WOW, what a difference!

[Wylie]

For those of you who know the story behind Wylie's death, you know that when I fed Wylie, that even after 5 days I could still see a lump in him where the mouse was DESPITE the fact that he had laid in the warm hide (with temp around 85) for 3 days. Well, since Flash was SO ACTIVE all day yesterday, I decided to go ahead and see if he'd eat (earlier than I'd originally planned). I fed him, it took him a while to take the mouse because he is still pretty shy, but once he had it, he had it gone quickly! He definitely had it down quicker than Wylie ate his first mouse, this snake seems to do EVERYTHING faster than Wylie. Anyway, so I walk by Flash's tank on the way to the hallway just a bit ago, and I catch out of the corner of my eye some movement. Flash was back to being active, trying to find a way out as usual! I looked him over good and I don't even see a lump! I mean I can't even tell he ate last night! WOW!

Now Don did say he was eating 3 day old pinkies and I only have 1 day old pinkies right now so that proves right there that he can have larger pinks. But wow, I'm just amazed. And once again, so far with everything I've observed with this snake being so opposite of Wylie, makes me think there was something wrong with Wylie from the start, or I should say at least by the time he got to me. I wonder how likely it is that a snake can suffer brain damage from shipping?

Bottom line is, so far so good!

 

[ZoologyMajor]

I am really happy you have having better luck with this one. I would say that Wylie probably had something internally wrong with him that wasn't allowing him to digest. I seriously doubt it was any sort of brain damage. I also doubt that they suffer any brain damage from shipping. Box rides are shake them up yes but, the boxes don't flip over very often in the process.

 

[Wylie]

I am really happy you have having better luck with this one. I would say that Wylie probably had something internally wrong with him that wasn't allowing him to digest. I seriously doubt it was any sort of brain damage. I also doubt that they suffer any brain damage from shipping. Box rides are shake them up yes but, the boxes don't flip over very often in the process.

I sure can't figure it out, cause obviously Don wouldn't sell me a snake that there was something wrong with so apparently it was doing fine for him. I guess it's just one of those things that I'll never know the answer to.

I can see I'll be giving this one a lot more time to settle than I did Wylie cause this one is pretty shy. He seemed fine to be out all day yesterday, he was ALL OVER the tank trying to get out and it didn't phase him at all that I would walk up to the tank and look at him plus I took a ton of pics of him yesterday, so there was a lot of flashes going off. I could look in on him and he wouldn't move but then when my husband came home and I told hubby where he was, when hubby looked in Flash disappeared into his cave. So that makes me wonder... do the corn snakes recognize individual people by sight alone? Cause it just seemed odd to me that he didn't seem to mind when I looked in on him but when hubby did he fled. He was also scared when I lowered the mouse into the tank to him, he went further back into the cave hide but once I moved it into the entry way of the cave then we all stayed out of his sight, then he took the mouse. So I guess I will have to give this one a lot of time to overcome his shyness. I guess I will just play it by ear, go by his actions as far as when to take the next step, like getting him out to handle.

 

[Nanci]

I'm glad to hear Flash is doing so well. Just because the lump is gone, though, don't handle him too soon! I too think Wylie had something wrong internally. Sick animals survive by not appearing sick- it takes a long time to die of "natural causes" sometimes.

 

[Wylie]

I'm glad to hear Flash is doing so well. Just because the lump is gone, though, don't handle him too soon! I too think Wylie had something wrong internally. Sick animals survive by not appearing sick- it takes a long time to die of "natural causes" sometimes.

I think it will actually be a while til I handle him yet, I may not even handle him before the next time I feed him. I would prefer that he isn't so shy and skittish first before I try to get him out to handle. I just hope it doesn't take too long or I might go nutty! LOL.

 

[ZoologyMajor]

If you are feeding him in the tank what kind of substrate are you using? You want to avoid impaction.

 

[Wylie]

If you are feeding him in the tank what kind of substrate are you using? You want to avoid impaction.

Ah yes, I know about that, thanks though. I use paper towels.

I took Wylie out of the tank to feed him but that's because I knew he was comfortable with me and being handled. I elected to feed Flash inside because I noticed how shy and skittish he is so I figured feeding him in his tank would yield a higher probability that he would actually eat. And after observing his behavior in taking that pinkie, I'm 99% sure he would not have taken it if I had taken him out to feed him. Just goes to show you that different things work for different snakes, they each have their own personality, ya gotta do what works for that particular snake. Eventually I'd like to take him out to feed him, or at least sometimes I would, so that I can clean his tank while he's eating.