Mouse Butts

[helen99]

And thus am I once again reduced to... mouse butts. Zim and Zotz still haven't shown interest in food (I've tried live, frozen/thawed, pieces, paper bag). Zim, who has always been smaller than Zotz, is having a bad shed this time. I'd had them tube-fed at the vet's office twice, but that was just baby snake mix - not pinkies or baby lizards, which are their native diet.

I was worried that the mix wasn't enough, and so I decided to try to get something more substantial down them. The end result is, I now have two irate but fed snakeys. The process went something like this:

I had to hold a snakey in my left hand, somehow get its mouth open with my right hand (gentle pressure on the right spot seemed to be the trick, but keeping them still long enough to find the spot was the challenge). Then while still holding its mouth open with my left index finger, I reached over with my right hand and procured a pinky butt that I had previously segmented from a frozen/thawed pinky (no, I couldn't use tweezers - too awkward and not fast enough). Then I quickly attempted to implant said butt in the hopefully still open snakey mouth. Then with the back end of a tiny artist's watercolor brush, I shoved the butt down until the snakey swallowed on its own. This was rather... entertaining.

Needless to say, they musked the hell out of my hands (not that I wasn't planning to wash them anyway)... They seem to have kept the mouse butts down, so the operation was a success. But... Mouse Butts, people. I touched Mouse Butts!!! The last time I had to deal with MBs, Asherah was a little girl and was regurgitating, but she still would eat by herself. This is the first time I've hand-fed a baby snake - Seraphim was an adult when I had to force-feed him when he was injured - I never had to segment or otherwise doctor the mouse.

Well Acque. I'm not sure exactly how I feel about this. On the one hand, what an accomplishment. On the other hand, ... Mouse Butts.

Comments

[rejoicingapathy.livejournal.com]

*applause*

Reading about your ongoing adventures with the baby snakes makes me wonder, uhm, how do baby snakes survive in the wild? Does mama snake bring them mice? Or are they left to starve until they figure it out on their own? I can't see any mama snake doing what you did. Or is there a big difference just from being in a cage from your anorexic domestic snakes and apparently healthy wild snakes?

[helen99.livejournal.com]

I think you're right that the overly inbred albinos variants that they sell in pet stores are probably more finicky than the wild ones. The first month to six weeks they live off of the yolk that they absorb before they hatch. Then after that I think they supposedly eat hatchling anoles. I haven't seen to many baby lizards around here though, so I don't know what the heck they would eat. In Florida climates they might get along better. Birds would be another thing- they look an awful lot like colorful little worms when they first hatch. ..

[helen99.livejournal.com]

Reptile babies are pretty much left to fend for themselves after hatching. The only thing that saves them from being consumed by the parents is an unpleasant taste in some cases... I guess that's why they have so many of them. Asherah laid about 15 eggs - I was just very lucky that only two of them hatched, or I would be supplying the DC area with snakes for the next year...

[kitten-goddess.livejournal.com]

In the wrong (or right) context, your post could easily be mistaken for either:

1) an arcane satanic ritual

2) a very weird porno shoot

[helen99.livejournal.com]

Hahah!!! you have a unique perspective!

[quorpencetta.livejournal.com]

If you have to do it again, film it and we'll start this discordian porn site I've been thinking about.

[quorpencetta.livejournal.com]

I'll do the voiceovers, don't worry

[helen99.livejournal.com]

The only sound effects during this entire episode consisted of me saying "Dag frakking gonnit, hold STILL for two seconds and swallow this BUTT, you horrible little twerp!"