skitzo spotted

[Wench]

jasta would easily be about 50cm..
in the month ive had him ive only had him out once without striking at me, or nething that moves
and ive tried a heap of different methods..
i dont mind so much the bite, the strike makes me jump tho...would have loved a placid one for my first though hahah

[kaidro]

shadow the spotted, likes to strike for no reason at all. and the bite doesn't scare me either, just the strike. thats what scares me. she bit me on the nose the other day.. she just was flicking her tongue looking at me, then..wham! got me on the nose. didn't do anything but tickle. but am trying to get him/her outta this mode.

[Serpant_Lady]

Originally Posted by shooshoo

as t=for the previous comment about bigger feed items increasing rate of shed, the freqency of shedding is affected by freqency of feeds, not amount being fed, so doubt its to do with shedding. my guess is hes stressed out and insecure atm

If he increases the size of the food without changing how often it feeds that would increase the total food intake increasing growth shoo.

Put 3-4 little hides in there so he feels secure (tampon boxes and spark plug boxes are good ones) and make sure he is not in an area where lot of eople walk past every day.

Some are like that. He may settle down and he may not. Most likely he will though just remener how big your hand must look reaching for him. One thing I tried was getting them out by lifing them out in their hides and then letting them crawl out so they dont have you reaching for them and picking them up. Stick with it!! Good thing he has a good appetite

[Wench]

a good appetite? hes a freaking pig!!! hahaha i just chucked another pinky in there and he devoured it in like 2 minutes.
didn't even take him long to find the head this time (usually he cant figure out where to eat it from and while wrapped around it just pokes at it)
in the past 10 minutes tho the container started fogging up heaps, i dunno if thats coz hes eating or i dunno, it usually doesn't do that when he eats.
should he be hungry this much?? 2 pinky rats is quite a feed in a space of 4 days....

[GARTHNFAY]

Hi wench,
I feed my antaresia twice a week.
Only handle him once a week to clean his cage.
Where is his click clack??
Is it in a nice quiet room, no heavy traffic areas, tv or radio noise (as they can pick up vibrations).???
They will eventually settle down if all the conditions are right and they know that there is no danger.

[shooshoo]

Originally Posted by Serpant_Lady

If he increases the size of the food without changing how often it feeds that would increase the total food intake increasing growth shoo.

logic dictates that i agree, but papers that i have read that investigated the growth of several clutches of spotted pythons concluded that the shed rate was the same for animals fed twice as much but at the same rate as clutch siblings over a 24month period. so growth rate was higher, but shed rate was as regular as the ones being fed less but at the same time, weird huh?

[Drazzy]

Doesn't sound hungry to me.

My experience with bitey snake;

Reptiles naturally don't like being held much at all really they pref being left alone, so if your spotted is truly snappy as you say then I ask you this, when it bites you is it the end of the handling session ?

If so then you shouldn't

Get some gardening gloves and gently hold the spotted for a few hours maybe watch a movie while holding it, eventually it will get the message :-P

[gman78]

Originally Posted by Drazzy

Doesn't sound hungry to me.

My experience with bitey snake;

Reptiles naturally don't like being held much at all really they pref being left alone, so if your spotted is truly snappy as you say then I ask you this, when it bites you is it the end of the handling session ?

If so then you shouldn't

Get some gardening gloves and gently hold the spotted for a few hours maybe watch a movie while holding it, eventually it will get the message :-P

I'm with that. That's what has worked for me in the past.
The more time they get with you the better they will get.

[Wench]

when i put the pinky in there last night he came straight outta his hide and ate it.
hes in my bedroom (away from my curious flatmates hehe) on a bedside table thing, he might hear traffic sometimes and my wannabe dj flatmate plays music on saturdays for about an hour b4 we all crack it at him.
didn't bother checking on him this morning.

i'll get him out tonight in the lounge room tonight coz none of my flatmates should be floating around...

[GARTHNFAY]

I think that you should leave handling to a minimum.
I have had about 12 or more antaresia hatchies over the years, some are still only babies now and I still have them, some have started out snappy but now they are all beautiful. I have never handled them until a lot bigger more than just to clean out their cage.
I have a couple of snappy ones and they are the ones that I didn't get until they were adults.
People tend to forget, reptiles are not like a kitten or a puppy, far from it, they get stressed with continual handling, noise, no proper hides etc.

[notechistiger]

I would never recommend gardening gloves (or any other kind) for handling a snake. It decreases the feeling in the hands and you might just end up squeezing the snake a little too hard.

You could try putting a towel over the click clack for a week or so, then start handling (don't feed for a little while). Use a hook to get it out of the enclosure, then place it on your lap. Don't make any sudden movements, and keep you fingers out of the way (which will be perceived as targets or threats). Don't place your hand above the snake and try to pick it up that way. Handle it from below. Try doing a search on handling techniques- there's quite a few of them.

And no, this snake wouldn't hate you. It's probably just extremely innsecure and frightened.

[fraser888]

Who did you buy him from? Sounds like maybe a bad breeder has kept it in bad conditions. Als, do you have any cats or other household pets?

[Ramsayi]

Originally Posted by fraser888

Who did you buy him from? Sounds like maybe a bad breeder has kept it in bad conditions. Als, do you have any cats or other household pets?

That is not correct fraser.
To a small snake EVERYTHING is a potential threat thats why they bite,especially if they think they can't escape.

The vast majority of the time they will grow out of that stage with no handling except for cage cleaning once they get a bit of size about them.

[notechistiger]

Oh, and how old is it?

[GARTHNFAY]

1st post she said it was 7 months old.