New addition, first rescue

[GyGbeetle]

Picked up our first rescue yesterday. She's a beauty (will try to post pic later). She came from a home where they simply neglected her. She came in a 40 gal tank, dry skin, her hide was thin plastic with holes on the top (like a hamster hide). And the worst part is, they were telling us she's 8 years old. She looks like a 2 year old.

She's got the best temperament ever. Got her tank all fixed up, proper heat (not sure if they even had her enclosure heated at all. They claim she had a heat lamp, and when we asked where it was, they said it was being used for their beardie. I can only speculate they were sharing the heat source between to cages), gave her a couple of much needed baths, and will keep her in quarantine in this tank before we get her something size appropriate for a red tail boa.

We named her Hope.

[EL Ziggy]

Nice job on the rescue and congrats on the new addition G. Looking forward to pics later.

[MartinD]

Sound like she could be an awesome snake, she's in good hands now.

[richardhind]

Good luck with bringing her back to health,fingers crossed for you

[dave himself]

Glad to hear she's in good hands now, and I love the name it's what my daughter is called ;)

[uhhlise_nacole]

She's got a second chance at life now thanks to you, that's so awesome. can't wait for pictures!

[GyGbeetle]

I hope this pic comes out ok. She's doing phenomenally better today. Her moisture is up, her skin is softer and less dry. Her enclosure is pretty moist and up to about 70% humidity. She ate yesterday so I don't want to handle her that much, but I did take her out for another warm soak. She looked like she didn't know what to do with herself, so I kept my arm in as her log to float on.

I failed to mention that whoever had her previously, didn't sex her properly, and broke her tail. She has a kink at the tip. It doesn't seem to bother her too much, but you can tell she's a little sensitive around that area (she reacts when you approach that part of her tail). Fortunately it's not close to the vent, so it won't hinder her from pooping. I actually can't wait for her first poop with us, to make sure she's doing ok. My cats poop, I get angry. My snakes poop, I jump for joy. It's so weird.

[richardhind]

Great looking snake you rescued there

[GyGbeetle]

Here is Hope today, hanging out in her enclosure. She's already looking a million times better than when we first got her on Sunday. We've been super lucky that she doesn't appear to have any mouth rot, scale rot, or an RI.

The previous human said she's about 7-8 years old. She's just under 3 feet long. Even for a dwarf with stunted growth, I am finding this hard to believe. It doesn't appear that she was fed more than maybe every 3-4 months, and a large mouse instead of a larger prey, so time will tell if she will develop anything now that she's being properly nourished.

Her skin is nice and soft and moist now, and it looks like she may be going into another shed (she was finishing up a stuck shed when we got her on Sunday). She's such a little doll. She had some bedding caught on the side of her mouth, and didn't put up a fuss when we took a q-tip and removed it.

[bigsnakegirl785]

She doesn't look underweight. A little big-headed so definitely hasn't grown to her potential yet, but she doesn't look quite that severely stunted. How sure are they of her age? Have they had her that entire time?

At her size a large mouse (or whatever the size under jumbo is for your supplier) is probably the ideal meal size, considering how small she is it's probably ok to feed her every 2 weeks, but if she has been slightly stunted I'd highly caution against feeding weekly. When underfed and stunted snakes are fed too much they'll grow at an extremely rapid rate which can seriously damage their skeletal system and cause kinks down their length (I've only seen this happen once or twice). Just keep the prey size reasonable and don't feed her too often and she should grow at a reasonable rate for her body to keep up with.

I'm not sure how you're currently feeding, that's just my .02.

Other than that, I can't wait for her to settle in and start seeing her posts. :D

[GyGbeetle]

She doesn't look underweight. A little big-headed so definitely hasn't grown to her potential yet, but she doesn't look quite that severely stunted. How sure are they of her age? Have they had her that entire time?

At her size a large mouse (or whatever the size under jumbo is for your supplier) is probably the ideal meal size, considering how small she is it's probably ok to feed her every 2 weeks, but if she has been slightly stunted I'd highly caution against feeding weekly. When underfed and stunted snakes are fed too much they'll grow at an extremely rapid rate which can seriously damage their skeletal system and cause kinks down their length (I've only seen this happen once or twice). Just keep the prey size reasonable and don't feed her too often and she should grow at a reasonable rate for her body to keep up with.

