Woah! W..T..F?!

So, its 1:31am and the lights in my room are off. So I know my little girl is gonna be roaming her tub as she only comes out when its dark. Shes about 58g so shes a tiny thing. So I turn the lights on and see her laying the length of the tub with her mid-section going across her water bowl. So I dim the lights down a little so I don't totally freak her out and go over to her tub to look at her. She scoots back a little from the wall and is staring at me but not moving anything, so I put my finger on the side of the tub, kind like you do when your looking at a toddler and bending your finger while saying "goochy goochy goo" and she snap at it! Full force right into the side of the tub, so I naturally reacted by yanking my finger away. So now she is on the other side of the tub looking at me, and im all freaked out cause I have never seen or heard about, or even read about it here. So now I'm staring into her tub, all freaked out, and out of no where she strikes at me again! This time I'm not even near her tub? Just looking at her...So I figured she is beyond stressed so turn the lights back off and am now writing this in the dark. But now I'm freakin' scared as hell of her, and she is just a baby! Hell, 3 days ago I couldn't get her to eat, now she is striking anything even close to her tub...wtf? This normal? She ok? This just a phase they go through? I'm actually really freaked out, even more so then when my male bit me a couple of min after he ate, at least he was in eating mode, this is all out of nowhere.

Tub set up is 80 degrees on the cool side, 95 on the warm, and 75% humidity. And no she is coiled in the back in the strike position and as soon as I turned on the lights to go look at the gauge readings she lifted her head like she is getting ready to strike again....Don't know what kind of help I need, but I really need some right now. :(

Sounds like she's getting use to her setup, or maybe shes hungry :)

Hi,


Well she probably got a bit defensive when this big warm thing loomed at her out of the dark.:D

Best advice I can think of just now is to just leave her alone to calm down and feel secure enough to carry on with her midnight stroll.:)


dr del

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by chris B

Sounds like she's getting use to her setup, or maybe shes hungry :)

---

I just fed her a little hopper mouse a few nights ago, and that was a tough task, I had to turn the lights out and everything before she would eat it, hell, lol, the mouse made a bed in the aspen and went to sleep...lol

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by dr del

Hi,


Well she probably got a bit defensive when this big warm thing loomed at her out of the dark.:D

Best advice I can think of just now is to just leave her alone to calm down and feel secure enough to carry on with her midnight stroll.:)


dr del

---

so this is ok? nothing is wrong with her, like she is sick or has some form of snake rabies or something? Sorry for me freaking out, but she struck twice, and is now all freaked out, as much as I am, and breathing really heavily, about as much as I was when she struck. I'm not worried about me, I'm worried about her...I'll worry in the morning when I have to change out her water... :8:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SnakeEyes

Sorry for me freaking out, but she struck twice, and is now all freaked out, as much as I am, and breathing really heavily, about as much as I was when she struck. I'm not worried about me, I'm worried about her...I'll worry in the morning when I have to change out her water... :8:

---

Yes I would say she is ok.

She might still be freaked out because the thing that scared her hasn't gone away and keeps coming up and staring at her.:P

Let her settle down without interruptions and see how she is tomorrow. Their heat vision sense is supposedly really quite amazing so ,while you feel turning the lights down makes you less visible, you still look just as hot to her.

besides if she does get a little "snappy" - she's ickle!! I know they cause us great stress on occasion but I think you should be fine.


dr del

actually since I turned the lights off and got the readings of the gauges on her tub I haven't been back over there. Since I made the post I have stayed away. Shes on the other side of the room and I am making it a point to stay as far away as I can.

Some hatchlings are snappy, definitely nothing to worry about. In fact a lot of times it will make for a better feeding response...

But again, Make sure you've husbandry is right on, and provide the snake with a sense of security...the snappy attitude may go away with time under the correct husbandry.

awesome, thanks for the tid bits. Since she is in no harms way and is ok, I can hit the sack since its 2:15am and I got work in the morning, but no way could I sleep and not know if this was ok or not. Thanks again for the awesome responses!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by chris B

Sounds like she's getting use to her setup, or maybe shes hungry :)

---

Nope...tiny snake, biiiig mean predator...she's being defensive b/c she's scared.

Little ones tend to be snappy as a means of protecting themselves. They know if they're not hidden, they're food for almost anything else. Leave her be and she'll calm down.

