olive tail flicking

[nightowl]

Has anyone heard of olives flicking their tail, kinda like luring? The female olive took her first feed last night (I've had her a week) and she basically lunged at the rat from half way across the tank. When she had coiled around the rat I noticed the last inch of her tail flicking. She did it for about 5 minutes I guess and everytime there was movement outside the tank she would flick it rapidly.

The male shed during the night so I'll offer him a feed today and see if he does the same.

Cheers
Shane

 

[AGAMIDAE]

they do and water pythons too when they get excited....

 

[nightowl]

thanks AGAMIDAE I had water pythons before and never noticed them doing it, although they were adults. Does the tail flicking mainly occur just in hatchies/juvs or adults as well?

 

[Pythoninfinite]

Younger ones in particular seem to do it when they get excited, either by food, or when unhappy about being handled.

jamie.

 

[RevDaniel]

This is all new to me. My olive pythons just sneak up on the rats and then eat them. They strick blindly in the near direction of the prey many times.
Never seen them flicker the tails to attract prey. they big enough that i didn't think they would need to. Death adders flicker tails to attrack prey. I didn't know that olives did though.

 

[Oliver]

My younger olive flicks her tail when she is unhappy. If i'm trying to catch her or she comes in contact with the male olive. She will flick and curl her tail for about a minute or two and then take off as fast as she can.
I reckon its kinda cute.

 

[RevDaniel]

sounds cool. I have never noticed it before. I will pay even closer attention. Thanks for sharing that. Dan

 

[rexs1]

we have seen womas , darwins , greens all do it often when hungry.
nick

 

[nightowl]

cool. I fed the male olive this morning and didn't notice him doing it. Maybe the female was reaaalll excited about being fed! :lol:

Shane

 

[popeye]

i ain`t never notice my girl tail flicken , but she flicks her rats around her enclosure, throws em like rag dolls, when she is not that hungery she lies over them & gaurds em like a dog, a big long scalely dog.

 

[TrueBlue]

alot of snakes will do this its an excitment thing, ive seen, bhps, womas, olives, spotteds, childrens, stimmies, carpets etc all do this, sometimes they do it over mating other times over food, anything really that gets them excited.

 

[Br8knitOFF]

Absolutely

My male olive would flick/whip his tail when super agitated- definitely a sign to back off, and leave him alone. It was the pre-cursor to definitely, 100% getting tagged.

I actually took some video of it.

He's mellowed out considerably since then, and hasn't done it in months...

//Todd

 

[glacey]

Re: Absolutely

My male olive would flick/whip his tail when super agitated- definitely a sign to back off, and leave him alone. It was the pre-cursor to definitely, 100% getting tagged.

Same with one of mine - flicks when extremely agitated

 

[deathinfire]

RE: Re: Absolutely

my womas do it during feeding, its actually quite funny like a dog getting excited