How Dare He!!

This evening i got the urge to take out Esteban and play with him but when i went to touch him he opened his mouth and started hissing.. really really loud. He looked as though he had no intention of striking but was obviously very agitated by me bothering him. He's never done anything remotely like this before. I'm just worried that now since he's in a 100% proper environment that his true side is coming out, and that he secretly is a jerk.

I know there's other hissing posts on this site, i read some but they all had different conclusions. Maybe he has to poo like this guy http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/showthread.php?t=25928&highlight=hissing

Whatever it is i'm praying he gets over it..

was he being kept to cool before?

yes.. for the first week we had him in a 20 gal. Because that's all we could afford at the time and the temp. never went over 79 degrees. But since i got rid of the balls i was able to move him into the 55 gallon tank in my room and now the temp never drops below 81.


Also, the store that i got him from had him in a 15 gal. So yes, this is his first time being in a suitable cage.
I just noticed that his eyes are turning blue, though. Maybe that's why he's angry, 'cause he's shedding. I just touched him again and he's not hissing. So i guess he's feeling better now.

i would think it's the shedding, but it could be because he finally got warm for the first time.

i saw on AP a burm that was neglected with NO heat at all was confiscatated and once it was in a suitable enclosure with proper heating it became aggressive.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mr~python

i would think it's the shedding, but it could be because he finally got warm for the first time.

i saw on AP a burm that was neglected with NO heat at all was confiscatated and once it was in a suitable enclosure with proper heating it became aggressive.

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Pure speculation on my part: Usually, people who can't/won't/don't supply the proper heat and husbandry for their snakes generally also don't handle them often enough or properly to "tame" them. (Using that word very loosely.) I would guess that the low temperatures keep the snake (like the burm in the story you saw) docile simply because it doesn't have the energy to be more actively defensive. Once it gets into the warm, proper environment, it now has the energy to be as defensive as it feels it needs to be...and given the apparent neglect it's been through, it's not the least bit surprising that it would behave that way.

So, I don't think it's the heating that caused the snake to become aggressive...more that the proper temperatures simply made it possible for the snake to behave how it would have anyhow.

In B&H's case, it sounds like the snake was just being "moody" because of an impending shed. No matter how docile a snake seems to be, they will always have the potential to suddenly become aggressive. We shouldn't ever forget that they are wild animals.

you could be right on that one, thats just what it said on animal planet. aren't burms normally really docile though?

yeah, i had an iguana before i ever had a snake. His name was Pippin and i got him from this weird shop down at the jersey shore. He was just a baby and would sit on my shoulder for hours. I thought he was just the sweetes thing. Then when we came back up to north jersey to go home i put him in a proper cage with a heat lamp, clean water, and lots and lots of fresh greens to eat. AND HE TURNED INTO THE BIGGEST jerk!!! I realized then that he wasn't just sweet he was just too weak and too undernourished to fight back. Poor guy. I had to give him away because he was way too aggressive.

Anyway, i recently took Esteban out and he seems fine. He was probably just cranky from me waking him up..

Thanks guys :)

Lol, quit anthropomorphizing your snake and learn to recognize and love it for its true nature. If you think you do not have the capacity to do so, you might as well "get rid of it" and get something more mainstream. Hope I did not offend you too much, but that is my opinion based on what I've read so far and I'm sticking to it :P

He "dared" because he's a snake. Just like the iguana you bought without knowing what an iguana was, acted like....an iguana.

The simple fact of life is these are NOT domesticated animals...they are not trainable in any conventional sense...they do not bond emotionally or intellectually with humans....they are...snakes. They react like snakes and part of owning snakes is knowing them, understanding them, respecting them and adjusting to them. They are not going to adjust to you. They may adjust to captivity in order to survive but they are never, in my opinion, going to be a nice little well trained pet that won't give you any problems.

Even with the BCI we foster, as good natured as he is, we never for one minute forget that this is a large, extremely strong snake that has the ability to strike hard and fast. Is this his fault? Is he a "jerk" if he does this? Nope, as far as I'm concerned I'd be the jerk if I didn't recognize this, accept it and just deal with it. We understand this in order to be safe around Rauri and also give him an environment where we hopefully lessen his need to strike, still accepting it may happen and that's just Rauri being a snake.


~~Jo~~

Great words Jo...=)

By the way, how are things at Camp Hiss-n-Slither? =)

Thanks Cassandra. Not to thread hijack here too much LOL but Camp Hiss ~n~ Slither is ticking along smoothly. Rauri's doing beautifully and spring will see him shipped Texas way. It's been a great experience for us and for the snake. I'm so pleased to know he's going to such a wonderful home with Becky.



