Eoghan is pissy today

Got "tagged" by one of my snakes for the first time. Luckily baby Eoghan doesn't have good aim and I just have a puncture on the skin between my thumb and finger. Python teeth still hurt. I always brush their backs to see what their mood is and wham. OK.... The python mood today is I dare you to stick your hand on the far side of the weighing bowl and it's time to buy a snake stick :lol:



He bloodied up his fresh killed gerbil (he was on live when I got him 3 weeks ago) and then went behind his water bin without eating. I got him fresh water but I haven't changed the papers in the bloodied bin for obvious reasons. Let's try that in a few days....

Just to add more pics to this thread here is Koujin at about 3x his starting size. Koujin's pissy mood consists of a whole lot of extra bluffing while I pull him out anyway. Captive bred bulls are nothing like those wild 4-6foot critters I'd have to drag off the driveway when they sunned in front of my truck.

This is the snake you got that was badly underfed? He looks sooo much thicker!

No that was a small boa species and she's pretty much as thick as him at a foot shorter. Still below average size for her age but now matches her length, which is considerably more. This was months ago and she's thicker now.



There's not really anything for a good size comparison in my weighing bowl and Eoghan is not comparable. Within a couple feedings of being born he's practically as big as she'll get in her lifetime.



We are moving away from the fuzzy things aside from some gerbils and feeder rodents who's food and water can last days or they are easy for my husband to care for and can delay a cage cleaning without wet feces building up. The reptiles he won't touch but if my health is bad for a week and I do nothing but make sure their lights stay on the timers and their water bowls don't run out they don't care. The rabbits and then guinea pigs I reached a point I just couldn't catch back up no matter what I did to their setup, size, or numbers. I tried various fuzzy things and none of it has worked because I don't have the health to clean a cage a day or several every few days consistently. An ambitious day or 2 a month gets the small rodent cages clean and a day a week keeps the reptiles healthy, they'd stay healthy even missing an occasional week, while we mess with tests and meds.

your snakes are really neat looking!
My daughter has expressed some interest in getting a snake, but I am on the fence about that. Not that I am afraid of them or anything, I actually think some of those corn snakes are pretty. I just worry that we wouldn't be able to provide the proper care for one.

They eat about once a week and poop about once a week so it's pretty easy. A corn snake or the small boas like the rosy, sand and rubber are very undemanding in conditions so you don't usually have to add anything for humidity. You just need a heat method which is more often a pad under about a quarter of the tank with a thin layer of something like reptile aspen. My tanks are a different concept that is more complex to setup. If you can pick up the poop you can go weeks without fully changing it but even weekly you are only changing out maybe a 20gallon long tank which is 30x13".

Was he shedding? I had a very large, very calm, common boa for a few years. He got me once, but it was because he was shedding and half blind. My thumb ended up down his throat and his front teeth were in my wrist. I had a heck of a time pealing him off. I'd get one side unhooked, and the other side would reattach. they're jaws are really flexible!
For some reason, he went berserk after that. I tracked down the dealer and returned the snake.
People releasing unwanted, exotics into the wild has become a huge problem here in Florida.

Pulling snake jaws off isn't ideal. Water sometimes works but the big python keepers often have some hard alcohol either in a spray bottle or with qtips because snakes hate it. You'll get a smaller wound and python bites are worse than most boas (arguable if you've seen a tree boa skull which is why I say most) because their teeth can break off in the wound and they can have the depth of teeth and pull that they could tear muscle and tendon. That makes removing by force a possible hospital stay.

I oopsied, not him. He may be getting ready to shed. It's not obvious yet but a few people thought he might and apparently he did not like the way I touched him. I fixed my approach and weighed him without another strike. I didn't try feeding him for the week. I've got a very smelly feeder mouse (actually set off my asthma so good thing I cancelled that mouse breeding for rats instead) to see if he'll take. My bull ate right on through being blue eyed but they are garbage disposals. I just had to let him explore the rodent with taste and he went ahead and ate it. My rosy never goes blue. They are sneaky at shedding. She might get a little dull colored but otherwise acts normal and then you find a skin. Much the same with the brown snake but I noticed he was around the water and rough rocks more for 2 weeks before. I know the blood python people really want to promote a good image for their snakes and I'm not saying they are bad snakes but they are not like handling other common snakes people usually get into. There's an unnerving intelligence and close observation when you are working around him and he reacts to sound, vibration, and temperature outdoor and in far more than the others. I'm never quite sure what he's heard and been reacting to today or if he just took a soak versus sitting under the hottest part of the lamp. He should even out as he grows. They are far more sensitive when they are of a size to be prey.

Not that people aren't saying the exact same thing about this corn snake I picked up. The person traded for and then pretty much gave way what is usually a somewhat expensive lavender stripe morph because he is "cage aggressive" and has a bad temperament so she keeps getting bit. I posted the pic to ask his morph and someone commented he isn't old enough to have a bad temperament. He's a scared little baby and yes if you put your hand in the wrong place he coils into strike position. If you just move it to where he's comfortable he will continue exploring your hands and I not only haven't gotten bit but I couldn't get him to leave me for his cage that he supposedly loves and won't let anyone take him out of. The python is just a very big baby with more defenses and a stronger opinion. The concept of just pushing through a corn snake or other small snake biting you repeatedly in order to handle it doesn't work. Lots of people say to get a baby and get bit so you know it doesn't work with a small python either and exactly how likely your python is to bite versus bluff. You have no choice but to learn the snake and then teach the snake. I haven't had snakes long enough to read a python well so I imagine I will get tagged a few times before we figure it out.