Steve's Snake Observations

[ConcinusMan]

Take a look at this picture. Very cute. It shows my adult female Rita with some of her babies born last year. Nothing too interesting, right? Let me explain. Rita is in this enclosure until I can get another one built. I lifted the hide to check on everyone to find this group. When I say I was checking on everyone I meant the T.s.parietalis babies also. In this enclosure I house Rita's babies and a group of parietalis babies born about the same time.
The mystery is , where's the parietalis babies? This is the heated part of the enclosure and usually houses all the babies in a big group, radix and parietalis. Instead I find a mother with her babies and no others. What's with that.
They were only using about half the hide and as a rule they fill it otherwise.

That's a nice looking normal there. The baby on top with the nice yellow stripe and hint of orange on the sides.

[guidofatherof5]

I've got another strange one for you.
Tonight, I took my girl(Big Girl) out of her enclosure for some one-on-one time. This isn't unusual in itself but how the other snakes from her enclosure reacted was. Big Girl cruised around my shoulders and down my arms as she usually does. Up a sweatshirt sleeve and then back out. She like to only stick her head out as I think the warmth from me is what she's after. While this was going on I looked into the enclosure she was from. All the remaining snakes were partially out of their hides and were watching my every move. This wasn't completely unusual for them but this time they seemed very intent on my every move. It was like they were watching Big Girl more than me, so I decided to put her back to see how they reacted. Once I put her back in they all retired to their hides.
Big Girl is the leader or that enclosure(my opinion) as I have seen her direct many of the snakes away from me when I'm feeding. This gives Big Girl first food and sometimes more food. She will direct them with a tail slap or a hard glare.
Tonight they seemed to be focused on her and seemed more at ease once she was put back in.

[ConcinusMan]

So... I'm not sure I get it. what happened to the parietalis babies? Forgive me for being clueless but do we need to send out a search party or is rita slowly passing them back into the tank?

[guidofatherof5]

So... I'm not sure I get it. what happened to the parietalis babies? Forgive me for being clueless but do we need to send out a search party or is rita slowly passing them back into the tank?

They are all doing well. The snakes are no longer self segregated.
All those babies have been switched to pinkies are are growing very well.

[guidofatherof5]

Rhea's thread about moving her residents around made me think about a situation that occurred on the Ranch.
All my snakes are kept in groups. I have a group of adult radix sisters, 12 of them. They have spent their whole lives together. Feeding time had become World War III so I decided to break the group up. That was a mistake. They became two groups of hiders. They would come out but nothing like when they were together.
I had given each group their own 6 foot enclosure. Plenty of space to roam and climb. Did they take advantage of the situation, no. They for the most part stayed in their hides. When I would check on them I wasn't greeted with friendly snakes but I was ignored and given many hard stares.
This wasn't to my liking so while I had both groups pulled down for a cleaning I drilled a 2 1/4 inch whole in the side of each enclosure. Using a short piece of PVC pipe and 2 couplers I build a tunnel for them to travel through. If I want I can even cap off each end with a threaded plug. I placed both groups back in their clean homes and within a few minutes they were using the tunnel. It was like they were inspecting each others homes. A few hours later I checked in on them. Everyone was in one enclosure and under one hide. I guess these sisters enjoy each others company.
I won't ever try to break this group up again.

[guidofatherof5]

This morning I was down in the big snake room posting a few things when I looked over at one of my large enclosures and saw my girl One Spot coming out from the hide. She came over to the end of the enclosure closest to me and stared at me while I typed. I have to be honest it was hard to concentrate. I think she was used her mind control powers on me. Just then my daughter Gabby came down. I asked her get into the enclosure and hand me One Spot. She opened it up and reached in for her and was immediately met with a strike. Gabby once again made a reach for her and was backed away by this annoyed big girl. I got up from my chair and picked her up without incident. Apparently she didn't want Gabby touching her. This isn't the first time something like this has happened. There are a number of big females radixes that don't like to be handle unless it's by me.
I think they like me.

[guidofatherof5]

Ringing the dinner bell

It's the only thing I could think to call it.
For the last year or so I've been letting all the snakes in an enclosure know it was feeding time by blowing air across the top of the food in the direction of them. Whether it's pinkies or worms this always seems to get a response in the fact the snakes rush me to get some chow.
Tonight, I opened one of the large enclosures housing a group of my adult female radixes. They knew it was just a social call as I didn't have any food with me and didn't blow any air into their hide.
Being the instigator that I am I thought I would play a little joke on the girls. They were all looking out of the hide so I blew some air on them and got an immediate response. Most of them came right out to me.
So, what have I done here?
(A) Conditioned snake to think that air blowing on them means food.
(B) Conditioned snake to the scent of my breath blowing on them means food.
(C) A combination of A and B
(D) Really confused my snakes.
(E) Some of the above.
(F) None of the above.
What do you think?

[Snakers]

Ringing the dinner bell

It's the only thing I could think to call it.
For the last year or so I've been letting all the snakes in an enclosure know it was feeding time by blowing air across the top of the food in the direction of them. Whether it's pinkies or worms this always seems to get a response in the fact the snakes rush me to get some chow.
Tonight, I opened one of the large enclosures housing a group of my adult female radixes. They knew it was just a social call as I didn't have any food with me and didn't blow any air into their hide.
Being the instigator that I am I thought I would play a little joke on the girls. They were all looking out of the hide so I blew some air on them and got an immediate response. Most of them came right out to me.
So, what have I done here?
(A) Conditioned snake to think that air blowing on them means food.
(B) Conditioned snake to the scent of my breath blowing on them means food.
(C) A combination of A and B
(D) Really confused my snakes.
(E) Some of the above.
(F) None of the above.
What do you think?

hmmmmmm............(C)even though a persons breath never really smells the same

[guidofatherof5]

hmmmmmm............(C)even though a persons breath never really smells the same

You mean sweet and minty, right.

[Snakers]

You mean sweet and minty, right.

some days..........