Alice the Bullsnake

I fed Alice another medium rat today. Last weeks rat weighed in at 95g. This week I went up to 99g. Once she grabbed the previously frozen rodent, I held onto the tail and gave it a little wiggle. She threw a couple more coils around it and wrestled it to the floor of the feeding bin. Once she was sure she had “killed” it, she quickly started searching for the head and gulped it down. At her size, these smaller medium rats leave just a very slight bulge in her body. Next weeks will be over 100g.

Since I brought Alice home, I have always used ZooMed Aspen Snake Bedding as her substrate. I found a product called “Premier Pet Aspen Bedding” at Tractor Supply for $10 that expands to 4 cubic feet. The savings was good enough that I decided to give it a try. While the ZooMed product is almost like straw, this aspen bedding is more like shavings. The bag lists snakes as one of the small animals that this bedding is suitable for. I am a little unsure of what Alice thinks of this change. It does not seem to be as easy for her to burrow in and I will have to keep an eye on her to see how it goes. I am sure this would be great for a snake that is not as prone to burrow.

The rats arrived the other day. I separated, weighed and labeled them this morning. They weigh from 95g to over 140g. The 95g looks like it will be an easy one for Alice and is about the same diameter as she is. Due to feed her again on Tuesday.

Alice was either grumpy or just a little nervous today. When I entered her room to feed her I thought I heard a little tail rattle. When I reached her habitat I could see that she was rattling her tail a bit. She turned towards me with her neck in an “S” shape. She stopped rattling her tail and watched me remove several items from her habitat. I placed my hand on the substrate in front of her and waited a minute. She started to crawl around and sniffed each one of my fingers. She then crawled across my hand so I could pick her up. I put her in her feeding bin and prepared a rat for her. True to form, she nailed the rat as soon as I reached inside the feeding bin with it. 30 minutes later I followed up with a large mouse. I have an order of medium rats arriving this week. Once I get them weighed and sized up, I can plan next weeks meal. It will be nice to be able to feed her one properly sized item instead of multiple items. Thanks, Jim

I have always used thermometers to keep track of habitat temperatures. In Alice’s habitat I have two digital thermometers. One one the warm end and one on the cool end. I used those in combination with her use of the habitat to gauge the temperatures she preferred. I thought I was doing a pretty good job of monitoring her living quarters. I had been reading that many keepers consider an IR temp gun to be their most important tool in reptile husbandry. About a couple of months ago I decided to get one and found one I liked on ebay.

What an eye opener. In Alice’s habitat, I had a heat mat on the warm end that stayed on all the time. In addition to the heat mat I have a thermostatically controlled ceramic heat emitter that is on a timer with her light. The heat mat was designed so that it could be used as a substrate heater and I had it covered with aspen shavings and did frequent checks by hand to make sure the surface temperature of the substrate over it felt slightly warm to the touch. I always made sure I kept the depth of the substrate over it within the manufacturer of the heat mats recommendations. On occasion I would find a part of the heat mat uncovered and would spread the aspen shavings back over it. When I received the heat gun I started to check out the habitat to make sure that everything was within range and it all looked good. Not long after that, I was cleaning out her habitat during a feeding. I had cleared the shavings off the heat mat and let the temperature normalize. I checked the surface of the heat mat and found out it was 130 degrees Fahrenheit. I could either add a rheostat to the heat mat to control the temp or stop using it. Since it is summertime, I decided to do away with the heat mat for now. If I decide to use it again in the cooler months, it will be with a rheostat to control the surface temperature.

Alice likes the change and uses her hide on the warm end more frequently. I will also be adding a humidity gauge to make sure that the humidity levels are proper in her habitat. I have a feeling it may be a little low as the a couple of her more recent sheds did not come off in one piece. Her health is good otherwise and since I have witnessed her soaking a few times in recent months, I think she might be telling me something. We will see what the humidity gauge reveals.

Alice shed this past weekend. She seemed to have a little more difficulty this time as the shed was in several pieces. Looking her over it looks like she got all the old skin off though. I fed her one small rat and one large mouse for a total of 81g. When I removed the top of her feeding bin, she lunged out over the top of the opening to see if I had anything else. Satisfied that I was not hiding anything from her, I lifted her up and placed her back into her habit.

When I got up this morning I could see that Alice’s eyes were clear again. Will not be long before the shed now 🙂

Will not be much to report until Alice sheds. She has been in her hide of the cooler side of her habitat since I fed her Tuesday. I am hoping she will shed before I start my work week. I don’t think that is very likely since her eyes just had a tinge of blue to them when I fed her.