Behira - 2016 Female Ivory Ghost - First BCI

[RickyNY]

Such a beautiful and well behaved girl

[richardhind1972]

Looking great Dave,love it when one of my boas do this,

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[dakski]

Such a beautiful and well behaved girl

I wish I could say it's because I've worked with her for the past year or so.

"Yes, she was a wild one, but all the gentle handling and building trust has calmed her down and turned her into a sweet snake."

However, she's always been very docile, calm, and easy to handle. The breeder worked with her (being a small breeder and a holdback) and I asked him for his most docile animal, male or female, any morph.

Has she improved? Slightly. The hook training has definitely helped avoid incidents in the tank due to her strong food response, but you can't hold that against a Boa!

The difference is in the level of trust. Yes, she's always been calm and docile, but I believe she is much more trusting and calm now, especially with me. She's great with everyone else, but we seem to have a special bond.

I notice little differences with her in the past 6 months (after 6-7 months of working with her and her getting over 800G or so, or doubling in size since I got her). She is startled or spooked less easily, or it's almost impossible to do that now. If I am gentle, she lets me support her neck and rub her chin. If I support her neck and chin, she even lets me gently stroke her head. She didn't let me do that before. She wouldn't get mad, or bite, or anything like that, but she would pull back. To be clear, I do not do this regularly to her, or any of my snakes, however, every once in a while, I like to gauge where they are at and how they react to stimuli.

I do let other people hold them from time to time, even kids like my niece and nephew, supervised and with me a foot or less away, etc. but I want to know how they would react to negative stimuli.

Behira is the one I am least worried about. Period. She just doesn't get scared or spooked anymore. Snakes bite out of hunger or because they are scared/defensive. Out of the tank she doesn't look for food and she doesn't get scared. Problem solved.

I think I mentioned a few posts ago that she came around my shoulder quickly the other day and I put my hand up not expecting her head to be there and basically popper her good in the face. She shot back for a second because I startled her, but after a stroke or two to the side, was back to normal. She didn't even tense up her body or anything.

To be clear, I've worked with all my snakes, except Yafe and Feliz (new additions), for a while now, and this is how they respond to head support and gentle head touching:

Behira: Could care less

Shayna (BP): Anywhere from PLEASE STOP and gentle pulling away, to shooting head back/pulling head away quickly. She does not show any signs of defensiveness or any hissing, biting, etc. Total sweetie. However, she clearly is not a fan.

Figment (Adult Corn): Anywhere from, eh, to not crazy about it and therefore I am going over here now. Again, zero defensiveness.

Solana (juvenile corn): About the same as Figment as this point. Big improvement from a few months ago when she would spaz a little, but show no defensiveness.

Feliz (yearling BCC): Please stop and gently pulls away, much like Behira used to. He's very small (about 140G) now and just getting used to being handled. He's even calmer than Behira was at that age, so we will see.

Yafe (Carpet Python): Kind of darts away and doesn't seem to like it, but shows zero defensiveness. Just a "please stop" mentality.

Looking great Dave,love it when one of my boas do this,

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Rich,

It's adorable. It's a special thing I have with Behira too. We have a special bond as I mentioned above.

I love my other snakes and enjoy handling all of them. However, no way in hell (except maybe Feliz as he grows and trusts more) any of them would fall asleep on me. They wouldn't relax long enough or stop exploring long enough for that to happen.

For what it's worth, I sent a video of Solana, about a month after I had gotten her, to Don Soderberg (her breeder). She was in my hand and drinking out of her water bowl. Don was shocked that she trusted me enough, and that quickly to do that. I think, except for Feliz and Yafe at this point (and not sure I've tried), I've had all of them do that with/for me. Especially with the young snakes, I always show them the water bowls when I put them back every few times to make sure they know where they are.

I work hard and take a lot of pride in working with and building trust and a rapport with each one of my animals.

I know I keep saying it, but that's why I think I am very close to closing, if not done with, the collection. Yes, I know, I've said it before, and yes, that was like 4 or 5 animals ago, and yes, I've added a lot lately.

However, it's not just a time and energy thing. I wouldn't want to jeopardize these precious moments, like Behira falling asleep on my lap for an hour.

It would have to be a very special animal at this point to cause me to make another addition (not that Solana, Ezzy, Yafe, Feliz, and Ferry are not very special; they all are).

[MR Snakes]

You are one lucky dad!

[dakski]

Behira had some fun on the couch today.

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[dakski]

Doesn't happen too often, but I caught Behira in a light phase. Took a few pictures in not great light and with my iPhone, but it still shows a stark contrast to her dark phase and her in between phases.

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[richardhind1972]

Looking great Dave, I love how boas go thru these dark and light phases, has behira got a pure cream belly or is it speckled looks clear from that photo some of mine have speckles and some are as clean as can be

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[dakski]

Looking great Dave, I love how boas go thru these dark and light phases, has behira got a pure cream belly or is it speckled looks clear from that photo some of mine have speckles and some are as clean as can be

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Rich, I am pretty sure it's cream colored. However, I'll get back to you on that.

[dakski]

So of course, I post pictures from last night, then go down to the reptile area, and Behira has dropped a "butt bomb." So I took her out to clean her tank.

I weighed her and she's now 1,230G. She seems to gain about 30G per 110G (give or take) medium rat. She also fell asleep wrapped around my arm waiting for the F10SC to do its job. What a sweetie.

Pictures below.

P.S. Rich - you can see her belly and my memory is correct; cream colored.

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[richardhind1972]

Ok cool Dave , just wasn't sure whether ghosts had speckled bellies or not

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