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 Posted - 26/04/2011 : 13:54:09
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Pleased to report that she ate her first meal this morning. I slid the mouse (with tongs) into her cold hide; there was a hiss, and then the mouse twitched, and a blunt little speckled head gripped the mouse like a weasel and dragged it out of sight. Little tiger!
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Lotabob
Royal Python Moderator
United Kingdom
5008 Posts |
Posted - 26/04/2011 : 19:59:46
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Was it tongs held with oven gloves through a riot shield, lol.
Brilliant that he/she ate. |
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Posted - 26/04/2011 : 20:17:26
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LOL - in two or three days I've got to begin to try handling ...
Yeah, it was so good that she ate without hesitation as 'feistiness' can often mean 'nervousness'. Although Missy's the same, and a brilliant eater - 'what you got for me, Lil? Giz it here!' And Missy's calming down well too.
And another good piece of news is that Ziska's definitely a girl (I take it you read that other post where I found her travelling box marked as 'male'.) Got it sorted with the shop today - definitely female - so don't have to think of alternative names. |
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Lotabob
Royal Python Moderator
United Kingdom
5008 Posts |
Posted - 26/04/2011 : 21:16:34
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| Oh good news you got a correctly named girl. I'm so intrigued by these gophers at the moment, its weird when someone introduces a snake that you've not really any idea existed. You need a crash course in photobucketing and youtubing and I can see what she is all about lol. |
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Posted - 27/04/2011 : 08:39:43
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LOL - I hadn't any idea they existed either. I'd noticed her vaguely before when looking through BL's livestock pages, but the name always reminded me of 'gopher tortoise' or 'garter snake'. (Bit of a difference!) Then in a moment of boredom I googled gopher snakes and the rest, as they say, is history. I was looking for a larger snake that was a bit different but within my capabilities (I hope lol!) and I would have been glad to find a Hogg Island (your Sanke is gorgeous) but I've always liked colubrids, and to find one that grew as big as a small boa and had such a fascinating history and appearance ...I was lost. Still can't quite believe I've got her. |
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Posted - 06/05/2011 : 12:40:52
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Ziska's third feed with me today; she was being fed weekly but in view of her youth I feed her every five days. As with the last feeding day she was out this morning, up on a branch at the front of the viv, staring at me.
When the small mouse was nicely warm I returned, to find her curled in her cool hide, a small cardboard box submerged in a pile of aspen, its entrance half-hidden by plants and driftwood. Using the end of the tongs I gently cleared a way for the mouse - it would have been a bit silly to put my fingers near that entrance, especially with the scent of mouse drifting into the viv from its open plastic bag. Ziska didn't react, not even a tail rattle. I told her what a good girl she was - and a convulsive movement nearby told me how wrong I was ...
Bull, pine and gopher snake hatchlings are unusually long. Ziska's back end was curled in the hide. Ziska's front end was reposing underneath the big piece of driftwood. About eight inches from the hide, a small head poked itself out of a Ziska-made tunnel in the aspen and glared at me. I hastily presented the mouse and Madam took. ('About time, Lil!')
Now I have always, but always, been extremely careful and fussy about feeding anywhere near substrate. If feeding in-viv, the snake must have a mat or kitchen roll 'tablecloth'. And the corns and royals usually eat up their prey while sitting on their 'tablecloth' in a well-conducted manner ... hmm.
Compared with my royals and corns, Ziska acts like a wild snake. (I know all snakes are 'wild', but there's wild and there's ... well, Wild ...) Bull, pine and gopher snakes are diggers and burrowers. With this in mind I'd given Ziska deep-piled aspen in the corners of her viv and made her tunnels of kitchen roll inners. Ziska likes to make her own tunnels, and it was through one of these tunnels that, tail-rattling like mad, she now dragged her mouse. All I could do was watch and be reassured that she was so fast, no bits of aspen had stuck to the mouse as it reappeared in the hide - the portion of mouse that was visible, that is, because as she moved, she was gulping it down at the speed of light. Gophers seem to waste no time in feeding.
I suppose I ought to 'train' her to be lifted out into a feeding rub, but in view of her very primitive behaviour, I feel this would stress her no end, and also deprive her of her 'huntress' ritual, which she clearly enjoys and needs ... I can only hope the advocates of the 'feeding on aspen does no harm; they don't have kitchen roll in the wild' are right ... Because even if I offered her the mouse on kitchen roll, or left it in the viv for her; her instinct would be to drag it back into a private burrow.
Can't fault her appetite though. In view of her potential 9' as an adult, I plan to start offering her rat fluffs as soon as she's big enough, which will be soon. I'm hoping that her greed will prevent her from even realising she's changing to a rat.
Meanwhile I'd noticed that she had left a huge mess and urates in her water bowl - another thing that I've never encountered from corns and royals. She was clearly very proud of this because she made a terrible fuss about the bowl being removed for cleaning and struck so hard that she nearly came through the hide roof.
She certainly lives up to her nickname of 'Tank Girl'. I haven't attempted handling yet, simply because at the moment she seems to like just to eat and hide, and only appears on feeding mornings. When she gets a bit bolder, there's a treat in store for me ...Think I might need that riot shield with this one, Bob ... |
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Edited by - n/a on 06/05/2011 13:04:12 |
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Lotabob
Royal Python Moderator
United Kingdom
5008 Posts |
Posted - 06/05/2011 : 19:28:14
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| aww its good to hear that she is a good feeder, a great sign that she isn't stressed and although she is a madam its not because she is unhappy. |
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7384 Posts |
Posted - 06/05/2011 : 20:32:54
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| Lol - she's a confident little baggage - I think she thinks she's queen of all she surveys. Well, she is a gopher snake - they'll gopher anything! |
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Lotabob
Royal Python Moderator
United Kingdom
5008 Posts |
Posted - 07/05/2011 : 00:52:02
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| Aww she sounds lovely in the most terrifying way possible. I like animals with a bit of oomph about them. |
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Posted - 07/05/2011 : 17:40:45
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Lol - she is; she's adorable and intensely fascinating - a 'walk on the wild side' for sure.
With a tail that thinks it's an electric toothbrush! |
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Ziska my gopher snake
