Animal of the Week - "Ava look at the size of this Snake"

Quite a lot has happened over the last couple of days in animal care so I intend to do a big update once I have sorted out the photos. I just want to say thank you to Natalie P who sent me a lovely email about the blog, it is good to hear that people enjoy it. If anyone would like to leave a comment you can create a google-mail or equivalent account and then you can register as a follower and post comments - it would be great to see some.

So I thought today I would post the animal of the week and give all the updates on Monday.

Ava is our largest resident weighing in at over 4.5 kg and is the length of 7.5 foot - which is quite funny when I am only 5 foot:). Female Boa's have been known to grow over 10 feet long and males up to 12 feet.  

Ava is a Boa Constrictor snake and came to us in 2008 at around one year of age, this species can live for around to 20-30 years so Ava is probably in her teenage years, which you can sometimes tell from the way she behaves :).

"Who's holding who?"

At least Ava looks good in the photo - shame about me! You can see that she is quite hard for a small person to handle so when I arrange for students to hold her I often suggest that a couple of students at a time have a go. Only really confident students should attempt holding her on their own and never attempt to put a snake around your neck. Snake's are pretty much pure muscle and it does not take long for them to constrict.

Constrictors use their muscle to squeeze their prey and suffocate them, so imagine how that could happen to you! Ava feeds usually on Guinea Pigs :( and her feeding tends to be erratic as she goes through stages of not wanting to eat and then wanting to eat quite a lot. Feeding usually takes place once a month and sometimes a little more. Thankfully due to welfare reasons we are not allowed to feed live prey so Ava only feeds on dead prey.

You should never handle a snake for at least 4 days after they have fed and should wait until they have been to the toilet. Snakes can get very stressed after feeding and it is easy for them to regurgitate their food. You should also look out for signs of glazed eyes before attempting to handle as this is a sign they are about to shed their skin.