Hello everyone!
Just two days ago I got my first little Sumatran Short Tail from The Blood Cell named Poutine [all my animals are named after food]. He's very cute and I already love him, though it must be said that he's a bit... nippy, which is expected. It probably didn't help that there were technical problems on FedEx's part and the little guy spent an extra day in shipping, so I can understand that he's a bit upset. That being said, a few questions to ask:
1. About how long should he be left alone before trying to handle him with regularity?
2. How regularly should young short-tails be handled?
3. How long do you think I should wait before trying to feed him?
From what I've read so far the answers to these questions seem to be all over the place. Some people say leave them alone for 2 days. Others day 2 weeks. Some people say that the should be handled twice a day, others say once every 2 days. What do you guys think?
This is the first time I've owned a snake that comes anywhere even close to being "intimidating". My previous experience with pet snakes are two little rubber boas and a kenyan sand boa. The rubber boas are so utterly harmless that I question how they haven't gone extinct. I did not buy a short-tail expecting it to be a bigger, fatter rubber boa. If I wanted that I'd buy a calabar burrowing python/boa/whatever the Hell that thing is.
I should also add that his setup as a deep-ish layer of substrate that he likes to dig into. While my other snakes couldn't care less about being dug up though, the process of actually getting him out from the substrate definitely bothers him more than it does the little boas.
Thanks for the help!
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