Marnie's Snakes

[Light of Dae]

As for taking pictures I just hold them by their tails if they won't stay still. None seem to mind at all. It works great anywhere from my lap to outside.

[EasternGirl]

Sadie shed last night and it was very cool to watch! Julian watched with me...just never ceases to amaze me. She is so gorgeous right now...and the shed was perfect. So...naturally, my camera is on the fritz and I can't take pics to show you all!!! Grrrr.....

[guidofatherof5]

Nice going Sadie. She's a good radix.

[EasternGirl]

She is so shiny! But she still wants to hide. She was showing off a bit after the shed last night though...climbing around and showing off how pretty she is! I took her out and held her for a while and told her what a beautiful girl she is. But today she is back in her favorite shoe box hide.

[kueluck]

Sounds like a pure Deva to me. She struts her stuff when she sees fit.

She is so shiny! But she still wants to hide. She was showing off a bit after the shed last night though...climbing around and showing off how pretty she is! I took her out and held her for a while and told her what a beautiful girl she is. But today she is back in her favorite shoe box hide.

[kueluck]

Oh, and Bella is beautiful.

[guidofatherof5]

Sounds like a pure Deva to me. She struts her stuff when she sees fit.

Not one of my girls

[EasternGirl]

Speaking of Bella...she just shed...and she is one of the most efficient shedders I have ever seen. She really has mad skills. She just wriggled right out of that shed in no time with barely any assistance from any objects in her enclosure. She had a perfect shed and looks lovely...and of course...my camera is still broken.

On a different note...a very odd thing happened with Sadie last night....my radix female. Sadie is usually the calmest and sweetest girl. It was feeding night...and I went into her enclosure to get her to feed her and she suddenly got very scared and aggressive and bit me several times. Even after I picked her up...she kept swinging around to bite me. I usually feed her by hand...but because she was freaking out so much...I just set her dish of worms on the floor and held her in front of it and let her eat like that. If I got near her head while she was eating...she would try to bite me again. I put her back in the enclosure and let her calm down for a couple of minutes...washed my hands to get the worm scent off of me...reached in to try to touch her and she jumped, scared, coiled and tried to bite me again. A little while later...same thing. Now today...I reached in and she started to do it again...but I got her to calm down and finally let me take her out of the enclosure and then she was fine. We had some nice bonding time and she slithered around on me for a while with no problems whatsoever. I have no idea what all of that was about. Perhaps she is having her period! I should mention that she is out of quarantine and in with Cee Cee now. She and Cee Cee absolutely adore each other. They curl up together and love all over each other all the time. The are always curled up together. I do not feed them together. When I returned Cee Cee to the enclosure yesterday after feeding...Sadie was happy to see Cee Cee...but tried to bite me...so...it doesn't have anything to do with Cee Cee. And up until yesterday, Sadie had never acted like this with me before. I spoke to Steve on the phone about it last night...we don't really know what is going on.

Edit: to add a interesting note to all of this...Cee Cee was always the aggressive one of all of my garters. She has now calmed down completely and loves to be held and never strikes at me anymore. Since Sadie came into the picture and she saw Sadie being cuddled and loved on....I think she saw what she was missing!

[Steveo]

Marnie, I think they just have bad moods sometimes and the feeding response makes it worse. I get cranky when I'm not caffinated or my blood sugar is low or I'm too hot and I figure that other animals have the same type of reactions. My 2.5' kingsnake had never, ever been aggressive or flighty with me... until yesterday. She's only once refused a meal (it was a day before shedding), so when she did laps around her food for an hour yesterday I tried to tease her with some forceps. She struck one pinky but when I let go she didn't hold on, and it fell right next to her. I used the forceps to reach for the other one and she struck me on the hand without biting down. Didn't even leave a mark so I figure it was just a warning. After that I put the lid back on the feeding container and she ate just fine.

Subtle changes (to us) can make a big difference. I rescued a dog a few weeks ago and maybe my hand smelled like dog. I was also doing some cleaning during feeding time and she ended up in a smaller feeding container than usual. It's possible that something was setting her off and I didn't realize it at the time.

[EasternGirl]

Right...that is what Steve and I were trying to figure out...if something was setting her off. It may have just been that I originally smelled like worms and the feeding response kicked in and didn't shut down for a while. Or...it may have been because I was a couple of days late feeding her. It is a little odd that she began to react like that again today...but who knows? I haven't been taking her out a lot lately because I have been really busy. Maybe she just needs some extra bonding time.