Ready to Rumble

[EL Ziggy]

Nigel shed and pooped last night. That means he's definitely ready to eat. His last meal was 12 days ago. He's growing fast! :)

http://i1319.photobucket.com/albums/t674/EL-Ziggy/Nigel%201_zps1tytqvcl.jpg (http://s1319.photobucket.com/user/EL-Ziggy/media/Nigel%201_zps1tytqvcl.jpg.html)

http://i1319.photobucket.com/albums/t674/EL-Ziggy/Nigel%202_zpshwyoojbz.jpg (http://s1319.photobucket.com/user/EL-Ziggy/media/Nigel%202_zpshwyoojbz.jpg.html)

[Tsubaki]

What a Beauty!! :D he sure is growing fast, nice!

[Minkness]

He looks like velvet....does he feel like velvet?

[EL Ziggy]

@ Mink- He is pretty smooth :) . Much different feel than my my bulls or carpets.

[sattva]

Wow what a beautiful animal... Wish I had one... But then again there is like 15 snakes I want but there is no more room... BOO HOO... :sad:

[Jim Smith]

Pretty boy! I love the smooth velvety look of your Olive Python.

[dave himself]

He's definitely growing, and getting better looking every time you post pics mate ;)

[TeamSlitherin]

Wow, what a stunner!!

[EL Ziggy]

Thanks all. He's quickly become my 3rd favorite snake :). I love his really intense feeding response but he's also a lot of fun to handle and not nippy at all outside his viv. Part of the reason he's growing so fast is because the little albino carpet on the other half of the enclosure will only eat rats about 60% of the time. Oh but she loves mice :(. So last night Nigel got her rejected rat pup in addition to his small rat.

[EL Ziggy]

She's sweet, pretty, and I love her but she's definitely my most finicky feeder. My little headache.

http://i1319.photobucket.com/albums/t674/EL-Ziggy/20170612_214608_zpspe8rz43s.jpg (http://s1319.photobucket.com/user/EL-Ziggy/media/20170612_214608_zpspe8rz43s.jpg.html)


http://i1319.photobucket.com/albums/t674/EL-Ziggy/20170612_214734_zpsjxnw2fth.jpg (http://s1319.photobucket.com/user/EL-Ziggy/media/20170612_214734_zpsjxnw2fth.jpg.html)

[toddnbecka]

Looking great, tempting too, though I'm holding firm on refusing to add an olive to my crew. Keeping an eye out for a savu or two though, such wee pythons are much easier to house than the large ones. Is the finicky albino carpet growing noticeably more slowly with less food intake? My IJ is taking 3 adult mice weekly now, refuses to go near rats of any size.

[EL Ziggy]

@ TnB- The finicky carpet is growing much slower than my other regularly eating carpets did. She was 116g when I got her on 1/11/17. She was 177g today. That's a gain of 60g in the 5 months that I've had her. My coastal gained 420g in his first 5 months and my jungle gained 235g in his first 5 months with me. The olive has gained over 450g since January. He was 141g on arrival 1/4/17. He was 571g on 5/17. I'm sure he's somewhere around 650g now. Part of that is because he gets all the albino's refusals. She never takes food from tongs so I have to leave a rat in her enclosure overnight. If it's still there by 6am the next morning it goes to the olive. I gave her my last jumbo mouse 2 weeks ago and it was gone in 10 minutes. I just placed another feeder order last Friday and gave in and ordered 25 jumbo mice. I really want to get a little more size on her so I'll probably let her have mice for awhile and try to transition her to rats again later. If she insists on being a 'mouser' then she'll never get more than 2 at a time. If she wants more food then she'll learn to eat rats like the rest of my snakes. A real pain in the knee this one is. :(

[IKhaos]

Oh my gosh Ziggy your snakes are absolutely gorgeous man! that is awesome!

