Elvis Update

For those of you who are worried, Elvis is doing just great.

(In case you’ve forgotten, Elvis is Jack’s baby corn snake. He’s almost five months old; we got him in the middle of July.)

He had a bit of a rough start. He wouldn’t eat. (Elvis is supposed to eat one baby mouse a week.) We would put the mouse in with Elvis, and instead of eating the mouse, Elvis would snuggle the mouse. So for several weeks, Elvis “ate out.” We would take him back to the pet store on Saturday and the expert there would force feed Elvis (believe me, you don’t want to know about force feeding a mouse to a snake.) He would spend the night, and then come home on Sundays. Kevin said maybe Elvis just wanted a night out at a bed and breakfast.

Finally, Elvis had his first shed, just before we went to England. He went to stay at the pet store while we were gone and apparently “acted hungry” all the time (how you know when a snake acts hungry, I don’t know) and ate several mice.

Since he’s been back home after vacation, Elvis has been a great eater. He snarfs his mouse up right away and this week, we even watched. Jack said it was “one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen.”

Elvis is about to shed again, so we give him a “bath” every couple of days to help his skin loosen. He swims around in warm water in a tupperware container for a few minutes (the snake books say that all snakes can swim, but they don’t all like it. I don’t think Elvis likes it all that much.) Usually Jack holds Elvis for a while everyday after school, because “corn snakes are friendly and enjoy human contact” according to the snake books (again, how then know that, I have no idea.)

I wasn’t a big fan of getting a snake, but I have to say that it’s very interesting to watch Elvis and he’s very soft, almost velvety, not slimy at all. He’s not very much trouble, once you get over the mouse-eating thing.  So, I guess you’d have to say, he’s part of the family.