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Personal funny reptile moments
Surely many of us have had those times where our scaly friends did something that made us laugh.
For me, this very night I was putting my ball python Zebes back in his enclosure, but I forgot to put his log hide of choice back as I had removed it to clean some toiletries underneath earlier. I didn't notice it wasn't there until I saw that, after he reached the ground and started crawling over to where his hide should be, he froze and had this honest to goodness "...What" moment.
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I have a half log next to my ball python's hide. I saw his butt through the hole in his hide so I thought he was in there...that all of him was in there...but I got a surprise when I lifted up the half log to check for poop. He had buried under his hide through the substrate and was staring right back at me. I jumped lol.
Last edited by Trinityblood; 01-11-2021 at 11:32 PM.
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First, some background: Back when I kept rattlesnakes, I had some given to me that were "venomoid" (their venom glands had been surgically removed, so they could not envenomate their prey or anything else). One of these was a large adult Eastern Diamondback who, as a result of having no venom glands, was now unable to digest his meals. You see, their venom glands are similar to our own salivary glands- while their venom is more concentrated, of course, it not only kills their prey (or serves for self-defense) it actually begins their digestion. This rattlesnake, now being without venom glands, had trouble digesting his meals, & apparently he had a "weak stomach" that didn't contribute well enough to his digestion to make up for his lack of venom. His problem was obvious (triangular body, underweight, stools oily & very bad smelling) but what to do about it? I tried adding digestive enzymes to his pre-killed prey without much success, so then I got the idea to try a "venom-donor".
I had a very feisty Southern Pacific rattlesnake that was extraordinarily skilled at envenomating rodents- no shortage of venom whatsoever, so I decided to try letting him envenomate a few extra rodents, then steal them away before he could consume them & feed them to the Eastern Diamondback, hoping he could then digest them. It worked very well, but oh, the dirty looks I got from the "venom donor" snake! His method was to hide & envenomate rodents at lightning speed when they got near enough to his hiding place; he'd wait briefly & then emerge looking for the rodent, except that when he came out, he saw only me holding my 24" non-locking hemostats & his rodent was GONE? I had no way to tell him that it wasn't me eating them, & the look on his face was priceless! Who says snakes are expressionless? I couldn't help wondering if I caused him to doubt the potency of his venom, because he seemed to only get more & more "dangerous"- more determined to kill the next rodent, which by the way, most seemed to never know what hit them, they died almost instantly.
Snagrio, your description of your BP's look of "what!?" made me remember this incident. Glad I'm not the only one seeing some snake expressions, no matter how subtle.
Last edited by Bogertophis; 01-21-2021 at 11:53 PM.
Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength.
Eric Hoffer (1902 - 1983)
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The funniest thing for me is still the time I thought Spotticus hadn't eaten his pinky mouse so I reached in to pull it out and there was a very surprised snakeling attached to it. He's albino, I feed in a white bowl, and it was dark. I put the mouse back down and he finished his dinner. I still felt a bit stupid, though.
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I put two corn snakes together in a tub for breeding. The male was really worked up and doing his courting thing on the "other snakes" back. The female was on the other side of the tub just watching him put the moves on himself while in a loop. Took him about 5 minutes to figure out why his lady friend was playing hard to get.
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Re: Personal funny reptile moments
When I was keeping hognoses, I had a little male I was trying to get to take a F/T pinkie. I kept kinda wiggling it around with the thongs but he wouldn't take it so finally I just laid it in the enclosure to see if he'd find it on his own. He did after a few minutes but only after he had coiled all around it. When he finally realized there was a mouse in there he did this weird little dance trying to figure out how to get it without biting himself, kinda like when you run into someone in a narrow hallway and do that left/right shuffle.
He finally gave up after a few minutes and then of course didn't eat for 3 weeks lol.
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Re: Personal funny reptile moments
Last edited by Bogertophis; 01-21-2021 at 11:55 PM.
Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength.
Eric Hoffer (1902 - 1983)
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Re: Personal funny reptile moments
I was on my bed with my bp in my lap. I was sitting with my legs outstretched, next to each other, so most of his body was in my lap, but his upper body was stretched down my legs. I'd been handling him for awhile and he'd been acting a little grumpy so I didn't want to try to put him and his hide back in his enclosure at the same time. I called out my dad and asked him if he could put the hide back in the enclosure for me. My dad is a bit scared of my snake, but is okay being in the same room as him. He came in, saw the bulk of my snake's body on my lap, and assumed that was where all of him was. My dad walked to the back of my room, put the hide in, and turned around to find himself very close to my snake's face. My dad jumped and yelped, which in turn startled my snake. In short, they both seem the feel the same way about each other.
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Re: Personal funny reptile moments
Originally Posted by Luvyna
...I'm imagining how that Southern Pacific rattlesnake must have felt after envenomating "his" prey and then poking his head out to find it gone with you standing there What an ingenious solution for the poor venomoid Eastern Diamondback too, I'm sure there aren't many people who would think to take prey from a rattlesnake
I put my BP Noodle into a separate plastic bin with one of his hides for security while I am deep cleaning his enclosure. One time I got distracted while doing this and left the hide upside down in the bin with Noodle. By the time I noticed my hands were already full so I just left it like that while Noodle was smelling it like " this is my hide but something isn't right!" and then when I looked again he had coiled up inside the upside down hide! It was very cute and silly....
It was a gamble on my part because they weren't the same species of rattlesnakes, & I didn't have a "hot" Eastern Diamondback to use for venom donation (I actually had a pair of Eastern Diamondbacks, but they were both venomoid), so it was the best chance that I could give him- I was elated that it immediately improved his digestion, & allowed him to gain weight. I do like to share that story now & then, because there are quite a few "venomoid" snakes around, so it's unlikely that he was the only snake ever with this sort of problem. Someday maybe my experience will help someone else with their snake in a similar situation- sometimes we just have to "MacGyver" things.
By the way, I hope you know that my "venom donor" got plenty of his own rodents "for keeps". The venom of the Southern Pacific rattlesnake is quite lethal (especially for their natural prey), as it contains not just hemotoxic but neurotoxic components- I think he could easily have envenomated 20-30 mice at one sitting. He had been given to me from the "Living Desert" zoological park in Palm Springs CA, because while he was a native species in Southern California, their location was not in his range- at least, that's the "excuse" they gave me? I had an "extra" Mojave Green rattlesnake that needed a new location at the time, so we swapped, so they could display only those relevant for their location. Mojave Greens have similarly dangerous venom too, but that snake was so much mellower.
Your story made me laugh too, thanks! I can totally picture a snake recognizing the scent of their hide & unable to figure out why it's not working the same as it did before?
Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength.
Eric Hoffer (1902 - 1983)
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