Chaska's thread - Page 2

Albert Clark · 06-06-15, 04:49 PM

Really stunning animal! I love those elliptical pupils.

Snakesitter · 06-08-15, 01:53 PM

Congrats on the new hide and weight! Taking weights regularly is an underutilized practice. I weigh all my animals monthly, and find it helpful for health management.

Wingbeats · 06-18-15, 08:20 PM

Chaska now weighs about 53 grams....wow, that's almost a gram a day! Granted, she did just eat two days ago. She looks less like a worm and appears a bit bulkier now.

I'm going to slow down the feeding a bit, from every five days to seven. After reading in another thread, I figure I shouldn't make her grow TOO fast

I'll take more pics when I bring her out tomorrow.

Snakesitter · 06-19-15, 02:01 PM

Good call on the food, and looking forward to those picts!

Wingbeats · 06-25-15, 11:06 AM

After waiting seven days to feed...Chaska was definitely much faster in nabbing her food. She struck immediately! No need to dangle it around her head for a couple minutes like her last few feedings haha.

I was going to take her out in the sun for some newer nice pics, but she is turning pinkish again. So it's shedding time soon!

Albert Clark · 06-25-15, 11:24 AM

Great! Really good to see that feeding response.

Snakesitter · 06-25-15, 02:03 PM

Nice -- good job on the quick feeding response, and on the pending shed!

Wingbeats · 07-06-15, 10:09 PM

Chaska had a great shed and now weighs 58 grams. She snapped up food like nobody's business today

SnoopySnake · 07-07-15, 09:06 AM

Looking good! I really like Chaska. I've always liked the crosses, but I won't make any.

Wingbeats · 07-24-15, 12:44 PM

More Chaska updates. She is now about 65 grams, which means she is almost twice as heavy as she was when I got her. She is still super docile despite her size, though funnily enough she tagged me for the first time today! I'm finding that she does NOT like being out in the light - especially bright sunlight. She's nocturnal, so it makes sense that she's light-shy. She only feeds if the room is dark, and today she nipped me after I placed her on the carpet in the sun for pictures. Hah, I deserved that. I'll stick to keeping her sun photoshoots super short from now on.

Anyways, I got some pics before she nipped me (I put her back right after). She positively GLOWS in the sunlight, but it's so hard to capture on camera. I'm far from being a photographer, though :P

Snakesitter · 07-24-15, 02:00 PM

Typical baby Brazilian. ;-) FYI, it was (probably) not so much the light, as being "set free" for a bit and then "recaptured." That always seems to annoy them....

Good job in the growth!!!

Wingbeats · 08-21-15, 10:30 AM

Just a fun little update. Chaska now weighs over 80 grams, and I've upped her food size (hopper time!). She ate just fine two Mondays ago.

Now she is deep in shed, and she refused food for the first time :P She's taken food before while in shed, but I guess she didn't want it last Monday haha. I'll offer food again when she is done shedding. Her temps and humidity are still perfect so I'm not worried.

Man, shedding always seems like it takes forever! I miss holding her and looking at her while she is in shed time, hahaha.
She cleared up yesterday so hopefully she'll finish sometime today or tomorrow.

It's fun though - my boyfriend's sister is afraid of snakes. But I showed Chaska to her, and she admitted that Chaska was pretty and she didn't feel afraid. She didn't want to tooouch Chaska yet, but it goes to show that a pretty sweetheart of a noodle can change perceptions

In other news, I ordered her adult-sized cage from Animal Plastics! I got a black T8 with sliding doors, door locks, flexiwatt heat tape, and a fluorescent light fixture. It should arrive in a month or so - which is great, since Chaska's enclosure is starting look small compared to her. I'm going to buy her more hides and such when it arrives too. Then she should be set up for life!

.....and then maybe I can plop a new baby high-red BRB in the ziplock tub? Heh heh heh heh.....

bigsnakegirl785 · 08-21-15, 12:48 PM

Some people offer while in shed, some don't, it shouldn't hurt either way if you do. As mentioned, some will refuse, some won't. When my adult BCI was a baby, he'd take food in or out of shed, but started refusing around the time he turned 2.5-3 years old. Nowadays, I refrain from offering in shed not for any real health reasons but I figure they don't really need the food and because some refuse, I don't bother with it.

Chaska's looking really good and growing nicely! You can definitely see the Brazilian and Colombian influence in her pretty well.

She's very dark, too, so I'm curious if she'll end up losing a lot of her patterning as adult like a CRB but having just a bit of Brazilian-like pattern show through. Guess we'll see as she grows up!

Snakesitter · 08-24-15, 02:12 PM

Congrats on the enclosure and growth!!!

There's a one or two day period in deep shed when even normally shed-OK eaters will refuse.

And LOL on the temptation for another. I know how you feel!

Tiny Boidae · 08-24-15, 04:28 PM

Oh that is one hot mama. She's lovely, and I especially like that darker color on her in comparison to the Brazilians. You'll have to take some snap shots of her new home when it arrives, I'd be interested in seeing that.

None of my snakes ever skip a beat when it comes to feeding, not even when they're about to shed. I'll find that they're really shy about it (won't eat if the lights are on or a lot of movement. They'll pounce and constrict, but they'll politely wait until I'm out of the room for the interesting stuff). Granted, sand boas aren't the same as rainbow boas, but it has a lot more to do with learning the personality of your individual snakes rather than the species as a whole. After she gets nice and grown usually their personalities become a lot more... Stable. I've only raised one of my sand boas from hatchling to adult and that was because the pesky thing was so unpredictable for a while. As she grows, you'll learn what she's comfortable with and what she's not.

On a side note- most people tend to have that reaction when they meet a snake up close for the first time. You have no idea how many times I invite over someone who's deathly afraid of snakes but kinda got curious about my snakes after a while. I'll take out my especially charismatic boogers like Harvey or Taffy, and they fall head-over-heels in love with them. That's kinda a good thing probably, that they're just so freaking lovable when you get to know them.