Re: Small crickets & waxworms n/p

[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ The General Snake Forum ]

Posted by sasheena on April 01, 2003 at 18:17:47:

In Reply to: Do they eat in captivity? What.. insects? n/p posted by markg on March 31, 2003 at 13:46:50:

::Picture is Tantilla, our Sonoran Ground Snake, picture taken last year.

::I live in Arizona and am a high school teacher. My students know I love snakes, and occasionally this knowledge changes their "natural" reaction to finding a snake--Kill, maim, play with, destroy, etc--to the much more preferable "Hey, let's take this snake to my teacher, she loves snakes".

::So that said, today was one of those days that seemed to be quite the bonanza on the high school campus. Before school started one of my students came in with a 12 to 14 inch long sonoran ground snake, "We found it in the library, stuck to some tape" I was told. I saw that it looked like it was blue, so I put it in a convenient cage with some moist paper towels. Couldn't take much time to look at it right then, had a class to teach. Later in the day, just during the last period, yet another student burst into my class wanting to know if I wanted a "gopher" snake. Since my classroom snake is a GARTER snake and has been MIA since the Christmas break, I thought they had discovered good 'ol George. But, alas, it was NOT George, NOT a Gopher Snake, and NOT a Garter snake, but another Sonoran Ground Snake. This one an inch or two shorter than the other. I put him in another convenient cage and finished up the day of teaching class.

::Later, when my husband and I got home and fixed up a cage for the two new snakes, we realized that the larger of the two snakes was either injured, or born with a kinked spine. Poor thing, has a couple of places where he has strong "bends" in him. He can't crawl very well, but he IS one of the fattest Sonoran Ground snakes I've seen. (I have one that crawled into my classroom last year... at the time only 5 inches long, now close to 8 inches long). I'm wondering if he could have received a slammed door treatment and/or some other sort of treatment... is the only thing to do wait and see if he actually survives? We've provided both snakes with plenty of hides, crickets to munch on, and a nice environment. Want to make sure we do right by these two guys. We might eventually end up letting them go, but cannot let them go on the school grounds, as they will almost certainly be discovered and tortured to death by the students, and cannot let them go in the super-suburbia in which we live. But this summer we move out to our new place on four acres of wild land, and if the snakes do not do well in captivity, we will allow them to go free there on that land to take their chances. (We had another one that the students gave to us, closer to 16 inches in length, it did not do well in captivity, refused all food, had a sort of discharge from its cloaca, and finally we released it).

::Anyway, thought I would share. These little guys are cool. The "healthy" one that was given to me today is very brilliant to look at. A vibrant buff-yellow on the sides fading to a super neon orange stripe. One of these days I hope to get the banded variety and see what happens when the two varieties are crossed.

::~Sasheena

:
:

Follow Ups: