striking at lightning

[Kalitta]

last night we had a wicked thunderstorm. lightning flashes and thunder for hours. At first, with all the thunder I didn't hear the thunks... but eventully I realized that the noise was coming from Hadiya's tank. Each time lightning struck, she struck at the side of the tub closest to the window.... She didn't hurt herself, and once the lightning calmed down, so did she. I'm just wondering if anyone else has experienced this. I'm guessing i'm going to start covering her tub completely durring thunder storms so she doesn't get so stressed out about it.

[missi182]

Awe poor girl. How is she doing anyway?

[Thor26]

woah weeird

[Freakie_frog]

My Leo freaks out during thunderstorms. Its really sad.

[Kalitta]

She has a vet appointment today, headed out for it soon. still refusing food but she looks SOOOO much better now that she's shed .

[missi182]

She has a vet appointment today, headed out for it soon. still refusing food but she looks SOOOO much better now that she's shed .

Good to hear!

[Kalitta]

Back from the vet! well, she lost 20 grams but they said that could be because she was balled up and tense last time, and this time she was all over the place. She couldn't hold still for a minute for the vet to look for ticks. She didn't find any, but gave her to second shot just to make sure. I brought her home and let her calm down, than offered her a rat. She's still not hungry, or not interested in rats. She did escape and go curl up behind a speaker while we looked for her.

Now she is comfy and back in her tub, I'm going to try mice next week on both snakes, see if that will get them to eat. otherwise it's offering the rat every week till they eat.

[missi182]

Good luck with the feeding next week, and I hope everything continues to get better. How did she escape!? lol.

Ooo, 600th post

[SatanicIntention]

Hun, you really need to leave her alone. The best thing you can do for WCs is to put them in a dark, warm place(such as the bottom of a closet) and forget about them. Change her water every few days and in general don't mess with her at all. It may be 6 months or more before she eats so offering her food now, with all of this stress(going to the vet, handling her, etc), is only causing her more stress.

Wait a good while before trying to offer her food. And when you do offer, try a medium adult mouse or a rat pup, nothing bigger. That's the least of your worries right now though. Her weight is fine and she is hydrated.

If she's on newspaper or aspen, you may try putting her in some deep cypress mulch with a buried hide and see how she does.

How in the world did she go curl up behind a speaker?? Are you trying to feed her out of the enclosure??

Main thing now is to leave her alone, completely.. I can't reiterate it enough. Leave her alone!

[rabernet]

Kalitta,

Becky is correct - please, please, please - leave the poor girl alone. Don't touch her, don't bother her, leave her alone. Remember the post that Joanna posted for you several weeks ago? I'll repost it:

Time to step back and just assess dear.

This snake, an adult gravid WC female has in some space of time been taken from the wild, sold to you, laid a clutch, had mites and/or ticks and been basically shuffled from here to there while trying vainly to carry her eggs and fight off the bugs.

She's not likely to eat and if you think about it, can you blame the poor thing.

Address her health needs first, deal with the bugs, get a fecal float done (not need to take the snake in to the vet for that) or if she doesn't pass feces ask the vet to do a wash of her vent to test for internal parasites (this you do have to take the snake in for of course).

Address her housing needs next. She's a wild adult, she's likely in shock and distress over the changes in her existance lately. When we've successfully rehabbed these sorts of ball pythons we set them up in a tub with very deep bedding almost covering their hides so they go down into the hides basically. We set them up in full quarantine in our master bedroom where they do not leave until they are healthy and eating (at least 5 or 6 weekly feeds), have defecated, etc. We restrict anyone from entering the room other than my husband and I and keep all lighting low.

We do not handle them at all other than basic maintenance issues. We don't even try to feed for at least 3 or 4 weeks to allow them to begin to settle in to the crazy new life they are in. We watch for them to begin to lurk - basically just the head peeking out of the hide watching for prey - or show other hunting behaviours. Please note this could take weeks or months to see.
At that point we offer either a live rat fuzzy or a very small African Soft Furred rat. Neither of these prey sizes present much risk to the snake and we monitor from a distance in a very low light condition without movement or sound. Sometimes the snake will be left overnight with it's prey (only if the prey has no erupted teeth of course). If they eat, then slowly over time the prey size/total volume is increased and the snake's willingness to feed on a certain prey size or type noted.

Be aware that it takes months if not years to fully rehab one of these snakes. WC gravid females are not the fast or easy route to eggs or breedable size females in my opinion. They take a level of committment and understanding that I hope you're ready to deal with because it's all about tiny steps and slow progress with these girls.