FINCHforum

My first hard lesson learned since working with my finches:

1) Never use the small hamster balls for your birds to lay eggs and raise their young. (I think my fledgling's wing is ok now)

Here's the second one, and it's so much worse

My husband woke me up in the middle of the night last night because he said my society finches were going crazy. Their hatchlings had recently started to fledge, so I assumed one of the babies had fallen out of the nest, and they were just panicked. It took me a while to get out of my sleep haze, but once I did, I went to the cage, and before turning on the light, we could barely make out what looked like a fledgling on the bottom of the cage. But it looked twisted and weird, so I thought, this poor guy must have been deformed or something, and I couldn't tell until he hopped out of the nest. So we turned the light on to make sure, and there it was, wrapped up by a CORN SNAKE

I screamed, and immediately reached in, grabbing the intertwined bird and snake, and pulled the snake free. We called our son in to get his beloved snake before I put it in my food processor

The fledgling's little body was limp and he was already gone in my hand. I started crying, , cursing the snake, and wrapped up the little body.

I had bought frozen pinkies for the snake on Monday, and my son had for some reason decided to wait until Sunday to feed it (sigh), so it decided to go looking for food. We all thought the lid was secure enough for the cage too, but we were SO wrong The snake is around a foot and a half long, and barely wider than my pinkie finger, so we don't know if it would have actually been able to swallow the finch, but it would have tried! He went ahead and fed it some pinkies, and it's lid is now duct taped to the cage (it's wire mesh in the middle so it has ventilation), until we can decide what to do. My son, of course, wants to keep it, because he begged us for one for so long. Me? I want to see if finches will eat snake

I feel horrible for the parents too...they were all so upset when it happened. Everyone seemed ok this morning though. Now we're down to five little fledglings, and I'm a worried mess

Oh my, how horrible!
Hope they settle down for you and recover the trauma
best of luck

I am so sorry this happened, especially since you have shown yourself to be an excellent and concerned finch mom.
But the snake was in no way at fault. Snakes are terrific creatures, and if they did not eat all the rodents they do, human beings would starve, because the rodents would eat all the grain.
The snake was just hungry.
And your son? He just put off the snake's meal, no fault there.
I have kept snakes in the past and of you are using a screen top there are clips you can buy to keep the top extra secure. More elegant is to buy a Vision cage or something similar.
I'm sorry this happened to you and to the chick

Lucille

Do they sell those clips at most pet stores?

Lucille

I'm also not faulting the snake....I'm a huge animal advocate myself, and have protested the treatment of animals at events. But watching that snake curl around that little baby...it was beyond sad. So I'm working on the resentment I have for him at the moment...I'm just not there yet. My son should have fed him earlier, and he realizes that. He's mature and in tune with nature more than any kid I've seen. He knew he made a mistake, and I love him even more for saying so completely on his own! My family and I all underestimated the length "Capricorn" would go to for his next meal. We'll make sure he's never without food for long, and secure the top of the cage!

slwatson wrote: Lucille

Do they sell those clips at most pet stores?

If you have the type of screen top I'm thinking you have, these really work (but they have to be put on the right way, every time)
Larger snakes like adult corn snakes (5 feet) and boas need a larger cage anyway.


screen clips

Lucille

Thanks for the info about the clips. I do have a larger cage for him. It's a huge aquarium that takes two people to lift. The top is actually two tops put together. We bought it from a couple in the metroplex who kept their huge bearded dragon in it.

slwatson

That had to be super scary..I'm sorry you lost a baby

Kelly

Thank you...it was so scary and creepy! He was still winding around the finch when I picked him up.

slwatson

Oh no! Ahh well. This one you have to chalk up to simply Mother Nature.....being Mother Nature. Forgive your kid and the snake (he was hungry ) And birds are yummy to corn snakes ;)

BIG OLE HUGS

It is unfortunate but it is nature. I would have let the snake finish its meal, personally, rather than let the bird die in vain.

Babs sheather

Babs, he's definitely forgiven

Sorry, but my son was concerned the finch would have been too big for his snake to ingest, so he didn't want it to finish the meal. It's only big enough to eat pinkies right now, which are quite a bit smaller than the finch. It would have been pretty tragic to lose two animals at the same time.

Another problem with this is we were assured by the people at the pet store that this snake has only been fed frozen food, and would never be interested in live food....HA! Don't think so! He was wrapped around it like an anaconda!

Oh, well yeah - that's nonsense.

Snakes are highly instinctive predators and evolved for hundreds of millions of years to eat living animals, it's not something they have to be taught unfortunately.

slwatson

I think if I saw that happening my first reaction would have been to rip the snake off my bird just like you did. Especially just waking up to all that and being half asleep. Eeek!!