(BTW, rabies is a warm-blooded animal disease) ;)

Give her a chance to calm down, and later on you can handle her, moving slow and steady.


R.:sunny:

You should be proud, great feeding response. She's a keeper!

Your snake did this because she's a snake, not a puppy, and this is what snakes do. She's not sick or aggressive or mean or at all unusual. That doesn't mean that all snakes strike all the time or that your snake will be like this always, but you have to realize you have a snake. A creature with a very basic reptilian brain that lives by it's instincts and natural drives...to survive, to reproduce, to eat, etc. That little snake has not one clue who you are. You are just some big warm mammal that came at her from above (which is a classic predator position) and she drove you back in order to preserve her existance. Quite normal and understandable if you think about it from the mind set of your snake. Personally I don't believe it's ever possible to "tame" a snake, even a captive born one. They will occasionally hiss, strike, bite, etc. That's just part of what owners have to accept when they choose a snake as a pet. It's up to you to set up an existance for your snake where you minimize the stress that might encourage striking at you, but the simple fact is this stuff just happens when you have a snake.

When my snake was about that big he did the same thing...i stopped messing with him for like a week, but then I messed with him again and he finally bit me, but I acted like it was nothing and since then I have never had a problem (this is been about 6 months). He knows who boss is now. But dont let ur snake feel as if they win or they will now that if they bite you..you will leave them alone.

This morning she was in the same position so I left her alone, she just really seems on edge and really wanting to strike something, so I shrugged it off as her having a rough night/morning and just left her alone. When I get home from work I'll confront her about it and have a talk with her about it all. If she wants to get physical and take it to a low form as biting then thats fine. But at this point in her life, my teeth are bigger. :D :D

What is her set-up like? Does she have two really snug-fitting hides? For a snake that small, they should be really small hides that she can cram herself into. And how big is her enclosure? If it's a huge (relatively speaking) glass tank, that can also add to feelings of insecurity. Not only does she have a large area of "land" she must be constantly aware of...all that glass can leave her feeling extremely exposed.


Some steps to consider that may make for a much more relaxed little baby:

-- Make sure the enclosure is small...for a baby that small, a shoe-box sized tub would be a perfect size. A 10 gallon glass tank at the very largest.

-- If you're using glass...cover three sides of the glass with something opaque...dark paper or cardboard or whatever. And maybe even cover a few inches at the bottom of the front side of glass so she can't see out unless she lifts her head, but you can still see in.

-- Make sure she has at least two very snug little "caves" she can hide and sleep in.

-- Fill the enclosure with loosely crumpled newspaper. This can go a long way toward making her feel more secure and "hidden" in her little world. Leave the paper in there all the time...and whenever she has a successful feed, take out one crumple of paper. Eventually, as the amount of paper gradually decreases over time, she should grow used to the idea of not having it around her all the time and by then should be feeling more secure in her little home and not fearful that a predator is going to jump out at her at any moment.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SnakeEyes

I just fed her a little hopper mouse a few nights ago, and that was a tough task, I had to turn the lights out and everything before she would eat it, hell, lol, the mouse made a bed in the aspen and went to sleep...lol

---

:laughing: :8: She treats her guests well!

Sounds like she's just out for a hunt, but there is a possibility that she may be a little stressed. JLC has a great post, I suggest you read it. :)

She usually does :D To answer your points JLC:

http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u.../100_00361.jpg
((the hides you see in there are no longer then as they were too big so I now have ones in there much much smaller))
http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u.../100_00391.jpg
((which is also why I went with much smaller hides))

Thats her tub. You cant see it in that pic but there is a UTH and thermometers to measure the warm and cool side along with humidity.


for her hides, I have two itty bitty plastic plates that would go on the bottom of a plant pot. These suckers are small, in fact, when she goes in them and curls up into her little ball she actually will pick up the bowl off the bedding a little. I am thinking of ways to apply weight to the top of the hides so that when she goes in there and balls up it will push down on her instead of just being pushed up.

The crumbled newspaper idea, you mean to just fill the tub with it or just the floor of it? she also doesnt have any "land" she has to keep an eye out for, as with the hides and her water bowl there isnt much extra space in there for her, she does have plenty to move around however.

