New to forums, (but not herps)

[JoshuaNeff]

Hello everyone!

I've been keeping herps for 15-16 years, starting with a couple of iguanas and leopard geckos. The two iguanas are still alive and happy, as is one 12 year old leopard gecko. I also have a bunch of hermit crabs, and 2 cats here. At my parents we have dogs, cats, horses, a donkey, ducks, chickens, birds (conure and cockatoo), and a ridiculously old chinchilla.

As far as snakes, I've had a little corn (amel) for a bit over a year and very recently obtained a female that is just over a year old. She seems to do very well with people, and after 4 days in her new home had only exhibited signs of stress for about 10 minutes total. This was just after I put her in, she cruised around until she found hides.

For activity, after that she would be in the warm side or cool side hide during the day, then at night begin to explore. She still remained primarily in hides, but would travel from one to the other, stop by the water dish, slither up some wood, but never seemed to be anxious.

Because of doing well and a possibility of her last feeding being untrue, I decided to offer her an adult (white) frozen/thawed mouse on the night of the 4th day. I put her in the feeding tub, and did the ol' "shake and wiggle" from some tongs. The new girl struck within 10 seconds or so, after showing interest instantly. This was (apparently) her first frozen/thawed meal, as she would supposedly only eat live. Her first meal was on par with my corn, who is an amazingly good eater. (never turned down a meal, never taken more then 20-30 seconds to strike) I was pretty thrilled and hope this behavior keeps up. (I understand that waiting a week before feeding is usually recommended, but it was pretty clear her stress level wasn't high so I gave it a shot)

As a side note, the entire time I've typed this... (and any other time I'm in the room usually) my corn has poked his head out of the hide and watched me. For some bizarre reason he's obsessed with people and one of my cats.

[bsash]

Sounds like you have one very large collection, and congratulations on getting the snake to take frozen thawed! On a side note, welcome to ball-pythons.net!

[llovelace]

Welcome

[Boanerges]

Welcome to BP.net Any questions you may have feel free to ask!!!

[Jason Bowden]

Welcome to the site!

[JoshuaNeff]

Thank you everyone!

I do have one question about behavior... any reptile that I've had who wanted to come out of the cage tended to explore a bit, hang out by the window, walk around, generally just hang out. I took the new ball out today to check her out again now that she has been here a bit... double check for mites, check eyes and breathing, all that stuff.

Well she came out, everything was fine and dandy, until I tried to put her back in. She raced up my arm and curled around my bicep. I walked back over to the bed, she came down to my hands and looked around, acted alert but not stressed. I walked over to put her in the tank again... she refused to let go of my arm. I'm not a fan of really applying any force to move a reptile unless absolutely needed, as I think it can stress them out. I feel it's best to usually let them do their thing... so I spent 10 minutes trying to coax her off my arm.

I've had reptiles come up to me when I open the cage, enjoy going out, not mind being held, but never one that seemed to act quite like this. Thinking about it, I have two thoughts. One being that she was nervous about the cats walking around or the big empty room, and was curling onto me for security. This would make sense, if her head wasn't scanning the room and flicking her tongue at everything. I had always believed when they were scared they balled up and tucked their head near them, or inside them. Not acted curious. The other option is she actually really enjoys being held.

There is of course a difference between enjoying handling and putting up with it. My iguanas put up with it well, but enjoy being out of the cage. Same with the birds, and the corn snake loves people but not necessarily contact. He loves to watch things and will stay close to people, but isn't intent on clinging to them. Without a doubt, I believe every species has general behavior patterns that really take a lot of time with them to figure out... I just haven't had one act like a scared kid clinging to daddy before.

What are your thoughts on this? I don't mind having her out often in the evenings, I have just always been careful to try and not stress them out. When put back into her cage, she tried to come out until I walked to the other side of the room. Then she went from the warm hide for a few minutes, over to the cool one. No obsessive cruising, just back to things as normal.

[llovelace]

My Phoebe loves being out, if I go more than a couple of days without taking her out, she gets that way when I go to put her back in, her tub is about chest high on me, and we have our routine of me opening the tub talking to her, then I turn my shoulder to her and she snakes her way up to around my neck where she camps out while I do whatever.

I also have a rtb that seems to not ever want to go back into his viv.

All my other babies could care less lol

[Vypyrz]

I just haven't had one act like a scared kid clinging to daddy before.

What are your thoughts on this?

She's a daddy's girl. Enjoy it...

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