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The biter

skylark711

skylark711

New member
First of all, I am sure this has been answer 101 times before but I can't seem to find a post to answer my questions. So, here it goes.

I have a 2 year old female who has bit me twice now. The first time she bit me was after I handled her. (She seemed ok while handling her.) Then I put her back in the cage, closed the lid, and remember that I should change her water dish. I went to grab the water dish and she bit my thumb. It didn't hurt or draw blood but I assumed she was scared. So, I let her alone and tried again today. (two days later) I slowly reached into the cage to let her know that I was there, held her, then she started wiggling quite a bit. So, I went to put her back in her cage when she bit my hand again. I guess I wasn't getting her back quick enough.

The 2 year old male out of the same clutch is as calm as could be. My 3 year old male/female pair are very docile.

So, my questions are:

1, Am I doing something wrong?
2. Can this behavior be corrected? with more handling?
3. Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Any help would greatly be appreciated.

Thanks sa buncha!

Skylark
~~~~~~~<>~
 
One idea is to put one of your dirty socks in the cage with her. (dont be crule) hehe But perhaps it will help her get use to your smell. I have hear it helps get some corns use to this owners
 
I don't know if it can stress a snake, but my experience:
I did this with one of my new hatchlings and put one of my socks in her tub. One day I was looking for her to take her out so that I could feed her and she wasn't in any of her hides or under the substrate. Then I thought of looking in the sock and there she was, all curled up and comfy.
 
Yes, the worn clothing is a good idea, though I prefer to use a shirt, not a sock. Calmed my baby l. alterna right down, anyway -- I haven't needed to try it with my corns.

I can't imagine it's stressful for the snake - all you're doing is acclimating her to your scent, so she doesn't go into fight or flight mode when you open her cage and she catches a whiff of you.

I spend much much more time with my snakes than my wife, and if she wants to hold one you can tell that they react 100% differently toward her than they do toward me; unless I physically remove a snake out of my hands for her, they won't go to her voluntarilly - not yet anyways.

Just remember that while your two favorite senses may be sight and sound, for a snake their sense of the world is mostly about smells and vibrations (and heat, for IR sensing snakes.) so you're probably just spooking her out some. Go with the clothing trick, and report back to us next week?

By the way, you probably know this but it can't hurt to mention that if her biting you provides her with what she wants she may get a Pavlovian insting to do it more, so I'd say if she DOES bite the next time you enter her realm, try to simply not react whatsoever. If she actually grips you, have some alcohol handy (in a mustard bottle is great) to drip some in her mouth (that ought to make her release AND think twice about biting you again) but be sure to finish your business of changing her water, or for that matter handling her a little.

Let me relate a story - I got a 2 year old love-line okeetee recently. She bit my wife, and she bit me twice, and once when I popped open her cage she lunged at my face (that was unexpected from a corn!) I've used handling over the past couple weeks and she's now almost as tame as my teenaged corns.

Finally, for the record, have you tried to rule out sickness? I'm not exactly an expert but I think a sick snake might get fidgitty like that.

Good Luck!
^Curtis

PS - I want to be clear that the bitter-okeetee I refer to, while apparently Love-line is not one I got FROM Kathy. I don't want to give the impression they sell corns that are prone to bitting!
 
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your right

SilverTongue said:
One idea is to put one of your dirty socks in the cage with her. (dont be crule) hehe But perhaps it will help her get use to your smell. I have hear it helps get some corns use to this owners
Click to expand...
that is a good idea, i think that having a snake that doesn't know you is a bit dodgy, if it gets to know you then it is alot better, silvertongue is right :D



:)
 
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