I'm not sure how you're currently feeding, that's just my .02.

Other than that, I can't wait for her to settle in and start seeing her posts. :D

Agree about th feeding. We are planning on a small rat every other week for now. I don't like mice as much for these larger guys because a lot of the medical research I've been reading claims that mice will not have enough bone dense calcium for the larger bodied snakes. They may be cheaper, but more health costly in the long run.

The age. So what her previous human said was that he had her for 9 months, and got her from a good "buddy", that had her since she was a hatchling, about 7 years ago. The buddy got the snake for his son when he was a toddler; said son is now 10 years old.

In all honesty, I really wanted to press the age issue, but I was so angry at th condition she was brought in, and the obvious neglect, I just wanted the guy to leave before I punched his face in. I realize her condition could've been worse, but why would someone think that's ok to do to another living creature is beyond me. I've been a cat rescuer for 20 years, and nothing surprised me from the neglect and abuse I'd seen, until my husband got me involved with snakes. Some of the cases I've seen make me want to scream and cry. Snakes get this horribly bad wrap from the media and general public, you would expect some sort of healthy respect of these majestic creatures. And then you find a local rescue posting their latest animal abuse case....

We were so lucky with this girl

[bigsnakegirl785]

Agree about th feeding. We are planning on a small rat every other week for now. I don't like mice as much for these larger guys because a lot of the medical research I've been reading claims that mice will not have enough bone dense calcium for the larger bodied snakes. They may be cheaper, but more health costly in the long run.

The age. So what her previous human said was that he had her for 9 months, and got her from a good "buddy", that had her since she was a hatchling, about 7 years ago. The buddy got the snake for his son when he was a toddler; said son is now 10 years old.

In all honesty, I really wanted to press the age issue, but I was so angry at th condition she was brought in, and the obvious neglect, I just wanted the guy to leave before I punched his face in. I realize her condition could've been worse, but why would someone think that's ok to do to another living creature is beyond me. I've been a cat rescuer for 20 years, and nothing surprised me from the neglect and abuse I'd seen, until my husband got me involved with snakes. Some of the cases I've seen make me want to scream and cry. Snakes get this horribly bad wrap from the media and general public, you would expect some sort of healthy respect of these majestic creatures. And then you find a local rescue posting their latest animal abuse case....

We were so lucky with this girl

Mice have plenty of calcium for a growing snake. It's a small group, but I'm raising 2 snakes on mice, and raised one on rats. The two on mice are growing faster than the one on rats and are of a better body tone. Plus, with nursing rodents the milk can be hard on a boa's digestive system. I've had several breeders and keepers tell me they've lost their boas from feeding them rat pinks, and just as many people who have experienced regurge syndrome and other digestive problems when feeding nursing rodents (diarrhea, constipation). Some breeders who DO continue to feed rats despite this have reported that prematurely weaning the rats for a few hours or days depending on the age of the greatly reduces the side effects the milk belly has. Most BCI are robust in their digestive system but you won't know how an individual will react to the milk belly until you feed it to them.

By feeding mice you will skip the weaning stage much quicker, as it takes them longer to get to the size to eat a weaned rat than to eat a weaned mouse.

Once you get to weaned rats, rats are the better option, but mice are better before that. The nutritional differences between the two aren't really that significant. Rodent Pro has a nutritional chart for many different feeders if you'd like to view the differences.

Depending on how good a "buddy" they were the age could be way off, if the previous owner didn't know exactly when they got the snake and is instead going off their friend's word, or if the friend at some point swapped snakes and her previous owner thought they were the same. Either way, I do feel it's very likely she's younger than they're saying. Even if she is as old as they say, just feed her normally (or even a tad less) and she'll grow at her own pace.

And yes the abuse that happens towards snakes is ghastly. People think because they're not fluffy and don't have facial expressions they don't feel pain or aren't as important. Plus, the keeping of snakes is relatively new, so very few people know much about the snakes they're keeping and access to information is a little more difficult due to misinformation, constant changes in acceptable husbandry, and less resources available.