Taiwanese Beauty Snake Caresheet

11/2/14

I followed the standard Sunday routine of two defrosted medium mice and some privacy. It worked, she ate them both. I didn't do anything different than my last couple of posts in terms of thawing/prep/placement/etc. So I couldn't have been that far off in my guess at a good routine.

Prior to the feeding, maybe 6 hours earlier, I had taken her out and let her move around quite a bit, after a long warm up on me, she did just that.  And very much didn't want to be put back in her enclosure.  Good.

She seems to be getting much more use to being handled.  She never really had a problem with it, but now she just hangs out until I move around and she thinks it's time to play (read: escape).  And the 'staying on my wrist' time is getting better as well, I'm guessing that in a year or two of doing this I'll be able to take her out to a show or two, that'll be fun.

The night before that I gave her another warm water bath as there were some remnant scale flakes on her belly, hopefully that took care of them.  She still hates the bath.  I'm guessing that has more to do with being a semi-arboreal snake than it does with her specifically.

After what seemed like forever, but was really two missed feeds, and some very nervous behavior she shed and ate one mouse of the two offered.  I had been giving her nightly warm baths (which she hates) along with a moist hide to promote the shedding that was bound to happen.

The signs for a shed were all there, dull scales, clear then cloudy blue eyes then back to clear, etc.  During the bath last night I noticed the first pieces of shed starting to come off her belly scales, but even then just a little, so over the course of the bath I let her move through my nearly closed hand and by the end about 25% of her shed hand come off.  Later that night I noticed that she had made a full shed in her enclosure and was bright and moving around quite a bit let alone there was the rest of the shed sitting there. Awesome.  I had noticed her wheezing as she exhaled in the bath, thought it might be a sign of a respiratory infection or worse, but it was just because of all the shedding and stopped after she was done.

After I noticed that, I warmed up the first mouse and put it in with her, it didn't take her more than 15 minutes to find and consume it, but only after everyone left the room.  The next mouse didn't go so well, and she just wouldn't eat it.  So I removed it this morning.

All in all I'm feeling better and I'd guess so is she.

10/23/14 After the two mice weren't eaten I had decided to try again the next night, maybe this time she would eat. Last time there was a lot of activity, bath, cage cleaning, etc. So I decided to take her out prior to giving her a mouse and she was awfully nervous almost skittish. After looking her over I noticed she had a dull look to her scales and eyes, time for a shed! Her first one with me. So I prepared the moist hide by placing whetted paper towel, just damp, in a larger flat water bowl and putting that on the warm side of her cage and placing one of her hides over it. Hopefully this'll be enough. I also placed some 3"x4" coral fragments in there with her for her to rub on. And just in case, I gave her a new mouse later that night. The next morning, this morning, the mouse wasn't eaten and she had pooped. So I cleaned it out and threw away the mouse. Hopefully she'll fully shed well and soon and start eating again.

10/22/14

Wednesday was suppose to be bath day, weekly clean cage day, and feed day.

The bath and cage cleaning was fine, the feeding not so much.  I left two thawed mice in there with her, she wouldn't touch them, so I left them overnight, woke up this morning and they were still there.  So I threw them away, I'll try again tonight.

Maybe everything in one night is just too much stress for her, she's already a shy eater.

The bath went off without a hitch and she seemed to enjoy it, I might add a bath section to the beauty snake care sheet.

10/19/14

Feed:
Fed her the usual two medium mice except this time it didn't take her 30+ minutes to eat the first mouse, it was under 5 minutes.  I see this as a win.  Although this time she pulled it into her hide and ate it there.  The second mouse wasn't seen being eaten, but after a short while it was gone as well.

Equipment:
We went to the scott smith all animal expo
on sunday, purchased a 24"x12" section of already setup flexx watt, already crimped, corded, etc for $20, not too shabby.  There was a guy there who did it while you wait, slick.  Also picked up a medium flat pan water bowl for her, something much larger than she had so now she can soak if she wants.  Although I'd guess it'll be too small pretty soon.

The show was different this time, oddly enough, it had far more children and far far more rat snakes.  More of both than any other time I've been to it.  It was a great change.

Personally I don't care for

ball pythons
, geckos
, red-tail boas

, or chams
 a
nd that was 98% of the past shows there.  This is, for me, a great change.  From what I saw at the show, they had just about every new world rat snake for sale, amazing.

Images here except for the scott smith logo are from http://commons.wikimedia.org/ via a creative commons image search.  If any of these belong to you personally, and you would like them removed, just let me know, and they'll be taken down.

10/15/14 -

It appears that she's still very nervous about eating.  She doesn't immediately take food, let alone by tongs.  I'm not sure if it's the temperature of the food, her temperature, the quality of the mice, or some other factor.  I have a suspicion that she's just a shy eater, this is very contrary to what I've read and watched (via youtube) about these snakes.  They normally strike, constrict, thrash around, and generally go crazy with food.  She slowly, over the course of 30 to 60 minutes inspects the food, multiple times coming out of one of her hides to make sure it's there and to make sure there's no one in the room watching.  Then eventually she'll take the mouse, head first, and slowly eat it, no constriction, swallow quickly, and she's done.  Very not exciting.

This day, Wednesday, again I fed her two medium mice after thawing.

Thawing procedure I used:

Placed both frozen mice into a single zip lock bag, let the air out and sealed the bag.  From there I placed the bag into a bowl with a light weight on top of the bag to keep it down.  Filled the bowl as to cover the bag and weight with warm water.  Let that sit for about 10 minutes, emptied it, filled, wait, empty, fill, wait, for a total of 30 minutes.  I then pulled the bag out, and felt the mice to see if they felt even remotely cold to the touch, they didn't.  So I tonged one mouse into her cage and left it.  I left the other mouse in the bag.  After about 30 minutes she had eaten the first mouse, so I put the second one in her cage and again, left it.  About an hour later she had eaten it.

I don't know if I should try a third or not, I'll ask the vet tomorrow when she goes in for her checkup.