Mogey
city livin'-nature lovin'
Man, what a stressful day for little Red Foreman!
It starts with feeding day. Alright, cool. No biggie.
"Oh hey, is that a little bit of shed stuck on his neck?! Crap, gotta work that out now."
So then began a good 15 minutes of snake-treadmilling and cotton swab stroking. Being just shy of 3 months, he wasn't exactly thrilled about the whole experience. But he seemed to calm down and make it a little easier for me after the first five minutes. However, he did find out he could hinder me really well by coiling around the swab.
Alright, so that's done and into the feeding tank he goes. One zombie dance later and I had an occupied and satisfied little glory worm. I was honestly a little worried that he might not have eaten after jabbing him with a Q-tip for so long, so I was relieved he ate as scheduled.
As he's getting it down in the tank, I got a little creative with his viv setup. I had picked up a few small sized half logs (the really small ones) and a tiki hut for him to replace the medium half log and rock cave hide. The medium half log is simply way too large for him to be comfortable, so I wasn't surprised to never see him in it (however, I'm surprised I thought that would be an appropriate size for him when I bought it). The rock cave, too, was mostly ignored except as a surface to cruise over at night (most likely because it's also pretty spacious). I'm hoping the smaller hides will be more tempting for him, but he doesn't seem to have any major comfort issues.
So now he's gone from a necessary pre-meal handling session and swab prodding, to downing a pinkie, and now he's going back into a new environment (essentially). It hadn't occurred to me at the time that this could cause a stress overload in a young snake that just ended his initial adjustment period. My worries slowly passed as I observed him resume his normal behavior.
It's a great feeling when all is well in corn-land.
It starts with feeding day. Alright, cool. No biggie.
"Oh hey, is that a little bit of shed stuck on his neck?! Crap, gotta work that out now."
So then began a good 15 minutes of snake-treadmilling and cotton swab stroking. Being just shy of 3 months, he wasn't exactly thrilled about the whole experience. But he seemed to calm down and make it a little easier for me after the first five minutes. However, he did find out he could hinder me really well by coiling around the swab.
Alright, so that's done and into the feeding tank he goes. One zombie dance later and I had an occupied and satisfied little glory worm. I was honestly a little worried that he might not have eaten after jabbing him with a Q-tip for so long, so I was relieved he ate as scheduled.
As he's getting it down in the tank, I got a little creative with his viv setup. I had picked up a few small sized half logs (the really small ones) and a tiki hut for him to replace the medium half log and rock cave hide. The medium half log is simply way too large for him to be comfortable, so I wasn't surprised to never see him in it (however, I'm surprised I thought that would be an appropriate size for him when I bought it). The rock cave, too, was mostly ignored except as a surface to cruise over at night (most likely because it's also pretty spacious). I'm hoping the smaller hides will be more tempting for him, but he doesn't seem to have any major comfort issues.
So now he's gone from a necessary pre-meal handling session and swab prodding, to downing a pinkie, and now he's going back into a new environment (essentially). It hadn't occurred to me at the time that this could cause a stress overload in a young snake that just ended his initial adjustment period. My worries slowly passed as I observed him resume his normal behavior.
It's a great feeling when all is well in corn-land.