Can you train a BP? And other random questions.

[bcr229]

I'll go against the grain - yes, snakes can learn that certain behaviors from you should elicit a certain response from them, and vice versa. The "training" won't be nearly as complex as you would find with a dog or even a cat, such as house training, coming when called, doing tricks, or using a litter box.

A common example is "hook training" to breaks their food response, the snake learns that hook = handling time not food time.

I do have a few larger retics and when they make a mess they go into a large tub temporarily during clean-out. Nobody is going to get a 10+ foot snake into a tub if it doesn't want to go in, so ours have been "trained" that if we put just their heads into the tub, they'll go the rest of the way on their own, even when grumpy or in shed since we follow the same process every time and they've learned the drill. This means that just one person can clean the enclosure, rather than having to make the snake lie in its own excrement until two of us are available.

And finally, coming back to the OP, yes when you have a defensive, nippy snake, and it takes a swipe at you or musks you or otherwise doesn't behave politely, and you immediately put it away, you are training it that biting/musking/fighting gets it what it wants, which is to be left alone. For those, once they settle down, I immediately put them back and they learn that behaving nicely gets them rewarded with the big bad Godzilla monster going away.