Profile: BERTHA

cenecker · 03-31-12, 09:20 PM

Bertha was actually named by my wife. You can guess what the name implies... At 7 feet long and a little over 36 lbs she is the undisputed QUEEN of our collection.

She's got an interesting back story. I found her on craigslist a year ago. She was in awful shape. She had a terrible respitory infection and suffice to say I've never seen so many mites in my life. When I got her home I immediately put her in the bathtub in an attempt to provide some relief from the mite infestation. Literally, the entire surface of the bath water was covered by drowning mites.

Luckily, shes a fighter. A trip to the vet and a few weeks of meds and isolation and the mites were gone. Her respitory infection is cured but she will forever breath with a rasp due to scar tissue in her lungs. I've never seen such a recovery. She's healthy, active, and currently the proud mother of what I estimate at almost 50 eggs (maternally brooding...no way I'm trying to take them...).

The best part is she's an absolute puppy. Even after weeks of oral injections (it required me holding her head with two hands and laying on her, and my wife injecting the meds with a catheter), she never once tried to bite.

CK SandBoas · 03-31-12, 09:23 PM

Wow!!! Bertha is absolutely gorgeous! Good luck with her future offspring that she is currently residing over

Trent · 03-31-12, 11:41 PM

Nice looking snake!

Trollbie · 04-01-12, 12:07 AM

Awwww! She knows you saved her

Gungirl · 04-01-12, 03:15 AM

It is always nice to hear a story with a good ending but I think we need more pictures..

CDN_Blood · 04-01-12, 04:15 AM

Nice to see some adult Bloods here. I've seen this image and a few others of you with her recently as I was surfing around, so glad to see you're here with us now

marvelfreak · 04-01-12, 05:22 AM

Sweet looking girl. We diffidently need more pictures of this beauty. My hat off to you for saving her.

exwizard · 04-01-12, 05:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cenecker

The best part is she's an absolute puppy. Even after weeks of oral injections (it required me holding her head with two hands and laying on her, and my wife injecting the meds with a catheter), she never once tried to bite.

OOoh Yeah!! Berthas an awesome name for such a big and beautiful snake! My hat off to you as well for rescuing her from such an awful situation. I can relate to the whole oral medication treatment. We had to do this with Lulu and its not fun, neither for us nor for her. Congratulations and may continue to be healthy and she give you 20+ more years.

alessia55 · 04-01-12, 11:20 AM

That's a really great story- she really looks like she made a huge comeback. She looks great

You should most more photos of her!

Hillsberry · 04-01-12, 11:21 AM

She looks great!! She is beautiful!!

Caylan · 04-01-12, 06:43 PM

Beautiful snake, what a cool colour!! I hope Lucy gets that big!

SerpentLust · 04-02-12, 08:58 PM

Fantastic creature! And good on you for the rescue

cenecker · 04-04-12, 03:10 AM

To the credit of the person I got the big girl from, the poor guy was terrified of this snake, I don't think she'd been out of her cage in quite a while. When I let him know the extent of her medical problems, the guy gave me my money back, which helped to cover the vet bills.

Thanks everyone for the kind words. She's the largest blood python I've ever seen, but I read rumors there are 9 footers out there. She's still shedding (by which I mean GROWING), with a little luck she's got ten more years and couple more feet ahead of her!

CDN_Blood · 04-04-12, 05:57 AM

At least he did the right thing and refunded your money. It's nice to see that some people still have some morals out there, lol.

As for the 9 footers, I think you'll find those would be brongs, but it wouldn't surprise me if there are a couple of breits out there who are old enough now to be near that size. I do recall seeing an image of a 9 foot brong years and years ago and haven't been able to find a copy of it since. She was a big girl for sure.

The largest brong I've seen was about 7 feet, and about the same for both breit and curtus. I was really surprised to see a curtus as long as the guy that was stretched-out on the lawn beside it, but under captive conditions it's really not terribly surprising how much bigger they get than they would in the wild, so who knows, you just might get another foot or so out of her as time marches on. Keep us posted

Don't forget that we're picture junkies, so the more the merrier!