It’s now at least 9 days since he had blue eyes. Stuck my head right inside the enclosure and moved some décor around thinking that maybe it shed or pooped somewhere out of sight. No sign of shed skin but I did notice a chunk of white urates (snakes excrete a sort of solid form of urine) and threw it out so at least the snake is engaging in that bit of bodily function. Aside from his own health, another reason I’m anxious about the snake taking a dump is that I figure that would be a good time to clean out the tank and replace the substrate. But I wasn’t expecting him to go this long without going!
Read on a forum that it’s okay to pick up BP when in shed. And this afternoon when I was mucking about with the urates and had the tank door open, the snake poked his head out to see what was up I decided that this would be the day to begin training (or at least acclimatizing) so I washed hands then went back and lifted up the hide and brought him out for a meet-and-greet. Kept him close to the tank, and in my hands and lap for around 4-5 minutes. He seemed inquisitive, looked around for a bit and then I helped direct him back into the terrarium.
Oh yes also finally weighed the little guy, he’s 250 grams. Good to know, and 1 x 25 gram rat pup is the right size meal for him until he gets bigger. 1/10 of body weight is a good guideline to use for how much the snake should eat, although I might try offering him seconds if he keeps looking around after eating the first one.
Fascinating to watch. He could have gone directly into the hide but instead did a big loop around part of the tank first before sliding back into his safe place. Which is another oddity – usually BPs want to cram themselves into the smallest tight spot they can fit. And while there is another smaller and better-fitting hide on the warm side, he prefers the huge hide and tucks himself way in the back 1/3 of it.
Hope this bit of activity and out-of-habitat adventure helps him feel better. Will probably take him out again tomorrow for a few minutes, and then feed him Wednesday evening.
ballpythonblog 