Snake training/taming???

[don15681]

some of mine fart

[JSass]

Haha! Fart? Are you kidding me? What's that like?
I've been feeding my BP (8 month old male) out side of his enclosure in a plastic tub since I've had him for about a month. Live mice 3 times and the 4th a live rat. Once a week. Should I start feeding him in his enclosure? There's so much crap in there I feel like I can monitor the feeding (necessary with live) better in a separate enclosure. Maybe if I can get him switch to F/t I can start feeding in his habitat. What do ya think? He's really easy going. For ex. the mouse/rat never lasts more than a minute and I first fed him after having him only 4 days. He let's me pick him up soon after (gently of course) to put him back in his tank. He switches around to all of his hides. And I swear on my life he watches tv with me occasionally. He'll even come out and just hang out in his tank after he eats. just laying up against the glass facing the tv. LOL

[kitedemon]

OP in regards to training no. A limited bit out conditioning is possible but limited. A friend keeps and breeds dwarf retics he taps the glass doors with a snake hook before opening the enclosure for anything other than feeding. He will touch their sides with the hook as well before reaching in. They know there is no food and don't strike. They are exceptional feeders and will eat anything it seems. They are conditioned but it isn't really training they expect 'food' to behave in a certain way and handling is different.

[17sleep]

i just hate how the rats/mice crap and piss in their tank, it just bugs me alot.
Also i just think f/t is harder, although i will try it if necesary.

[BigBlue56]

1) Why would your snake need to hunt EVER? You CANNOT just release it into the wild when/if you wanna get rid of the snake. Teaching it to hunt is a moot point.

2) Your moving and handling your snake WAY to much during feeding times. Moving them to and from the backyard while in feeding mode or after feed is an awful idea. Your probably stressing out your snake. And no wonder its not too friendly to you, your handling too much during a time its in feed mode.

3) Also be mindful of bugs and parasites that might be crawling around outside. Your feeder could get infected and thus infect your snake, or directly to your snake.

All in all, it just seems like many red flags.

[pavlovk1025]

Mine does this cool thing where 98% of the time, it acts like a rock. Yeah. Im telling you, it is WICKED cool.

[joepythons]

nooooo, i was actually thinking zoo.
ive heard you could donate your animals to the zoo.
and i live in San Diego, so im really close and would
get to see it alot
although i would be sad if i ever did have to let it go

Uuum sorry you said your back yard NOT a zoo

[moravaguy]

Mine does this cool thing where 98% of the time, it acts like a rock. Yeah. Im telling you, it is WICKED cool.

mine does this too, but seriously they dont train they just tame.

[blackcrystal22]

nooooo, i was actually thinking zoo.
ive heard you could donate your animals to the zoo.
and i live in San Diego, so im really close and would
get to see it alot
although i would be sad if i ever did have to let it go

You cannot donate animals to the zoo. Whoever told you that was wrong. Zoos have animals predetermined before they build the enclosures, and will not have extra space for unwanted pets.
Unwanted pets that are "dropped off" at the zoo will often be sent to animal control or euthanized, there's nothing they can do with them.

Also, you DO realize that zoos usually feed frozen/thawed rats and rabbits to their snakes?
Snakes do not lose their instinct to hunt. I feed all 22 of mine f/t at the moment, but if I went through and fed them live (which I do occasionally when I have extra live rats) they eat them just as robustly as ever.

outside of enclosure-yes
feeding frozen-no, im scared that if id have to get rid of it, it wont be adept at killing on its own. i try to put it at my backyard with tall grass and some rocks as a natural grassland so it'll actually learn to hunt on its own.
and yes i do make sure that neither the rat or snake can get away.
gotta love grandma made fences

That is pretty dangerous for the snake and the rat. There are a lot of chemicals in grass that you may not even realize are there. Not to mention, there are all sorts of bugs and bacteria that your snake is not naturally accustomed to that you could be introducing it to.
What if one did get loose? You'd be another addition to the invasive species releases, not to mention it's HIGHLY illegal.

[BPelizabeth]

To the OP....feed in the enclosure it is less hassel and much less stressful for the snake. I also wanted to share with you our caresheet as it is very good and it sounds like you are pretty new to this....which is fine...we were all new once.

http://www.ball-pythons.net/modules/...iewarticle&id=

I also like to reiterate........you cannot release your python, if you find you can no longer take care of your snake.....there are plenty of ppl on this board that would help you with that problem.