Cheeto's First Shed!!!

So it has been 70 days since Cheeto has eaten. She is getting thinner and lighter, although she is still active and in good spirits. I will be honest, I have no clue what has been going on. I have tried a lot of different things to get her to eat, but nothing so far has enticed her enough to eat.

Cheeto was previously in a 20 gallon long tank and is now in a 4 quart tub with the hot side heat at 93 °F. I bought another thermostat so I could control the under-tank-heater, as they are notorious for exceeding 120°F. I gave her some fresh bedding and a bowl of water in this temporary tank that I placed within the 20 gallon long tank.

A few days ago, I noticed skin discoloration and I was overcome with hopefulness that Cheeto would be going into shed soon. I kept a close eye on her and kept her humidity high enough to where her skin would come off in one piece.

Today I went to check on her and she had shed completely! Her colors look more vibrant and I am just overjoyed that this will be a good indicator that she is ready to eat.

Tomorrow will be a trip to get some live mice to try to get her to eat. If she eats I will most likely cry because my baby is getting better.

...if she doesn't eat though we have an appointment with the exotic vet on Friday to examine why she hasn't been eating. The vet will do a full exam, help me feed her by any means necessary so she stops losing weight, and possibly prescribe medicine or give her an appetite stimulant to get her to want to eat again.

All and all I am thrilled with the progress that we're making!

Another update soon!

Feeding Cheeto

My lovely little Kenyan Sand Boa (KSB) named Cheeto (after her gorgeous orange colorations) has been a joy to have!

Cheeto climbing

She has been mine for about two months now! Her favorite activities consist of burrowing, exploring my desk, and, strangely enough, climbing the walls over enclosure and laying on the lip of the lid. She's a weirdo, but she's my weirdo.

Now, one thing that I wish I would have known before getting a KSB is how picky they are.

From all the people I have talked to these are some of the differences in feeding KSBs:

• Type of rodent
• Mouse
• Rat
• Freshness

• Live
• Frozen/Thawed
• Freshly killed
• When
• Day
• Night
• Where
• In a paper bag
• In a feeding tub inside the enclosure
• In a separate feeding tub
• Left in a bowl
• How
• Tong feed
• In a bowl

All these options provide for a wide array of different combinations of how KSBs can be fed and attests to the peculiarity of the animal.

Now, I love my Cheeto, but she is causing major concern. Now it could be her "off feed" season, but I really don't believe in that.

She has only eaten once since I got her. And it isn't for lack of trying on my end - once or twice a week I offer her a frozen/thawed pinky mouse and about twice a month I make a 45 minute drive to Plano to get a live pinky mouse. I have tried every combination possible to get her to eat.

Her husbandry is satisfactory according to the breeder I purchased her from: 20 gallon long tank, 90 degrees on the hot side via an Under-the-Tank heating pad and 80 degrees on the cool side. In my quest to get Cheeto to eat, I have reached out to other owners on social media: some people say she's in too big of an enclosure, some say the hot side isn't hot enough, etc., etc..

This weekend I will be picking up another live pinky and I will see what happens. Worst comes to worst, and I really do not want to do this, but the breeder suggested assisting her with feeding. This would bring stress on both Cheeto and I so I don't want it to come down to that. I just want my snake to eat. 

More to come later.

2019 Update

As we are now almost a month into the new year, I figure I'd post an update on Cheeto and Marbles.

Marbles

I have had Marbles my ball python for about 8 months now and she is doing great. At the end of December I upgraded her from a 20 gallon long enclosure to a 45 gallon enclosure which is is enjoying. She currently weighs 500 grams (about 1 lb.) and measures in at around 2'4" long.

She has been a great eater since the day I got her. Now that she is a bit bigger than when I first got her, I have switched her over to frozen thawed small rat which she seems to be enjoying. Her favorite activity is climbing up her rockwall background, squeezing herself in the two inch space at the top and looking around the room.

Cheeto

Cheeto joined the family a little over a month ago. She is a Kenyan Sand Boa and is absolutely adorable. She is in Marbles' old 20 gallon enclosure and is doing well. She likes to explore- just under her substrate by making tunnel systems to get around. Cheeto weighs 8 grams and is about 7" long. She is so tiny!

Cheeto has somehow learned to climb and wedge herself in the space right under where her enclosure's lid clips on, which is odd because she is a burrowing snake. She is super friendly and is very comfortable with being handled. She is currently eating live pinky mice (even though she can be super picky about her meals).

Going Forward

Goals and events in 2019 that I have to look forward to as far as reptiles go are:

• Getting Cheeto to eat more consistently
• Moving back home
• Possibly getting another Ball Python or venturing out to getting a different reptile