OH!........I'm so proud........

Mark Rios

Member
Messages
797
Location
Central CA
I've kept snakes since I was about 16 years old. So, naturally, I've had my snakes shed dozens of times. Well, this morning when I first got up at about 5:30 I walked by my snake enclosure and saw my boa seemingly grinding her nose into the floor, sorta rocking back and forth. I've never seen this before but all of the sudden it hit me, it's going to start to shed! I've never been able to see a shed start, let alone get to watch the whole process. I've seen a snake finish a couple of times but never got to watch the whole thing. I quickly poured a cup of coffee and got a chair and watched the show. It only took about ten minutes. It was a perfect shed, with one complete section of skin, from tip of the nose to the tip of the tail.
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That section of deck is 8" long. The skin is about 7 1/2 feet but it stretches a little when the snake sheds. The snake is actually just about 7 feet.

Now that my boa has shed, she's in food mode and she's constantly roaming the enclosure looking for food. I guess tomorrow I'll be going to get a couple of big ratty rat rats.


Just wanted to share.
 
Mark, just make sure it's rats that snake gets and not those dogs, you, or any member of your family:eek:

Personally I am one of those who doesn't like to be close to snakes...not that I don't believe there is a definate need for snakes in the cycle of life....it's just that my 2 older brother scared the heck out of me when I was around 4 or 5 with snakes. They put them in my boots and chased me around the barn and the yard with snakes...it left a lasting "scared" impression with me, and now I avoid them whenever possible.
 
Mark,
That’s a very cool thing to be able to observe! Congratulations!

When we moved to this hilly rural farmstead from Minneapolis in the mid sixties my brothers and I dug up some snake eggs and hatched them in a makeshift terrarium. We let them go back to the wilds, but it was fun to handle them.

Once I was felling a tree for firewood with an axe on a steep hillside and discovered a good sized bull snake (5 or 6 foot), coiled on the ground between my legs. Way quicker than you can think, much less say, “fight or flight”, I killed the snake with the axe. Then, realizing that there had actually been no threat, I regretted my reaction. I’ve carried a vivid memory of this since adolescence.

Maybe you could share pics of your boa with us. I know I’d be interested.

Frank Chaffee
 
Where I grew up, on the west side of the lake we had rattles, hiking up a path, nothing sends a chill down you spine as when you hear that sound:eek:

A big enough one makes good eating too :D

In general, I don't mind snakes at all, I think they are kind of cool, but the rattlers, I kill them faster than I can even be scared, if they are too darn close to me, otherwise, I just back away and take a different path!

Neat story about the sheding, I wonder if it hurts? :confused:

Cheers
 
.........Neat story about the sheding, I wonder if it hurts? :confused:

Cheers

NO. I don't believe it hurts. Not from what I've been told by vets anyway. But it is hard on their system. They don't do much at all during the few days leading up to a shed. The first sign that I see in mine (I only have one right now) is the eyes will get cloudy; this would be the eye scale loosening off of course. This will last for anywhere from 48 to 72 hours. Then, the eyes will clear but they won't move hardly at all for about 24 to 48 hours more. Then, all of the sudden, I'll walk by the enclosure and she will be moving around and there will be a shed skin and, usually, a nice fresh pile of poop. :D I try not to move or handle this snake while she's in this shed period 'cause she gets kinda crabby. She's only struck at me once when I've had to move her while her eyes were cloudy but I can tell that she never likes it.

These pics are about 6 months old. I'm feeding fairly frequently so that the snake will grow rapidly so that I can get an idea of how big this one will get. Then I can build a larger permanent enclosure.
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This boa is the best eater I've ever had. She'd eat constantly if I'd let her. She eats quick, kills clean (no mistakes) and truly seems to enjoy it (I realize that this comment is me as a human assigning human things to animals).

BTW, since we're on the subject of my snake, how I got her is kind of a neat story.

A talk radio station I listen to at midday has a host that has been on the radio (in one form or another) in that city for 35+ years. Needless to say, he has quite a local following. He's not a political or "shock jock" host, just a local issue main topic in the news type of host.

Anyway, his daughter is a vet. (Stay with me here.) She and another vet ran a cat rescue clinic/foundation. When Katrina hit the gulf coast, the two vets went down to help. They went down, with permission, totally volunteer and they were funded, including vehicle by her dads listeners. We all heard daily updates of the animals (thousands) and the people and of the problems and trouble.

These two vets decided to bring some of the animals home to the central valley here, and made arrangements to do so. Then hurricane Rita came in and all displacement plans for the animals were cancelled and the vets (most all of them) were sent back home, out of the way of Rita.

Well, the radio hosts daughter has never been one to leave a job undone and went on the radio with her dad to talk about the animals and her experience and her frustration with not being able to get the animals that had been assigned to her, roughly 100 (85 +/- cats, 15 +/- dogs, a pot belly pig, a turtle (I think) and a snake.) One of the radio guys listeners (or someone that works for him) happens to be someone of considerable means. So, he anonymously donated his jet to go back and rescue "her" animals.

They held the cats and dogs for their owners for whatever length of time was required and they were able to return almost all of them to their owners. However, the pig, turtle and the snake needed to be adopted out asap as they didn't really have facilities for these animals. The word went out to the radio listeners for adoption and I IMMEDIATELY :D called and adopted the snake. I drove two hours each way and picked it up. I saw that it was in very fine health when I got it and my snake vet confirmed it during an initial check up and it's been living happily ever after.

The End. :D
 
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