[trailblazer295]

That Olive is stunning Ziggy, keep the pictures coming. You need to get that beauty outdoors in the sun ;)

[EL Ziggy]

Thanks y'all. You're so right about the outside pics Blaze. I'm just paranoid some hawk or other bird of prey might make a meal of my little ones. :)

[bigsnakegirl785]

@ TnB- The finicky carpet is growing much slower than my other regularly eating carpets did. She was 116g when I got her on 1/11/17. She was 177g today. That's a gain of 60g in the 5 months that I've had her. My coastal gained 420g in his first 5 months and my jungle gained 235g in his first 5 months with me. The olive has gained over 450g since January. He was 141g on arrival 1/4/17. He was 571g on 5/17. I'm sure he's somewhere around 650g now. Part of that is because he gets all the albino's refusals. She never takes food from tongs so I have to leave a rat in her enclosure overnight. If it's still there by 6am the next morning it goes to the olive. I gave her my last jumbo mouse 2 weeks ago and it was gone in 10 minutes. I just placed another feeder order last Friday and gave in and ordered 25 jumbo mice. I really want to get a little more size on her so I'll probably let her have mice for awhile and try to transition her to rats again later. If she insists on being a 'mouser' then she'll never get more than 2 at a time. If she wants more food then she'll learn to eat rats like the rest of my snakes. A real pain in the knee this one is. :(

Have you tried scenting the rats? The fresher and smellier the better.

One thing that helped me with my bp's short stint being a mouser (and getting him to take f/t) was to give him a half-sized mouse, and as he was swallowing stuff a small-ish rat (for him) up to its shoulders into his mouth and a bit into his throat. If I wasn't fast enough getting the rat in his mouth, or didn't put it in far enough, he'd just spit it out or keep me from getting the rat in his mouth in the first place. Scenting it at the same time will also help. It might take a couple meals of doing that before they'll make the switch, but I've heard of success with other keepers as well.

I'm not sure what you've tried though.

[EL Ziggy]

@ BSG- You're probably right. I shouldn't throw in the towel just yet. I was scenting her rats in the beginning and I thought we were past that but obviously not. I'll use the new jumbo mice to scent her rats and see if it makes a difference. It's very frustrating with her eating a little more than half the time. I didn't buy more rat pups with my last order from Perfect Prey which should ship tomorrow so I'll see if I can add those. She was supposed to be on weaners by now which I have a whole pack of. Silly serpent. :)

[toddnbecka]

Last week when I was feeding my baby boas their f/t rat pinks I found I was one short. I had also thawed out several small mice in the same tub with the pinks, and offered one to the last baby Dominican. It was taken right from my fingers just the same as a rat pink. (Not all of them are that eager, but more than half usually take it right away.) I thinned out dozens of mice this weekend, and offered some smaller ones that hadn't been frozen yet, hoping they'd take them. No luck, likely because they had fresher mouse scent and hadn't been scented by thawing with rat pinks.

[EL Ziggy]

Nigel weighed 720g two days ago. This boy is growing like a weed.

http://i1319.photobucket.com/albums/t674/EL-Ziggy/Nigel%204_zpsovd78rlr.jpg (http://s1319.photobucket.com/user/EL-Ziggy/media/Nigel%204_zpsovd78rlr.jpg.html)

http://i1319.photobucket.com/albums/t674/EL-Ziggy/Nigel%203_zpswlmrmekw.jpg (http://s1319.photobucket.com/user/EL-Ziggy/media/Nigel%203_zpswlmrmekw.jpg.html)

My Bredli S'ven is up to 700g. He seems to be growing much slower than my other carpets with the exception of the finicky eating ablino.

http://i1319.photobucket.com/albums/t674/EL-Ziggy/7_zpsqsvhkjpb.jpg (http://s1319.photobucket.com/user/EL-Ziggy/media/7_zpsqsvhkjpb.jpg.html)

[dave himself]

Nigel makes me want another snake :yes:, how much did he weigh when you first got him mate

[EL Ziggy]

@ Dave- He was 141g when I got him on 1/4/17. So he's gained just about 580g in 6 months. I think he'll be moving into his adult enclosure sooner than expected. ;)

