Feeding Frenzy Friday Part 21

Today was feeding day from hell. All the snakes had some problem or other with the food item I provided.
I started with Coral, who usually does not give me any trouble. On the contrary, she was getting so chunky that I put her on a bit of a diet, but she had refused a mouse last week so I was a bit worried when she didn't take one today. I pestered her a while, and then I brought out the live pinkie I had saved from Wednesday. My sister got me two from the wildlife center and Maat didn't eat hers, so I kept the baby mouse alive until today. It is a ridiculously small item for Coral, but I thought maybe if she sees it moving she'll be enticed to take it. I was not disappointed.
I then tried again with the frozen/thawed mouse, but she did not want it. I hope she is not going to throw a tantrum and only want live mice.

Then, it was Damascus's turn to be picky. Something about the fuzzies I offered did not please him. I do not know what, they are the same I always give him. He finally ate one, but ignored the other one. Since I had a leftover adult mouse I decided, hell why not, and placed it in front of him. If someone ever tells you that snakes don't have expressions you can tell them I told you they're liars. As soon as his tongue flicked and picked out the new scent his eyes seemed to widen in surprise. You could almost hear him thinking, "now what is this delectable smell?" (in an English accent, because that's how I think of his voice).
He took it and ate greedily.

Talulah also gave me trouble. I had to pretty much bribe her to take the fuzzie. She did eat it, but still what the hell was going on? Was there a hunger strike I was not aware of?

Maat, of course, continues to refuse food. I have tried absolutely everything. I have written to many forums and I have tried every suggestion I was given. Nothing.
I did try something new today. If you are squeamish, though, I highly recommend you get far away from this post.

Ok, when I realized she was not going to eat the fuzzie and that I would have to give her Pedialyte again, I had an interesting idea. What if I open the thawed mouse, take the organs out, the blood, and the brain matter, crush it as small as it will go and then mix it with the Pedialyte? I could not think of any reason not to do it. So I went to action. I am not sqeamish in the least, which is a good thing when you own snakes, so I had the mouse open and was crushing and mixing in a matter of seconds. I took Maat and started giving her the concoction with a syrynge. She was not that happy about it, but at least I know she got some mouse nutrients on top of the stuff provided by the Pedialyte.
Alright, you can stop gagging.

Apocalypse NOW

It is looking really ugly down here. I've checked the clock repeatedly because I can't believe it's only 5:30. It looks so dark outside.
Of course, our basset hound Dublin, is in the middle of a panic attack, and Chaos is patiently working on ignoring him.
When I took Topkapi out this morning I put her on the kitchen table while I put some dishes away. She started slithering around, flicking out her tongue, nothing out of the ordinary. I kept going with the dishes and when I turn back around she was on the floor. How did she get there that fast? I didn't hear a clunking sound, so she didn't fall. She must have acquired superpowers while I wans't paying attention, OR she is the world's fastest snake. Either way I have a famous snake in my hands.

I was planning on taking Barbossa outside today but the apocalyptic look of the sky otside does not bode well. I'm sure that as soon as I put him outside and sit to start reading we'll both get soaked. Miami weather, ugh.

Belly Scales

This is a perfect example of the crazy stuff Topkapi does on a regular basis.

I was sitting, using the computer and of course I have my snake queen on my lap. I was engrossed in whatever I was reading and didn't notice that she was slowly slithering off.
When I realized "hey, where's the snake I had on me?", I shifted my eyes and saw her doing this. Whatever it is.


I'm pretty sure she was trying to scan her belly, but you would have to ask her.

In other news, my sister and I are going nuts trying to catch lizards for Maat. I read in some web pages that corn snakes can sometimes be enticed to eat if the prey item smells like a lizard. Which is all well and good, except where the hell am I going to get a lizard from? Hence the backyard chase sequences we've been stars in. Those little buggers are really fast.

Reasons for Sibling Homicide

I'm going to kill my sister.

