Handling skittish snakes

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Octoborg

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Hello all!

I have a quick question.

What is the correct way of handling a snake that is having a 'hissy fit' (Pun intended ;)).
By 'hissy fit' I am referring to when you are handling a snake and it suddenly decides it is frightened and wants to flee.
 
by leaving it alone until it's older and more confident
 
Sorry, I should have added to the question a little more. I am aiming more towards the event that the snake handles well pretty much all of the time but on the rare occasion gets a tad spooked and attempts to flee, even if its only a little bit of flailing. Ideally I would like to be able to know how to keep the snake safe in this situation and avoid it falling to the ground.
 
by leaving it alone until it's older and more confident
I could not disagree more... I'm more interested that the snakes as youngsters have a great food response .... And I've had chainsaws and any snake that is startled gets flighty ( even the calmest)... Down to incorrect handling. Persistent good handling providing they are feeding well is the way to go JMO.... Don't like the idea of not giving them the chance to settle while young than have a defensive adult that is sold on or neglected cause it didn't come up to scratch as a PET
 
I think you'll find a lot of snake will calm down with size and age regardless of having been handled, leaving it alone won't mean you get a snappy adult.
 
No one has answered the question asked yet. What is being asked is what to do if you have a normally calm easy to handle snake that you have out that suddenly gets scarred and tries to take off. It is not being asked about how to calm down a grumpy snake.
When this happens best advice I can give is go with the snake. Loosen your grip and leave the snake goes how it wants and just keeping supporting under the body of it with your hands so it doesn't fall. Do not try and hold on tightly to the snake as that will most likely scare it more and brings the opportunity of injuring the snake accidentally.
Also as No-two said the larger the snake the more calm and confident it will be so you generally will not have this problem with large adults just mainly hatchlings and young snakes.
Cheers Cameron.
 
I don't mean to be pedantic but I am trying to get the image of what you would like to achieve.

Is the animal calmly moving through your hands and something startles it? Like a dog or bird?

Generally speaking there is a reason for a snake to get startled if it has been previously handling nicely, I would try to eliminate those frightening elements rather than alter your handling behaviour.
 
Haha not a problem. Its a bit hard to explain but after it happens the first couple times or you see someone else have it happen it makes sense on what to do. Main thing is to just not overly restrain the animal or drop it.
Yes Sarah what would be happening is that something has startled the snake like quick movement or another animal. What is being asked though is how do you deal with the snake in that moment while it is fleeing and being scarred. Obviously you are going to remove the cause from the snake but you still need to know what to do with the snake while it is attempting to flee and escape.
If it is needed I have a snake here I can use to make a video demonstration.
Cheers Cameron
 
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SarahScales, this question is a hypothetical. I would merely like to know what the best course of action to take would be in such a situation, for the safety of the snake of course. The internet provides little information on how to handle situations such as this.
 
Ohh I see! I was under the impression it was a recurring problem that you were dealing with when handling your animal.

I generally take the animals head between my pointer finger and thumb, if you control the animals head, you control where it is going.

This is a handling video I did for a TAFE assessment, so it is very bland. But at about 3:45 I show what I mean about restraining an animal RM113 Video Assessment: Snake - YouTube
 
Ohh I see! I was under the impression it was a recurring problem that you were dealing with when handling your animal.

I generally take the animals head between my pointer finger and thumb, if you control the animals head, you control where it is going.

This is a handling video I did for a TAFE assessment, so it is very bland. But at about 3:45 I show what I mean about restraining an animal RM113 Video Assessment: Snake - YouTube

I think that was a great video, thanks for posting it.
 
Lol I liked that vid too, especially the examination part where shes not showing any signs of lameness.. because she has no legs. :)
 
Haha! It sounds silly but I think they know you by scent.. Some of my snakes freak out with different people and my Woma really hates my mother.
Yeh they can. I hold mine almost every day apart from sheds and feeds etc. I tried this a few times with my friends; we'd put our hands down and my snakes down and no matter what snake they would 9/10 come to me.
 
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