Agressive Red Tail / snake hook question

[Mike Cavanaugh]

I have a 2 year old red tail female. She is beautiful and eats like a pig, and is growing like a weed! I have already posted questions about her aggressiveness before, and I was told that her age, and that she always wants to eat is what is going on... and I believe this to be true because when she has a full belly she is calm.

So my question is, I saw a video where a guy had a set procedure for taking out his big snakes (including huge red tails). he would use his snake hook and put it under them and lift lift them a little, then he would reach in and grab them with his hand. He said that using the hook every time when handling them taught them that when they were touched by the hook it was handling time NOT feeding time.

Do you think this is true? being a BP man, I don't own a snake hook, but if the general consensus is that this does work, then I will either get a snake hook, or use something similar home made.

thanks for your help.

[wilomn]

Conditioned response questions everywhere today.

Yup, it'll work. Well, it has for me.

[llovelace]

Great question Mike, I got my 2 y/o rtb and he was terrible! poor little fella would strike & strike, well in less than 2 weeks he has calmed down tremendously I'm happy to say. I still wear a glove when taking him out of the tank, & I plan on getting a snake hook to do the conditioning thing while he's still small.

[AndrewGeibel]

I have 3 RTB's ... No matter what I do one of them ... of course the big one ... is amazingly cage defensive ... I've finally given up and just reach in with a pillow case over my hands. I pull her out everyday except for a few days after feeding and no amount of handling is calming her down. At least she is fine once she is out of her cage. I am thinking of trying to get a hook and see if that helps.

[ladywhipple02]

I've found that a hook does help. I have one that will still strike at the hook... but once he realizes that's what it is, he's done. He only ever strikes once and then calms down. And he's never once struck outside his cage.

None of my others even strike at the hook anymore.

[shadi11]

Well I don't know about the hook but a quick and inexpensive way to test is get a paint roller remove the roller head and then get some extensions. We use sectional wood. It works well for our nics. Hope this helps a little. This tip comes from a painter friend who works with boas. Just make sure the end of the roller is not a blunt end. The one we got was at home depot. The whole thing cost us about 5 bucks.

[Mike Cavanaugh]

Nah, I will get an "official snake hook"

LOL, it will be fun to use when I have friends over. They already think I am insane for keeping almost 50 KILLER ball pythons.... taking the Red Tail out with hook in hand will be a hoot.