|
|
Post by Gary D. on Mar 30, 2006 0:43:35 GMT -5
Well I'll make my first post here. Announcing the 'birth' of our litter of common boas at the herp. garden facility. The sire is Fang, the large male B.c.i. that made his home at SCALES ZOO for a number of years after coming to Ryan from our mutual and good friend Christian of Reptile Rescue Alberta who now resides at our location. The dame (Berniece) is a large female also who came to myself through Christian and has produced several litters in the past.
Although they are common boas, what makes them significant is the friendships, the quite dramatic series of events that have occurred over the past six years, and the roles these two snakes have taken in their respective homes all coming together, to be represented by this litter.
Pics to follow shortly.
Gary D.
|
|
|
|
Post by Ryan Wunsch on Mar 30, 2006 13:02:54 GMT -5
More about Fang, he's got quite a story behind him.
He was originally a stage prop for an exotic dancer. She kept him in a cold dark closet, throwing a live hamster to him 4 times a year. One of these live hamsters bit him in the face, and fang refused to eat any more after that.
2 guys who meant well "rescued" the snake from her. After noticing that it's head was growing, but it's body was shrinking, they called the Alberta reptile rescue. On a cold fall day, in an old rusty pick up truck, these 2 unwashed gentleman, smelling of booze, transported the snake on the back of a truck inside an aquarium of which the bottom had been smashed out and there were peices of glass all over the place, and under the snake.
On the way home, we stopped at Steve Chandlers place in Medicine Hat, and dug out the hard abscess that was causing the lump on fangs face. The hardened green abscess came out through the original bit wound in the roof of fangs mouth. We also pulled a few teeth that were interfering with the healing process. Partially afraid to let go of the head of this large male boa constrictor, after the pain we had just inflicted, the room was cleared so that I'd be the only one to sustain the many bites to the face we were sure I was going to get as a gift for helping save the snake. The snake backed up a bit, and perched himself around my shoulders.
After some rest in a proper enclosure, fang ate well and started to put on weight. We used fang in some of our educational displays and he became the most trustworthy snake to let kids pet or hold, and quickly our favorite snake. He aslo became very close to us, because after being treated so poorly by humans his whole life, he was so "friendly" and seemed to really enjoy the contact of humans (science tells us snakes are incapabable of this, but if any snake would make me doubt science it would have been fang)
The abcess would flare, we would dig it out, and this repeated itself a few times until finally we were quite hopefulll that we had the problem taken care of, and that we were "free and clear". After a few months of thinking we were finished with his problem, his face flared up to a size it had never done before, in the matter of 4 or 5 days. This time, we could see that the abscess was in a different spot and that we could not take care of it ourselves.
With special permits and permission, Byron and Kaley took him to the University of Saskatoon (where Kaley was studying at the time and new the "good vets") for his treatment. He had major face surgery, implanted antibiotics, a second surgery to remove a peice of bone that had become infected, and then a regime of baytril injections at Byron and Kaleys.
Fang was fixed up for good. We had to feed him small rats for quite a while so it would not open up his stiched wounds on his face, but he continued to put on weight and seemed even more trustworthy around kids. (A lot of people at this point, then thought that because of all the "help" fang got from people, he might have known humans were helpful to him) My take on it was that if anything, he should dislike humans after all of the professional and home vetrenarian work that must have inflicted even more pain.
Some people questioned why we would spend over $1000 on vetbills to fix up a snake that had come to us for free, and that we could replace for $100. Hopefully for those of you who've read this far, you don't have to ask that question, and can understand how attatched we, so many other people, and a lot of our re-occuring visitors had become to this very special snake with quite the story.
2 years ago he fathered his first litter with our Alice (who had replaced Fang as a trustworthy boa for on the road, and let fang "retire" at the zoo which was much deserved). All the babies were naturally docile also, and there was quite a lineup of people who knew both Alice and Fang who wanted a baby from the pairing. Not that it really matters, but with the sale of all 33 babies, Fang more than did his part to pay us back "financially" for the help we had given him.
When it came time to close down the zoo an part with our boas and pythons, we weren't sure what to do with fang. Our first thought was to try to keep him illegally as a pet at home, but to be "busted" for 1 snake, and risk losing the rest of our collection, the risk was just to high.
So, Gary agreed to take Fang in (where we can still see him, and it made a lot of sense given the nature of all that had happened since we got fang) and now fang has fathered his second littter of babies which is a lot more than anyone thought he would do 6 years ago when he showed up on the back of a truck covered in broken glass and in such dire need.
Ryan
|
|
|
|
Post by vanderkm on Mar 30, 2006 14:03:29 GMT -5
Always great to be reminded of Fang's history. I really no longer believe much of what I read about the limited capacity of reptiles to form bonds or express intelligence - and hearing his story reinforces that there is more intelligence to these animals than they are often given credit for.
Congrats on the new little ones Gary. Look forward to pics. 'Common' boas are one of the greatest species out there - really miss our girls.
mary v.
|
|
