Posted by:
HappyHillbilly
at Wed Oct 10 23:57:39 2007 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by HappyHillbilly ]
A lady had a 7 1/2ft burmese python she wanted to get rid of because she was too afraid of it now that it's big. She tried giving it to a couple of pet stores and zoos but they didn't want it. One of the pet store owners told me about it so I called the lady to see if there was anything I could do. I told her I'd take it in & try to find it a good home. I don't need it and I've got plenty of other things to do than to make a 2hr round trip to get the snake, but I couldn't stand the thought of it suffering from neglect or falling into the wrong hands. While talking to her on the phone she asked me if I had a cage for it because she was keeping it in a ferret cage and was going to use it for something else.
I get to the lady's house and I was reminded of how hard of hearing I am. The burmese was in a PARROT cage, not a ferret cage. Ha! Ha! Oh well, chalk up another one for me. Ha!
It was pretty sad, though. She had this burmese in a big, heavy duty parrot cage that was about 2 1/2ft(L) x 2 1/2ft(W) x 3 or 4ft(H). There was nothing on the floor of the cage except for the standard wire grate used in parrot cages, nothing solid, whatsoever.
She had about a 60-watt light bulb in a dome reflector, mounted to one side of the cage as it's only source of heat. There was nothing covering the cage to keep humidity in and the cage was sitting right beside the front door where it got plenty of draft from the door opening/closing.
I watched the snake crawl around for a minute or two looking for signs of illness or anything out of the ordinary but it appeared to be OK. She said it hadn't been handled in almost a year because she's been afraid to due to it's size. It didn't appear to be aggressive so I opened the cage door. When I did, the lady and her male companion stepped back with a fearful look.
With my hook I positioned the burmese's head in front of the open door so it could crawl out. As it did, I rubbed it a few times with my hook and it wasn't fazed at all. It seemed pretty calm. I let it crawl on out to me and then pulled the majority of it's body out of the cage with the hook. Once again, it was fazed and seemed to be at peace, so I go ahead and gently grab it about a foot behind it's head & pull it the rest of the way out. The lady & her friend was standing on the other side of the living room by this time.
I held it loosely as I inspected it closely for mites, mouth rot, fungus, respiratory infection, etc... Amazingly, it didn't have any of those things. While standing there holding the snake I began to ask questions about it's history. I could see that it had recently shed and there were bits & pieces of shed skin in the cage, meaning that it had a rough time due to low humidity. There were only a few small patches still on it and they came right off.
I was shocked when the lady told me that she's had the snake for 6yrs and the person she got it from had it for about 1yr, meaning that it's 7yrs old, and only 7 1/2ft long. It's pretty slender, not real skinny, but slender. How sad. How this burmese has lived this long is beyond me. I'm sure that due to it's stunted growth that it will never reach average size, or anywhere near what it possibly could have under the right conditions.
I think it's a female. At first I thought it was a male but due to it's stunted growth, undersize, it's hard to tell just by looking at it's tail like I usually am able to do. I'll have to get my male out tomorrow and compare 'em to see for sure.
Ahh, but the name "Gentle Giant" rings true again. After not being handled in about a year this burmese is a real sweetheart. If I'm not careful I'll be getting attached to this thing and I don't need it. After I feed it a few times & make sure that it is in good health, other than underdeveloped, I'll try to find it a good home.
Just thought ya'll might be interested. Ya'll take it easy!
Later!
HH
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Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American
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 A Rescue Story - HappyHillbilly, Wed Oct 10 23:57:39 2007
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