Performing with snakes: Too Stressful for BPs?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Siren

I probably should have clarified that my snake died just under 11 months after I last performed with him. I sometimes took him out on the porch or in the yard on humid days, but he died in March in Ohio; I hadn't taken him out of the house since the previous August or September--it tends to get too cold in Ohio after that. The fact that he died from a bacterial infection threw me off because I was meticulous about maintaining the cleanliness of his enclosure. Before he died, I had been having trouble maintaining the humidity in his enclosure, so I had changed him to a tub. I told the vet all of this, but he focused on my performing with him. I guess I'll never know for sure, but I am worried that performing added to his stress levels, though he was eating and shedding fairly frequently in the 11 months between his last performance and his death.

I thank you all for your responses, but they do concern me because of those I know who perform with snakes, and of the snake educators I know, like BGSU's Dr. Underwood, with whom I used to take BPs and other reptiles into classrooms to educate children when I was an undergrad way back when. Is this also dangerously stressful for BPs?

I promise I'm not trying to be argumentative, and I truly apologize if I'm coming off that way. I'm just getting a lot of contradictory information about snakes, and I want to be clear and well informed so I can be the best possible pet owner I can be with my next BP.

---

Well, like Jodan said, each animal is an individual. What can stress out some ball pythons may not stress others. Some ball pythons curl into a ball right away when afraid or stressed, while some will never become a ball or some will just strike and act temperamental.

If it were my snake personally, I would choose to just play it safe and only handle in the home. Since there seems to be contradictory information, I'd think it would be better to take all sides into account, and make your best decision based on what we all know about ALL ball pythons for fact- they need warmth, they spend many hours of a day hiding comfortably, and they may or may not show any indicators when they are stressed or ill, until it's too late.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Siren

I probably should have clarified that my snake died just under 11 months after I last performed with him. I sometimes took him out on the porch or in the yard on humid days, but he died in March in Ohio; I hadn't taken him out of the house since the previous August or September--it tends to get too cold in Ohio after that. The fact that he died from a bacterial infection threw me off because I was meticulous about maintaining the cleanliness of his enclosure. Before he died, I had been having trouble maintaining the humidity in his enclosure, so I had changed him to a tub. I told the vet all of this, but he focused on my performing with him. I guess I'll never know for sure, but I am worried that performing added to his stress levels, though he was eating and shedding fairly frequently in the 11 months between his last performance and his death.

I thank you all for your responses, but they do concern me because of those I know who perform with snakes, and of the snake educators I know, like BGSU's Dr. Underwood, with whom I used to take BPs and other reptiles into classrooms to educate children when I was an undergrad way back when. Is this also dangerously stressful for BPs?

I promise I'm not trying to be argumentative, and I truly apologize if I'm coming off that way. I'm just getting a lot of contradictory information about snakes, and I want to be clear and well informed so I can be the best possible pet owner I can be with my next BP.

---

I also taught many educational classes with kids many years ago with everything from Burmese to bar necked scrub pythons. All were tame enough handle and none of the ones we used stressed out from it. All ate regularly and acted normal. With that said, not all of the snakes that we interacted with were cut out for regular interaction. It was not species specific either, some individuals tolerated it and some did not. It all came down to paying close attention to all of your specimens. Keeping good feeding/shed/behavior records and documenting what if anything had an adverse affect on any of the above mentioned. In the end our best girl was a beautiful female aru local chondro. She would eat while hanging from your arm. Never even hinted at wanting to strike out of aggression or defense and tolerated being handled all day by anyone that wanted to hold her (provided ambient conditions permitted it).
You also need to realize that sometimes snakes just get sick and pass and there is not much you will be able to do about it. Yes stress can play a factor but just like people, each individual snake is different and some are just not as hardy as others. I would not beat yourself up too much over this.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by enginee837

I also taught many educational classes with kids many years ago with everything from Burmese to bar necked scrub pythons. All were tame enough handle and none of the ones we used stressed out from it. All ate regularly and acted normal. With that said, not all of the snakes that we interacted with were cut out for regular interaction. It was not species specific either, some individuals tolerated it and some did not. It all came down to paying close attention to all of your specimens. Keeping good feeding/shed/behavior records and documenting what if anything had an adverse affect on any of the above mentioned. In the end our best girl was a beautiful female aru local chondro. She would eat while hanging from your arm. Never even hinted at wanting to strike out of aggression or defense and tolerated being handled all day by anyone that wanted to hold her (provided ambient conditions permitted it).
You also need to realize that sometimes snakes just get sick and pass and there is not much you will be able to do about it. Yes stress can play a factor but just like people, each individual snake is different and some are just not as hardy as others. I would not beat yourself up too much over this.

