- Joined
- Feb 3, 2013
- Messages
- 281
So, a little background; Ahatulla prasina are rear fanged venomous snakes that eat Lizards and fish. They do not do well on mammalian prey, and are extremely difficult to convert to pre-killed prey. They're a great species to keep but the diet does make their care a challenge, and a bit pricey.
I left town in December, leaving my animal collection in the hands of an experienced reptile keeper.
Unfortunately, I didn't give step by step care instructions for my prasina, and a large male Anole was offered( I have not yet had any success converting Ahatuella to PK, so live is my only option). Anoles have surprisingly strong jaws for their size. The Prasina eagerly took the anole but the Anole gave quite a fight and the prasina was left with some nasty battle scars.
Upon first seeing the damage, my friend and I both thought that there likely was a broken mandible. This is a problem. Ahatuella are very easily stressed and a simple trip to a vet with an injured animal may do much more harm than good. So, I decided to try and treat the visible scars and hope for the best. I treated her with diluted
betadine, and ceased my panacur (deworming) treatments, and instead, started a longer quarantine and panacuring with my feeder lizards. I offered a smaller anole and she took it aggressively. So, the mandible is not broken.
I've since been feeding geckos,(much bigger pain in the buttocks than anoles) and luckily they're not much of a match for the snake.after about 2 weeks I stopped Betadine treatments and watched the wound for infection.
Luckily, it looks like the damage looks a lot worse than it actually was, and it's healed nicely after two sheds
This snake absolutely hates me now, and rightfully so, but in the end she's back to being her gorgeous self, and will now be left alone aside from spot cleaning and feeding. Oh I also have like 20 Geckos loose in my house now lol fast little jerks.
I left town in December, leaving my animal collection in the hands of an experienced reptile keeper.
Unfortunately, I didn't give step by step care instructions for my prasina, and a large male Anole was offered( I have not yet had any success converting Ahatuella to PK, so live is my only option). Anoles have surprisingly strong jaws for their size. The Prasina eagerly took the anole but the Anole gave quite a fight and the prasina was left with some nasty battle scars.
Upon first seeing the damage, my friend and I both thought that there likely was a broken mandible. This is a problem. Ahatuella are very easily stressed and a simple trip to a vet with an injured animal may do much more harm than good. So, I decided to try and treat the visible scars and hope for the best. I treated her with diluted
betadine, and ceased my panacur (deworming) treatments, and instead, started a longer quarantine and panacuring with my feeder lizards. I offered a smaller anole and she took it aggressively. So, the mandible is not broken.
I've since been feeding geckos,(much bigger pain in the buttocks than anoles) and luckily they're not much of a match for the snake.after about 2 weeks I stopped Betadine treatments and watched the wound for infection.
Luckily, it looks like the damage looks a lot worse than it actually was, and it's healed nicely after two sheds
This snake absolutely hates me now, and rightfully so, but in the end she's back to being her gorgeous self, and will now be left alone aside from spot cleaning and feeding. Oh I also have like 20 Geckos loose in my house now lol fast little jerks.
