#snake posts

[humansmakingsnakes]

[aspidities]

From one reptile room to another!

Whew. No one talk to me, I just spent 12 straight hours getting snake poop and substrate all over me and now I’m gonna eat pizza for five days and nap like a king.

[aspidities]

Today I found out about the Arabian Sand Boa and I'm losing my shit.

I’m sorry??

What about Him does not seem deadly serious to you??

[aspidities]

Holy shit only recently I discovered Brazilian rainbow boa in the news and it's so cool the color (I had no idea how was the name in english, so I google the scientific name first to find the english name after, so I hope is right, Jiboia Arco-Íris da Caatinga (Epicrates assisi))

They are SOO cool and you are correct! (Although I know their scientific name as Epicrates cenchria—might be different in your language!)

This lovely lady belongs to my friend and I got to babysit her during the power outage here:

Brazilian rainbow boas are an extreme example of how iridescence is often a factor in snake scales. In full sunlight, they truly do have a rainbow or chromatic shine, almost like an oil slick. They’re also a lovely docile species with a good handling track record, so Tex here was an absolute angel and I strongly considered stealing her. When and if reptile expos come back to my area, you can bet that I might pick one of these up. They’re on my list, for sure.

If you’d like one of your own, they make a handsome and excellent pet! Brazilian rainbow boas are a commonly bred species in the hobby, and have a moderate to high price range, depending on availability in your area. They usually retail in the US for around $200-300, and prices go up for the hypo morphs. Luckily, they breed readily in captivity so babies should not be hard to find, and there’s no need to support wild caught animals. They do have high humidity needs, around 60-80% at all times, and they like to be cooler than most snakes, with a temperature requirements around 80-85f (25-30c) in their warm zone, and 70-75f (21-24c) in the cool zone. As a baby you can house them in a storage tub with holes drilled for ventilation, or a small 2-3’ cage. An adult female will reach around 5-6’ or 150-180cm and males will stay smaller, but they’re still an active snake and would enjoy a nice enclosure with plenty of room, around 4x2x2 or 6x2x2x2. They will feed readily once a week on frozen/thawed rodents and will shed generally once a month/every three months from juvenile to adulthood. Although they are relatively easy to keep once you get the temperature and humidity down to a consistent level, it’s important to note that they are dependent on their humidity to avoid desiccation and will require a diligent keeper with some patience and monitoring to get just right. But other than that, I’d class them as a wonderful snake to own, and certainly one of the most beautiful.

[aspidities]

Why not just get her a new branch since she doesn't seem to like that one?

I DID. And then she also Crushed that one.

She just likes to break things, there’s no reasoning with her. I spend half my weekends hiking and dragging home half-fucking-logs for her to smugly crap on and drap herself across and when I say she doesn’t care I mean that bitch Does Not Care. Beautiful, stupid whore that she is. I love her.

Welcome to snake (specifically large arboreal snake) ownership.

[aspidities]

Your snake is gorgeous!

Thank you! She is an Asshole. In that pic, she’s currently trying to break a branch that I’ve roped together several times now because she keeps breaking it. I’m staring at her and she’s inching closer to it. Snakes are just legless fucking cats, you heard it here folks.

Her name is Ayla, she’s a mutt Carpet Python (probably a hybrid of a Coastal and Jungle, as that’s fairly common) and she’s around 10-12 years old now, hard to say because she’s a rescue. At my old reptile job, someone brought her in covered in scars and terrified with a live rat in a filthy too-small cage and wanted to rehome her because she ‘wouldn’t eat’ and was ‘mean’. I took her in, got her situated properly, and got her feeding on dead rats. She thanked me by growing to approximately 8’ and becoming a massive pain in my ass. Her nickname is Big Nasty because she looks evil but is mostly just a very curious dork who delights in knocking over carefully-placed cage furnishings. But I love her anyway.

[aspidities]

I have a ball python that refuses to eat dead prey. I've tried frozen, thawed, someone even recommended I boil it, nothing has worked. A few feedings ago the mouse was able to hurt her, a big bite into her neck that bled. Now I'm worried next time might actually be life-threatening and I still can't get her to eat dead prey.

Lots of things wrong here. You should never ‘boil’ thawed prey, ew wtf, I don’t recommend that at all. I leave the frozen prey out in a bucket for about an hour at room temp and then warm it up with hot NOT boiling water before offering it.

But prey preparation is the least of the issue here. I’d like to gently remind you of the points I made in the corn snake post, just a day or so ago:

1) if a snake’s species-specific desired temperature ranges for hot and cold are not correct or correctly regulated, it will not eat

2) snakes can go months and even years without eating so it is not a concern that requires forcing them or trying to make them eat a live prey item

You have a ball python. They’re notorious for not eating for long periods because they’re a species that lives in termite mounds in Africa and rarely encounters prey. They’re made to not eat, in fact—look at the fat reserves on the body. If it’s a male, this is actually incredibly common during winter, as well, as males do not eat while in breeding season. So it’s fine! Don’t force your animal into a dangerous confrontation with a fully armed and toothed rodent because you have a human perception of when is healthy to eat!

Instead, check your environment. Ball pythons need a warm spot of around 90-95f, with a cool zone in the 73-75f range, and should ideally be housed in a cage around 3-4’ or more, with lots of hiding opportunities. They should have a heating device regulated by a thermostat, and you should be checking those temps daily when you go to clean the cage or check the water dish. Offer a humid hide as well, and be sure the humidity is reading 60-80% inside. Again, this is a fossorial (burrowing) species that lives inside of a giant mound of dirt in the wild, so don’t make the cage too barren or they will be stressed. Give them lots of hiding opportunities and areas to feel secure—fake plants, branches, etc.

