Snake Routines

I know that people have their usual routines when doing things, and I've fallen into some with my snake. I didn't intend for them to happen, they just did by themselves.

1. When my snake is hungry, he'll start wandering around his tank looking for food. Because of this, when it's time to eat, he's already in the cleared area of his tank where he gets fed. (I don't move him elsewhere to eat)

2. When I feel like playing with him, I tap on the top of his hide to let him know I'm there, and to expect the hide to lift up from him. Then I rub him somewhere to let him know it's me.

3. If he's wandering around the tank and it's not really time for food, I'll let him out of his tank to wander around the apartment. (He managed to get onto the kitchen counter once, I still don't know how he managed that)

I feel that because of these routines, he's comfortable to handle, has never even tried to snap at me or anyone else. And he knows when he's getting delicious foods.

He's my first snake, so I didn't know if anyone else has their own way of handling and caring for their snakes. :snake:

I have a female pastel who is an absolute hog, she will eat any time all day every day and never refuse, im actually trying to get her to loose a bit of weight. however, its the same routine, I open her enclosure, she brings her head up over the edge of the enclosure waiting for food. and I do 1 of 2 things, I either put my hand out to show her my palm, when this happens she comes out further and climbs up to my hand. other wise when its feeding time I just offer her a mouse and she takes without hesitation.

I have 10 ball pythons right now and for whatever reason she is special just in her demeanor, even as a smaller snake she had a special attitude to her, she has never struck me, however if she wants to be left alone she will throw her body towards my hand never once struck.
its just weird because other snakes will strike out of being scared or whatever, shes always been just super passive, but at the same time a garbage disposal.

I bought her and her hatchling brother at the same time she is now officially 3 times the size of him. he eats 1 adult mouse a week, sometimes will skip a week. she will eat 2 adult mice a week plus whatever my other bp's wont eat. its odd how different they all are.

so yeah I guess our routine is if my palm goes towards her she knows its time to be held, if I offer prey she gobbles it up without hesitation.

Oh that's awesome! Has she always stuck her head over the top of her tank like that? Sometimes I wonder if my snake gets mad at me for wanting to play while he's hiding. It'd be nice if he had a way of telling me no when he doesn't feel like it.

Yes she sits in her hide all day long, when I take the lid off her enclosure, she comes out her hide rather fast, puts her head up over the edge of the enclosure and just waits for me. I put my hand out palm first and some comes out to greet me and climb in my hand, otherwise she sits and waits for food to be put to her mouth to which she attacks and coils.

yes and as a small baby she has never struck at me, however if I put my fingers along her side she would throw like half her body worth of a coil at my hand. id jump every time. now as shes a bit older and a lot bigger it is the same thing, never a strike, but if shes in a mood the thick part of her body will smack my hand.

she is just a pastel and ive gotten many more high end morphs since her, but personality wise she is an absolute keeper
I still chuckle when she throws her body at my hand.

Thats awesome yah i do the same with my snake. Handling them from baby to mature i'm sure gets them use to you and reduces bite risk. not to mention they are so docile and well i think lovable lol. My girl actually watches tv i swear. I was watching this show and she was curled up in my lap head on the laptop and then at the commercial she went up to the screen and slithered on it. The minute the show was back on, i couldn't believe this, she came right back and curled up in the same position to watch the show. I was like say whaaat?? I also find that sometimes she will be curled up in her hide but when i am gone for awhile and then come back and enter the room she will pop out :) BP's are so cute/cool that way. I really do think a part of them truly do know who you are you know what i mean.

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Originally Posted by killswitch

Yes she sits in her hide all day long, when I take the lid off her enclosure, she comes out her hide rather fast, puts her head up over the edge of the enclosure and just waits for me. I put my hand out palm first and some comes out to greet me and climb in my hand, otherwise she sits and waits for food to be put to her mouth to which she attacks and coils.

yes and as a small baby she has never struck at me, however if I put my fingers along her side she would throw like half her body worth of a coil at my hand. id jump every time. now as shes a bit older and a lot bigger it is the same thing, never a strike, but if shes in a mood the thick part of her body will smack my hand.

she is just a pastel and ive gotten many more high end morphs since her, but personality wise she is an absolute keeper
I still chuckle when she throws her body at my hand.

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Thats so awesome what a cutie. Thats funny about the body to the hand thing

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Originally Posted by Megz

Thats awesome yah i do the same with my snake. Handling them from baby to mature i'm sure gets them use to you and reduces bite risk. not to mention they are so docile and well i think lovable lol. My girl actually watches tv i swear. I was watching this show and she was curled up in my lap head on the laptop and then at the commercial she went up to the screen and slithered on it. The minute the show was back on, i couldn't believe this, she came right back and curled up in the same position to watch the show. I was like say whaaat?? I also find that sometimes she will be curled up in her hide but when i am gone for awhile and then come back and enter the room she will pop out :) BP's are so cute/cool that way. I really do think a part of them truly do know who you are you know what i mean.

