T. eques cuitzeoensis behaviour

[chris-uk]

Snake in a bath...
IMAG0167.jpg

Lacrimosa doesn't seem to have got the idea, she's in there for some exercise, and although you can't tell from the photo... She's not actually swimming that much. I should expect it really, these are snakes that can happily spend 7 hours in a bowl of water, including those worrying spells completely submerged for 5-10 minutes. Oh, she's moved a bit while I've been typing, she's facing the other way now.

I'll give her a bit longer, but the bath was really poured for Lightning who is the resident Miss Pigg, so Lacky just got the leftover bath water. She could be there all night if I let her.

[guidofatherof5]

Some of them do like their water.

[chris-uk]

These guys are growing nicely. I realised I hadn't weighed them since the 3 November... so just had a weighing session with them.

Lacrimosa has porked up, going from 98g to 134g (36% increase) in 2 months. She's had one shed in that time.
Vlad has grown a bit slower, going from 68g to 86g (26% increase) in the months. He's also had one shed in between weighs.
They're feeding pretty much the same amount since they've been in seperate vivs, a mix of pinkies and trout once a week (generally it's about the equivilent to 2-3 pinkies), plus they get the leftovers from the checkered/blackneck midweek feed.

Both are still pretty skittish, Vlad is only happy when Char holds him, I think these are definitely going to be watching rather than holding snakes in the longer term. That means when they go into their 90cm viv next year I'll put some effort into providing a really nice environment for them, I've got plans for a pumped/filtered water zone which will cover about a third of the 90cm ExoTerra we have for them. Ideally I want to find some photos of the enviornment that they are found in, the photos I've seen of Lake Cuitzeo so far have been general landscapes, but I'm sure there must be photos out there.

[EasternGirl]

I have found that although my easterns do like to swim in their water dish...when I have tried to offer them a bath in the sink, they are so skiddish they just flip out and flop all over the place and try to jump out of the basin. I have also tried putting a large bowl of water in their enclosures for swimming, but they don't go near it...so I have given up for now on offering swim time. I'm not sure about Hermes yet...I will have to see how he feels about it when he is a little bigger.

[chris-uk]

Both our Cuitzeos have taken to spending all night in their water, they tend to be in their bowls when we go to bed and still there in the morning. Vlad spends longer in than Lacrimosa, Laci is sometimes out and in her hide in the morning.
I'm finding that Laci will come out to check out my fingers consistently, which is nice.

I nearly lost Laci this evening. In my jumper. I had her out while we watched Sherlock on TV for an hour and a half. She was out and about for just under an hour, then disappeared up my sleave and curled up to sleep around my shoulder for half an hour or so. She didn't want to come out, but I coaxed her out and she's back home in her viv. It's good that she's getting calmer and seems to enjoy contact with me, she doesn't settle as quickly with Char as she is with me.

Laci is becoming my favourite of the seven.

[Char361979]

I'm fine with this because Vlad is still a Mama's boy.

[kibakiba]

Snakey's a mama's boy too... In two ways! He loves being around B
ig Mama, and he loves being held with me. I hate having the little guy in brumation right now... I just want to pick him p and love on him, but I cant!

[chris-uk]

I think we'll be brumating the two Cuitzeos next Autumn.
All of ours are young enough to be awake at the moment, next year I think the Cuitzeos for sure, and the blacknecks. That will leave us with just the checkered girls out over the winter.

[chris-uk]

We have both Cuitzeos about to shed.

Vlad last shed on 26 November, and his eyes are clear today after being blue for the last few days. He'll shed at some point over the weekend. Vlad stops eating for a week before a shed so he should be hungry when it comes to his next feed (it's feed day today, but I won't even bother trying him today). I got a photo of him yesterday with white eyes, I'm sure his eyes went whiter than the checkereds' eyes do, and against the black skin... I'll upload the pic when I get a chance.

I just looked at Lacrimosa and he eyes are starting to cloud, she was clear yesterday evening. So it looks like she's a few days behind Vlad in the shedding stakes. She last shed on the 8 December, so we're seeing good growth rates from her considering she's 18 months old. Size-wise, she was 140g when I weighed her a few days ago, and she's around 90cm (so knocking 3' already). She's a good eater, and last ate on Monday, I'll skip her feed today because she didn't eat at this point in her last shed, and she was incredibly skittish when looked at her to check her eyes.

I'm really encouraged by the way these two are growing. I expect Lacrimosa is already the sort of size that we can expect the checkereds to get to in 3 years time, if she keeps growing at this rate we may have a female to compare to Steve Bol's largest (128cm).

[guidofatherof5]

A good update. Always nice to hear.