Alice the Bullsnake

I fed Alice again on Monday. While I had her out, I changed out her hide again. The first flower pot was too tall and just looked odd to me. I discovered that azalea pots were much shorter and I used one of those this time. One other bonus is that it is slightly larger at 8.5″ in diameter. I stuck with feeding her one large mouse and one small rat for a total of 70 grams.

From the beginning I have fed Alice in a separate feeding bin and transported her back into her habitat using a hide that she would crawl into after feeding. I would always wait about 3 hours after feeding and I used this process to reduce stress on her. As she has grown, she has become slower about crawling into the hide in her feeding bin. Several times she has just crawled out over the top of the bin and I would just pick her up and set her back in her habitat. Again today when I fed her she showed no interest in hiding when I removed the top on the feeding bin. She ended up crawling over the top of the bin and was smelling of the computers mouse. I lifted her up and placed her back in her habitat. She is curled up in her extra large cave on the hot end digesting today’s meal. I went back up to one small rat and one large mouse for a total of 69 grams.  She seems much happier this week.

I cut Alice back to 1 small frozen rat this week as I felt she was slightly overfed by adding the large mouse last week. She still seemed to be expecting more though so I will try to feed her again on Sunday.  I did the usual habitat cleaning while I had her out for feeding. After I had removed the feces I found buried in the aspen shavings, I could still smell a little something. I checked the database and discovered it was due to be changed. Once all of that had been taken care of, I put Alice back in her habitat. Either she was ticked about the lighter meal (still made a slight bulge in her belly) or she just did not recognize her habitat. When I peaked in on her later, her body was flattened out and she was shoveling the bedding around with her head. I have never seen her flatten her body like that except when she was agitated about being touched.

All that aside, she continues to tolerate handling better and better each time. I can hear her breathe sometimes when I am handling her, however it has been a while since I have even had a tail rattle. To date she has only really hissed at me once when I had only had her a few weeks and when she grabs her dinner she lets out a little hiss with her mouth full of fur.

Alice had quit using her Rock Outcroppings as a hide due to her size. I made her a larger hide for the cool side by cutting an opening in the side of an 8 inch clay flower pot and plugging the small hole in the bottom with a champagne cork. It does not look like long before I will be using a 10 inch flower pot or something even larger. I fed her one small frozen rat and one large frozen mouse for a total of 68 grams on Tuesday.

Alice has been out of hiding most of the time recently. She usually gets a little more visible about three or four days after she is fed. She will have a couple of days of activity and then go back into hiding most of the time. I fed her last Tuesday and she has been active and in plain view most of the time since Thursday. It’s really nice to see her out and about more. I got her out to handle her a little while this afternoon. Never a hiss or tail rattle until I put her back in her habitat. I think she is getting hungry and that makes her a little more touchy, She started to vibrate her tail as I pulled my arms back out of her habitat. She is due on Tuesday, however I may break down and feed her a large meal on Monday.

I went to the Atlanta Repticon today to look around and see what all was there. While I was there I saw “Green Desert Reptiles (if I have the name right) and a 4 year old male Bull Snake. He was 6 or 7 feet long and very active, but gentle. Beautiful snake. I also got to speak with the breeder I bought Alice from and give him an update. I did not see anything I needed for Alice today and headed home after an hour or so. Alice has been more active than usual after I fed her last Wednesday and I found her buried in her substrate with her head exposed when I got home.

Alice did shed on Wednesday. It came off in two pieces, which is unusual for her. It broke just above the anal vent. I thought I was going to have to assist her, however as she started to crawl again, it slid right off. I fed her three large mice later that evening.

Just removed her Rock Outcroppings to check up on Alice. Her eyes still have a slight blue tinge. She stretched her jaws several times and crawled over to another hide on the warmer end of her habitat. Hoping she will shed in the next  couple of days.