Tail Waving

[guidofatherof5]

I've noticed an interesting behavior in some of my big radix females.
When they are eating and being pursued by other snakes they will stop moving and start waving their tail.
This causes the other snakes to stop, they then pay attention to the waving tail. This gives the snake with the food time to eat it.
This is not a tail rattling most often used to warn others but an actual waving of the tail.
Have any other members seen this kind of behavior?

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

Absolutely. I call it tail slapping. I find that any time garter snakes feel their food may be taken from them they will do this! Male or female, big or small... it almost seems that garter snakes KNOW that other garters will steal their food if possible and have developed this as a way to say NO and to distract the other snake. If the tail slap doesn't work then they will pull the full body thrash and flail their whole body around. I also love to watch them lift their head up high and carry their food as far as possible. often this leads to me angrily shouting at a snake as it is zooming across the carpet with a pinky in tow. Seeing as garters often live in close proximity in the wild, I don't find it strange that they would develop this behavior at all! I also find that a female garter snake that is being courted and is unwilling to mate will tail slap shortly before BOLTING to the opposite end of the enclosure.

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

I also have some garters that do what I refer to as "anger eating" The only ones I have ever had that will do it are similis and the florida blue easterns. They get really flippy when eating, and will often strike 8 or 9 times in rapid succession at food, biting it but not taking it. Then they try and flee. I find that snakes that do this, if I pick them up and grasp them firmly (but gently) and offer then the food, the will very angrily snatch it from me and eat it, almost with a vengeance-like attitude!

[kibakiba]

Ember tail slaps anything that touches him for any reason. He does it more often when Snap is eating beside him... I think he just likes slapping his sister, though.

[RedSidedSPR]

Mine have never done that... I'll keep watching though.

I do agree with Shannon, they have protect-your-food instinct. Probably because garters are together in the wild, and know that they steal.
That instinct is stronger in my concinnus than my others, probably because concinnus steal from each other more. He's even curled up, and hidden his mouth ful of food under his body! Holds food really high and leans against the glass, like Shannon said.

[Kantar]

My 2 radixes Serpent and Slider before I seperated them (male and female), when they were younger I'd give them both a pinky at the same time and they would have it in their mouths and race around the enclosure at warp speed trying to get away from eachother. Serpent would always finish first and start wandering around, but if it was too close to slider all the sudden SLAP!, he was pretty good at it too

[jitami]

Yep, add Frick & Frack to the list of tail slappers. What's odd is that I've never seen my big guys do this. If Ella is eating Sly keeps his distance until she's finished. They almost never actually eat at the same time or in close proximity to each other, despite being caged together and fed at the same time. (I think Sly's just a weenie, but don't tell him that <gg>)

[d_virginiana]

Houdini does it occasionally when he's got food and my arm or hand moves little inside the cage and isn't sure quite what it is (he gets fed after Harley, so my hands usually smell like her when I give him food). He also tail-slaps sometimes when someone new goes into the cage and he wants to be left alone. It's way different than when he rattles his tail, which he only does if he's frightened. This is more of an annoyed thing.

[ConcinusMan]

I've noticed an interesting behavior in some of my big radix females.
When they are eating and being pursued by other snakes they will stop moving and start waving their tail.
This causes the other snakes to stop, they then pay attention to the waving tail. This gives the snake with the food time to eat it.
This is not a tail rattling most often used to warn others but an actual waving of the tail.
Have any other members seen this kind of behavior?

Of course, but most of the time, the tail waiving is directed at me.:rolleyes: And yes, it most definitely is a show of annoyance.

[ConcinusMan]

I also find that a female that is being courted and is unwilling to mate will tail slap shortly before BOLTING to the opposite end of the enclosure.

Yeah, I've had that happen before. Stings too.:p

[kibakiba]

You tried courting a snake, Richard? You are weirder than I originally thought.


:p

[RedSidedSPR]

And that's saying somethin'.:D

[ConcinusMan]

You tried courting a snake, Richard? You are weirder than I originally thought.


