Choice-based handling progress!

[Caitlin]

Kala, a Rough-scaled Sand Boa, has been one of my most shy and suspicious snakes. As a result, I've kept contact with her to a minimum and have used choice-based handling strategies with her for the last year and a half.

Kala seems to really enjoy her 'holee roller' toy, and emerges every night from the substrate to climb around on it. Last night, after all this time of patiently using choice-based handling and very gradual habituation strategies with her, she kept pressing her face against the enclosure door - so I opened it for her. She immediately rushed to take refuge in her holee roller, which I admit I thought was really cute - and once there, she slowly ventured across the entrance and out of the enclosure.

Even though I haven't been handling her, something about the behavior strategies I've been using with her seemed to finally click. This snake, who previously could tolerate maybe 20 seconds of contact before biting and flinging herself away from me, peacefully climbed into a little pet bed I offered her as a 'bridge', then spent a good hour climbing around my hands, across my lap, onto a footstool, and from there into a nearby activity box. Once she explored the activity box and started looking restless, I was able to pick her up and return her to her enclosure without any stress behaviors at all.

Patience and using good behavioral and training strategies has really seemed to pay off for both Kala and I. It's interesting to me to see this kind of response even though I have never forced handling on her; I'm chatting about this with a couple of reptile behaviorists who have seen similar responses. I'll post about that part later if anyone is interested. We'll see how she does in the coming weeks and months. Photo below of Kala cautiously using her beloved holee roller as a safe home base as she starts to ease her way out of the enclosure.

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[Homebody]

I'm intrigued. I need to look into this.