Animal of the Week - "Allsorts of Fun"

Every week we run a School partnership taster session. I like to introduce these students to a variety of the different animals we have here at MKC. So I always make sure we have a reptile week and a mammal week.

Last week we had a reptile week and I introduced the students to Jenson (Uromastyx) and Eddie and Spike (Leopard Geckos). Students are also keen to meet the snakes.

Meet Allsorts our Corn/Rat Heinz 57 snake and is a constrictor - who seems to be everyone's favourite snake as he is so laid back and seems to enjoy being handled.


"Not sure your checks go with mine"


 Allsorts has been with us for around 10 years or more and came to us as a Corn Snake, however he is quite a bit longer than most Corn Snakes and quite  a bit thicker. Allsorts is the 2nd largest snake we have , the biggest being our Boa Constrictor "Ava".


He eats rodents like rats and mice and is fed around every 2-4 weeks. Snakes must not be handled for 2-4 days after they have been fed and usually you should wait for them to go to the toilet first. Feeding for snakes can be a stressful experience and if they are handled they can regurgitate their food.

In the UK we are not allowed to feed live food to snakes (unless signed off by a vet for health reasons). All our food is frozen and defrosted then fed to a snake with tweezers.



"I'm not thick I'm quite clever!" 

 

Snakes also shed their skin around every 4 weeks, you can see that a snake is due to shed when you see their eyes glaze over. Again snakes should not be handled during shedding as it can affect the process and cause the snake to become ill. Some of the Bradfields students had a go at handling Allsorts and realised how strong snakes are but could see he has a very mild manner.

Due to Health and Safety laws we are not able to keep Venomous snakes at "MKC"  so only house constrictors.