Handling a new snake

[Yann]

Hi guys...
A lovely Miss Murray Darling arrived in our home on Tuesday. She is our first snake.
She is 2 y.o. and had her first mouse on the same day... I thought it was quite a good sign she accepted food on her first day in a new environment...
She has been exploring her enclosure a lot since she's arrived and she seems to have found her bearings: hide, water bowl, ... Even the temp gradient seems to please her...
She is very curious and looks at us through the window with obvious interest and curiosity. She doesn't adopt the stance of a predator ready to ambush a prey...
But when we open the door and try to nicely take her, either by hand or with the help of a snake hook, she dashes inside her hide...
We are not in a rush to handle her, but we would like to know if this is normal behaviour in a new environment and how long is it going to take before she is confident enought to be handled by us...? (her breeder had no problems handling her before...)
Do we have to follow steps to make her confident enough to be handled?
We are also worried because she does not have a UV lamp in her enclosure, we thought we could take her outdoor very early. Shall we buy a UV source now?
I know there are a lot of questions here but as I said earlier she is our first snake. Even if we read a lot of books and met some snake owners, I guess nothing can replace one's own experience...
Thank you in advance for your tips and hints....
Yann.

[Tatelina]

I don't know about you but if I was tiny I wouldn't want strange smelling dry hands reaching out to grab me and make me feel unsteady and unsafe when I could crawl into my warm comfy dark safe home... but that is just me.

Edit:
And by that slightly mean sounding post... I mean to say...that she's probably not confident of her new surroundings although she may seem like she is and that some snakes just don't like being handled?

[OzRocks]

for the handling I would just give it a few more days and see what happens from there....remeber you only got her on tuesday and she would be still adjusting to her new surroundings, smells, furnishings, even temperatures maybe...so it is quite a stressfull time for some snakes. So I would just not worry about it for the next week or so, try to handle her but dont be dissapointed if shes still flighty......
secondly snakes dont need U.V lighting, only a very few have been found to do better with it but it is not known why. Because snakes gain enough nutrients from their food and have very little activity, they have not produce the pigments in the skin to absorb and convert energy from the sun....
and finally I saw you said you fed it a mice, and its 2 years old.....can I just ask what size the snake is, because a 2 year old Murray-Darling shouldnt be eating prey that small and really should of been weened of mice onto rats along time ago......

good luck....matt

[Yann]

I didn't think your post was mean.. I was expecting something like that at some stage... I probably didn't express myself clearly enough... (forgive me, I am French...)
Of course I would crawl in my dark safe home in the same situation...
My real question was "How will we know when she feels comfy in her new environment? What can we do to make her feel comfy?"
We do not try to reach and grab her all the time. We love her, we love animals in general and we do not believe in forcing them to do what we want them to do for us....
We do not tap on the glass to make her move or stuff like that.
ANd if we have to wait for weeks or months before she's ready, we will wait... We would just like to know the signs... As I said... Fisrt snake, first experience... And we do not want to learn the hard way...
Thank you for your help and tips...

[OzRocks]

the problem is if you wait that she will become less placid, and a bit more angry over time. So its best to keep handling her, but like I said dont be upset if she doesnt feel comfy.....just keep regular handling up..( not so much after meals, wait atleast a day), not to long outside her tank (good time is around half an hour or so, and make sure the snake isnt getting cold) and dont grasp or be to rough with the snake and you should be fine

[Yann]

Originally Posted by OzRocks

for the handling I would just give it a few more days and see what happens from there....remeber you only got her on tuesday and she would be still adjusting to her new surroundings, smells, furnishings, even temperatures maybe...so it is quite a stressfull time for some snakes. So I would just not worry about it for the next week or so, try to handle her but dont be dissapointed if shes still flighty......
secondly snakes dont need U.V lighting, only a very few have been found to do better with it but it is not known why. Because snakes gain enough nutrients from their food and have very little activity, they have not produce the pigments in the skin to absorb and convert energy from the sun....
and finally I saw you said you fed it a mice, and its 2 years old.....can I just ask what size the snake is, because a 2 year old Murray-Darling shouldnt be eating prey that small and really should of been weened of mice onto rats along time ago......

good luck....matt

Hey Matt...
Thank you for your post
As you can read on my reply to Tatelina we are not in a rush and we will give her time...
I just wanted to clarify with you about the feeding. She fed on a weaner mouse as advised by the breeder but he said we could switch to adult mice or even young rats pretty soon... She had a mouse only because that's all we had for her...! She might get 2 the next time before we can buy some more adapted meals...
And I didn't size her yet but I'd say she's about 3ft long, but not too large (or big)

[gold&black...]

u got her, u fed her and the works..... All's well with u'r snake.... Also her dashing into her hide is normal.......... All snakes do that....... In regard to UV, its still an on going debate, if snakes really need it........... So if u ask me, give her at least a week or two b4 u handle her, cos if she's feeding and exploring then that's probably how long she would need to settle down in her new enclosure....... Patients is the name of the game when it comes to snakes or at least is what I think........

