JCP Feedback

[cron14]

Hi all, I just wanted to check in with the carpet people to see how I am doing so far. Since I got Loki (female jungle/Ocelot), she’s eaten two small rats for me. I admit the second feeding was not as spaced out as I’d wanted it to be but my BP refused and wanted to see if Loki would take it. Sure enough, she did. Anyway, here are my questions:

1)Handling: I’ve gone through about 31 pages on the Morelia forum and realize that there is no handling guide (I understand why). So, the first two times I handled Loki I used a back scratcher to get her out. Don’t worry, I used the handle part and not the claw, I just needed something to simulate a branch. I have since gotten a crappy snake hook from a big box store. Any recommendations for snake hooks for when she gets bigger?

This morning, I worked with Loki for around ten minutes before getting her out into my hands. She gets super defensive. This was actually the first time I got tagged by a snake! It really wasn’t bad but took me by surprise cause she caught me by my ribs. After she bit me, I continued to handle her so I wasn’t “rewarding” bad behavior”. When I put her back in the cage, she struck at the glass twice. Are handling sessions like this where they get really stressed out beneficial? I know that carpets tend to tame down with time but would like to keep working with her inhopes of expediting the process.

2) Cage size: I ordered her a T-12 which should be here in about 3 months. I’m not sure how big she’ll be at that point, but do carpets get stressed from being in too big of an enclosure?

I apologize for any glaring spelling/grammatical errors as I am typing this on my phone. This is my first snake I’ve actually had to “work” with taming it down and ive enjoy the experience so far. Loki has quickly become my favorite reptile. Thank you all in advance.