Baiting snakes

[Cazador]

Nice job, Terry. For what it's worth, old skin comes off a lot easier if it's been wet first. The difference is amazing, but at any rate... you may have saved her tail. Good on yeh, mate

Rick

[mikm]

wonderful job Terry ... such a great feeling to lend a helping hand

enjoy your day ...
marian

[adamanteus]

Good one Terry. Let's hope we catch the odd glimpse of Ladybug in the future.

[stonyloam]

Hi everyone: I had thought things were going to slow to a crawl (pun intended) in the sunroom. No way! I have been having more fun than ever (amazing stuff… at least to me), and have enough for at least a couple of more posts. But first things first. The one that ate the fish (I think) let me pick her up today and I had a chance to examine her. Question: Is she a she, and has she been “plugged”, or is this other stuff?

[adamanteus]

I'll be honest Terry. It doesn't look like a plug to me. If you catch her again you might want to soak her in luke warm water, to see if the bulk of that muck will wash away. It doesn't look quite "right" to me.

[stonyloam]

James: I put her in a bucket of warm water and let her swim around. Guess it was just poo.

[adamanteus]

It looked like poo to me Terry! But a mucky cloaca (bum) isn't right. You did right to let her take a bath.

[Cazador]

Nice job guys.

[stonyloam]

Thanks for the help (she looks really great after the swim). Now that the snake clinic part is over, some kinda fun stuff has been going on. I will apologies in advance, this is kind of longwinded.. The interesting stuff started a few days ago while I was trying to get Ladybug to eat. I tried a little bit of fish, no luck, there was a garter hanging around so offered the fish, no luck. Offered water to Ladybug, again no luck. Took the bowl over to the garter, and it took a drink, cool. I was still trying to get Ladybug to eat so went out and found a couple of tiny worms, again no luck. I dropped one worm in front of GS and it was gone instantly. Hmmmmm….dropped the other ..gone! Found a bigger garden worm and he took it right away. OK this was getting serious now so I went up to my bait supply in the frig (Dawn made me label the container after the first time she thought it was cottage cheese) and got a medium night crawler. GS had kinda retreated in to one of the blocks but stuck his head out just enough to see what I was offering and took it out of my fingers (pix 1). The worm was crawling in the same direction as he was swallowing so it was gone in no time. So I am now inspired to try to handle these guys and see how much we could interact, see if they would get used to me. That brings us to today. MS#1 was out so picked him up. Was not happy but settled down after a couple of minutes, and I was holding him and picked up the water bowl and offered it to him. He drank while I was holding him, WAY cool! Now I have to see if the GSs will let me do the same thing, and that is when I spotted my buddy, and tried the water bowl…. Success! Now I am out of control, and spotted the worm eater and sat buddy down by the bowl and grabbed GS#2 and held her over the bowl…. Success (pix 2)! The next logical (logic at this point replaced by obsession) thing is to see if they would eat. Time to dig some worms. Came back in and buddy was lounging so picked her up and offered a worm. The photo (3) says it all. A wild snake taking food from one hand while being held in the other.... not what I expected! This by the way has done nothing to change my wife’s assessment of my sanity.

[Thamnophis]

And the story continuous...

Terry, keep posting. Love to read the stuff you write.