:p

That's why I took the words "garter snake" out of her quote so it just says "female" ;)

Funny story though, I asked one of the managers at work if I could take home a trash item (a cardboard tube as tough as actual wood) and I said I needed it for my snakes. I told him I breed snakes. He says "why, don't you have a girlfriend?" :rolleyes:

Dangit, I didn't say I breed with snakes!

[kibakiba]

Haha... Someone actually asked me if the males were a bit too small when I said I was having trouble sexing my snakes... Sometimes I think people just don't want to be smart at all, because it was my understanding that most people know the difference between "sex" and "sexing" :rolleyes:

[d_virginiana]

it was my understanding that most people know the difference between "sex" and "sexing" :rolleyes:

I think you may have drastically overestimated most people :rolleyes:

[kibakiba]

Well these are people who claim to have graduated from highschool with 4.0 gpa. Everyone who has mistaken those always says they had a 4.0 gpa and that they know I'm lying. I do feel embarrassed to be of the same species as them... It's only Americans, too! Never once have I had someone from another country mistake that.

[ConcinusMan]

Well these are people who claim to have graduated from highschool with 4.0 gpa.

And you think that matters? Again, you have grossly overestimated people. There are plenty of complete idiots that are highly educated and have top grade point averages.

On the flipside, there are highly intelligent people with not much more than a third grade education.

Not to brag or anything, but I have taken many tests for Social security, and the state of WA and have always tested "significantly above average intelligence" You wouldn't know it though. My math is around 8th grade level, and the rest, barely 11th grade. Not to mention other factors that make intelligence not necessarily an asset.

Man's "intelligence" has and continues to get him into all kinds of messes, especially when the highly educated and intelligent people get involved. Those are the people who created the atom bomb, the internal combustion engine, and engineered dams, more efficient ways to deforest the planet, created chemical compositions so toxic that the the earth has never seen the likes of, computers and their toxic manufacturing processes, which continue to pollute this planet nearly beyond repair, the list goes on...

If we were just a little less intelligent then sure, we never would have walked on the moon (which by the way benefits no one) but we might be at a manageable, and sustainable population level and wouldn't be a major contributor to the current mass extinction which is in full swing.

but to get back on subject, maybe if we just tail slapped each other instead of using our technology to completely wipe out civiliazations and wage world scale war, we, and the snakes, would be much better off.

"The meek shall inherit the earth" I certainly hope that is a mistranslation and what it really means by "meek" is "stupid" then we just might survive.

[kibakiba]

No, it doesn't matter. I could go through high school with a 2.0 gpa and be the smartest person in the world. I was just saying, every person who had mistaken the "sexing" thing, said they had a 4.0 gpa and blah blahblah. I'm not overestimating them in that sense, you can cheat your way through highschool so easily it's not even funny.


I was checking on snap last night because she had been hiding for about 2 days... She slapped my face with her tail while squirting poop. What a jerk.

[ConcinusMan]

Hahaha. That's my girl.:D I don't get it. She was always one of the calmest, easiest to handle 3-stripers in the litter. she never gave me one bit of trouble.

[kibakiba]

Dunno... You give her a treat and she'll be the sweetest little snake you'll ever see, but only for a little bit.

[guidofatherof5]

This afternoon I was visiting one of the big female radix enclosures. It was just a social call.
My girl Daisy came out and decided to eat my hand. She came out of the cool hide and grabbed me between two of my fingers.
After latching on she tried to pull my hand back into the cool hide.
Her back end was out the back of the hide and she was waving her tail as she pulled very hard.
This tail waving caught LG's(Lucky's Girl) attention and she sat watching the tail action.
Eventually Daisy realized she was not going to eat my hand and gave it back to me.:D

[katach]

That was nice of her to return your hand. Don't forget to add your battle wound to the snake bite thread. :)

[guidofatherof5]

That was nice of her to return your hand. Don't forget to add your battle wound to the snake bite thread. :)

Too late, although she sank her teeth in and pulled very hard on my hand, 12 hours later it's all healed up.
There was a small amount of blood lost but surprisingly not much tissue damage.
Daisy has become a force to be reckoned with in that enclosure.
She came to the Ranch as a rescue snake and has put on good size and attitude.
To say the least, I like Daisy.;)

[RedSidedSPR]

Do do i! That's funny. "and decided to eat my hand". Awesome.