Signs of Comfort and Stress in Snakes

[Skiploder]

The link between physical well being and stress in captive reptiles is well established. As a keeper, your foremost responsibility is to ensure that stress is kept to a minimum.

Everything you do is targeted at reducing stress. This encompasses providing proper husbandry, diet and positive interaction.

This begs the question, just how the hell do you identify stress in a captive snake? Conversely, what are the signs that your snake is at ease or "comfortable".

Since snakes are - for the most part - not expressive, clues to stress/comfort need to be gleaned from their behavior.

Signs of stress or "discomfort" include:

• Attempts to escape
• Hissing
• Non-feed induced biting
• Over alertness
• Mock striking
• Retraction of the head or tail induced by minor stimuli
• Immobility - whcih may included eye contact with keeper
• Hiding the head
• Clutching (tightly coiling or grasping)
• Death feigning (in animals that display this behavior)
• Stuttery, jittery or otherwise hesitant mobility
• Loop pushing with the intent to resist physical contact

Signs of comfort include:

• Sleep or repose
• Relaxed - not tense - immobility
• Relaxed or normal respiration rate
• Normal alertness
• Relaxed awareness
• Calm tasting or smelling of the air - measured in rate of tongue flicking
• Unhurried motion
• Normal feeding and drinking
• Relaxed grasp on handler

Since this is a ball pythons forum, it should be noted that signs of comfort should be congruent with normal behaviors the animals would display in the wild. In nature, ball pythons tend to spend the duration of the daylight hours in a resting phase and the nighttime hours in hunting mode (if hungry). Therefore any deviations from this behavior pattern in captivity such as restless daytime behavior should be considered as indications of stress or discomfort.

Reptiles in general (excluding the "smarter" species) tend to have limited stress responses to inadequate captive environmental conditions. The primary stress response is the displaying of search and escape behavior. This is often noted as general restlessness. The animal cannot find proper thermoregulation zones, or the animal cannot find a hide or retreat that fulfills its instinctual need to go into a diurnal or nocturnal resting phase.

The second general stress response is to biologically shut down in an attempt to minimize the stress induced by it's captive environment. Signs of this are lack of basking behaviors and refusing to feed. Animals that are biologically shutting down may mimic hibernation behavior out of season.

It has been proposed that these two primary stress responses are dependent on natural behavior in the wild. Drymarchon, for example, are wanderers and should in theory display the former response. More sedentary species are prone to shutting down when stressed and will display the latter.

It should be noted that stress behaviors are not constant. Reptiles have overriding biological imperatives. A strong stimuli - such as a timed basking spot in a varanid - may cause a resumption of normal behavior. The key is to observe the animal's behavior once that powerful stimulus is removed.

One of the things I'm always harping on is the importance of establishing protocols when bringing a new snake home. These protocols are implemented to reduce stress on all levels. They are:

• Do your homework - make sure the animal is housed in a habitat that properly provides for all of it's environmental and behavioral requirements. These include proper levels of heat, proper thermoregulation zones, adequate space, etc.
• Place the enclosure in an area with little to no foot traffic, noise or vibration.
• After placing the animal in it's new home, do not touch it or interact with it until it shows signs of comfort (as listed above)
• Do not feed the animal until it shows normal signs of hunger along with signs of comfort.
• Do not begin handling sessions outside of those required during routine maintenance until the animal begins to show signs of comfort.

At another time we can explore why the primary goal of every keeper should be to not follow cookie cutter instructions by species, but to begin to recognize the need to fine tune husbandry parameters even further by examining the individual tendencies and requirements of each animal in their care. There is a very obvious link between stress and disease in reptiles, and everything we do should be aimed at eliminating that risk in our collections

[Drake Moonslayer]

Love this post. Great write up. Thanks

[Shamri]

I have been wondering about this lately, since Atticus has been in his hide almost nonstop lately. This may be in part due to his new feeding schedule (every four days) and/or the fact that he was shedding this past week. He is a bit more skittish after being left alone during his shed, but once he is set down, he explores at a pretty leisurely pace and flicks his tongue regularly.

My concern is that his temps may be low. His ambient varies between 77-82, and his warm hide is at about 85-86. It may be a bit warmer, since he depresses the aspen bedding wih his weight. Maybe he doesn't want to come out because it is too cool. Yet, he moved to the cool side hide to shed. Any thoughts?