Tag: Toronto snakes

Bringing Milksnake Her Easter Dinner

At the end of the day, I discovered that the gorgeous milk snake had shed!

I was able to remove the shed skin in one perfect piece, head to tail. And place it gently in-tact in a large Ziploc bag that I labelled with her patient number and the date on it.

Everyone has been waiting for her to shed. Which is not surprising as her wounds heal. She is the only snake who has not been placed in foster care while staffing is reduced due to Covid19, because she has been healing from some significant wounds on her belly. I noticed about 3 weeks ago that her eyes were starting to get cloudy – a sign of preparing to shed. 

The beautiful snake was hiding under the large rock in her enclosure as I removed the shed skin. I let staff member J know, and since snakes don’t eat much before shedding, I was asked to bring her a little feast of a variety of small foods. Well no problem – except for the earthworms from outside.

I grabbed a fork from the kitchen and first went out the back door and into the ditch area to look for worms. I promptly stepped deeply into muck, covering my right shoe and pant hem. Ugh. No worms.

Then I went over the road to the farther ditch to dig and look under garbage in the wet ditch. No worms.

I have no idea where to find worms. On my way back into the centre, taking a route back that appeared drier, I slipped into the deep muck. Covered my left shoe. Ugh.

Ok, so wiped my feet as well as I could on the grass, then on the door mat, I went inside and went to the room where the dirty kennel cabs and waterfowl mats are hosed down. I hosed down my shoes and pants. Soaking wet shoes and socks now. Still no worms. I know nothing about wild worms.

So I went out the front door, to the park-like area in front of the building. Dug my fork into the grass. No worms. Dug into the slope of the planted area, covered in leaves. No worms.  But there was a nice surprise: as I was returning to the TWC I noticed a groundhog looking at me!

A groundhog has made a home in the planted mound, in the park-like space in front of the Centre. What a treat to see her looking at me looking at her looking at me. Then back in to the Centre. I asked A if she knew where to find worms. Nope. I asked T. Good thing I asked T! She told me where to look. It was outside of course but could not be any closer or easier. I found two small wild earthworms. Thank goodness!

The milksnake’s post-shed Easter Sunday feast was complete and placed in a tiny dish in front of her, for her to enjoy.

Beautiful Baby Brownsnake

A perfect tiny little Northern Brownsnake just made my day. As soon as I saw her, I fell in love. She must be a few months old. Born this springtime. Gorgeous silvery-pewter colour. Perfect little head, smaller than half the size of my pinky fingernail. Alert and unbelievably cute.

I’m not sure why she was brought in to TWC. Senior staff member D said that she didn’t find anything wrong with her. But now that it’s November and she is not in hibernation, she might have to stay at TWC over winter until it is warm enough to release her back into the wild.

So I set up a little enclosure for her. A small aquarium with a very, very fine double mesh lid. Bricks to hold down the lid securely. Newspaper on the bottom, then filled the aquarium about two inches high with coconut substrate.

Why coconut substrate? It’s like a cross between soil and a very fine mulch. The fibers are soft, naturally anti-microbial, very absorbent, resist mold, and it is great for burrowing into. The alternative would have been paper towel bottom with shredded paper for the little snake to move around in. Not nearly as nice for her.

After setting the substrate, I put in a hide for her. A plastic dome that looks like a rock with a cave opening on one side. And I found a small plastic box with round entrance/exit hole in one end, to be her humidity box. Substrate was placed in it up to the hole, I dampened that substrate, and placed the box in her enclosure. A small water dish, made from a clean blue plastic jar lid, was filled halfway with water and placed in a corner.

D then brought her out from the Assessment room. She was hiding and staying warm in the folds of a towel that was in the small critter carrier for her, until we moved her into her new enclosure.

Once she was safely moved, I got her two micro mealworms and two phoenix worms, and D found a tiny baby earthworm. We put these in the enclosure so she would have something to eat when she felt ready. It’s hard to find food small enough for her! Her head is smaller than the eraser on a mechanical pencil.

She brought back memories of Long John Slither, my childhood pet. When I was little, I studied snakes and I had asked my mom for one for more than a year. She thought it was a phase that would pass. We ended up purchasing Slither, a Garder Snake, from a local pet store when he was a tiny baby.

L. J. Slither was a beloved family member with us for 4 or 5 years when I was in elementary school. I still have photo albums of his sheddings and photos of us together. Seeing this sweet little wild brownsnake, I couldn’t help think of Slither. Of course, this little one will be at the TWC only until it is safe for her to be returned to her home in the urban wild.

Northern Brownsnakes, a.k.a. Dekay’s Brownsnakes, are pretty common in Ontario. Smaller than other snakes. And totally harmless. I have only seen snakes in the daytime, so I didn’t realize until now that they are mostly (though not totally) nocturnal. This one is too young for the rows of dots down her back to be visible yet.

Her enclosure was placed on a heating pad in front of the viewing window. So that people bringing in new patients, and visitors to the Toronto Wildlife Centre, can see this beautiful little brownsnake while she is with us.