Question about head-shyness.

[Kathleen]

Hey, guys, how's it going? It's been a few weeks since I last posted (not that I'm a major poster and anybody noticed). I hope everyone had a good, safe holiday.

Since I last browsed here, I named my little legless love. He answers to "Freddie Mercury." He recently went through his first shed. It wasn't perfect but we're aiming for better one next time!

Anyway, I'm rambling. I have a question. My vet told me that feeding live is a huge contributor to head-shyness. In your experience, is this true?, i.e., are snakes that are fed live shyer than those fed P/K or F/T? I'm more curious than anything.

Freddie was pretty head-shy when I first got him on 11/18/07. But he's getting a lot better now; he lets me stroke the top of his head and his lower jaw and generally starts less when I make movements near his head. I feed live (he eats like a champ, under my strict supervision), for the record.

So, yeah, what's your opinion/experience?

[joepythons]

Hey, guys, how's it going? It's been a few weeks since I last posted (not that I'm a major poster and anybody noticed). I hope everyone had a good, safe holiday.

Since I last browsed here, I named my little legless love. He answers to "Freddie Mercury." He recently went through his first shed. It wasn't perfect but we're aiming for better one next time!

Anyway, I'm rambling. I have a question. My vet told me that feeding live is a huge contributor to head-shyness. In your experience, is this true?, i.e., are snakes that are fed live shyer than those fed P/K or F/T? I'm more curious than anything.

Freddie was pretty head-shy when I first got him on 11/18/07. But he's getting a lot better now; he lets me stroke the top of his head and his lower jaw and generally starts less when I make movements near his head. I feed live (he eats like a champ, under my strict supervision), for the record.

So, yeah, what's your opinion/experience?

Well in the wild the first thing other creatures go for is the heads to kill a snake.So its just a normal instinct for snakes.If you handle him enough he should get over it though

[littleindiangirl]

Snakes are head shy because it is their instinct to protect it. It's what keeps them alive, just like you and I will protect our heads when falling, or something is falling on us. Boxers protect their face, snake ball up with their head in the middle to protect it from certain damage.

As they learn to not fear us, they wont be as head shy. Some will overcome it, some wont. Depends on the snake.
I can see where the vet makes that conclusion, because the snake is trying to protect it's head from a scratching biting rat, but most often, the snake strikes the head, so nothing to worry about other than some foot scratches. Some may react to this by being head shy, but I certainly dont think it is a normal thing (to develop head shyness).

Just a BP behaving like a BP. Or snake for that matter.

[Mindibun]

If it's any indication, I feed my 5yr old live, and she lets me pet her and touch her on her head. She'd even let me kiss all over it if I wanted. She honestly doesn't care one bit. But she's an old-ish girl who's always been handled - it's not something that she just miraculously did.

In agreement with others, though, I would say that it definitely depends on the snake.