Isley

My boyfriend Sean & I brought Isley into our lives in February.  To our best guess, she is Amelanistic (Amel) which is one type of albinism.  Amel corns are sometimes called red albinos because they have no black pigment.  Corns with Anerythrism are called black albinos because the lack red pigments.

We got Isley from a local Aviary that had taken her in.  As with a lot of my animals, she's a special girl.  We have no clue how old she is, but due to scaring on her belly we think she is older, probably between 5-10 years.  At some point in her life, probably when she was a juvenile, she was stepped on.  Judging by the damage, she probably got out and someone stomped on her to keep her from getting away.  She functions perfectly fine, but there is a section of her body towards her tail that sort of bubbles out.  She's been ex-rayed and fluoroscoped, and the vets can't find anything wrong with her, she just looks a little different.

 

Around here we feed on Sundays, it just works out to be the best time.  We also have made the decision to feed previously killed, frozen/thawed mice to our snakes (there are many reasons, but mainly it's safer for the snake).  So we fed her the Sunday after we brought her home with no difficulty.  Then the following week she refused.  This isn't unusual, so we waited a few days and tried again.  After a week of refusal we slowed down (dead mice ain't cheap, and I didn't have many adults stocked up).  

Time drug on, and she kept refusing.  Adult snakes can go for quite some time without feeding in the wild, but we were still a bit concerned.  She kept drinking water, and was staying active though, so we decided just to keep an eye on her and take her to the vet if she started dropping weight.  Eventually I bought some extra adult breeder mice, and we would throw one in her tank every week or so just to see how she reacted (we don't usually feed in the tank, but we were just hoping for anything at this point).  Most of the time she just ignored it, or went to the other side of the tank and avoided it.  Until last night.

After Quinn was fed (she eats like a champ, man) I was getting ready for bed when Sean said he wanted to try feeding Isley again.  I went about my routine, and Sean patiently stood by Isley's tank to watch and wait.  At first it looked like she wasn't interested, but then all of the sudden she got this look and body posture like she was on the prowl.  According to Sean, she started stalking the tank like she had never forgotten how, and that was all she wrote.  Finally, she ate!  I was so relieved.  When Sean came to tell me it was all I could do not to squeal and jump up and down (don't want to disturb a feeding snake, they will regurgitate their meal).  She went for 2 months without eating, and I really hope she doesn't make this a habit.  We will see how next Sunday goes, but for now, I'm happy as a clam :-)