Cuddles!

[EasternGirl]

It isn't very helpful when you are already feeling bad to have someone threaten you with a hospital. The last thing a person in a vulnerable place needs is to feel more of a sense of losing control. Migraines are the worst...I have chronic ones...feel better, Ashley. Just remember you always have us to talk to....

[PINJOHN]

It isn't very helpful when you are already feeling bad to have someone threaten you with a hospital. The last thing a person in a vulnerable place needs is to feel more of a sense of losing control. Migraines are the worst...I have chronic ones...feel better, Ashley. Just remember you always have us to talk to....

strange you mentioning a fear of hospitals as i am due to attend my local hospital for a scan on Tuesday, now while this would normally bother me not at all, this visit entails me showing of all my delicate parts and if that's not enough they will be running them through some bloody scanning machine to record their image for posterity no doubt,..the only upside to this terrifying experience is for the nurses and other female staff who will be under the impression that they have George Clooney standing in their treatment room buck naked.

so there you are Ashley hospitals do have an upside

[EasternGirl]

We will expect postings of the pics John...uh..oh...there's that dirty mind again! Lol... That actual sounds horrible...sorry you have to do that. If it makes you feel any better, I have surgery in April and the male doctor gets to cut out some of my female parts...not exactly looking forward to that...actually staying overnight in the hospital is what I dread the most...I hate staying in hospitals...then again, does anyone actually like staying in hospitals?

[PINJOHN]

[QUOTE=EasternGirl;197694]We will expect postings of the pics.John....no.
.then again, does anyone actually like staying in hospitals ​no

[acovert]

then again, does anyone actually like staying in hospitals?

Some people do! Like homeless people, who get fed and have a bed to sleep in, or people who want attention all the time.
I can't eat hospital food. Just looking at it makes me nauseous. I think the most I ever managed when I was in the hospital a year and a half ago (when my mom was having a c-section and my brother was born) the most I was even able to stomach was the french fries - and even those were questionable.

I never did like hospitals to begin with. I was blessed with a phobia of needles from my father (genetic phobias are the worst) so I get nervous being anywhere near a hospital because I associate it with surgery and needles and such. I was threatened with a hospital several months back because I wanted to take a whole sleeping pill instead of a half. I have insomnia and I was on a new sleeping medication, which was dangerous because of my mental state but I desperately needed sleep. I'd already taken the half and it wasn't working because I was sick and having problems. When I said "sleeping pills" my friend panicked and threatened to call 911, even though I was referring to two halves. She texted me, said she was going to call 911, and when I texted her to explain myself and beg her not to she didn't answer for a really long time and I started panicking. That's where the fear of hospitals started to get worse. If someone called the paramedics now, I'd be gone in an instant; they'd never find me. (I also started really disliking hospitals when I saw my mom after her c-section. She looked miserable and so sick and that just terrified me)

But anyways, I feel much better this morning. I'm still fighting nasty headaches and my throat is swollen and sore, but that will fade eventually. No hospitals for me! I even managed some chicken noodle soup when I woke up this afternoon (took me until 5am to fall asleep because I couldn't get the headache under control). I'm sticking to bland, safe foods - saltine crackers, chicken noodle soup, and (eventually) toast if I think I can stomach it. I hope to be on more substantial foods by tomorrow.

It's been tough. I haven't been allowed to play with or hold my brothers because mom doesn't want them sick. I'm too afraid to touch Cuddles because I don't want to make him sick if it's some sort of bacterial infection he can catch. At this point it's looking like some kind of 24-hour bug. Once I'm through today and I've managed to clean myself and my room up I'll feel better about handling my Cuddles.

I took pictures of him last night!
SAM_1667.jpgSAM_1669.jpg
I noticed he was sleeping underneath his log, where he started to create his own hide. He moved back into the cave later because he wasn't under the log when I woke up and I'm watching him peek out of the cave now xD

Is a 10gal tank big enough for him? He's barely eight inches long at this point and I don't anticipate him getting especially large or anything. And I'd like to get another snake eventually (same species - probably a wild-caught garter). Will a 10gal be big enough for two northwesterns?

[EasternGirl]

I'm glad you're feeling better! My son inherited a skiddishness concerning medical things and the like from his father...who is terrified of anything medical. I'm the exact opposite...takes a lot to bother me, so I wish he was more like me...but oh well. I don't know exactly how big northwesterns get...I know males are generally smaller than females in all the species...but my male eastern who is quite small is already 2 1/2 feet long at 2 years old. I personally wouldn't put two snakes in a 10 gallon...in fact, I have my baby, Hermes...who is probably a little smaller than Cuddles...in a 20 gallon already. The more space for exploring the better. Not saying that Cuddles isn't okay in a 10 gallon for now...but in case he gets bigger, and if you want to put another snake in there at some point, I would consider getting a 20 gal. Look on Craig's List for people selling them for cheap. I've seen other members do that.

[acovert]

Yeah. I got the phobia from my dad and mom knows it's genetic (didn't grow up with my dad around, so I couldn't have just picked it up from him), but she picks on me for it anyways. She talks to me like I can just stop being afraid of needles of my own free will. It gets annoying. But, hey, she thinks snakes are creepy and won't touch them because she's afraid, so she can't complain about me being afraid of something!

From what I've read on northwesterns it sounds like they don't generally get over three feet in length, and that's about the maximum. I'd say he'll stay around a foot and a half to two feet once full grown, but that's just my guess for now at his size.

Once I have more resources at my disposal I want to start adding in platforms to make use of the height. Do you have any suggestions on how to do that? I'm not really good at building things, though I can get creative xD
I know tape isn't safe. What kind of substances are good for attaching a platform to a glass wall?

Also, I have another problem that I need to fix. The lid on my tank doesn't fit very well because the tank I have was designed a bit differently and had a special lid. I broke that lid years ago, when the tank was no longer in use. It had a special door and everything and slid back and forth for opening. It was really handy with those horrible lizards I kept in it (by horrible I mean, as wonderful as they were they really loved to try escaping and those critters are fast!).
Here's my problem...
SAM_1671.jpg
As you can see, there's a gap there, though that's less of a problem at the moment because he would have to physically lift the lid to get out there (there's a gap between the tank and the overhang of the lid, but not between the top of the tank and the lid, if that makes sense). It needs to be addressed, but there's a more pressing problem.

The real problem is at the back of the tank:
SAM_1673.jpgSAM_1672.jpg
There's a significant gap there where he can definitely find a way out. That's where the old lid used to clip onto the tank, so that side is shorter than the other sides. He hasn't tried to escape from it - he sat up there once, but shows no interest in trying to actually escape the tank, thank goodness - but that doesn't mean he won't. I haven't figured out what to do with it yet. Any suggestions?

[guidofatherof5]

Does this lid slide on or sit on top?

[acovert]

It sits on top. I wanted a sliding one that would fit, but all they had was something I could sit on top. I was a little frustrated with their options.

[guidofatherof5]

So you have it flipped upside down sitting on top?