Hi! (Newbie who rescued a young and injured snake)

[Mairi]

Goodness! I really feel welcome here.

Well, I am glad to report that my little girl is doing much, much better. My husband and I built her a larger habitat with a screened front to give her plenty of air. We also put in a humidity box and another couple of hides and things to explore and climb on. She is drinking water without spitting it up now (and doing a lot of swimming in her water dish), and seems much more relaxed in her new environment. The cage is a little large for her (since she will grow into it), but she seems to feel really secure (maybe because she has so many places to hide?). She even comes up to the front of the cage when we come into the room, and watches us with great interest. My son and I put one of his toy buildings in there for her, and she seems to have a lot of fun crawling in and out of it, and looping herself through the windows and doors. I could almost swear that she is playing!

That link to the care sheet was really helpful! Thanks so much for sharing it. I think that heating her cage properly (with a pad underneath the cage) is one of the things that has helped make her feel so comfortable. Designing a pretty terrarium for her with plants, logs, and rocks is my next goal and I think that it will be fun, but the Lego hides and toy building are cute for now.

I will give her another day or two to settle in and then try offering her some different foods to see what she likes best. I plan to eventually put her on a mouse diet because I have heard that it is the most nutritionally complete.

Her tail is doing much better, the swelling and bleeding that she had is already gone. I guess the Neosporin (and a clean environment, too) is helping. I didn't expect it to get better so fast, lol. It looks like the tip of it will probably fall off, but she seems quite content.

It's nice to be part of such a wonderful community!

Mairi

[Mairi]

One quick question. It said on the care sheet not to brumate a snake under 16" for breeding purposes. Does that mean that I shouldn't brumate my little girl this winter? Does it make a difference if she's so young? Do I brumate her if she goes off of her food around winter time?

Thanks for any help - I know that in most animals, taking care of babies is different than taking care of adults - didn't know if that applies to snakes or not.

[reptile3]

Hello Mairi, Welcome!!!

[Seere121]

Hello, and welcome. Just tossing in my two cents about Snakes.
If you decide to feed minnows, guppies, or goldfish, make sure that you have a vitamin powder with vitamin B1 listed because the fish above can cause B1 deficiency which is harmful and ultimately fatal to your new snake. B1 is also called Thiamin. Something I do with my garters as soon as they're big enough is to switch them to pinkies or fuzzies. The mice give the snake a more complete diet than the fish alone will, and you dont have to worry about Thiamin deficiency.

[Snaky]

Welcome and have fun here

[drache]

welcome to the forum, Mairi
don't worry about brumation just yet
good job saving the snake

[Mairi]

Update: My little girl won't eat! I have tried earthworms, whole pinkies, pinkie parts, worm-scented pinkie parts, and a guppy. I am very careful not to startle her when I put food into her cage, but she runs into her hide box and won't come out until I remove the food. She has sniffed the worms, but as soon as they twitch she runs away as fast as she can go. I tried wiggling one of the pinkie parts in front of her nose to see if I could get her interested in it, and she ran into her hide box and stayed there for the rest of the day. As long as I'm not trying to feed her, she is happy to crawl around her cage and explore. She plays in her water bowl, watches with great interest when someone is near her cage, and even investigates and climbs all over any new objects that are placed into her cage. But she appears to be absolutely terrified of anything that smells like food. I have made sure that her cage is clean and warm enough, she isn't in shed, and her tail is almost completely healed.

?!?!?

Did I get the world's most timid snake?! Are there some tricks that I can try (besides what I have tried above) that might help her to get interested in food? She appears to be healthy and energetic, but I am worried that she will starve to death. If she doesn't eat soon, my husband and I are thinking about releasing her back into the wild. I don't want her to suffer. There's no point in keeping a snake captive if I can't give her a good life and keep her happy. If it comes down to that, maybe I will see about finding an older snake (that is a proven eater, lol) to adopt. But I'm not ready to give up on my little girl quite yet.

Help!!!

Mairi o.O

[infernalis]

Have you tried placing a live fish or two in the water bowl??

Another option is to place a cut hunk of sod (Lawn) in the bottom of the cage, and release a few live worms in there.

Then the snake can hunt for food (just like in nature)

[Mairi]

Hmm, I will try that. The sod is an especially good idea. I think that she might eat an earthworm if she had some time to think about it (since she seems especially interested in the scent), but the earthworms die too fast when I put them in her cage. I will try both of those things and see what happens. Maybe making catching her food more interesting and natural (and hopefully, therefore, less scary) will spark her interest. I'll let you know what happens!

Mairi

[Odie]

Hi, from Oregon, Mairi