A Moment of Triumph

For the past couple of weeks, we've had a snake isolated in the back.
The original reason being that it threw up and it's jaw ended up slightly crooked.
But after a vet visit and some meds...the snake appeared perfectly fine.
My coworkers kept arguing that the mouth would go crooked after giving meds.
But I never really saw it....

However, there was one other concern.
In that the snake hasn't eaten in a little over a month. 

Which is not surprising as it seems like all Ball Pythons that spend more than a couple of weeks in the store end up having an 'issue' where they don't eat.

And my coworkers tried this past Sunday to get the snake in Iso to eat with no success. 

When I mentioned this to my manager, as I've been wanting to bring the snake back out onto the floor as it appears to be healthy otherwise....
I mentioned that I didn't think that my coworkers were feeding the snake properly.

As I've seen the mess they've left afterwards (as my coworkers struggle to clean up after themselves) when I come in in the morning, and there are inconsistencies with how I was taught to do the snake feeding and how my coworkers were doing it.

The main one being that they have been putting the snakes in smaller totes with no heating mats for feeding...when I've been told that they should be in larger totes with a small heat mat on it to keep the snake warm.

So my manager told me to try and feed the snake using the methods I learned.

So this morning, while I was opening the department, I grabbed the ball python out and placed it in a tote that had a heat mat connected with it.
And let the snake chill there for a bit while I finished opening our back rooms.
I warmed up a couple different sized mice (as we only feed dead mice to our snakes) and attempted to feed.

First a Fuzzy. To which the snake showed little interest.
So I left it there for a bit, finished another task.
And returned to try a Pinkie.
To which the snake showed more interest in it...but still didn't eat it.

So I left it.
Did another task, and returned, and rewarmed the mice back up (in a cup of warm water) and tried again.

No success.

Which meant I needed to change something up.
And over the years I've been told a couple other ideas to help get the snake to eat the dead mice.
One is scrambling the brain by getting like a paperclip and poking a hole in the head and just...well stirring the brain up to get that scent all vibrant and such.
Only I didn't have a paperclip handy.

So I decided to go for a less common route.
And grabbed one of the Russian Hamsters from the floor and brought him in the back and proceeded to rub the dead mouse against the hamster so the hamster's scent would be on the dead mouse.

I've tried it before on other snakes and it's not really a tactic that has worked for me before.
But it was easier to grab the hamster than to track down a paperclip so I decided to try the scenting method first.

And GUESS WHAT?!

Yah. I rubbed the dead mouse against the hamster and then held the dead mouse (with tweezers) out to the snake and he immediately snapped the mouse up! 

HA!!

After over a month of refusing to eat I was able to get the snake to eat!
YAY ME! :D :D :D

Lol I felt so accomplished and triumphant and the good mood from that success buoyed me throughout work. XD lol. 

And since the snake has now eaten, I put it back out on the floor so we can hopefully sell him sooner rather than later. 

Only.
Apparently I can't tell my coworkers how I got the snake to eat.
Because a previous snake-obsessed coworker who had been in charge of feeding snakes before they left and taught the others how to do it....
Apparently told 'horror' stories about 'bad' things that happened to snakes after they ate mice that had been rubbed with hamsters. O.o
Like they got diseases or something?
I have no idea.
It's so weird because like...I don't think I've heard anything like that before?

In any case.
Gotta keep the method quiet because our paranoid coworker who freaks out over....practically anything...would probably freak out that I used that method to get the snake to eat. 
*shakes head*

I don't get it.
But okay.

At least the snake ate. 
So yay me! :D

Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi