Alice the Bullsnake

Alice’s eyes were almost clear again on Saturday. Today, she has been hanging out on the warm side most of the day. Hoping she has a good shed this week.

Checked Alice this afternoon and found that she is getting ready to shed again. Her eyes are just starting to turn blue. Now that she is approaching five years old, her shed cycles have spread out to about twice a year.

Alice accepted a medium rat this evening. This is the first time she has accepted food since January 31. This was a smaller medium rat so I am hoping she will be ready to feed again in about a week. It is also time for her yearly wellness exam.

Decided to move Alice back to aspen shavings after using cyprus mulch for the past couple of months. When I put her back in her habitat, she immediately started to tunnel again. She could tunnel in the cyprus, however it was much harder and you still have to keep misting it to keep the humidity up. Going back to providing a humid hide for when she wants to use it. She loves to curl up on sphagnum moss.

I do like the cyprus mulch though and will still use that for snakes that are not as prone to digging/tunneling.

For the past couple of years Alice has gone off feed around this time of year. She has refused food the last three feeding attempts. Last year she went off feed for two months. Hopefully, this will not be another repeat of that.

Winter heating can really dry out a house and make it difficult to maintain correct humidity levels for some reptiles. I have raised Alice using aspen bedding, however I wanted to see how she would like a change to Cyprus mulch. I changed out the bedding and used Zoo Med Forest Floor. She promptly re-arranged the freshly cleaned habitat and pooped in it.

The humidity levels are around 60% and drop to around 37% when I increase the ventilation. Since she does not require the higher humidity levels, I will aim to maintain the humidity around the 35% to 40% range for now.

She is still eating unscented medium rats and ate a 130g rat on this last feeding. I picked up another order today at https://micedirect.com.

Weighed Alice this morning after she defecated. She is up to 103oz. That puts her just a hair over 6.4 lbs. I will offer her another medium rat early next week.

Alice has been doing well and has been eating unscented rats for the past 8 feedings. The last two feedings have been under 100g medium rats instead of small rats. She has been shedding on average every 3 to 4 months since she reached 4 years old. If she stays on that track, she should have another shed cycle during December or January. I will weigh her again after she defecates later this week.