| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Kelfezond |
Posted - 31/07/2012 : 23:58:16
Ugh.. It's 47 minutes into Pandora's feed now, she's not even on the head... This is nothing new but I can normally bail and go to sleep by now. Tonight's different.
Tonight I'm sat here in the dark with a cold snake hook in my right and a coffee in my left, my eyes are persuading me to sleep but I'm not allowed. This is because tonight was my first failure with a co-habiting system.
You might all know about Pandora and Pilkington I talk about them both alot. Pandora you probably know is a very, very slow eater. Pilkington is very aggressive hard work.
Whenever a feed comes up I have to seperate them, last week I took Pandora out for cuddles and fed Pilkington, tonight is the more difficult one. Last time we tried to handle Pilkington while Pandora was feeding, but naturally as expected she took too long, he ended up losing his temper and biting me and we had to bag him. No big deal to be honest I just tied his bag and put him somewhere warm until she had finished.
Tonight I spent 15 minutes chasing Pilkington around the vivarium while Pandora just kind of slunk out the way of our brawl, I chased him off the table only managing to get handfuls of tail before he slipped through my fingers, down his log, across the floor, under his table, into the water bowl! EVERYWHERE! And each time, agonizingly close but no cigar.
This might have been downed to a bit of frayed nerves wanting to get hands on so quickly after the last tag, which happens to be the only snake bite I've had so far that was actually painful and bothersome! It's starting to really get demoralizing having his attitude 24/7 but I think the vivarium while beautiful is a bit negative for a snake like this.
Tonight he ended up under his table, above his water bowl, in the corner of his vivarium. (picture for clarification at http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/202331_10151077788114770_2094891471_o.jpg )
From this position he had 85 degree angle which blocks me off from any blind sighted approach to him, no going from below or above as he had ceiling and roof. He also had a table leg to wrap around which with his 6ft length and ample body strength meant he could play tug'o'war all night with me and easily win. Check Mate. I lose.
So now I have 5 options...
1: Give up, throw the rat, try again another day
2: Feed Pandora outside the vivarium
3: Carry on fighting
4: Feed Pandora while Pilkington is still inside.
Well ...
1: No, this was an expensive rat and Pandora hasn't eaten for a while. I refuse to let Co-Habiting and my greed for wanting a second snake make Pandora miss a meal.
2: No that's too dangerous, with the smell of rat around and a potentially hungry 8ft boa constrictor on the ground a feeding response strike is a possibility.
3: I could probably move him on if I keep jabbing with the snake hook but I think it'd be at least an hour before he gave up.
4: Okay, let's do it.
So here I am now.. 57 minutes in watching Pilkington where he remains, Pandora for the third time drag a rodent around by a hind leg which she'll inevitable spit out and attempt another 5 times...
It's going to be a long night.
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| 8 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| jonnyc1988 |
Posted - 01/08/2012 : 15:32:54
Your divider is going to have to be huge, ive seen the size of their viv! |
| richard v |
Posted - 01/08/2012 : 13:41:18
That sounded like a bit of a nightmare, maybe you could try separating them for a while just to see if he changes you never know. |
| Kelfezond |
Posted - 01/08/2012 : 01:24:10
Yeah we were just saying this is the first issue we've had from cohabiting.
Total time: 2 Hours and 22 Minutes from her first bite to last. She ended up with 9 attempts going backwards getting stuck at the hind leg each time and eventually swallowed it sideways of all things. |
| boomslang |
Posted - 01/08/2012 : 00:45:41
This is one of the draw backs from housing them together.Can't think of anything else you can really do. |
| Kelfezond |
Posted - 01/08/2012 : 00:39:21
Yeah we just said we might make some kind of divider :) |
| boomslang |
Posted - 01/08/2012 : 00:37:55
Can't you make a divider for the viv? split them using the divider,feed then remove the divider etc.
Guess this is the problem when you have two big snakes together  and one is evil hahaha. |
| Kelfezond |
Posted - 01/08/2012 : 00:28:32
Well you shouldn't ever be handling a snake Pandora's size around feeding time, if I took her out it'd have to be for a day or two just for safety.
Normally Pilkington would be taken out but today he beat me |
| boomslang |
Posted - 01/08/2012 : 00:13:57
Wouldn't it be easier to take both of them out,place in separate feeding bins/places.Fed them,then place them both back inside the viv.
Or is that how you do it,And Pilkington is viv defensive or just aggressive whatever you do? |
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