Juicy

I did go outside yesterday, but that post will take a few more minutes.

This is Juicy. Today was my last day at a painful foray into pet shop working again. On Saturday someone dumped off their ball python, filthy cage and all. It got labeled as for adoption and the store turned on its heat, that's it. Three days later it was still in a filthy cage. I asked a manager right after I punched out what the adoption fee would be. (Mind you the store has done nothing for this snake.) A $5 donation later I have a new critter.

Juicy's old hide, which she didn't fit in and was on the cold side of the cage.

It didn't even look that bad from far away.

The person dumping it said she was named Juicy was 5 years old and he fed it one live mouse every two weeks. The cage had caked in feces and little bits of old shed skin on all the decor. (If he did feed the snake every two weeks, it would have pooped about every two weeks, so my guess is it's been at least 6 months since this cage was cleaned.) The only good thing was they did keep the cypress mulch bedding dry. If it had been damp this snake would likely have horrible infections. Today I even noticed they had repaired a decoration with duct tape. When I took it out I thought it was really skinny. The manager on duty didn't think so. I think they are too used to the skinny non-eating babies the store gets in. My mother, who's experience with snakes is limited to my one ball python, instantly commented it looked really skinny. When you pick it up you can feel a ridge along its backbone, were there should be more muscle. Juicy's new cage. Don't mind the oatmeal can hide. None of her old hides fit her at all so I had to improvise. I didn't have any extras for a snake this big. She came with a 30" tank and is easily 36" long. She'll be staying in my living room for at least the next 30 days. It doesn't look like she picked up anything too horrible from living in filth, but I want to be extra sure. All her decor will be bleached and kept as a backup until I think she's clean.