Snake Stats - March 2014

Hey!

Here are March stats:

	Length	Weigh
2 March 2014	79 cm	81 gr
29 March 2014	83 cm
1 April 2014		93 gr

At roughly 8 months old Furia is starting to develop a nice feeding response and becoming much less of a finicky eater. Except when due a shed, when she will ALWAYS become super secretive and will refuse any food item she's offered. I have tried, and there's no way to trick her into thinking she's not in blue...

Also her blues are starting to show more on her face and she's slowly quitting her former earth-toned olive green. 

Growth-wise, I feel like she's bulking up a bit. She'll probably stop growing at monster rates and progressively get a heavier body, which seems normal for a yearling to be.

She has become such a nice and tame girl that I may be forced to reconsider renaming her. I don't handle her as much as I did when I was carrying on the taming program, although I try to handle her at least 2 times a week. I have observed that if I don't she quickly gets jumpy and nervous during handling sessions. She barely ever rattles or hisses anymore, and when she does it's when she feels threatened by the mice I am offering her, which doesn't prevent her from eating it...

No wonder why she's grown so much! Judge for yourself:

When I first got her:

5 months later...

Scale up!

M.

Snake Stats - February 2014

February in figures...

	Length	Weigh
2 February 2014	68 cm	57 gr
23 February 2014		72 gr
2 March 2014	79 cm	81 gr

This month has been way more stable than January: no shedding process, hence no fasting for the Fury. Plus I decided to start a short plumping up regimen after her last shed on January 27: I fed her twice the first week and regularly after that. It seems to have been effective: she grew 3 cm in January and 10 in February, with roughly the same amount of fasting days.

Snake Stats - January 2014

This month in figures...

	Length	Weigh
26 December 2013	65 cm	47 gr
2 February 2014	68 cm	57 gr

January was a bit of a roller coaster. On the positive side, Furia had the first nice shed in months. On the negative one, she insisted in refusing food even after shedding, and went on 20 days without eating. Of course, her growth has suffered from this, as she only gained 3cm. 

I am assuming winter is affecting The Fury's appetite; cold slows down snakes' metabolism and reduces their appetite and general activity. We'll see if she proves to be a true VBB during the summer.








Scale up!

M.

Snake Stats - December 2013

These are this past month's figures:

	Length	Weigh
18 November 2013	59 cm	36 gr
8 December 2013	-	45 gr
26 December 2013	65 cm	47 gr

The Fury is getting long and slender, she's grown quite a bit in length although the weigh is not following up. That's due to this month's shedding time; Furia does not accept food when in shed or about to be. She's gone 16 days without eating this time, so that's that.

I cannot tell weigh-wise, but she's at a stable 6 cm / month growth rate in length. I am impressed!

Scale up!

M.

Keeping record - get your Vietnamese Blue Beauty's business straight.

As you know, I keep record of my VBB's data, and it's obviously not only to write my Snake Stats but to be able to control that everything is fine.

You can do as you like best; I am quite old school and get it all written down by hand in a specific notebook. These are the events I keep record of:

1. Feeds & prey size. You will probably feed your snake every week for a long time, so it's quite easy to remember the day your snake is due a meal, but circumstances may bring you to feed your snake every 5, 10 or 14 days. Then, it becomes tricky. Having it noted down makes it a no-brainer... Also, regarding the prey size, it's always good to know for how long you've been feeding your snake this or that mice size in order to be able to evaluate if your snake is growing adequately or if you should increase the size of the prey, for example.                                                                                 
2. Sheds. The time elapsed between sheds is indicative of various things (as explained here). A growth spurt, a skin injury, parasites, etc. It's good to get your data straight just in case you need to check it later on; after a while you will not be able to remember when or how often did your snake go through ecdysis.                                                                                                             
3. Weight & length. Controling your Vietnamese Blue Beauty's growth is very important, as it can evidence health issues and internal (digestive) injuries.                                                                                                                         
4. Other random stuff. In here I just write down if The Fury was grumpy, if she seems to have injured herself and where, if she takes too long to poo, if she does it too often, if she's more active, if she's more secretive, you name it. Anything that seems relevant or important at the time.

Scale up!

M.