OK, you probably need a bit more information. For a few days now, pretty much since the commercials started, she's been bugging me to go see "Vampires Suck". She wore me down and I agreed to go see it. I had to go to the library yesterday, so I invited her to go afterwards.
I just...I don't know where to begin. It's a bit hard to make fun of the Twilight movies because they are ridiculous all on their own, so I really can't blame the parody too much. But seriously, did this movie really need to exist? I could have happily lived out the rest of my life without having experienced it. Again, the same goes for the whole Twilight thing.
And people were actually laughing all the way throughout! It was not funny, none of it! Halfway through I was seriously considering how I could manage to hit myself unconscious so the time would pass quickly.
I will give my sister credit in that she also did not laugh once. As soon as the credits began she and I made a bee line for the door, regardless of the little clips in between the names. That, at least, calmed my urge to throttle her for making me sit through that.
The one thing about the movie that was moderately amusing was how the main actress did a perfect imitation of Kirsten (or however the hell you spell her name) Stewart's psychotic mannerisms.

Please, I urge you, do not, I repeat DO NOT see this movie.

Feeding Frenzy Friday Part 20

Maat is driving me up the walls. I am really concerned.
My sister brought 2 live pinkies on Wednesday, one for Tybalt and one for her. Tybalt ate his of course, she did not. So I had an extra baby mouse on my hands. I decided to keep it for a few days, to keep trying with Maat. So, I took care of it for two days and nights. For me this really sucked.
Do you understand how cute a baby mouse is? I had to give it milk with Pedialyte every four hours and I had to keep him warm, but I also had to keep myself detached, because he was destined to be eaten.
I tried again today and again Maat did not want it so I decided to give it to Tybalt since he is the only one who eats live pinkies. It was horrible.

Damascus ate fine as did Talulah. Coral was really moody today and she did not want her mouse. Maybe she's pissed I put her on a diet.

I baked some cookies today. They are double chocolate chunk, yummy.

1 cup flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup cocoa powder
8 ounces chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 325 F.
Melt chocolate with butter. Add sugar, eggs, vanilla extract.
Mix flour, baking powder, salt, cocoa. Add to chocolate mixture.
Place in prepared pan and bake for 15 minutes.

Moria

Something quite amusing happened a couple of days ago. I came down in the morning and sat at the computer to check my email. I started noticing that my rottweiler, Chaos (and there's never been a more appropriate name in the history of dog ownership) was trying very hard to get my attention. He tends to do this often though, for any reason whatsoever, like a little child wanting to show you something interesting. So, I tried to ignore him. He really kept insisting, though.
Finally, I followed him to see what the hell was so important. Well, our basset hound, Dublin had one of the tortoises in his mouth.
This tortoise is one of my mom's favorites. Her name is Moria and she is a box turtle. Way too cute for mere words.
Well, anyway, she has a habit of crawling out of her cage. She lifts the grate covering it and just walks out. She did just that and Dublin decided it was too good an opportunity to pass up.
The poor reptile was scared out of her mind but otherwise uninjured. I guess that teaches me to pay more attention to Chaos's warnings.
Moria now has some heavy clay items weighing the top of her cage down.

Talking Dogs and Sulking Snakes

Maat continues to refuse food. I am getting close to a code red. I'm going to try again with a live pinkie on Wednesday, but if she doesn't take it I might have to give her fluids. She's just so damn little.

My snake room/library had a bit of a makeover this past weekend. The desk has been moved around, and so has Damascus's tank. Barbossa, although the change did not apply to him in any way, is throwing a little bit of a hissy fit. He does not like where the desk is and he lets me know it by somehow managing to move his basket so that it is facing the wall. Now, he is curled up in there, refusing to even glance at the rest of the room.
Well, I might be exaggerating a bit, but he really is annoyed.

I finished reading "The Dogs of Babel" by Carolyn Parkhurst. I was pretty sad that I finished it so quickly because it is a truly gorgeous book. When I picked it up I wasn't sure if it was really my thing, a man that tries to teach his dog to talk so she can tell him what happened the day his wife fell from a tree. A bit too sci-fi for me, or so I thought. Actually, the book is written in a very careful way, toeing the line of the believable in very artfully. I'm very glad I picked it up, and I want to read more stuff by Ms. Parkhurst