---

Wow. A chondro. I am seriously impressed. I personally have not handled one, but from what I have heard this should not have been possible. Goes to show that everything you hear is not true. Maybe I need to reconsider keeping one. They are absolutely beautiful animals.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JodanOrNoDan

Wow. A chondro. I am seriously impressed. I personally have not handled one, but from what I have heard this should not have been possible. Goes to show that everything you hear is not true. Maybe I need to reconsider keeping one. They are absolutely beautiful animals.

---

Granted this is a big time generalization but typically the Aru local variety are more calm. Avoid Biak as they are much larger and from my experience like the taste of your face. But keep in mind that I do not know if the locals I mentioned actually are where their bloodlines come from. There is a lot of misinformation on that topic. Typically (in my experience) the local is estimated by visual traits (color and size) as well as temperament. Most of the Aru chondros I have seen have a very smooth almost wet green look to them with white and yellow specs and a light to defined blue dorsal line. They are also rather small compared to biaks. Most captive bred specimens I have come across were fairly tolerant of interaction however avoid reaching in the cage at night as they are usually in feeding mode and as arboreal snakes that eat birds in the wild, they do not ask questions before tasting.
There are more local types of chondros that have popped up over the years but the only two I am familiar with are the Aru and Biak. Biak are beautiful to look at but do not touch kind of snakes, Aru are still pretty but not as much variation in color and are friendly. Oh and I don't think Aru produce the brick red babies. They are all yellow. Biak make Red and yellow babies.

We actually have a pair of chondros in our future. I am trying to find a local that looks and acts like an Aru as an adult but has the potential of making the brick red babies. I want my kids to see the diversity and also the parallel evolution between them and the emerald tree boas. I know some have crossed the biak and aru lines to create this but I am not sure how I feel about that and I also prefer the look of the adult aru to the mixed colors and "dry" looking green of the biak.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JodanOrNoDan

Wow. A chondro. I am seriously impressed. I personally have not handled one, but from what I have heard this should not have been possible. Goes to show that everything you hear is not true. Maybe I need to reconsider keeping one. They are absolutely beautiful animals.

---

I keep a couple of GTP and find they are no more aggressive or difficult to handle than the average carpet python. During daylight hours. After dark they hit anything that moves no questions asked.

Thanks Jodanornodan & everyone else who gave input to this thread! I realize this is an older thread but It still helped me out. Recently I've been having an issue I addressed on here and it seems like some of the people are just repeating what the last person said. Funny thing is, no matter what the issue, people will say, "what's the temp in their tank?" Which is an important piece of information but sometimes it's just a little asinine. My snake bit someone; what's the temp like? My snake has blue balls; what's the temp like? My snake just had a 20 egg clutch with lizards inside! OMG whats the temp like?! lol There is more than one way to skin a cat definitely applies to this. Although I might not take my snakes onstage with me, I still have a son who loves to handle them (which I rarely allow but only with the most supervision). I have many, many animals, most are pets but I also have feeder mice/rats. Understandably a snake has more sensitive senses when it comes down to what's causing them stress, but does your dog get car sick? Thats because he's stressed but sometimes you still need to take him somewhere (like to the vet). One of my snakes (Spotted python) loves to soak in his water bowl (sometimes for hours) and I was regularly giving them all quick soaks in the tub but recently people have been giving me crap for that. I know a lady who lets her snakes swim in a pool outside and she's done that for 20+ years! They are individuals and some can get stressed where others do not but to tell someone on here (without seeing their animals swimming) that they don't like the water and its bad for them, but their snake has a tub with only 2" of water in the deep end and NO water towards the back with a folded towel and the snake chooses to stay in the water.... you get the picture.

This is a great forum with a lot of great people, I loved finding it and joining just a month ago, but I will always fact check anything I have concern for because most of everything is opinion (just like wherever you're at,
I also give my opinion and so do you).
Keep on keeping on! God bless you all!