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Surgery on rat snake that ate a golf ball
Hey everyone!
Havent posted in a super long time! I am looking for any general advice with this snake Im keeping for a bit. Ive never owned anything except corns but being the resident snake person at work I kind of got volunteered to take care of this guy while he heals. Luckily I have an extra tank, lid and heat mat. I work for a vet and a friend of hers found this snake in a birdhouse on her property. Shes a lovely lady and her husband was going to relocate it on their property and they realized something was very wrong. My boss agreed to take it, we did x rays and surgery and pulled a golf ball out of this guy. Hes 2 days post op now and hanging in there. The exotic vet we consulted with instructed to feed after 4 to 5 days something half the size of his body. I have no experience getting wild snakes to eat FT. Any well wishes and advice is appreciated. Pics to follow.... |
What a gorgeous black rat! I'd bet he'll convert pretty easily. Most ratsnakes tend to be little garbage disposals when it comes to anything food-scented. When I first tried feeding my w/c garter snake, I got some feeder fish because I've always seen garters go nuts for fish. She wouldn't even look at them, but she didn't even hesitate to take a f/t mouse from tongs.
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If he could eat a golf ball I don't think he will refuse a mouse. You could drag it around in his container with tongs until he zeros in on it.
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That's what I said! Obviously he's not very discriminating! I adore this snake, BTW.
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Well that's a beautiful snake!
and i have to say thats somthink i have never seen before, i live litterly across the road from a golf course and i have never seen a golfball inside a snake! mind you that could be because theres 0 snakes here, the only snake i have ever seen was up at the lake district it was a Black Adder i picked it up and had a look at it took some photos (il see if i can find them) then stuck it back where it was (before i knew they were protected species and venomous) |
Just wanted to update and say she ate for me! We are waiting for poop now lol
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Glad to hear she ate. Some may wonder why she ate a golfball in the first place. Black rats will slither into a hen house and eat an egg. Sometimes a golfball is placed in a nest to fool chickens into laying in that nest. If the golfball has the scent of a hen or hen fecal matter, it fooled the snake too. When I kept chickens I used plastic Easter eggs to fool the hens, but my coop was ( large) snake proof. Unfortunately, those keeping chickens usually kill the beautiful rat snakes, rather than relocate them to a more distant area. Your boss, and those assisting her, spent a lot of time and effort to save that beauty. I hope the snake can soon be released into the wild, preferably not near any chicken coops.
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One of my co workers owns a house on a lot of land...no chicken coops. lots of woods and trees, and mice/squirrels/birds. We plan to release her there. I just want to make sure she heals with no infection. Id hate for her to die of infection which is treatable before we let her go.
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Lucky snake!
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