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Concolor1 Cphill58 Greatballzofire |
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Concolor1 View Profile |
’Tis a Beautiful Sight to Behold . . .
This is the little W/C Great Basin Gopher whose "hunger strike" I noted in a couple of threads below. I captured it on an outing with my kids last May (less than a mile from where I live), and it had obviously just eaten something huge. I took it home, gave it a cage with a warm spot, and watched as it promptly went into shed mode after digesting the tennis ball sized meal. Following that, it continued feeding on F/T mice until near the end of August . . . I am uncertain as to what prompted the snake to stop eating; an examination of its mouth led me to suspect mouth rot (stomatitis); I researched this condition in-depth on the Internet and a number of forums, and to my middle-aged eyes (augmented with high magnification reading classes), there may well have been some bleeding in the gums and other problems (there were dark spots around the teeth but no excess saliva or "cheesiness"); I opted for a couple of weeks of regular flushing with hydrogen peroxide along with topical applications of Neosporin (reasonable suggested remedies I found mentioned on a couple of sites). As fuel prices figure large in my livelihood, given the price of gas last fall a visit to the vet was saved as a last resort . . . The snake shed twice during this interval (and of course I cleaned its cage thoroughly since poor husbandry can be a cause of stomatitis), and in mid-December I elected to allow the snake to brumate, following JackAsp’s suggestions here (Thanks again, JA). This was relatively easy for me; I live in a townhouse apartment with a closet that borders the ouside and has no heat source, and I’d previously cooled a pair of corns successfully the year before. I made weekly checks on the snake (as well as on Momma and Poppa Corn), changing the water as indicated, without disturbing it much otherwise . . . And as I noted in GreatBallzofire’s thread below, this appears to have been successful... The photo above shows the snake eating the first of three hopper mice (that seemed about the right number to me); a week ago it took down a newly weaned mouse, and this time I fed it outside its cage . . . Some conclusions (and of course I’ll be playing close attention to its eating habits for some time): The snake was small enough I couldn’t be certain whether stomatitis was an issue; I think my treatments were reasonable and obviously caused no further harm, and the solution to brumate was also made with a good deal of deliberation . . . And of course there’s the obvious observation gleaned from this and other forums, which is that members of the Pituophis genus are prone to periods of refusing meals, and conventional wisdom on this subject should reflect this understanding . . . Too, as I reported in the thread below, I was genuinely surprised at how long a snake can go without eating, and I think this matter needs emphasis. Finally, as a general rule, captive-bred snakes should generally be preferred over W/C specimens; it’s relatively easy to determine whether a prospective pet is a good feeder, and with good husbandry and cleanliness, the average hobbyist is unlikely to encounter many difficulties . . . I’ve been to several shows now, and I’ve surveyed the offerings at all of the local shops, and the variety offered is uniformly excellent for those willing to be persistent. I am aware of a local morph found in a gopher snake population near here, and I’ll probably make an effort to obtain a couple to add the line to my modest collection (and make them available to others at some point), but otherwise I don’t foresee removing many more snakes from the wild. |
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| 04/16/09 09:16pm |
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Cphill58 View Profile |
Message To: Concolor1 In reference to Message Id: 1987301 ’Tis a Beautiful Sight to Behold . . .
Cp |
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| 04/17/09 04:18pm |
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Greatballzofire View Profile |
Message To: Cphill58 In reference to Message Id: 1987749 ’Tis a Beautiful Sight to Behold . . .
eNVy Reptiles
Striped Pacific gopher snake This is a natural morph that occurs in California. WANT! WANT! WANT! LOL! I plan on adding a pair of these to my collection. |
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| 04/18/09 09:13am |
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