Riverrun

[CloudtheBoa]

Well she dumped her water dish again, which she does from time to time, and I had her in the little tub I brought her home in to keep her in line. She's slowly becoming too large to fit in it. Haha



Today was also an eventful day for her, as I accidentally startled her while I had her outside. At first I took a few pictures of her on my arm before letting her crawl through the grass.





She went around exploring like usual, and eventually stopped at a spot under one of the trees and sat there slightly periscoping, inspecting a scent or sight that caught her interest. I decided to leave her be since I bother her so much outside (she can cross a 20'+ distance in seconds so I kinda have to).

I think I left her alone for too long without letting her know I was there, because when I finally decided to go over and move her to take a few more pictures and bring her back in, I saw a dip appear just behind her head on her neck.

I tried crouching and approaching her slowly so she could see it was just me and maybe relax, but I'd already startled her too much. She struck out at me and I jumped back and dodged her, and her next 3-4 strikes weren't intent on contacting at all. No hissing, just a flattened head, puffed up body, and s-curve. She crawled around me while maintaining her s-curve and keeping her head lifted of the ground, facing towards me as she did so until she saw I wasn't making any more moves toward her.

Instead of reaching out and grabbing her before she could get away like my instincts demanded, I let her do as she wished and she moved slowly and deliberately past me (for her). Once I saw her muscles relaxing and her beginning to deflate I gently picked up her tail and back end. Then I lifted her whole body when she didn't flinch or stiffen at my touch, and let her thread through my fingers until her muscles completely relaxed and she sighed out all the air in her before returning her to her tub.

I think I'm going to start bringing a hook outside with me to warn her of my presence in the future, and it won't be long before I'll need to start having someone come outside with me to help me "wrangle" her.

Her defense triggers are way different than all my other snakes, so it may take a bit more trial and error before I get it right. I'm glad she's still young. Lol

She generally doesn't get defensive when she's active and moving around, but is easier to spook when she's still and intent on one or a few things. Most likely because she's not paying as much attention to me, and I'm not having to constantly interact with her.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk