Snakes can associate cruelty with humans


My daugher's ex-boyfriend rescued a rat snake some years ago that had been cruelly treated by his owner who hadn't a clue how to treat anything with respect

Every time anyone came into the room where the snake was, it would flee to the back of it's viv as far away from humans as possible. Ewan said it was completely terrified. If he didn't leave the room where it was, it would strike the glass with such force, it used to hurt it's nose. He had to call in expert help to help the snake and it ended up in a small zoo which has a reptile house with a more natural environment. The last we heard it was doing fine - away from any human contact.

We don't know how intelligent animals are or what they are capable of. Watched a programme earlier this year (think it was on Animal Planet) where a Lynx (I think it was a Lynx) was successfully tamed and is now some Ambassador for the wildlife park where it lives. Her keeper flew in the face of the "experts" who said the Lynx could never be tamed. She believed it could, and by spending most of her time with the Lynx, showing the Lynx kindness, love and giving her lots of attention, she succeeded. It was thought the Lynx didn't have the brain-power to learn to adapt to that kind of life. This Lynx will walk on a lead and is as affectionate as a domestic cat.

Another thing that I think is that most of the reptile books, written by "experts" were mostly first published over 10 years ago. While there's still a lot of good, valid information in them (and I'm specifically referring to the one everyone seems to rave about - and without naming it, you probably know which book I'm referring to ) a lot of the information in it IMHO is outdated now, the reason being, when it was written most snakes were wild-caught. Now many (and over here nearly all) BPs are captive bred and have been for a long time, so often the first thing they see when they hatch are their siblings and us humans. In other words, they're becoming domesticated.

I could be wrong in saying this (and I will stand corrected if I am) but I go on quite a few reptile forums and by what I've read, the people who seem to have most problems with their BPs are the ones who do not handle their BPs on a regular basis. By saying that, anyone who gets a BP should give the snake time to settle into their new surroundings and establish a good feeding routine first before moving on to handling, starting handling for very short periods and build up gradually. Patience is needed. The same goes for any animal. Even kittens need time to adjust to a new home and will often disappear into the darkest, most inaccessible spot (for humans to get them out) for days until they build their confidence and become familiar with their new surroundings.

On another forum a few weeks ago someone wrote in and said they couldn't go near their BP as it would hiss and strike, tagging it's owner several times (defensive). He went on to say he only went near the snake for about 5 minutes once a month to change it's substrate and for about a minute once a week to throw a rat in it's viv. And he wondered why the snake was scared of him and defensive I wrote back to that thread and said I believed it was because he wasn't handling the snake enough. I got slated for saying that by the so-called "experts" on the site. Incidentally, that site is now closed down.

I handle my BPs regularly. Byron especially will let me know he wants to come out. If I ignore him, he climbs onto the viv lock and shows off. I can never ignore him when he does that. If I did, I do believe he'd go off and sulk LOL.

With gentle, regular handling Bobby my rescue is coming on really well too and is relaxing more when I handle him now.