House Guest

[ViperaBerus]

It'll be fine on paper, grass snakes can get traction off paper moreso than loose soil and it provides the best environment for them to hide between pages and gives the comfort as they can feel the refugia on their backs. Problem with soil is that in the wild they would avoid loose soil when shedding as it sticks to the secretions exuded during the process and could no doubt stick to the wound area too. A rough area like a log may be needed to start the process though. A wild snake won't need spraying, even in short term captivity. It's long term captive snakes that are kept in warm sterile environments that have problems shedding. In 20 years of surveying wild snakes, I've only come across about three that had any sloughing problems (usually sick or injured specimens at that). Long term captive snakes though, have these problems regularly.

Garden netting is a real snake killer. They crawl through and then get stuck. Obviously then, due to the scale orientation, they can't back up and become trapped and die. I've attended seven call outs this year with just that problem. One of them was an escaped juvenile rat snake.

What happened to this grass snake in the end Willo?

[Willo]

Thank you all for your advice. I ended up putting shredded newspaper in part of the box but it never went beneath it.

I spoke to the hospital today and sadly all efforts were in vain. The wounds were too deep and the vet couldn't do anything. A bit of a shame really. I have included a couple of photos of the little thing.





Thank you again for the advice.

Any suggestions on snake friendly netting which keeps birds off my soft fruit?

Will

[animartco]

Originally Posted by Willo

Thank you all for your advice. I ended up putting shredded newspaper in part of the box but it never went beneath it.

I spoke to the hospital today and sadly all efforts were in vain. The wounds were too deep and the vet couldn't do anything. A bit of a shame really. I have included a couple of photos of the little thing.





Thank you again for the advice.

Any suggestions on snake friendly netting which keeps birds off my soft fruit?

Will

So Sorry to hear the bad news. Poor little thing.