The Shelby Thread :) - Page 3

Will0W783 · 01-23-12, 01:21 PM

Thanks guys...I'm enjoying him, but he's definitely keeping me on my toes.

Kayla90 · 01-23-12, 01:24 PM

God, he is absolutely gorgeous.

Hillsberry · 01-23-12, 02:46 PM

Wow Kim, Shelby is stunning!

Will0W783 · 01-24-12, 08:59 AM

Thanks! He appreciates all the attention- he is definitely a little show-off. He actually ate his food normally last night. The last two months or so he's been tearing off the limbs of his mice, then eviscerating them and sucking out the intestines, and then finally eating the rest of it. My fiance calls him the "Jeffrey Dahmer of snakes." So I was really pleased that he just went ahead and ate his mouse last night without going all serial killer on it, lol.

Norm66 · 01-24-12, 09:04 AM

wow. I've never heard of a snake dismembering their food before. Pretty neat but I can see why your'e happy he went conventional this time.

Will0W783 · 01-24-12, 09:09 AM

Quote:

wow. I've never heard of a snake dismembering their food before

I'd never heard of it either Norm. He is very intelligent, and I think he figured out that removing legs made the prey easier to swallow by accident. One time he struck the mouse and tore off a back leg. The other leg had broken off in the bag, so he was then eating a mouse with no back legs, and I guess it went down easier, because the next several times I fed him he tore both back legs off before swallowing the rest. Another time he struck one that had been heated a bit more and its stomach tore open, and the intestines fell out. Shelby sucked them out like a big piece of spaghetti, and then tore open the next few mice to do the same. I have no idea how sucking out intestines could make the rest easier to swallow- perhaps they have a particularly good taste and he wanted to taste them? Regardless, it was a pain in the butt to clean up after because there would be bloody water all over his cage and him when he was finished. I'm really glad he just ate the darned thing last night, and hopefully he sticks with it. He's definitely an.....interesting...snake to own.

Norm66 · 01-24-12, 09:23 AM

Again... Wow. Better you than me. LOL. I'm pretty sure ripping off legs and slurping guts would be a deal breaker for my wife. hehehehe

youngster · 01-24-12, 09:25 AM

C'mon guys, I'm eating breakfast

Will0W783 · 01-24-12, 10:41 AM

Lol, Eli. You should know better than to read the forum while eating.

KD35WIN.AS.ONE · 01-27-12, 11:12 AM

Kimberly i see Shelby is growing at a healthy rate, he looks wonderful. And as for his feeding habits i have witnessed young cobras do some grotesque acts with their food... although nothing quite like that.

What are your plans for his next enclosure?

What are your plans for an adult enclosure?...I just the other day finished designing a 7'x6'x4' enclosure for an female naja pallida. Its going to feature a built in shiftbox, besides making it safer it will help with breeding tremendously. I hope it turns out well, ill take some pictures of her aswell.

CK SandBoas · 01-27-12, 11:16 AM

Shelby is just getting more and more beautiful as he grows!

**millertime89** · 01-27-12, 01:59 PM

Kim, you should try taking video of him when feeding and see if you can get his peculiar behavior on video. I've never heard of a snake doing that.
He looks great, in those pictures Alessia took it also looks like he's about to shed again.

KD35WIN.AS.ONE · 01-27-12, 02:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by millertime89

Kim, you should try taking video of him when feeding and see if you can get his peculiar behavior on video.

I agree...

Will0W783 · 01-27-12, 03:14 PM

I will try to get a video of it. He generally doesn't like being recorded while eating, and will leave his food while he hisses and hoods at the camcorder until I go away. KD, do your Naja get a frightful attitude for a good few hours after being fed? Shelby goes ballitstic and hoods and strikes and hisses all over the place...I don't know if he just gets stuck in feed mode, or if he instinctually knows he's more vulnerable with a full belly?

As for enclosure plans, I just made a big long post and it disappeared...grrr. I was looking at a line of melamine enclosures I saw at the last show. It's a nice cage, sealed seams, 4' long x 2' wide, x 2' tall. I want to give him something tall enough that he can stand and hood if he wants to. He tends to stand up a lot- he will periscope up a lot without hooding too. I might look for a used smaller cage for an interim enclosure, like 2 x 2 x 1 or something, but I don't have any other snakes that are small enough to use that, so I don't want to spend much on it. I think Shelby still has a good 4 months or so of being comfy in his current enclosure. He is growing rapidly though, so I plan to keep my eyes open for used interim caging for him.

KD35WIN.AS.ONE · 02-09-12, 01:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Will0W783

KD, do your Naja get a frightful attitude for a good few hours after being fed?

Several naja i keep are incredibly high strung, If you approach their domain 9 times out of 10 if they are visible they welcome you with a full mouth gape, loud quick hisses, or spit.. Or sometimes a combination of all three which my pallida loves showing off...

When i clean her cage which is quite more often then id like to.. I move her into an empty vision cage for awhile, she feels as this is her time to show to everyone how vile she can be. She leaves a nice coat of venom on the glass doors.

i hope you dont mind me posting my picture here, i dont want to make a thread, was really just sharing with you and the visitors to your thread.