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SaltLurker
Yes, I'm subscribed to Snake Discovery and love Emily! I found her through that video of feeding a BP F/T, actually.
Hopefully you can get a scaly baby soon! They are great pets and fairly low-maintenance. Out of my five pets (I also have a cat and two hamsters), Solaris and Sassafras are my favorites since they are practically silent, only eat once a week, and rarely poop. Plus, they will live much longer than my other pets, which I see as a plus since I get attached so quickly and hate losing pets.
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SaltLurker
Yes, I'm subscribed to Snake Discovery and love Emily! I found her through that video of feeding a BP F/T, actually.
Hopefully you can get a scaly baby soon! They are great pets and fairly low-maintenance. Out of my five pets (I also have a cat and two hamsters), Solaris and Sassafras are my favorites since they are practically silent, only eat once a week, and rarely poop. Plus, they will live much longer than my other pets, which I see as a plus since I get attached so quickly and hate losing pets.
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Tristonia My future BP will be the first thing I save my paycheck for besides loans, so they'll feel pretty special :) We have 4 household pets right now, 3 cats and a dog. One of the cats is mine, but in the future I'd also like to start up a small flock of chickens again on our property since we have plenty of room for chickens and maybe even some button quail since getting an African Egg-Eating snake sounds cool too. There used to be a wild gopher snake that lived in the backyard, but a neighbor got spooked by her and complained, and we had to trap and relocate it to a local nature park.
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Tristonia My future BP will be the first thing I save my paycheck for besides loans, so they'll feel pretty special :) We have 4 household pets right now, 3 cats and a dog. One of the cats is mine, but in the future I'd also like to start up a small flock of chickens again on our property since we have plenty of room for chickens and maybe even some button quail since getting an African Egg-Eating snake sounds cool too. There used to be a wild gopher snake that lived in the backyard, but a neighbor got spooked by her and complained, and we had to trap and relocate it to a local nature park.
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Tristonia
Glad to hear he's doing alright even if he's still stubbornly refusing f/t, at least he's eating something and growing into a beautiful boy, too!
Also really love your new snake he looks amazing and I'm glad you were able to help him. His personality ATM kinda reminds me of some of my garters in the beginning. They kept trying to bite and musk when they were little, now they try to climb all over me as soon as I open their terra...really great when you wanna clean stuff and half the time you're like "no, go back in there I gotta work here". Same for my hognose: when I got him about one and a half years ago he would hiss and fake strike everytime someone got close to his home, now he can't be at the front fast enough when I change his water no hissing or striking whatsoever...well, unless he's startled by something xD
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Tristonia
Glad to hear he's doing alright even if he's still stubbornly refusing f/t, at least he's eating something and growing into a beautiful boy, too!
Also really love your new snake he looks amazing and I'm glad you were able to help him. His personality ATM kinda reminds me of some of my garters in the beginning. They kept trying to bite and musk when they were little, now they try to climb all over me as soon as I open their terra...really great when you wanna clean stuff and half the time you're like "no, go back in there I gotta work here". Same for my hognose: when I got him about one and a half years ago he would hiss and fake strike everytime someone got close to his home, now he can't be at the front fast enough when I change his water no hissing or striking whatsoever...well, unless he's startled by something xD
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sciencesparrow @
OrigamiCrane
HUGE SUPER MEGA ULTRA UPDATE!
Solaris
ate a frozen/thawed hamster! Now, let me explain how this happened.
The story began with Petco being out of live mice, since everyone stocked up in fear of Coronavirus. The store usually receives animal shipments on Thursdays, so I could have waited until Thursday to feed Solaris; however, the store may not receive any animals for several weeks due to the virus. I have a breeding pair of mice in my home that I acquired a couple months ago, but they just had their first litter and the babies only weigh 3 grams (Solaris, at his current weight of 226 grams, needs a mouse that weighs about 33 grams).
As followers of this thread know, I have struggled for months to switch Solaris to F/T. I have tried every method I can think of, including braining, scenting, warming, changing the prey type, etc. with no luck. Solaris simply does not see a F/T rodent as food, probably because it does not move in the same way that live prey does (a living mouse will squirm when held with forceps, whereas a F/T mouse is stiff and does not move fluidly even if I wiggle it).
So, yesterday, I devised a plan that I have been meaning to try for awhile. I have heard that people often have success switching a snake to F/T if they feed the snake live prey followed by F/T prey. That is exactly what I did tonight when I fed Solaris. I offered a live mouse fuzzy, which he killed and ate. As he ate the mouse, I warmed the hamster, then placed the head in his mouth once he reached the tail-end of the mouse. To my amazement, he just kept eating (I honestly expected him to spit out the hamster)! I now know for future endeavors that Solaris just has to have his hunting mode activated in order for him to eat F/T. By this, I mean that the action of killing live prey triggers his feeding response. I hope to switch him entirely to F/T in the future, but this is a huge first step for that transition.
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sciencesparrow @
OrigamiCrane
HUGE SUPER MEGA ULTRA UPDATE!
Solaris
ate a frozen/thawed hamster! Now, let me explain how this happened.
The story began with Petco being out of live mice, since everyone stocked up in fear of Coronavirus. The store usually receives animal shipments on Thursdays, so I could have waited until Thursday to feed Solaris; however, the store may not receive any animals for several weeks due to the virus. I have a breeding pair of mice in my home that I acquired a couple months ago, but they just had their first litter and the babies only weigh 3 grams (Solaris, at his current weight of 226 grams, needs a mouse that weighs about 33 grams).
As followers of this thread know, I have struggled for months to switch Solaris to F/T. I have tried every method I can think of, including braining, scenting, warming, changing the prey type, etc. with no luck. Solaris simply does not see a F/T rodent as food, probably because it does not move in the same way that live prey does (a living mouse will squirm when held with forceps, whereas a F/T mouse is stiff and does not move fluidly even if I wiggle it).
So, yesterday, I devised a plan that I have been meaning to try for awhile. I have heard that people often have success switching a snake to F/T if they feed the snake live prey followed by F/T prey. That is exactly what I did tonight when I fed Solaris. I offered a live mouse fuzzy, which he killed and ate. As he ate the mouse, I warmed the hamster, then placed the head in his mouth once he reached the tail-end of the mouse. To my amazement, he just kept eating (I honestly expected him to spit out the hamster)! I now know for future endeavors that Solaris just has to have his hunting mode activated in order for him to eat F/T. By this, I mean that the action of killing live prey triggers his feeding response. I hope to switch him entirely to F/T in the future, but this is a huge first step for that transition.
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Tristonia
That's great news! I know snakes can be so picky about their food.
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Tristonia
That's great news! I know snakes can be so picky about their food.
That's awesome! I'm glad you finally found something that worked :)
That's awesome! I'm glad you finally found something that worked :)
I am really loving your snakes! Can we get an update on Sassafras too?
I am really loving your snakes! Can we get an update on Sassafras too?
"You don't need a reason to help someone "
~Zidane Tribal
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Susinko
Sassafras is doing well, just going through his first shed with me. He should slough off that old skin today or tomorrow since it has started to open up on his head. I'll post pictures of him after his shed, that way he's fresh and vibrant. :)
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Susinko
Sassafras is doing well, just going through his first shed with me. He should slough off that old skin today or tomorrow since it has started to open up on his head. I'll post pictures of him after his shed, that way he's fresh and vibrant. :)