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Yeah sometimes we let ourselves think that they know us and know exactly what is going on, however I have come to the conclusion its a lot simpler than that. You handle them as a baby, they get used to your scent, maybe your voice or the tone of it so since we have been doing this since they were little they know we aren't a threat. so they have no reason to be in attack mode or cautious. I have 10 bp's now and ive come to the simple conclusion that some are okay to be handled because they aren't as skittish or weary of the big heat signature coming at them. then again I have some that no matter how many times I enter the enclosure they are fully on the defensive. time of year, temps, storms incoming seems to make a big difference in temperament also.

Great pets though imo. I just started collecting about 4 months ago and I have 10 snakes so yeah ... lol im a sucker

I have a routine, but it depends more on what his mood is. Sometimes I take his lid off and he pops his head up ready to come out, and other days he grabs on to what ever he can.

Last night was a 'curious' one and he was all over the place as soon as I picked him up. It is nice to see him not terrified of me. Although, with his tiny brain he forgets quickly.

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Originally Posted by killswitch

I have a female pastel who is an absolute hog, she will eat any time all day every day and never refuse, im actually trying to get her to loose a bit of weight..

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....hmmm...never heard of anybody trying to get their bp to lose weight, or why theyd want to do that...:confused:

sent from my incubator

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Originally Posted by 4theSNAKElady

....hmmm...never heard of anybody trying to get their bp to lose weight, or why theyd want to do that...:confused:

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Maybe her BP was a boa in a prior life???

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Originally Posted by Megz

Thats awesome yah i do the same with my snake. Handling them from baby to mature i'm sure gets them use to you and reduces bite risk. not to mention they are so docile and well i think lovable lol. My girl actually watches tv i swear. I was watching this show and she was curled up in my lap head on the laptop and then at the commercial she went up to the screen and slithered on it. The minute the show was back on, i couldn't believe this, she came right back and curled up in the same position to watch the show. I was like say whaaat?? I also find that sometimes she will be curled up in her hide but when i am gone for awhile and then come back and enter the room she will pop out :) BP's are so cute/cool that way. I really do think a part of them truly do know who you are you know what i mean.

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Oh I can't wait for my snake to get big enough to coil up on my lap. He's still only about 2 feet long and still needs to gain some weight. But I want him to get bigger so he can wander around the apartment and we don't have to worry about him hiding somewhere tiny where we can't find him.

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Originally Posted by killswitch

Yeah sometimes we let ourselves think that they know us and know exactly what is going on, however I have come to the conclusion its a lot simpler than that. You handle them as a baby, they get used to your scent, maybe your voice or the tone of it so since we have been doing this since they were little they know we aren't a threat. so they have no reason to be in attack mode or cautious. I have 10 bp's now and ive come to the simple conclusion that some are okay to be handled because they aren't as skittish or weary of the big heat signature coming at them. then again I have some that no matter how many times I enter the enclosure they are fully on the defensive. time of year, temps, storms incoming seems to make a big difference in temperament also.

Great pets though imo. I just started collecting about 4 months ago and I have 10 snakes so yeah ... lol im a sucker

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Do you handle all of them often? Or just the ones who are used to you? Seems like the defensive ones may still not be used to being handled or in your presence.

Well im not actively trying to get her to loose weight, just watching how much I feed her now. She seriously looks like one of those dog toys that you throw in to the water that float, they are about 10 inches long and bigger around than a tube of tennis balls. She seriously looks like catdog from that cartoon. she has this skinny little tail and goes to about the width of a tennis ball lol. No im not dieting her no im not making her loose weight. Just instead of feeding her 2 adult mice every 5 days and the extra hopper and adult mice from my others that don't eat ill strictly give her the 2 adult mice.

and she is healthy, she poops regularly everything is great with her, she just has an appetite that dose not quit lol.

I handle them all atleast twice a week not including the time I take them out for tub cleaning etc. As I said im relatively new to the hobby and the ones that are more tolerant of me do get handled a bit more than the others. I do take the extra time to work with the ones that are more aggressive towards me. I also realize that the younger snakes are more flighty and 75% of my collection are less than a year old. when I bought my 1.1 clutchmate pastels the female (the garbage disposal I spoke of earlier) has always been not scared not defensive, just wanting to check out everything where her brother the male was on the defensive side, we have worked well past that and he is nearly as nice as his sister now. I am a firm believer that if you want an animal to behave the way you want it to, you need to put in the time and effort to do so. Dogs are a great example!

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Originally Posted by ViperSRT3g

But I want him to get bigger so he can wander around the apartment and we don't have to worry about him hiding somewhere tiny where we can't find him.

