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Meet Hobbs, my first python...

Posted by Taylor at 6/8/2009 12:07:44 AM

(Feel free to skip the "story" if you want... I'm a tad long-winded. Lol. =) )

Last year some time, my high school's prinicipal found out I keep snakes. He told me about a snake he had at home.. Its name was Hobbs. It was his daughter's, but it was living with him while the daughter was in college. He wanted to find a home for it, and I can only assume the daughter agreed for him to outright offer the snake at that point. I was very sorry to have to tell him that I didn't have the space.

This year, I got the opportunity to switch bedrooms. My house is a split level... Basic living area upstairs, and a den/bedroom/studio apartment-type thing downstairs... Infact, it had once been a duplex. My grandma had been planning to move in down there, herself... However, between some flooding issues (since solved), the snakes, and our refusal to get rid of Romeo, the rambunctious boxer/boston puppy who is still having house training issues, she decided, "Screw it," she didn't want the room! She told my mom to give it to me.... And my mom wanted the upstairs back to normal badly enough that she agreed. We had new carpet put in, new gutters outside to resolve the flooding issues, and moved my furniture downstairs. Now, all but two snakes are downstairs, and I realized I had room. The following school day, I alerted the principal to this and told him, if he still had Hobbs, I could now take him. He did.

So, for the last few weeks, we've been juggling the idea. I'd spoken to his daughter on the matter once (and was thrilled to hear Hobbs feeds frozen/thaw). We made plans for me to stop by their house several times (though, each time, something came up--like, me forgetting...). Finally, on the way home from a shopping trip in Olympia, my mom reminded me that we needed to get Hobbs! Good thing, too. In the hectic-ness of Graduation time, I had forgotten that he told me we could stop by any time this weekend. So, we went over, met Hobbs, and brought him, his 45 gal, and a spare 75 gal home.

Hobbs is a great-tempered snake. He appears to have a stuck eyecap, and he's going to get a soak when I'm done with this. I didn't see any sign of mites, or he wouldn't have come home with me. The PO admitted that he'd been having shedding problems (humidity, my guess--just like Osiris's shed problems, when I got her). She also said he had feeding problems.. And that she had issues with temperature regulation, and I can only assume the two go hand-in-hand. With that, I'm looking at this a bit as a "charity case," if you will.. He's probably not the smartest addition right now with his apparent health concerns, but I know very well the principal and his family can't take care of him besides giving him food. At the very least, he feeds frozen/thaw reliably when he does eat!

Anyway, without further ado, meet Hobbs! Very sorry for the crappy pictures, BTW. I can't seem to find my camera, so these are from the webcam. =)

Comments:

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Zoenthena ,	Posted At: 6/8/2009 12:20:58 AM
	Very nice!! He doesn't look under nourished... he's a good size. I'm happy you get to experience the 'couch potato' snake! lol (stole that from Rebecca) At least you know what to be aware of, like the stuck eye cap. Hobbs is lucky to be there. Congrats!

mvskokee,	Posted At: 6/8/2009 12:26:37 AM
	awesome story man. im glad hobbs got a good home

Taylor ,	Posted At: 6/8/2009 12:40:10 AM
	Yeah, he's definitely a big boy! He's been fed once a week on one or two small and medium (50-100 g) rats... I'm going to work him up to Lucy's 120-170 g rats, once every two weeks or so. Lol! "Couch potato," I love it! Thanks, both of you. I'm very happy to have Hobbs.. Though I'm not looking forward to the vet bills I'm expecting. <=)

Kaiyudsai,	Posted At: 6/8/2009 7:20:55 AM
	where's Calvin?????

vonnick52,	Posted At: 6/8/2009 11:09:21 AM
	You might wanna double check that's he is really a "he." He looks pretty big for a male from what I can tell. Regardless, awesome story, and you can't beat free snakes and cages. For the humidity, if you go to Lowes, go to the gardening section and ask them where the spaghnum moss is (I use the stuff labelled for orchid transplants or something like that), add some water to it and put it in the cage. I use it in all of my cages for all of my species near shedding time and it's solved any shedding problems I've had. The animal doesn't look undernourished to me either, I would get him on a good heat gradient, give 'em 2-3 weeks and then try to feed. Unless you see serious issues in his behavior, I would hold off on the vet and save yourself the money at the moment.

Sony Raju,	Posted At: 6/8/2009 11:23:07 AM
	great looking animal.

shellboa,	Posted At: 6/8/2009 12:30:05 PM
	I agree with Nick, he looks very healthy. Keep him on the steady proper heat for a while and see if that doesn't solve the regurge problem. Other wise, the first thing I'd go for is a fecal (might not be a bad idea any way). The moss thing works really well, I stuff an old plastic bucket (margerine or mashed taters) with a bunch of it and invert it with a little notch cut so its like a little cave of humid joy! You can rinse and reuse that stuff (for the same snake) a few times too. Now, where's Calvin?!

Taylor ,	Posted At: 6/8/2009 8:56:52 PM
	Lol! Good, I'm not the only one that thought of the comic!! The first thing my mom thought of when she heard the name was a butler... He's on a regime of daily soaks and twice-daily tank mistings... I forgot the moist hide deal, though! Those things worked wonders for Mallie's shed issues. I have one of those plastic gallon-and-a-quart ice cream tubs that I almost used as a lay box for Yelina... I'll dig that up and give him a nice moist hide, then. Thanks for the reminder! Quick question, though... Can I reuse spaghnum moss from Yelina's lay box if I boil it for half an hour or so? Or would it need to be baked... Or can it not be reused at all? He does look great! Actually, he's so BIG despite his feeding regime, that I wonder if he's female and ovulating... Maybe even gravid--I'm a firm believer in "anything can happen" after Lucy dropped that nice, big clutch out of the blue! Lol. He's only 3-4 feet long, despite his tremendous girth. The issue isn't regurge, just refusal... If it was regurge, I'd be worried! Right now, though, I'm not too concerned about it. I figure, after he's had a week or so of proper temps, he'll munch down on a couple of those wimpy 80 gram rats easy. =) Between the heat pad stuck on the side of his tank and the incandescent above, he's running temps in the upper 80's. The glass right on the heat pad is about 100*, but high enough up that he can't really lay against it without making a serious effort. Anyway, I managed to find that devious camera... It was hiding behind the stand one of the mouse tanks sits on... Lol. I snapped a couple pictures of him before school, so I'll toss them up in a minute. Thanks, everyone, for the comments and advice. =)

Crazy4Herps,	Posted At: 6/29/2009 4:52:15 AM
	Wow! He's a monster!!

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