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Are you ready to meet one of the cutest little snakes in the world?  Of course you are!  Let me introduce you to a baby rubber boa.

(Intro)

Rubber boas are some of the coolest snakes out there.  Check this little one out.  First, they look very un-snakelike, almost like a worm.  They have thick, round bodies and their tail isn't very tapered.  Also, they don't really have a pattern.  They're just one color and their eyes are just so tiny, it's hard to tell they're even there.  

This little cutie came to Animal Wonders just a few weeks ago from someone who rescued them from their dog's mouth.  Their kids were looking for salamanders under rocks and accidentally disturbed the snake's hiding place, and their family dog snatched them right up.  

The family jumped to action and removed the snake from danger, but the dog had already left a few injuries.  After a couple months inside, they were then concerned fall had turned to winter and the snake wouldn't survive the drastic temperature drop, so they kept the little boa over the winter and when spring came around, the family decided they weren't sure if they were providing a good home for the rubber boa anymore and called us to see if we could take them in.

Upon meeting this little one, we determined they were dehydrated, weak, and still had an unresolved injury on their head.  Releasing a young snake in this condition wouldn't be setting them up for success to survive in the wild, so we're going to care for them and see if we can get them back to good health and then go from there.

Now, we don't know if this is a male or female, so we're holding off on naming them until we know for sure, but if you have a name you'd like to suggest, go ahead and leave it in the comments below.  Since this species of snake is native to where we live, it's quite easy to provide a native habitat for them, so I'd like you to check out what I've set up.

First, I put a mixture of native soil and moisture-retaining substrates down.   Then I added some native wood pieces like pine and aspen and this awesome piece of moss my son found and brought to me, and then I put in a large dish of water and topped everything off by soaking the back corner and misting three quarters of the habitat.  Rubber boas like to burrow and they need higher humidity than the majority of snake species.  This little one's favorite spot so far is curled up under this little stump back here.

So the first two weeks after we took them in, I was worried about the deep wrinkles in their skin.  Their eyes were a bit cloudy, which indicated they were about to shed, so I left them alone to settle in and reduce stress.  Since they're so young, I wanted them to just relax and focus on staying comfortable in the humid soil and having a good shed and sure enough, they shed perfectly, but even though they had a good shed, the wrinkles along their body were still prominent, so that meant they needed a good meal.

With a little enticing, they ate two baby mice and now, they've been resting and digesting for just about a week.  Now that they've digested their meal, I can see that they're still a little underweight and I can tell that by the puckering and wrinkling of the skin.  That just tells me they need to eat some more to bulk up to be really healthy and I need to keep their habitat nice and humid so they can stay hydrated.

So far, everything is going really well and I'm just super excited to share this amazing species with our local and online audiences.  If you have a guess on if they're male or female or if you have a name suggestion, leave a comment down below, and if you think rubber boas are super weird and interesting and you'd like to meet more interesting snakes, check out this video I recently watched called "The Secret Life of Snakes"

You can find it on CuriosityStream, who was the sponsor of today's video.  They're a subscription streaming service that offers over 2,400 documentaries and non-fiction titles from some of the world's best filmmakers, including exclusive originals.  Get unlimited access for just $2.99 a month and for our audience, the first 30 days are completely free if you sign up at curiositystream.com/animalwonders and use the promo code 'animalwonders' during the sign-up process.

Thank you for letting me share this little cutie with you.  If you would like to go on an adventure with us every week, subscribe to our YouTube channel, AnimalWondersMontana, and I'll see you next week.

(Outro/Credits)