Naughty snake!

[mad_andy]

So, Chris-the-boss took on a female Burm, hatched either very early this year or late last. She's small for her age, and because she hasn't been handled - the guy who had her is an idiot - she's as wild as an eagle and savage as hell.

I've been working with her to try and make her realise that being handled really is OK, and you don't need to bite. She tagged me nine or ten times the first day (including ending up with the tip of my little finger in her mouth which, yes, was extremely painful), none at all the second, and only once the third day. So we're making progress.





She's a granite calico Burm - means she'll get freckled white patches as she gets older. Beautiful little snake with a really bad attitude! We had to do something with her, because being a red hot biter at 3' is bad enough, but lethal at 16'...!

Anyway. I think she's lovely! (But NO, I do not want her - my nice patient, laid back, lovely little boy is quite enough for me on the giant snake front, thank you very much!)

Comments

[foreverhermit.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, she's gorgeous. Such a pretty face!

[rdyfrde.livejournal.com]

I really like the patterns on her skin. A nice mix of white and brown :)

[screwthedaisies.livejournal.com]

She's cute.

[bella-cheval.livejournal.com]

Pretty snake! How does one teach a snake to behave?

[madandy.livejournal.com]

You just handle it a lot, and show it that being handled isn't scary or painful - and hope that the snake calms down and accepts the contact! Some species never do, mainly the arboreal (tree living) species, although even some of those chill out with time.

Hatchlings are notoriously bad, which is understandable really; everything eats baby snakes, and when you're tiny and juicy your only hope of defence is to attack, and hope that the predator is startled enough to go away!

Depending on the species, that high-strung nippiness soon goes away. F'rinstance, baby corn snakes lose it within a couple of weeks, handled or not - although it is amusing to have a tiny wee bootlace that you could squash between finger and thumb rearing up to strike at you with all the vehemence of a pissed off rattler! At that age their teeth can't even break the skin.

Anyway, patience and perseverance is the order of the day with snakes - they can figure things out, although they think very differently to mammals. It's fascinating to see the difference in action - although I wouldn't be nearly so phlegmatic about getting savaged if this one was any bigger!!!

[bella-cheval.livejournal.com]

AH! Sounds like how you teach any young animal how to be handled. Thanks for the info, I've always been curious.