This was the first rainbow I ever had -- I adopted her in the spring of '06 from a friend in Ohio. She is in veterinary school and they have a research lab that breeds some reptiles and sells the babies to fund lab projects. Well, this girl was born in a normal litter but had severe deformities. One eye was missing and she had many, MANY kinks in her spine. They wouldn't sell her because of these issues and the fact that she needed help feeding, so they just kept her there for 2 years. Then they decided she deserved a better home than being in the lab, so Amber got ahold of me and I took her in. Even though she was going on 3 years old, she was still only about 24" long and I don't think she could have grown any more than that. She struggled to eat due to the first kink being in her neck, and could only eat rat fuzzies (right before they get their colored fur). They had to be dead because she couldn't constrict and almost always took an hour to get the prey down. She was very sweet, but unfortunately passed away 6 months after I got her. I had a necropsy done and the vet said it was natural causes -- must have just been her time to go. I didn't expect her to live forever with the way she was, but I wished I could have had her longer. That's why I won't get into BRB's anymore, Ava meant too much to me and none would match her. My CRB's are different enough so that they don't remind me too much of her. Just thought I'd share her with you guys since the rest of my forums are all ball python lovers.
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~* Jen *~
