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Post by pitbulllady on May 23, 2010 11:43:51 GMT -5
Rainbow BOA, that is, a Brazilian to be exact. Inside an abandoned house in a rough neighborhood in a nearby little town. I got a call from a woman who works for a cleaning crew who is employed by a realty company to clean up houses and property to get them ready for sale. She'd been cleaning up this little wooden-sided house which had been empty since March, and had left some of her cleaning materials at the house the day before and returned this morning to get them, only to find a snake climbing up the medicine cabinet mirror in the bathroom. I have flyers all over town advertising my snake removal services, and that's how she'd gotten my number, since she said that she often had snakes in her own yard each summer and was absolutely terrified of them. From her description of a "mostly orange" snake with "some brown, some reddish color, some black and white and a little pointy head", I was absolutely certain I was going to find a Corn Snake, so I was totally shocked to find this:  I don't know how the snake got there; I can only surmise that it had been owned by the house's previous occupants and had either escaped its enclosure or been deliberately abandoned when they moved out in March. The house was full of mouse droppings, so I guess it could get enough to eat to keep from starving, but it's still in bad shape. As you can see, he's really emaciated. These snakes need a lot of heat and humidity, and he's got this gurgle in his lungs when he breathes that indicates a respiratory infection. I've put a heat light on him and got him in a cage with a big water bowl; he spent like 20 minutes just drinking water when I got him home. Hopefully, just warming him up will fight off the infection, and I can get him to eat, but he's got to be the scrawniest little snake I've ever held. He was really lethargic and sorta unresponsive when I first picked him up, which is not normal for these guys at all. Rainbows tend to be very active and often-nippy snakes, especially the Brazilians, but he has made no attempt to bite so far. That might change once he's feeling better, though. These are largely arboreal, and I put a branch in his cage for climbing, but he has not shown any interest in it. My yearling Corn Snakes probably weigh more than he does right now, but hopefully I can get him to eat and hold it down, and he should start to pick up some weight. pitbulllady |
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Post by sgtyayap on May 23, 2010 13:37:14 GMT -5
He's beautiful, pitbulllady!  |
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Bampot
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Post by Bampot on May 23, 2010 14:42:35 GMT -5
Wow, he's stunning! Hope he gets better soon, poor guy.
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Post by pitbulllady on May 23, 2010 16:12:19 GMT -5
Well, I've offered him two thawed-out mice, and he won't have anything to do with them so far. He struck at one, defensively, when I picked it up by the tail with feeding tongs and bumped his nose with it, but that's it. I offered him a thawed-out rat pup, too-turned that down as well. Either there is something wrong, or he will only eat live, which might explain why he was abandoned in the first place. I'm going to give him a couple more days to settle in and try another frozen-thawed mouse, then buy a live one if I have to, but honestly, I don't think he's even strong enough to constrict one at this point and I'd be afraid that the mouse would be more likely to hurt HIM. If he will only eat live, I'll have to give him to the guy I buy rodents from, since I can't deal with live rodents due to my severe allergies, and if I get live rodents, he'll only get to eat every two weeks or so, which is how often I make the nearly two-hour one-way trip to buy snake food. I can get a few weeks' worth of frozen rodents, but live ones have to be fed to something right away, and I have to suffer immensely while driving home with them in the car.
pitbulllady
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Post by mentalguru on May 23, 2010 16:51:11 GMT -5
Poor guy, he is indeed a beauty though. Hope things work out for you both!
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Bampot
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Post by Bampot on May 23, 2010 16:52:04 GMT -5
Sounds like you're in quite a situation :/ I hope it all works out well. Be sure to update if he decides to eat something.
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Post by RandallBoggs on May 23, 2010 18:33:33 GMT -5
Wow...this guy looks amazing. I mean he's got that typical snake colorizartion, but in the right light you can see the beautiful color change.
