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Dangerous hide?

K

Knev

New member
Hi

I have a lil Corn about 10 months old. I recently began giving him baby rats. I wanted lil fuzzies but the pet stores here only have pinkies, adult mice, baby rats, rats. So i went from feeding 2 pinkies to 1 baby rat.
Today after i fed him, i noticed him hanging out on his branch. I love looking at him so i stayed there watching. After a while he went to his hide.
I have 2 hides for him on either side of the tank. One is a papertowel roll and the other is a more decorative castle. Well he decided to go to the castle hide. The castle has many openings, big and small. It has 2 towers and on both towers the tops are opened. So he decided to go from his branch to the tower...
he began to go in easily but then once he got to where the lump was in his belly from feeding, he sort of got stuck. At first i kinda laughed and thought he was silly, but then as i realized he wasnt going in further i began to panic. He eventually squeezed through. It took him about 1-2 minutes to get his lump through.

I am wondering... am i feeding him food thats to big for him? or should i do away with the castle? This is the 3 rd pinky rat i give him and he has not regurgitated yet. Is this castle dangerous for him? Ive never heard of a snake getting stuck before...

Thank you
 
u should feed your snake food that is no more than 1.5 times the width
of the snake at its fattest point .

if u carnt get fuzzies feed your snake 2 pinkies till u can get some..
 
and if the baby rats are 1.5 times the width, then i'd get rid of the castle. if he gets stuck now with just a meal, within a few weeks he'll get stuck in the hole on an empty stomach. look for hides with larger holes. i know people who just use overturned pots, empty boxes, baskets....one of my hides is a ceramic tree stump that i got on clearance for $2.99 from petsmart.
 
I also have worried about snakes getting stuck in the very small holes of some of the ornaments and decorations out there. I think you should er on the side of caution and get rid of the offending ornament...

Good ole' cardboard boxes, or make your own caves and decorations using that femo stuff! :)

Rebecca
 
pgr8dnlvr said:
I also have worried about snakes getting stuck in the very small holes of some of the ornaments and decorations out there. I think you should er on the side of caution and get rid of the offending ornament...

Good ole' cardboard boxes, or make your own caves and decorations using that femo stuff! :)

Rebecca
Click to expand...


whats this femo stuff you speak of? some sort of 'carvable' material used to make caves?

thanks in advance.

jim - arun
 
baby rats

If your snake has eaten the baby rats a few times and there hasn't been any problems then I wouldn't worry about that.
Just try to guage the size of your snake, especially after feeding, and block any openings you feel it could get stuck in.
 
Arun said:
whats this femo stuff you speak of? some sort of 'carvable' material used to make caves?

thanks in advance.

jim - arun
Click to expand...

Fimo is one of the greatest inventions of all times (ranks up there with sliced bread)

Its basicly a soft polymer clay that can be sculpted easily and retain its shape. It is usualy baked in an oven to harden. Comes in lots of diffrent colors, is fairly cheap, and can be used for a ton of different stuff (i once made a set of plastic resin molds for an art project using it).

http://fimo.com/home_eberhardfaber_com.EBERHARDFABER?ActiveID=16811
 
i wonder about the toxicity of FIMO though- I have used it for beaded jewelry etc, but I distinctly remember our art teacher telling us to never EVER use if for functional pottery i.e. cups, plates, bowls, etc.

And that was even with a glaze, assuming we could find one that bonded at a low enough temp to actually glaze the piece.

With that in mind I am thinking about a piece of artificial driftwood I bought on sale- the "trunk" portion was hollow, and once I put it in a viv where males rested during a cage cleaning session.

I ended up coming up 2 snakes short [had 7 cages to do in about 2 hours at the time] and found out that 2 of them had gone about 3-4 inches up inside the piece and I actually had to break it to remove them- cut the $@&*!! outta my thumb getting them out, too.

Watch out- make sure that what works today won't get you or your snakes in trouble tomorrow. or next week. or . . .

I'd ditch the castle completely.
 
I think Fimo would would be alright for making hides, but I wouldn't use it as a water dish. I would use hides that have only one entrance that is big enough for the snake to comfortably fit through. Lots of little holes and hollows are asking for difficulty in that they can get stuck and can also be a PIA to retrieve from that dark narrow space they have wedged themselves into.

Just a thought.
 
thanks guys...

i debated whether just closing off the smaller holes and leaving the larger ones open, or just chucking the castle. But after reading the replies from this thread ive decided to get rid of the castle. It is just for my eye and doesnt benefit the snake in anyway. Its not like hed know the difference between the castle and plain cardboard box huh. :p

thanks guys
 
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