Alice in her transport box
Alice came out of the box I use to transport her back from her feeding bin on Friday and made about seven tunnels in her habitat. Since then she has stayed curled up in the box, however she is moving around in it on a regular basis. She is due again to shed and I am sure that is what is going on with her right now.
Here is a short video of Alice at mealtime. She had already had one mouse and this is the second one. These are pre-killed large frozen mice. I always feed her in this plastic bin.
Based on her activity levels and her defecation schedule I am moving Alice to two large mice every week instead of every week and a half. Today is feeding day and I will get her on a regular schedule Tuesday week. She has started doing this “Shamu” type of feeding activity where she grabs the mouse out of the tongs as soon as I move it over the feeding bin opening. As she grabs it out of the tongs, she has already thrown a coil around it before she goes crashing back down into the feeding bin. It reminds me of these trained dolphins and whales that grab a fish out of the trainers hand by leaping out of the water. I don’t do anything to encourage this behavior and worry that she may injure herself in being so aggressive at feeding time. This is another reason for the feeding schedule change. If I can get a decent video of it I will post it.
I have also moved Alice back upstairs for the cooler months. It is warmer upstairs and easier to keep her habitat at proper levels during these cooler months. I will move her back down to the main level once warmer weather returns in the spring.
Alice has continued eat well and is getting more confortable around people. She is over 3.5 foot long now and I think she is getting ready for another shed. She has been staying on a 6 week shed cycle since I acquired her in January 2009.
I have read that most of the bites owners receive from their pet snakes are feeding related. Things like forgetting to wash your hands after touching a prey item or a surface that contains the prey items scent. Also using your hands to feed the snake instead of using tongs. Being cautious of those errors, I wash my hands often when feeding Alice and handling her as well as using tongs to present the prey to her.
Although I was not bitten during her last feeding, my hand was mistaken for a mouse and chased out of the feeding bin. I fed her two large frozen mice last Wednesday. She stayed in feed mode way longer than usual this time. Every time I would open the bin, she would rapidly come out of the hide I put in there for her. She struck at the side of the bin twice because she saw movement. I cover the entrance of her hide with a piece of cardboard to keep her calm when transporting her back to her habitat. I had tried this several times already and each time she had come charging out of the hide looking for the prey item. I thought I had it under control and was going to be successful when she stayed in her hide as I approached it with the cardboard piece. It was then I noticed her attention switched to the hand holding the cardboard. As I started to withdraw my hand, she opened her mouth and rapidly chased my hand across the bin.
This was all rather amusing and finally ended with her allowing me to cover the entrance to her hide and transporting her back to her habitat. I will feed her again on Tuesday. I wonder if she will repeat the last feeding behavior :-\
Odd subject, I know. I have mentioned that Alice loves to burrow in her substrate. So guess what else she does while she is in one of her tunnels? I was looking for the usual, large bowel movement that follows a shed. Well, two days after the “Ole Blue Eyes Again” post, I lifted up her Rock Outcroppings to find her and the shed skin that took place a day or two after that post. There were no feces in sight and I know it is under the substrate somewhere. She has taken to going to the bathroom in this manner and does so on a regular basis. I can’t help but wonder if this is a survival tactic. In the wild, do Bull Snakes do this to avoid tracking by predators or does it mark a tunnel as theirs? It’s really the only reasons I can think of for this behavior. I guess it could be coincidence she does this. She crawls around on the surface of the substrate as much if not more than she tunnels.
Later on today I will feed her another couple of large mice.
I noticed Alice’s nose sticking out of her transport box last night before going to bed. She was sniffing around a little bit and then pulled her head back inside the box. This morning I noticed she had left the box and most likely crawled into her Rock Outcroppings. I guess she will shed before the end of the week.
Watching the website stats, I see what search strings land people here. Here is a short list of suggestions to help those in search of more information on Bull Snake care and feeding.
A Bull Snake is not a good beginner snake in general. You may acquire one of the really well behaved ones, however you really do not find that out until it is settled into its habitat. Alice is a good example. When I bought her at the local Repticon event, she was curled up inside one of those clear butter bowl containers you typically see them kept in at such events. She was handled by the breeder and myself there without a single tail rattle or hiss. After getting her home and set up in her habitat, I could tell there was more taming to do. Most likely her initial calmness was due to the cooler temps in the building where I bought her. Once she was warmed up to normal levels for her species, she was more likely to give warnings like tail rattles and some hissing. I have owned snakes before and am comfortable with her moodiness.
Read several Bull Snake care sheets. On the right side of the page under Blogroll, you will see links to a few of the care sheets I have used to guide me with Alice. A quick Google, Yahoo, whatever search will turn up several others to read through. Of the many suggestions you will find on those sheets is to give the snake something they can burrow in. I am thrilled with aspen shavings for the odor control as well as the fact that Alice seems to really enjoy tunneling through it.
Bull Snakes are generally good eaters. I could easily over feed Alice. It is every bit the health risk to over feed your pet snake as it is in humans. Follow the suggestions in the care sheets and do not try to “force” growth by over feeding. At the time of this writing, Alice is around 3.5 feet long and one year old. I am feeding her 2 mice about the same diameter as her largest body area every 7 days or so (no noticeable lump in her body after feeding). She is still growing at a rapid rate and I will feed her less often as she matures. Once you get to know your snake better, you will be able to tell when they are ready to eat again by their activity level.
While on the subject of feeding, use a separate container for feeding your Bull Snake. This feeding container should not have a substrate the snake can ingest. I line Alice’s feeding bin with paper towels to make it easy to keep clean and to provide her with a surface she can more easily move on. I also have a hide box in it that I use to transport her back to her habitat a few hours after she eats. Keeping the feeding quarters separate helps the snake to realize when it is feeding time and helps to prevent accidental bites.
When I got Alice out of her Rock Outcroppings to feed her today I noticed the slight blue ting to her eyes. She still happily accepted a couple of large mice. I am glad she is such a good eater. This way she does not go way past her regular feeding schedule when she is getting ready to shed.