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I wouldn't recommend that as snakes can cram themselves into the tiniest of places. As an example, my adult female Brazilian Rainbow boa managed to work her way through one of the belt loops on my husband's jeans not too long ago, and she was about 6 feet long at the time and a good bit girthier than even my largest adult ball pythons. I thought she'd get stuck but she worked her way through the opening no problem.

I definitely have to agree with that. With some good training, any animal can behave how you want them to.

On a side note, this morning while feeding my snake, I had to handle him prior to feeding him since he climbed out of the tank because I had opened the top in preparation to give him food. Usually I never touch him before feeding but I guess he didn't care. I was worried he might confuse my heat signature with the rat, but it turns out he wasn't as hasty as I thought he might be. He struck once and missed since I was holding the rat awkwardly with the tongs. After having to reach down within his strike range, (while he patiently waited for a reset) I got it hanging by the tail and he struck again and landed. I was pretty happy that he made the transition from F/T mice to F/T rats without a fuss, especially now that he needs larger rats.

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Originally Posted by bcr229

I wouldn't recommend that as snakes can cram themselves into the tiniest of places. As an example, my adult female Brazilian Rainbow boa managed to work her way through one of the belt loops on my husband's jeans not too long ago, and she was about 6 feet long at the time and a good bit girthier than even my largest adult ball pythons. I thought she'd get stuck but she worked her way through the opening no problem.

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Wow, this is news to me. how large around is she at her widest? And how large was this belt loop? I find their ability to squeeze into places somewhat fascinating. I was already surprised at my snake's ability to squeeze underneath my bedroom door.

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Originally Posted by ViperSRT3g

Wow, this is news to me. how large around is she at her widest? And how large was this belt loop? I find their ability to squeeze into places somewhat fascinating. I was already surprised at my snake's ability to squeeze underneath my bedroom door.

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Belt loop was on my husband's Levis. No idea on a measurement of her girth at the time, but she's been eating a medium f/t rat every 10-14 days ever since she was given to us almost a year ago.

Goodness, that's kind of amazing she could fit O_o

My brain is still having trouble grasping that. Perhaps I'll just let him wander around in my room only once he gets too large to fit under the door :P

My first ball python Dammit earned his name through fitting himself (and occasionally getting stuck) in weird places and regular escape. He was the sweetest thing ever but a nearly six foot ball python with girth to match. Over his adult life he managed to fit himself through the handle above a car door, inside multiple sofas and living chairs, a futon, paper towel rolls, the holes on the sides of laundry baskets, and one fun excursion in which he opened the door to and got lost in a walk in closet. Three days later he was waiting on top of his tank to be let back in, lol.

My oldest female Shy has a weird love affair with recliners and has gotten up into any and all she finds. Scary stuff indeed with all those moving metal parts. She also ran away while in the care of a friend as I was studying abroad in Mexico City, she broke out of her tank, then out of the window, then down the street into the hands of a, forgive the phrase, redneck. He was trying to scare his girlfriend/wife/some lady with her by dangling Shy by the tail and swinging her around. My friend saw this and booked it over to retrieve her. <<;;

Adventures in snake keeping, lol.

Oh man, I'd freak if I discovered Jake was somewhere outside (Jake is my snake's name :P) let alone being flung about by his tail.

Yeah, that was quite the terrifying situation for everyone involved. There was about two days between her going missing and her being found that I was sure she was lost. Either eaten by a predator or killed by somebody. My friend lived in a pretty small town in Illinois, there's not what you would call a lot of snake friendly people there.

It was really unfortunate that is was Shy, she's been abused in the past (she was a rescue) and that little incident left her with both physical and mental scarring. I don't think she'll ever trust people again, sadly. Head shy to the extreme and a hissypants, she is. Luckily she no longer strikes at me as much as she did as a baby but if I move too quickly for her liking, she'll tell me so. I get one warning hiss when she's in a bad mood, then the defensive striking begins.

Once calm though, she is just a regular shy ball python, hence her name, lol. Curled up and cautious of everything around her.

I feed my snake good size prey,so he never wanders around hungry,he's barely out of his hide. He is a pig and would daily I'm sure if I fed him like that,but never would..sometimes if he sees me look in the tank into his hide,he comes out,expecting food I guess. What he seems to always do is,about a week after he sheds,he comes out every night for like 2-3 hours for about a week between the nours of 10pm and 11pm and swims through his water,lays on top his hide,hangs on the cool side,climbs the vines,then I wake up and he is back in his hide. After about a week of doing this he is back in his hide on the reg it's weird but he is doing it for some reason I guess. When I take him out of his enclosure,I'd say75% of the time,he don't wanna go back in,so I been taking him out a little more than usual lately. He slithers around and seems a lot more comfortable around my cats.