hide your head" games, it was right to work LOL

Stubborn feeder, shy snake, stressed snake....this is a trick of the trade that works folks. We've used it before to help settle a very stressed, aggressive snake and it worked that time too.

[Adam_Wysocki]

Adam and his little gem of a suggestion about adding crumpled up newspaper

As I've said before, I take no credit ... it was something taught to me by Kevin McCurley at NERD ( www.newenglandreptile.com ) back in 97? maybe 98? ... way before it was trendy to get husbandry advice from an internet message board ... I just pass it on as a way of giving back to a community that has given me soooo much.

-adam

[frankykeno]

Thanks Adam. I remembered you'd once told me who taught it to you but had since forgotten so credit due to Kevin as well. It's wonderful that this wisdom is available to folks like Mike and I.

[rabernet]

I lurve the newspaper trick! It's funny how we go - "ok.....if you say so.....I'll give it a shot" as we're crumbling up newspaper the first time! LOL


Congrats on the succesful feed of Muirne! Would love to see update pictures of her soon!

[cueball]

What a great feeling! Do you litter the whole cage with crumpled up newspaper?

Adam is the man when it comes to tricks

[frankykeno]

Yep we just loosely crumpled a lot of newspaper and filled the empty space with it (right up to the lid) so she could slither around and under it. It seems to immediately calm down snakes and make them feel much more secure. Now we'll gradually remove a bit of the newspaper each week so overtime she gets used to it not being there (that is as long as she continues eating...if not the newspaper will stay till she settles in completely).

I should have taken pics of her peeking out of her hide and under the newspaper. It was really cute! I'll try to catch her doing that again and snap a photo.

When we got big Brannagh from the pet store she was highly aggressive and wouldn't even use her hides. Again with the addition of the newspaper she was able to calm down and retire to her hides to rest (before that she'd just been exhausting herself patrolling her tub constantly and striking at anything that approached).

[frankykeno]

Figured pics are best so I just shot these two of Muirne's tub. The first is from above and you can just see the leads of her Acu-Rite, her two terracotta hides and her water dish peeking out from the newspaper. The second is a side shot of her tub showing her warm side hide and the newspaper around it. Hope this helps.