Silly Northern Pine Snake - I Love Him

[fire-eyes]

I love my male Northern Pine snake, he is very silly. No pics, just descriptions of what makes him silly.

He loves to tunnel in his deep shredded aspen. At times, I can't even find him, and then POP his head bursts through the surface, he looks right at me and flicks his tongue at me.

He is hilarious when he thinks it is time to eat. If I am within several feet of his home, he quickly makes his entire body visible and moves around as much as possible, trying to get my attention. Then he presses his snout against the glass and tries to flick his tongue as fast as possible. I say tries, because it just hits the glass and flattens and goes back in so all you see is this black dot appearing and going away.

Oddly, he will not take his food unless he IS being held. As soon as he has his food, he gets upset that I am holding him! He hisses very loudly and throws his body against me repeatedly, trying to get me off of him. If I keep holding him without moving even a little bit, he will calm down, but the slightest little move sends him into hissing and throwing his body at me again. If that cycle happens three times, he enters wanna-be rattlesnake mode where he vibrates the very tip of his tail, which is great because it is not convincing. It feels and sounds like a small electric razor. All of this while he is eating.

When he is crawling around on me, he demands to inspect anything we happen to pass. If he has to he will quickly crawl over my face and on top of my head trying to get to it, and if he can't get to it, he will emit a quiet, closed-mouth hiss or exhaling of air that makes it sound like he is annoyed that he can't get there. It reminds me of a child crossing his arms and frowning and going "Grrrrr!". After this happens a few times, he stares right at my face, sticks his tongue out, and holds it there for about three seconds as if it's a show of frustration.

I love these little guys and can't praise them highly enough. If gopher and bull snakes are anything like this, it must be a blast.