Fell In love with a backyard snake.. looking for advice!

[Ryachanira]

Doing well this morning; he ate the second nightcrawler yesterday so I suppose I will go ahead and stick another in today, since you mentioned every day to every other day with worms. They seem fairly plump, so hopefully they are good food for him. I have not been cutting them up or anything, just sticking them in his cage whole. But I kind of assume that is how he was eating outside just a few days ago (if he was eating much at all, poor guy), and so far no issues... should I be slicing them up for him?

Here are tail pictures. I am conflicted because it seems to taper fairly fast BUT there seems to be a small lump. Not as clear as some of the other pictures on here (to me, granted I am brand new at this!) but I am thinking maybe male? I will let you all decide.





I was also curious about the tip of his tail - it looks a bit damaged maybe? I totally had not noticed it until I took these pictures.

Yesterday when I got home I found him at the very top of the branch in his enclosure, basking in the heat lamp. I was happy to see how much he had moved, since he continues to be just a bit less active. But I think he is making progress!

[infernalis]

That is such good news. Really wishing all the best and it's nice to see how much you care.

[guidofatherof5]

I would say you have a male in the first photo and female in the second photo.
Treat that tail tip with some antibiotic ointment.
Great news on the eating. Keep up the good work.

[Ryachanira]

So I guess that means he is ambiguous gender, haha. I agree it kind of depends on the pictures, that is why I posted two... Will it be easier to tell when he gets a bit older?

[kibakiba]

I had originally thought Snakey was a female, but as he got older it was more obvious. How long is he again?
Worms are easier for the snakes to eat when they're cut up, and it also gives it less of a chance of having any bedding stuck on the worm. Snakey likes live, non-cut worms, but they crawl out of his mouth, so I have to cut them for him to be able to safely eat them without having runaway meals. I'm not sure if that happens with your guy, but if he prefers them live and they aren't giving him any problems, I'd say go ahead and keep feeding him live ones.

Oh, and he does look like a male to me... It's a little hard to tell though.

[guidofatherof5]

If those are photos of the same snake I will have to say the lighting really through me.
Very interesting.

[kibakiba]

You can kind of tell that it is the same snake On the tail, near the cloaca there is a line in the middle of the scale, it's on both pictures. And a little lump starts at the cloaca and goes about 6 scales down. I've been up for 24 hours... Don't blame me for being oddly observant when I'm out of my mind.

[Ryachanira]

They are both of my Silv, I only have one snake - never thought I would even have the one! I just took the photos on different settings. One is on macro setting with light adjusted a bit and the other is a regular shot. I tried to get several different pictures and then pick the best to let you guys have a few different views.

[Ryachanira]

Also one question about the antibiotic ointment - is this something I would get from a pet store, or do I just use some sort of neosporin on his tail?

[Charis]

Neosporin works well. It's actually fairly normal for WC snakes to be missing bits of their tail.