Hello,
I have the rapidly growing pre-adult Blackthroat. He getting pretty big around his middle. Is there a formula for this species that gives the proper weight for a given SVL? His SVL is 20". I didn't want to stress him by measuring his girth.
BTW he's close to switching to rat. Rat is less expensive per pound than mouse, thank goodness. If he can scarf 10 large mice at one sitting like he's popping M&M's, then he can swallow a sensibly larger prey item. And wonder of wonders, he put up minimal resistance at clipping his claw barbs. It took about ten minutes. I suspect he'll learn what I'm doing, and as long as I don't cut into his claw's wick, he should settle down for the twice per year procedure. When he's on me he still is very restless, but not lunging or alligator-rolling. To me, he looks just fine. I'm very gratified by that.
As I've previously, he has a bedroom-sized habitat. Sometimes I hear a lot of clunking and scraping, and I assume he's hunting. I'd give him live mice to hunt, but they are way too stinky.
Another thing. Some of my guests can smell his lair odor. My brother calls it lizard-piss. So I'm going to make the door to the room air-tight, to keep the fragrance in his room. I honestly do not mind getting a whiff of him as I walk down the hall. Other friends cannot smell him at all.
clffdvr