~~Jo~~

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Benson_and_Hedges

But since i got rid of the balls

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Just out of curiosity, did you ever get your balls into the vet since one had the "exploding bm"? Or if not, did you at least inform your friend who's going to sell them, so that she can get it treated and doesn't sell off a sick snake?

lol, wow i am so not welcome here. Being a new snake owner and only having say, 5 months of "experience" with them i was using this forum as a crutch to help me understand them better. But everytime i come to you for advice and wondering if everything is ok i get criticized. Sorry, i'm not some great herp owner, but i was trying to get better by learning what and what not to do. Yes, i am offended. And no, i'm not posting here ever again. Thanks for the help up until now and no thanks for all the "bad mouthing".

OH, and by the way the title "How dare he" and calling him a jerk was just my way of being funny. I guess humor isn't welcome here either.

Dear Benson & Hedges...


I would prefer to address you by a "real" name, but you haven't ever offered one, so far as I know. Which is fine. Some people prefer it that way when interacting on the Internet.

On behalf of the mods and admins, I would like to let you know that you are not unwelcomed here. Everyone is welcome here, most especially those who want to learn about their animals and are willing to ask for and accept advice.

I think the main thing is that when dealing with these sorts of "forum" communications, it can be very difficult for some kinds of humor to show. Sometimes you have to know a person very well to be able to tell if they are being humorous or serious when all you have to go by is simple, typed words. Heck, even when you're having a face-to-face conversation, sometimes it's hard to tell when someone is trying to be funny if you don't know them well enough. And to be quite honest, hon...we don't know you very well yet. Your words in this post and in others come across as anything but humorous...which brings out the natural concern and even a bit of "overprotectiveness" some of us have towards the animals we're so passionate about.

A knee-jerk defensive response to sincere concern and blanket-statements like "obviously humor isn't welcomed here either" does nothing to help anyone learn to take you more seriously or get to know you better.

People here really do want to help. Out of concern for your animals, we've asked many times for follow-ups on other issues you were so deeply worried about. A complete lack of response to those kinds of questions, and what sometimes appears to be a complete disregard for the actual commitments involved in keeping these animals has many of us concerned. We could be totally off-base with those concerns, but all we have to go by are the words you choose to type here. If we're wrong, we would welcome anything you have to say to show us so. But if all we get is "nobody likes me so I'm not gonna play with you anymore"....well....? What are we supposed to think?

Please, just consider how things might look to someone who has no knowledge of you except the few brief words you've left here in a very short span of time.

Whatever you choose to do, we wish you the best of luck.

Very nicely written Judy, and that's exactly my concern. You chose the words "got rid of" your ball pythons, and it came across as a very casual thing to do, especially with animals that are very likely ill. It appears that you "got rid of them" because you didn't want to deal with their illnessess. We've asked you several times if you ever had them seen by a vet, and you never even acknowledge the question - that raises very serious concerns about your committment to the care and well-being of your animals.


I personally can't help but wonder if you chose to keep the RTB because it was your boyfriends that he got on the same day that another RTB died in your care and you don't even know what killed it. Was it husbandry related?

Why did you have to "get rid of" your ball pythons? Wouldn't a better option have been to have your boyfriend take on the responsibility of caring for his own animal in his home and you get to keep your ball pythons?

While I'm sure that you a very nice person(funny and witty and full of humor and all the good stuff), its your husbandry skills that I do not condone. The fact that it took you five months to get something right with your husbandry given the amount of information that is freely available in this day and age says that you are not doing all you can for these animals.

You said that you could not afford another tank at the time so you kept your snake in the smaller tank. I also read that you got the second snake to make your boyfriend feel better. Your exact words were "And it's not even my snake he's my BF's. He was very upset about Hector and wanted something new to make him forget and it's done the trick." This only says that getting the new snake and putting it in an unsuitable environment at the time was more about making your boyfriend and you feel better than making the well educated and well prepared choice of getting a companion animal that you would wanna care for the rest of its life. You also did not answer the question on whether or not you took your snakes for a checkup before "getting rid of them." (I think this is a poor choice of words to use on a site named www.ball-pythons.net :rolleyes: )

I could go on and on like this. If some people including me did not sugar coat it for you or tell you what you wanted to hear instead and it ended up hurting your feelings, I don't know what else to say. I only hope that you don't sour when your boa decides to latch on to you real good one of these days. I sincerely hope that you would stick around though. I would rather see you correct your actions and learn to appreciate these animlas for their splendour instead of giving them up when they violate your terms of owning them.

One more thing. I think we are a very humorous bunch here. Just not when it comes to bad husbandry. Stick around, take your lickings and ROCK ON! :)