[dave himself]

@ Dave- He was 141g when I got him on 1/4/17. So he's gained just about 580g in 6 months. I think he'll be moving into his adult enclosure sooner than expected. ;)

Flip me he is growing like a weed :D and I hope you've got the adult viv ready now ;)

[dave himself]

Oh and on the albino have you tried super heating the head and then dipping it in tuna brine. I've had a couple of wee burms here that weren't eating for people and this worked a treat, maybe worth a go ;)

[trailblazer295]

Looking good Ziggy, damn Sven is really growing. Mine is like a noodle by comparison ever after a year. I'm hoping new food options will boost her growth.

[Aaron_S]

@ BSG- You're probably right. I shouldn't throw in the towel just yet. I was scenting her rats in the beginning and I thought we were past that but obviously not. I'll use the new jumbo mice to scent her rats and see if it makes a difference. It's very frustrating with her eating a little more than half the time. I didn't buy more rat pups with my last order from Perfect Prey which should ship tomorrow so I'll see if I can add those. She was supposed to be on weaners by now which I have a whole pack of. Silly serpent. :)

If you're feeding frozen/thawed do you thaw rats and mice in the same container? I would do that and use some hot water at the end to warm the prey up mixing the scents even further.

[trailblazer295]

@ BSG- You're probably right. I shouldn't throw in the towel just yet. I was scenting her rats in the beginning and I thought we were past that but obviously not. I'll use the new jumbo mice to scent her rats and see if it makes a difference. It's very frustrating with her eating a little more than half the time. I didn't buy more rat pups with my last order from Perfect Prey which should ship tomorrow so I'll see if I can add those. She was supposed to be on weaners by now which I have a whole pack of. Silly serpent. :)

My carpet refused rats half the time to, I'm now experimenting with asfs. I've only fed once so I'll report back later.

[dannybgoode]

Nigel is looking good. Still not weighed mine. Keep meaning to as they too are growing like weeds and it'd be good to have some vague idea of growth rate.

[EL Ziggy]

Yeah guys, this albino girl is giving me the blues. I've tried scenting the rats with mice and chicks to no avail. I'll try the tuna next. She even refused a jumbo mouse about 2 weeks ago. She's got me pretty frustrated. I'm thinking about moving her into a small tub to see if that helps. She's in a 2x2x1 right now. All of my other critters have started in similar sized or larger enclosures. She's in one half of an AP T8 and my Olive is in the other half. Putting her in a small tub means I can get away with buying one enclosure now instead of the two I was planning on. I won't have need another enclosure for at least 6 months. The Olive is right at 3ft. and I want to give him more room to roam. He's far more active than all but one of my carpets and he uses the floor and vertical spaces pretty equally. I'm thinking he'll end up in a 6x2x2, 6x2x3, or 8x2x2.

[Aaron_S]

Yeah guys, this albino girl is giving me the blues. I've tried scenting the rats with mice and chicks to no avail. I'll try the tuna next. She even refused a jumbo mouse about 2 weeks ago. She's got me pretty frustrated. I'm thinking about moving her into a small tub to see if that helps. She's in a 2x2x1 right now. All of my other critters have started in similar sized or larger enclosures. She's in one half of an AP T8 and my Olive is in the other half. Putting her in a small tub means I can get away with buying one enclosure now instead of the two I was planning on. I won't have need another enclosure for at least 6 months. The Olive is right at 3ft. and I want to give him more room to roam. He's far more active than all but one of my carpets and he uses the floor and vertical spaces pretty equally. I'm thinking he'll end up in a 6x2x2, 6x2x3, or 8x2x2.

Old school scenting was chicken broth by campbells. You can try dipping the rats in that.


Also, I'm disappointed in the thread title. Totally thought we were getting something like "Ready to rumble in the jungle". Or "thrilla in Manilla" type of stuff in here... I was sad.

[EL Ziggy]

@ Aaron- I'll try chicken broth too. I just happen to have some at the house. Sorry about the misleading thread title. It's just click bait. :)