Cloud Strife - Page 6

bigsnakegirl785 · 09-19-16, 07:15 PM

Caught him red-handed.

He leaves sperm plugs in his tree all the time, so I know he uses it, I'm just rarely in the snake room so I don't always see him.

He's currently on a rabbit-only diet, and getting fed a week early each feeding, to get him ready for his winter fast.

dannybgoode · 09-20-16, 01:14 PM

Looking so good bsg. I'm know I'm preaching to the converted here but the body tone of a really healthy boa is an awesome sight.

Quick question. Would you fast a what would be an 18 mo female and if so how long for and would you marginally drop the temps?

I know Vincent Russo suggests that boas eat more during the summer months naturally but wondered if this applied to young snakes too in captivity?

bigsnakegirl785 · 09-20-16, 08:42 PM

I personally plan on continuing to feed Tirel and Nymeria (who are currently 15 months) throughout the winter, but feeding them half as often (4 weeks rather than 2) from Oct or Nov through to around Feb. Their temps should naturally drop since Tirel is on heat tape, and Nymeria has a heat lamp but is currently housed in a tub. I don't plan on fasting them until the following winter, when they will be roughly 2.5 years. Around that time they should both be in 4'x2's and I'll drop their temps like I do Cloud: I drop his ambients from 85F to 80F and his hot spot from 88F to 85F.

I think Russo's advice is best followed when done from birth when it comes to the cycling. People tend to get RIs if they turn off the heat and let it fall to the 70's, but I assume since he does it from hatchling stage his are more used to it. Never heard him address any RI issues at least.

As far as feeding by itself, a baby should do just fine having their feeding spaced out during the winter, but I personally wouldn't completely withhold food for their first 2 winters.

dannybgoode · 09-20-16, 10:31 PM

Thanks bsg. I'll give it a go but be somewhat led by how I read her behaviour also. She'll be fully on weaner rats by then and I'll be slowly spacing out her feeds in any event so will probably fall somewhere in the middle.

bigsnakegirl785 · 09-21-16, 01:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dannybgoode

Thanks bsg. I'll give it a go but be somewhat led by how I read her behaviour also. She'll be fully on weaner rats by then and I'll be slowly spacing out her feeds in any event so will probably fall somewhere in the middle.

Would definitely space her out a bit, she's a bit big for what I'd expect a dwarf of her age to be. She's not that far behind Nymeria's weight (363 grams empty as of the 18) and she's a month younger.

dannybgoode · 09-21-16, 05:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigsnakegirl785

Would definitely space her out a bit, she's a bit big for what I'd expect a dwarf of her age to be. She's not that far behind Nymeria's weight (363 grams empty as of the 18) and she's a month younger.

She's on 14-15 day feeds at the moment of approx 10% body weight and am I extending that slowly.

I extend spacing very gradually over a 6 month period going forward a day, then back before forward again and so forth before eventually she is going that extra day or 2 for a few weeks and then repeat instead of going from 2 weeks to 3 weeks overnight.

I will push out to 21 or more days over winter then come back to somewhere around 16-18 days over spring and stretching back out toward 21 days for when she reashes 2 yo in June next.

And of course there's dwarfs and dwarfs. She is of stock that reaches a little over 6' so by no means not at the Hogg Island end of things and she is not by any measure being overfed in the slightest.

bigsnakegirl785 · 09-21-16, 11:54 AM

6' is actually bigger than dwarf size, so her line is a large one. I did mention in her thread that multiple prey items do encourage more growth in both length and girth, even when the two combined are lighter in weight than the size you plan on moving up to. Even 2 or 3 feedings can do it. A couple feedings of multiple small rats caused River to grow 6" in a matter of a couple weeks, a couple feedings of multiple medium rats caused her to grow 1.5' in the space of about a month, maybe two. This is much more extreme than Sanji's growth, but he was gaining more grams eating multiple hoppers than he did eating a single small adult mouse. Even now eating jumbos he isn't growing quite so fast as then.

Your spacing plan sounds good though! Good luck with her this winter.

dannybgoode · 09-21-16, 12:01 PM

Thank you and keep the updates coming on Cloud. Lovely lovely snake.

Yes I'm getting a taste for carpets but boas will remain my favourite

stevo-d · 10-14-16, 09:58 PM

He's a great looking snake. Mine should be that size in no time. No offence but with a name like big snake girl I pictured you being a big girl. Your clearly not . My bad.

bigsnakegirl785 · 10-14-16, 10:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stevo-d

He's a great looking snake. Mine should be that size in no time. No offence but with a name like big snake girl I pictured you being a big girl. Your clearly not . My bad.

Yeah when I made my account the "bigsnake" refers to the fact I wanted a retic, and "girl" because that's what everyone assumes I am. lol I'm a very small person, just like my snakes to have some size to them.

It took him awhile to get to this size. At 1 year he was 2'7", and he reached 5'2" at 2 with some overfeeding, and at 3 years he was either 1" short of 6' or 6' even. He reached 6.5' at about 4-4.5 years old, and he should still be growing, but now that he's growing very little per year I measure him maybe once a year. I'm guessing he'll top out at 7'. If I didn't push him to his adult size prematurely he still has at least another year to grow, and several years beyond that to hit a few growth spurts.

Cloud's currently in shed but I should be able to get another meal or two in him before I fast him.

bigsnakegirl785 · 12-05-16, 03:44 AM

So Cloud tonight was very out of character. :/ I woke up from a bad dream where one of our friends had released all of my snakes and thought I heard a thunderstorm going on so I went to the snake room to check and make sure the heater was still going and everyone was ok.

When I flipped on the light, I saw everything was ok and then walked around the corner of Cloud's enclosure to look at him because he's usually out and about this time of night.

When I did I was greeted by a 6.5' boa in full-on defense mode and he struck the glass several times. He tried his hardest to get away from me, and eventually began hissing.

He clearly had been agitated for awhile because his bedding was flung to the side and his hides moved, and there was bedding in his water.

I thought maybe he was getting too hot from the heater, but my temp gun read his body at around 80-81F and nothing else in his enclosure was all that warm, either. All surfaces read anywhere from 79F to 83F.

Nobody else in the room was agitated, and I've entered the room similarly many times before over the year we've lived there and he's never once gotten defensive. He's literally never acted this way in his life.

I'll see how he's behaving when I get off of work and try to give him a once-over, but I'm kinda worried about him. I have no clue what could have set him off.

bigsnakegirl785 · 12-05-16, 03:48 AM

Btw: there was no thunderstorm and it wasn't even raining. A thunderstorm would have been my next guess but there wasn't one.

**Tsubaki** · 12-05-16, 06:52 AM

Doesn't have to be anything wrong perse, everyone can have an off day.. Maybe you caught him off guard? Hope he's all right.

bigsnakegirl785 · 12-05-16, 07:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tsubaki

Doesn't have to be anything wrong perse, everyone can have an off day.. Maybe you caught him off guard? Hope he's all right.

I'm hoping so, too. He was ok today behaviorwise but I decided not to take him out. I'm going to give him a bit more time to himself after that fiasco. Plus I've been up for 18-19 hours and I want to rest. lol I may end up taking him out later on in the night if I wake up or in a few days idk.

bigsnakegirl785 · 12-11-16, 05:53 PM

As an update, he's been acting perfectly normal since that incident. I've even flipped on the light and walked in several times, he has yet to be startled. :/

He's also going into shed now, but that normally doesn't affect his behavior beyond making him hide away more. He doesn't get pissy or defensive.

I guess I'll just chalk it up to a random occurrence.