If all of those options are met, and you’re double sure your temps are right, then just wait it out. The snake will eat when it’s ready to eat. Get a bag of appropriately sized (ball pythons should be eating rats, not mice, and the correct size of prey is determined by the size of the snake, check out MJ Python’s sizing guide on youtube) frozen rats and thaw one once a month using the method I described above to offer it. DO NOT BOIL IT. If the snake won’t eat, okay fine, you can re-freeze the rat one more time to try again next month, or if not, throw it away. Just keep those temps correct and the snake will eat in time. Like I mentioned before, this is a species that is known for this behavior and a quick google search of ‘my ball python isn’t eating’ will reaffirm that right quick.

I would also recommend doing some general care research while you’re at it, since getting a better idea of what your snake needs will help you to avoid trying all kinds of crazy shit in the future. Your snake is probably fine but stop trying to force it to eat live prey! It’s exceedingly dangerous and one day could end in your snake’s death—believe it or not, a scared, sharp-toothed little mammal can skeletonize a snake if the snake just resorts to its defense of curling into a ball. You’ve seen and been told by your snake that this is not the way. Get the habitat correct, and then try again, with a more well-researched approach this time. Good luck!

[aspidities]

Hi there, I’ve got a question: my little sister’s corn snake (who I have to feed) hasn’t been eating. I feed him thawed mice, but he rarely eats them. I went to vet and they told me he’s just stressed and to force feed him, and showed me by pushing a mouse down his throat. It feels weird and not like permanent fix? Is this ok/is there something else I could do? It’s been this way for a month, and we’ve had him for 3. I’m going to a new vet next week, but I thought maybe you’d have some advice.

Hey pal, thanks for dropping by to ask, because I’m very worried about what that vet told you! There’s a lot of things wrong here. Firstly, a month is NOT a long time for a snake to not eat, even a young snake. Snakes can go weeks, months, even years without eating in the wild! Right now it’s winter so all of my snakes, old and young, are on a monthly eating schedule themselves, as it’s common for their appetites to drop off in the colder weather. This is totally normal and not a cause for alarm, and a snake not eating after one or even three months would not be a concern for me (provided that the temps and humidity were correct in the cage but I’ll get to that in a minute), and there are many steps I would take before taking the animal to a vet. Force feeding is INCREDIBLY risky and dangerous as it is remarkably easy to shatter a vertebrae or break the snake’s jaw—snake bones are almost as light as birds and quite fragile. Force feeding is also stressful and will likely not encourage the snake to eat again, so it is literally only used as a last resort when the snake is at death’s door. I’m not sure what kind of training this vet has had, but that is very alarming that that is the first response they jumped to! Please, please DO NOT force feed your snake and DO get a second opinion.

Personally, before jumping to try to feed the animal, I would want to address why it’s not eating to begin with. A snake not eating is a classic sign that the temperature/humidity gradient of its enclosure is not correct, either too cold, too hot, or not enough space to move from a cooler area to a warmer one and vice versa. How are you keeping this snake? How is it being heated? Proper temps for a corn snake are quite easy to achieve, since they’re a US native and only need a warm area of around 80-85f, with the cooler end of the cage at 70-75f. They do need a heat source, though, on the outside of the cage and it needs to be connected to a thermostat. If you’re not using a heating device, or not using a heating device properly regulaated by a thermostat (you can’t just plug it in and leave it, a heating pad or light can easily go over 140f in an hour, so all heat needs a thermostat or rheostat) then that is the problem right there. Also, the stick-on thermometers (not thermostats, thermometers) that tell temperature that you buy for $5-10 at the store don’t work properly, so you need to check the temp with a laser temp gun ($15-16) from Amazon. I would wager that’s your issue—many beginner snake hobbyists don’t quite grasp the concept of using timers and thermostats to regulate the environment and usually there’s a key piece of info missing somewhere from when you brought the snake home from the pet store, including using those crappy little stick on gauges that don’t properly tell temp. Grab yourself a temp reader, and check if the snake’s cage is too cold or too hot. All one temp is also a problem—because reptiles are cold blooded, they need to be able to regulate their temperature by moving from a hot area to a cooler area, and vice versa. If your tank is all one temperature, or too hot in one end and not cool enough/too cold and not warm enough, the snake won’t eat. Simple as that. I would bet dollars that’s your problem—9/10 times it’s the husbandry that’s the issue. Which isn’t your fault! You and your family are just learning and that’s why it’s good you reached out for help.

For reference, this is how I keep my two corn snakes in separate cages:

You can see the cages are around 4’ long, which gives me a lot of room to play with temp, and they’re not glass fish tanks, so the heat stays enclosed. Also, they’re filled with lots of hides and branches and things to help the snakes feel more secure, along with a ‘humid hide box’ for shedding and clean water, of course. It could be that your snake is lacking one or more of these elements too. A glass fish tank is the common cage used, and that’s fine, but keep in mind how you’ll have to work around that material to keep it ideal for the snake. Glass heats up too fast, and doesn’t distribute heat very well. It also chills very fast too. Expanded PVC foam, like these reptile cages, will trap and hold a temperature at a consistent gradient, but you still need to use a thermostat. I use them for every single cage in my reptile room—each individual animal has its own needs to be regulated!

It definitely seems like you’ve been recieving some wrong information so I would encourage you to keep doing what you’ve been doing and look for outside sources! Check out r/snakes or r/reptiles on Reddit, watch some Snake Discovery or Clint’s Reptiles YouTube videos and specifically Google what to do when your snake won’t eat. You’ll find that, as I’ve mentioned here, having a vet force them to eat is usually the last resort and there will be multiple other options to try. And you will learn more about how to fix the problem in the first place! Which is invaluable help for you, your sister and the snake. I hope it works out! Feel free to DM me for more advice.