Maybe he just needs time to get settled in. I mean maybe he wasn't owned, but found himself comfortable with live bait around. *shrugs*
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Post by pitbulllady on May 23, 2010 18:39:26 GMT -5
Wow...this guy looks amazing. I mean he's got that typical snake colorizartion, but in the right light you can see the beautiful color change. Maybe he just needs time to get settled in. I mean maybe he wasn't owned, but found himself comfortable with live bait around. *shrugs* Well, he had to have been owned by somebody at some point, since these aren't exactly native to SC! He could have survived by eating the live mice(and there apparently had been plenty of those in that house), although judging from his looks, he wasn't very good at catching them. He's probably going to require a few doses of antibiotics to clear up that congestion in his lungs, first, before he eats, so I guess a trip to the vet is in order. I was hoping he'd eat, anyway, since proper nutrition can go a long way towards fighting off infection in reptiles. I hate using antibiotics if there's another way, but I guess in this case I won't have a choice. pitbulllady |
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Post by RandallBoggs on May 23, 2010 18:43:37 GMT -5
Maybe he's fincky that he's not able to catch them. Since he's in a tank (I guess?), little places for a live mouse to go. Maybe he just needs a confidence boost.
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Post by pitbulllady on May 26, 2010 19:48:05 GMT -5
This little guy has really had me worried, given his overall condition. I tried and tried to get him to eat frozen-thawed mice, using every technique I've ever used to get reluctant snakes to eat, with no luck. I finally resorted to driving over half an hour to spend $2.00 each on two live mice from a pet shop(I normally pay .50 each for mice when I get them from the breeder, but he lives almost two hours away so I have to buy in bulk enough to last me several weeks)and trying those. At first, he ignored the first mouse, then decided to constrict it and eat it, and he gobbled up the second one very quickly after that. I hate feeding live for several reasons: one, live rodents can severely injure a snake and even kill one; two, I actually like rodents(especially rats), and three, I'm horribly allergic to rodent dander, which is, of course, much worse if the rodent is alive. I had to do something, though, since I could not just give up on this little snake. Hopefully, I can get him back into good enough condition to start "training" him to accept frozen-thawed dead mice, otherwise I'll have to find him a new home, probably with the guy I buy rodents from, since he breeds them by the hundreds of thousands for commercial sales.
pitbulllady
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Post by RandallBoggs on May 26, 2010 19:49:31 GMT -5
At least he started eating and you kinda have a backup plan.
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Bampot
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Post by Bampot on May 26, 2010 23:50:16 GMT -5
At least he ate something. That's what really matters |
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Leopardstream
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Post by Leopardstream on Aug 8, 2010 21:42:10 GMT -5
That's a really pretty looking snake you got there, pitbulllady!
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Post by ivyandbro on Sept 24, 2010 23:49:21 GMT -5
whoah it really does look like a rainbow! a pretty, long, reptile rainbow.
I don't know if this would help, but I'm a dog owner, and usually it takes them a few to get settled. Maybe it's the same with snakes?
Just keep the food supply running. [Hmm maybe dogs and snakes are different. LOL I didn't mean.. you know, running all around your house and all but yeah.]
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Post by pitbulllady on Sept 25, 2010 22:07:48 GMT -5
whoah it really does look like a rainbow! a pretty, long, reptile rainbow. I don't know if this would help, but I'm a dog owner, and usually it takes them a few to get settled. Maybe it's the same with snakes? Just keep the food supply running. [Hmm maybe dogs and snakes are different. LOL I didn't mean.. you know, running all around your house and all but yeah.] It's even more true of snakes than of dogs. Most dogs will eat the first day in a new place, but most snakes take a few days, at least, to get their bearings and settle down. MOST, not all. This little guy has proved to be a bit of a challenge since I found him back in May. He eats in spurts; he will have a ravenous appetite for a few weeks, then he won't touch anything I offer him for several more. For ever ounce he gains while he's on an eating binge, he loses two during his fasts. He is VERY picky, and will only eat white mice. They can't be too large or too small. He is absolutely terrified of baby rats! That's a problem, because adult Rainbow Boas would have to eat an awful lot of mice to get a decent meal, and most eat adult rats. pitbulllady |
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