Yep, he's available. I'm sure he would prefer small children and cats (he eyes my cat with his beady little eyes whenever she walks by, lol) but I feed him about 3-4 hoppers (small mice) a week. He can probably be moved up to weanlings, but I wanted to use up more of this bag of mice before buying more.
The best place I've found to get more mice is the KC Reptile Show. There's a vendor there (http://www.rodentpro.com) that sells frozen mice and other critters in bulk. They're pretty well priced considering you can get a bag with 3-4 small frozen mice for $5 at PetCo, and a bag of 100 from these guys costs like $20-30 depending on what size you get.
He's become a little anti-social with my work schedule over the past year, since I haven't had time to socializing him, so he'll need to be handled regularly for a little while before I'd let the kids at him. He's associated being handled with food-time which has led him to get nippy with me in the past. I'm not sure how much you know or don't know about snakes, but their teeth are curved backwards so they can grip their food better. The best way I've found to deal with a nippy snake is to submerge it's head in water and let him release you on his own. When they can't breathe, they decide "hey, maybe I should let go and find out how to get my head out of here." and voila!, you are snake free.
Probably the best time to start re-socializing him is the day after you've fed him, that way he's not hungry (in theory, I mean. He's ALWAYS hungry!) and isn't fully focused on that single minded urge to devour everything in site, including your thumb and your soul.
so you microwave frozen mice to feed to him? I always thought they liked live stuff. I've never had a snake, just babysat a snapping turtle once. well, I -did- have a snake that stayed here for a week while in transit, but it never ate anything. Turns out, it needed to shed.
I think the wife will be less impressed with a snake that is nippy, but she hasn't rescinded the offer to let me have him. ;-)
They do prefer live, but I'm squeamish, and don't like to hear the mice scream and cry as they die. The pet store gave him a last meal as I bought him and I started crying in the pet store because I wasn't expecting it. So I heat up frozen mice. I don't nuke them though, I sit them in hot hot water for 10-15 minutes until they're squishy and warm.
That sounds cool, maybe with a little butter and sauteed onions? ;-). Anything else I need to pick up? I suspect he still has a heat lamp and rock or something... I've been reading up so that we won't have to do multiple Petsmart dashes during the holidays. ;-). Looks like I can order hoppers in bulk from the dealer you mentioned which is cool... or I can even get creative and give him quail, which is neat.
I've got a heat pad on the tank I'll give you. I also have a bunch of suction-cup plants for the side wall, but there isn't much room for them in the 20-high. I have some hoppers left, as well as some smaller mice from the other snake I used to have (tasty little tidbit that he could swallow in half a second, b/c they're extra tiny pinkies). I have a critter keeper type thing you can have too, I'm not sure what else you'll need for him. You're welcome to have all of it if you like.
The best place I've found to get more mice is the KC Reptile Show. There's a vendor there (http://www.rodentpro.com) that sells frozen mice and other critters in bulk. They're pretty well priced considering you can get a bag with 3-4 small frozen mice for $5 at PetCo, and a bag of 100 from these guys costs like $20-30 depending on what size you get.
He's become a little anti-social with my work schedule over the past year, since I haven't had time to socializing him, so he'll need to be handled regularly for a little while before I'd let the kids at him. He's associated being handled with food-time which has led him to get nippy with me in the past. I'm not sure how much you know or don't know about snakes, but their teeth are curved backwards so they can grip their food better. The best way I've found to deal with a nippy snake is to submerge it's head in water and let him release you on his own. When they can't breathe, they decide "hey, maybe I should let go and find out how to get my head out of here." and voila!, you are snake free.
Probably the best time to start re-socializing him is the day after you've fed him, that way he's not hungry (in theory, I mean. He's ALWAYS hungry!) and isn't fully focused on that single minded urge to devour everything in site, including your thumb and your soul.
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I think the wife will be less impressed with a snake that is nippy, but she hasn't rescinded the offer to let me have him. ;-)
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He devours them right up.
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Anything else I need to pick up? I suspect he still has a heat lamp and rock or something... I've been reading up so that we won't have to do multiple Petsmart dashes during the holidays. ;-). Looks like I can order hoppers in bulk from the dealer you mentioned which is cool... or I can even get creative and give him quail, which is neat.
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When would you like to arrange a drop-off?
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