[OzRocks]

Originally Posted by Yann

Hey Matt...
Thank you for your post
As you can read on my reply to Tatelina we are not in a rush and we will give her time...
I just wanted to clarify with you about the feeding. She fed on a weaner mouse as advised by the breeder but he said we could switch to adult mice or even young rats pretty soon... She had a mouse only because that's all we had for her...! She might get 2 the next time before we can buy some more adapted meals...
And I didn't size her yet but I'd say she's about 3ft long, but not too large (or big)

a 3 foot long murray darling could be feeding on a 40 gram rat....Just make sure you dont give her a meal that is too large, because she could be at it for hours with no success. The rule of thumb is about 1 and a half the width of the snakes head, for the width of the rats body. There should be a reasonably large lump in the snakes stomach, and if its not fairly distinst, make the meal larger...

[Yann]

Originally Posted by gold&black...

u got her, u fed her and the works..... All's well with u'r snake.... Also her dashing into her hide is normal.......... All snakes do that....... In regard to UV, its still an on going debate, if snakes really need it........... So if u ask me, give her at least a week or two b4 u handle her, cos if she's feeding and exploring then that's probably how long she would need to settle down in her new enclosure....... Patients is the name of the game when it comes to snakes or at least is what I think........

Hey Mate, thank you for your post...
Do you think like Matt that I should keep trying or at least get inside her enclosure soemtimes so she'd be aware of us? Or should we just leave her alone and only get inside for feeding her?

I was told that snakes can assimilate the opening of the door as feeding time only and are more likely to bite, whereas if we open the door and get inside without feeding she would accept us as being part of her environment...
Maybe this applies only to settled snakes and not to our situation...

[Yann]

Originally Posted by OzRocks

a 3 foot long murray darling could be feeding on a 40 gram rat....Just make sure you dont give her a meal that is too large, because she could be at it for hours with no success. The rule of thumb is about 1 and a half the width of the snakes head, for the width of the rats body. There should be a reasonably large lump in the snakes stomach, and if its not fairly distinst, make the meal larger...

Well, that was the case with the weaner mouse... As I said, she's about 3ft long but her head and body are quite tiny... The lump was very obvious until this morning (36hrs after being fed)

[mrsshep77]

I too would reccommend upping the size of her meal and try and get them off mice and onto rats when you can.
I have a 5mth old spotted python (40cm long) who is already onto pinky rats and she takes them quite well.
She is probably a little undersized due to the fact she is still only fed mice. Have a look at your local store or where ever you get your mice from and see the difference in size from the mice to the rats and maybe just get a little bigger. As long as the meal is not too large she'll be ok with it! The first time I fed my maccie a rat I was pacing the floor until she got it down because I was worried I was doing the wrong thing and the meal would be too big.... she now has them down in under 3mins and is doing well! She's had a huge growth spurt too and has grown about 5cm in a couple of months!!!
With the handling we normally give our new snakes at least a week or 2 to settle into their new surroundings and then we start handling them regularly to get them used to us and that we aren't going to hurt them. Just keep it short to start with, maybe 5-10mins and then slowly work up and handle them a bit more each time. Also don't handle them for 24-48hrs after feeding and also leave them alone when you see that their coming into shed (milky eyes) until after their slough.
As you are first time "parents" it's natural to wonder if you're doing what right but it'll all come in time and with experience!

Good Luck
Cheers,
Mell

[Pythons Rule]

I would sugest getting rid of the hook she is little and a big cold silver thing reaching out to her would be scary enouph and its much better teaching her wile she is little not to be afraid of the hand. snakes tend to become stressed out and very agressive once they get bigger fron lack of natual handling and if your scared they will sence it before you get the curage to handle them they thend to become afraid and run in fear and try find a dark calming environment. I would also sugest placing your hand on the ground near her hide till she is ready to come to you, do this gradually and not to forcefull and threatening. it may take afew day or it may take a few weeks till she is femilare to your sent and trusts you enouph to come up on to your hand. evern when she does play with her in her enclosure till she is ready for the next step then you can take her out and she is used to you and wants to be handled.

Thats me too and the way I'd do it and get rid of the hook

cheers jody

[Manda1032]

From my limited personal experience, I believe it's her nature. I have a male Murray Darling and he does the exact same thing as your girl but worse! While your little girl explores, my little boy never comes out! It may be a behavioural thing

[Yann]

thanks a lot to you all, guys.
i managed to take her tonight and everything went fine. she was very active but never looked frightened. we handled her for about 10 min then put her back inside her enclosure. I thought she'd run inside her hide, but not at all...she just kept wandering in her enclosure, looking perfectly happy...
that was a great moment
i'm happy tonight!

[OzRocks]

good to hear.....well done
just rememebr to have patience