It's been a long time since I last posted here and I doubt any of you remember me, but your help was greatly appreciated! I know many of you are breeders who see snakes come and go, but I hope that you enjoy this story of a snake who is a beloved pet, even if I decide to invest in a mate one day.
Iris was a pet store rescue. I can hear the groans already, and I have often given the lecture myself that 'rescuing' an animal from a pet store just funds the pet store itself and encourages them to sell more animals. But I simply couldn't help myself in this case. I saw this young (the pet store said 6 months old, but judging by size alone I'd say barely two weeks old) BRB pacing frantically in a 10 gal tank with a DESERT set up and one small, inadequate hide. I had read about BRB's and considered them as a species I'd be interested in caring for, perhaps after I had a little more snake handling experience. I knew they needed humidity, especially at a young age, and I was surprised this little guy was still alive. The lady at the register saw me checking out this particular snake and took it out to show it off. She told me it would get 8 to 10 feet long and eat adult rabbits in about three years. I snickered, but admired how calm the snake was while being handled. This same store closed down only a few weeks later, by the way.
Naturally Iris was extremely stressed from his setup at the pet store and then the change of environment. I gave Iris the recommended week without interaction in order to calm down and get used to his new home. But even so, he refused to eat the f/t mice I offered him afterwards. I tried all the tricks... braining, moving it with tongs, heating it up to body temperature, different sizes, different color fur, feeding at night in the dark, etc. I even tried pissing him off with the mouse enough that he would strike at it, hoping that getting it in his mouth would be enough, but alas he's an extremely calm snake that would rather just slither away. I evaluated his environment, tinkered with the temperature. Made sure the humidity was high enough. But still no luck. After about two months of refusal and becoming very stressed out, he finally took a fuzzy. Not much, but better than nothing. I assume he took it out of starvation, because after that he went right back to refusing food. I figured it was something I was doing wrong, and it might have been. But finally I drove to the nearest city and bought two live fuzzies to feed him. I didn't want to use a hopper or adult, because they would be more apt to hurt Iris. I fretted over what would happen if Iris didn't eat them. I put Iris in with the two little mice and sighed as he checked them out and then proceeded to ignore them. But then something happened... he passed by them and vaguely checked them out again. One of the fuzzies rolled over and kicked out it's little feet. This was enough to make Iris strike. After he got the first one down, he went right for the second one. And ever since I haven't had any problems, his feeding response is awesome. He's eating adult f/t mice now. As soon as I place him in with them he strikes and coils around them.
Recently my fiance and I took a trip to Mississippi with the intention of moving there. I took Iris with me. We're talking a 2000 mile drive from where I live. He handled it extremely well and ate shortly after we arrived. For a month we weren't quite settled and I never had a chance to set up his nice boaphile cage. Instead he was in a much smaller tank (still with the appropriate hides mind you). Despite the cramped quarters, he thrived while we were there! He must have loved the humidity. Unfortunately for him (and somewhat for me as both he and my carnivorous plant collection would have done great there) we decided not to stay and just make a vacation of it. Now we're back in the desert. But he survived the car ride to and from fine, probably better than we did, and is still (7 months later) eating and shedding like a champ.
To be honest I'm surprised that he's still alive after all of this. I'm amazed and thrilled that I've managed to keep him alive and more importantly, healthy. He's a year and a half old now, and although he's much smaller than he should be at this age, he seems to be doing great. He eats well, his skin is glossy and smooth, he sheds all in one piece each and every time, and he's got a healthy girth to him. He's easy to handle and seems to be getting more beautiful with age.
To conclude this post that I've taken much too far (sorry!), I want to thank you for your advice and support when I was tearing my hair out over his feeding habits. This forum helped me learn more about my snake than any book I've read. And it got me through some stressful times.
I am the proud owner of a gorgeous snake and I'm sure to be a life long lover of this particular species no matter what other species I care for. Thank you for reading!
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Dani