The newspaper trick aka crumpled up newspaper is just basically to give them a feeling of cover much like natural leaf litter or taller grasses would. Here's a couple of pictures to illustrate. The deal with this is once they settle in to remove it really slowly, bit by bit until they don't care if it's gone or not. I've done this with both small and large snakes to settle them in and it works very nicely. There is a small bp btw in these pics, tucked up happy in it's hide.

Top View...
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...ickTopView.jpg

Side View...
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...ckSideView.jpg

Same basic setup without the newspaper...
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...MuirnesTub.jpg

I have a trash can full of shredded paper. You think that would work as well or that would be too much cramed into her tub? The shredded newspaper would allow me to remove very little at a time till its ok gone, but would also be alot in there to fill it up. what you suggest?

I think the shredded newspaper would be fine. And so long as its not compressed down into the tub, I don't think you can "cram" too much of anything in there.


The little plastic hides sound fine. I've got the same plastic "plate" in with my snake, as well as some heavy ceramic hides....she still loves the light-weight plastic and often wears it like a little turtle shell. I think with them, so long as they can feel it, they're happy. It doesn't have to be heavy.

Let me clarify something....shredded NEWSpaper would be ok...but personally, I'd be hesitant to use regular shredded paper, as it tends to have rather sharp edges. But that just may be me being paranoid.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JLC

Let me clarify something....shredded NEWSpaper would be ok...but personally, I'd be hesitant to use regular shredded paper, as it tends to have rather sharp edges. But that just may be me being paranoid.

---

actually, I was thinking the same thing. so im gonna take newspaper, rip it into strips, then crumble those up and toss them in.

I wouldn't use anything too shredded up, especially regular paper. Just scrunch some good old newspaper up and you'll do fine and I'm sure the snake will appreciate it.

will be the first thing I do when I get home from work, this of course after I get bitten by her and change out her water... :8:

Oh heck you don't need to get bitten LOL. Just quickly place a spare glove, small washcloth, whatever over her face or give her a spritz from a misting bottle in her face. That should give you more than enough time to grab the water dish, fill it, repeat and there you go. Even my biggest snakes dislike being spritzed in the face or tapped on the nose with the misting bottle and will always freeze up if their head is suddenly covered. She might do more harm to her mouth nipping you or slamming into the tub side than she could do to you so you want to avoid that.

LoL, the bitten part was a joke, I'm not gonna wave my hand infront of her till she attacks it, haha. But I did plan on wearing a really small glove just incase, but nothing too big and bulky, dont wanna scare her...

I have 6 and so far two are competing for the meaniest title...one named "Jaws" because that's all you ever see of her is 360g's (empty and eats like a hog) and hisses every time she sees me (makes me feel good about myself) but is coming around...as long as you dont put her down and go to grab her again you're ok..she has yet to make contact with me out of the 3128945349 times she has struck...as far as Tiombe (african for shy) she is the 2nd smallest and weighs 1258g's empty (has also been on a fast since 10.03.06) an has never ever been a nice snake (I think I'm finding her a new home) she has bit me on more then a dozen occasions and typically likes to go for your face :eek: Her best was when she bit through my gloves..inturn I bled through the gloves :P
She just managed to escape from her tub last night....let me tell you she was mad as hell when I found her of course she was behind another snakes tub so I had to bend down and look in to see exactly where she was...a nice strike and miss to the face...she hates me :twisted: Other then that my other 4 are lil sweet hearts...especially Willow (big Willy...I need to get a bigger scale to weigh her mine maxes at 2267grams and she is getting the error message when I set her on it :P
Any how good luck...

I never have had any aggressive behavior from my male (just measured last night over 2' now!). But, I would like to keep it that way because I think it would just break my heart! I follow a couple of rules:

I NEVER tap or otherwise screw around around the outside of the glass.

I ALWAYS approach him in a slow but steady fashion from an angle that he could not strike me from easily (i.e. 180deg from the mouth). I also try to approach from the most shallow angle I can.

I ALWAYS wash my hands prior to handling.

Also, I haven't tried this yet but the guy at the pet store I go to suggested putting peices of cloth that you have worn (like a cheap shirt or bandana) into their hides so that they begin to associate your smell with security.

wonder if that hide trick works....

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SnakeEyes

wonder if that hide trick works....

---

That's just like bringing home a baby item from the hospital with the babies scent on it for your pets to get used to before coming home with the lil one...interesting...I wonder to...some/most will argue snakes arent smart enough to connect it..but who knows.