The Young and the Restless - Trying to Elope
Another Slitherin Story
Goldie is almost 2 meters long, that's about 6 ft, and she's very nice, gentle, curious, and strong-willed. Lately she has been going up to the top and pushing on the acrylic cover of her cage, apparently trying to get out. I noticed this behavior after hearing several clunks once in awhile and after hearing them, I would see that she's all over the cage and upside down at times. I forgot to mention she is also klutzy.
Why the Emergency Repairs to the Cage?
Let me go back about a month or so. I had fed both snakes, each one large rat. And when I put them in their cage, I noticed that Goldie was swinging her tail wildly. She's usually very happy after she eats but this was to the extremes. So I took Pancho out and put him in a different closet to sit overnight and in the morning everything was back to normal and they were able to be together again.
When I first put them together, I knew it was highly unlikely that they would ever mate because they are two different species. But if they were to mate, by some strange miracle, the babies would be worth a fortune. Why am I mentioning anything about breeding? Because I used to breed boa constrictors when I lived in the states. In my research as to why she was swinging her tail I learned that pythons spread their scent to attract other pythons and that's what she must have been doing.
That backstory brings me to today's video. She has been pushing on her lid which has weights on it but she's getting very strong and so she was lifting up the the cover no matter how much weight there was. So I had to halt everything else I was doing and attend to the problem. In the beginning of the video you see the two snakes intertwined with a lot of tail action. That is a good sign because that's what the boa constrictors used to do.
Now that they may have mated or they have found out that they can't mate they may be looking to get out and go find real mates of their own kind. So I had to open the cage today and get Goldie out because she was going crazy. And I had to start cutting up a 2x6 to fit across the rails that support the lid of their cage. With a 2x6 there, I can put dozens of pounds of weight on it. no problem.
While I am cutting and sanding, you can see her sliding down my arm from the other work bench. She was very interested in what I was doing because she could smell the wood. Also in the video, you can see her inspecting the work that I was doing before I put her back in the cage set the new 2x6 in place. I am stacking 4 jugs filled with water on top of it. Afterwards, Pancho took a trip to the top to see what changes took place. Goldie settled right down on her hot rock to take a nap. Since then there's no sign that she would be getting out.
That's about all there is to the backstory and my thoughts on what might be causing the strange behaviors, but I will add one more thing. In the video you can see a red spot on the top of Goldie's head. I am worried that when she was pushing up on the acrylic, it would bend she may have gotten her head lodged between the wall and the acrylic, or maybe somehow pinch her head and bruise it. That's why I had to drip everything and find a solution.
Thank you for stopping in and taking an interest in my reptiles they are both very sweet as sweet as a reptile can be very friendly and have been held by hundreds of children and adults who had been deathly afraid 5 minutes before they asked to hold her or him.