Alice the Bullsnake

On the last post I mentioned I would leave the two uneaten weanling rats in Alice’s habitat overnight to see if she would take them. Both of the rats were still there the next morning. I knew she was hungry and it seemed to stress her being offered the rats. With that in mind I had decided to go back to feeding her mice if she did not accept the weanling rat at the next feeding. I waited 5 days and tried again. I thawed out 1 large mouse and two weanling rats in the same bag. I offered her the weanling rat first and she completely ignored it. After a while I decided to go ahead and offer her a mouse. She went nuts as soon as she caught the scent of it and ended up striking and missing the mouse resulting in Alice landing on the chaise lounge outside the feeding bin. She was frantically smelling around for the mouse and I wanted her back in the feeding bin. I reached to raise her back into the bin and she opened her mouth and started towards my hand thinking it was the mouse. Well I quickly released her before she even got close to my hand. I then held the f/t mouse near her head where she quickly snapped it out of my grasp. Once she had swallowed the mouse and started searching around again, I lifted her back into the feeding bin without issue. I went ahead and thawed out the remaining two mice as it appeared the rats would again go uneaten. When she is really hungry she will hiss a little bit while she is eating. When I offered her the second mouse I could hear Alice hissing as she was swallowing it. Once the hissing stopped, I could see her moving around and knew she had finished that mouse. She did not seem to move around much before I heard her hissing again. I then wondered if she had decided to eat the rat. Once the hissing stopped, I waited a little while and offered her the last mouse I had. Once I opened the bin to feed her another mouse I could see that she had indeed eaten the rat. Awesome. Unfortunately, I had already tossed the second rat out into the woods as I was sure she was not going to touch them this week. She quickly ate the last mouse, again with some hissing in the process. This ended up being a lite feeding for her as it was probably around 90 grams total. I will continue to offer the rats for now but make sure I have enough large mice to provide a good feeding when she refuses them.

Petsmart has been having sales on reptile supplies on a regular basis. When I was in there recently, I picked up another driftwood that I wanted to attach to the floor of Alice’s habitat to provide her with a real piece of wood to climb to replace the artificial one I have had since she was much smaller. She now has two pieces of driftwood in her habitat and she just seems to love them. When she is out of her hides, she always seems to be either laying on or around one of the pieces of driftwood. I will get a picture later to post of the new decor.

Another semi-successful try to get Alice back on rats. I defrosted two rat weanlings in a bag with a large mouse. I did not rub the scent of the mouse directly on the any of the rats. I offered her the first rat and she eventully ate it. I gave her a second one that she started to swallow and spit it out. Thinking she had actually eat the second rat, I offered her a third rat weanling. I could see her biting at it however she never started to swallow it. Al least she ate one rat this week. She last ate one weanling rat and a large mouse two weeks ago. Right now she still appears to be hunting and I will leave the two weanling rats in her habitat tonight to see will take anything else.

The last time Alice ate, she had a weanling rat after a large mouse. I tried to feed her today and she just did not seem that interested in a weanling rat. She was offered both white and brown ones to see if a dark color would spark something. Maybe she will be more interested in them this coming weekend.

After Alice refused the weanling rats on the 19th, I decided to see if we would have better results with todays feeding. I scented the rat with a mouse before placing it in her feeding bin. She was hungry and acted interested in the rat. At least once she did start to swallow it, however she spit it back out before getting past the shoulders. After a while I tried again with a new scented rat. I fed her the mouse first to get her warmed up. After she had swallowed it, I offered the rat to her. I dragged it around a bit and would twitch it and pull the rat away from her each time she got close. At that time she did not grab the prey item. I closed the lid and left her alone. While watching from a distance I could see her eating the 2nd weanling rat. This was a rather light meal for her so I am sure she will be ready to eat again in a week or less. I am hopeful that she will cointinue down this path and I can get her back to at least a couple of small rats if not the mediums she was eating before.

Alice seems to be going through a “I think I am fat” stage. She only ate 4 of the large mice I offered her today. Bull Snakes are known for going off feed from time to time. She weighs in at 5 lbs 7 oz according to the fish scales (easiest way to weigh a larger, active snake). These are not as accurate as the gram scales that are sold for this purpose, however if you are careful and get the weight several times, you can get a reasonably accurate result and tell if the snake is gaining or losing any significant amount of weight.

I had Alice out today for a habitat spot clean. I handled her for a little while and then put her in the holding bin that I use for this purpose. She poked her head out and rested it on the top edge of the bin before I could get the lid on it. Since she just seemed curious and not looking for an escape route, I left her alone. While I was walking back and forth getting paper towels and scooping out the poo, her head just followed me around. I gave the cleaned floor of the habitat a spray with Healthy Habitat and wiped it dry. Turned around to see she was still watching me. She finally lost interest in me and lowered her body inside the bin so I could put the lid on and wash her water bowl. I will probably wait until Sunday to feed her unless she shows signs of hunger on Wednesday.

Feeding day for Alice. I decided to try a jumbo mouse again mixed in with the large mice. As soon as I tried the jumbo on her she decided she could not trust taking anything from my hand. She refused it and would only take the remaining mice off the floor of the feeding bin. She accepted all 7 of the 7 large mice I offered her.

Alice seems to be enjoying the new habitat and the changes that I made. She is making use of both sides of the habitat and is hiding less. The darker color inside seems to provide greater security when the lights are off and she is out and about. Plus, the heating from below instead of a lamp or heat emiter is better suited to her as it does not provide any heat to the cool end. I will feed her today or tomorrow. She has been on the hunt 🙂

I had noticed that Alice way staying on the cool end of her habitat even after moving her into her new home. Household temps had been warmer than what I would like the cool end to be so it seemed she preferred the temp there. I decided to switch her cool and warm end hides today and Alice has coiled up in the hide that is now on the warm end. She has apparently outgrown the large hide that was previously on the warm end. I fed her 7 large mice today. I offered her an 8th, however it burst open as she was eating it and she lost interest and spit it out.