Despereaux Moves Up

to a bigger, more secure home... he now inhabits a 10 gallon aquarium, with all his toys and stuff from the old cage.  Danged expensive rodent.  I do need to post some pics...

Snakesssssskin

Tooth shed his skin last night, all in one impressively long piece.  Miss Pirate is thrilled.  She has a collection of them (there are lots of snakes in our backyard) and is glad to now have her own personal supplier.  What does one DO with a shed snakeskin, aside from tossing them on every bookshelf one owns?  Suggestions are welcome...

Tooth Gets Hungry

Yesterday, we finally got a hopper for the picky snake.  He ate it this morning for breakfast.  It was an interesting visual to go with my morning tea.  He used his coils  and the cage walls to push the mouse into his mouth.  This took  a minute.  Then it took about 10 seconds for the mouse to get halfway down the snake's body, where it made a small bulge.  I didn't expect that to happen so fast.  Then Tooth gave a GREAT yawn (I'm assuming to get his jaws relocated?) - then he crawled back into his water dish, because moving his 3' long body all of 3" to catch a mouse is apparently all the work he is doing today.

Despereaux Escapes...

but fortunately El Jefe captures him at 8AM eating pumpkin seeds on the countertop.  Sigh.  I knew the little runt was going to be trouble.

Despereaux is Saved...

and we have another pet.  At least until the snake is big enough to eat full size mice, or Despereaux  dies of old age (which will be sooner than a mouse bred to be a pet, as opposed to a mouse bred to be et).  No one in town has hoppers (live) and the snake is a snooty food critic and won't eat frozen, so he will have to settle for a pinkie until next week.  That's what happens here when you are picky.  Mama says, "Eat what I put on the table, or go hungry."   (Actually, I just tell anyone unhappy with dinner to make themselves a PB&J and hush).  How did I come to this?  I think I'll blame my parents  for not letting me have furry beasts when I was little...

At what point should I rescue Despereaux?

Last night we tossed a runt feeder mouse, supposedly (according to the pet store) smaller than the hopper mice the snake is used to, in with Tooth.  Tooth slithered out of his bowl, followed the mouse around once, slithered back into his bowl, and remains there, chillin'.  The mouse figured out how to climb onto the shelves at the back, and proceeded to chew a burrow into one (they are made of cork).  This "burrow" only covers his(?) head.  He was still there this morning.  I fed him a carrot, which he ate, and sprayed water on his perch, since I didn't think he'd come down to drink from the bowl Tooth was in.  I wonder how long this will go on...
 

Princess' Reaction to the Sight of Snake

"Maybe having a snake isn't so bad after all."

She thinks Tooth is kind of pretty.  He is a 3 foot long, 14 month old, captive bred Nelson Pueblo Milk Snake, which means he is striped red, black, white, black, repeat.  He likes to hang out in his water dish, which seems weird to me.  He is living on the counter between the dining room and the kitchen, which is NOT where I wanted him, but it will do until I can find a table long enough to support the larger aquarium he will need next year.  The Pirate is enchanted, having already drawn Tooth's picture and written a label she put on his cage that includes everything she knows about him - this from a child that generally hates to write, so I'm happy about that if nothing else.  So... this blog is now the Adventures of el Jefe, the Princess, the Pirate, the Samurai-who-smells-of-Sunflowers, Tooth the Snake, and... me, Xa Lynn. 

The Princess' Reaction to the Concept of Snake

The Princess, in discussion with the receptionist at the dentist's office..

"If she (the Pirate) gets a snake, I will NEVER SLEEP AGAIN."

The receptionist, ever helpful, says, "Neither would I."

Laugh or cry, that IS the question for the day...

Bribe vs. Reward

Something is a bribe if it is given PRIOR to the desired action... basically, if I gave the Princess a piece of candy to get her to be quiet, that would be a bribe.  Something is a reward if it is given AFTER the desired behavior.  Therefore, telling the Pirate that she could have a snake for a pet if she would let the nice dentist give her two MORE novocaine  shots without kicking him and then let him extract two of her remaining baby teeth, that is a REWARD.  Somehow I don't think I am going to get the Mommy of the Year Award for this...  I think I am going to call the snake "Toothless," no matter what she names it.

On the other hand, she will now have to do her chores, in order to earn the money to buy the crickets and pinks for the snake to eat.  There is a cool economics lesson in there... somewhere.   I'm going to go beat my head against a wall now.