Dumbest Snake Ever

[instar]

Might i suggest its simply a stong natural instinct. Your hand is warm, its prey is warm, it has heat sensors.
1+1+1= 3 ! :wink:

Re your above post, i dont think there is anything wrong with its sense of taste or smell, just its more focused on movement, i.e the moving hand.
another possibility is depending on the ambient temp at the time, the mice had simply gone cold (and wernt moving).

Summary: Its a normal python mate! :lol:

 

[MrBredli]

Yeah, thanks instar, i'm not worried about it at all.. i accidentally posted this in Herp Help rather than General Herps. I'm really looking for more of a discussion rather than a cure- i don't mind if he's snappy.

The mice were warm as i had them in warm water, and the female found and consumed hers all by herself.

I agree with you that it is just strong instincts; it thinks anything that moves is food, but it seems like taste is playing virtually no role at all for this snake, and yet for his sister it does (i.e. she does not bite my hand if placed directly in front of her, but will strike a mouse the moment she tastes it). I reckon this is natural selection on show. In some areas, where there are fewer predators, the male would thrive (as would his offspring which would carry on his genes). In other areas this animal would probably perish very early in life (i.e. it would probably try to eat a 4 ft Monitor or something). In this area the pythons that are more cautious would be the ones succeeding in the area. Does that make sense?

 

[ErisKSC]

I think it makes more sense that the female thinks of your hand as being where food comes from?
Maybe try using forceps for a while and dissociate the food from your hand?

 

[zulu]

re Dumbest

I grow my carpets to 5-6' by one year of age, my spotteds to 90cm or so by one year of age... I feed them well by anyone's standards and I've had mine attempt to swallow my hands or fingers, occassionally getting a whole finger down their throat, I've even had outright obese snakes attempt to eat me. It's nothing to do with being starved, it's a matter of what they recognise as food. On the other side of the coin, I have snakes which will launch themselves at one type of food, but remain utterly disinterested in another, even if very hungry, this is exactly the same as a snake not attempting to eat a human; they (usually) just don't recognise them as food. If a snake recognises people as food, they'll attempt to eat them as readily as they will take a rodent. Extremely hungry snakes don't tend to eat people any more than very well fed snakes, unless you've wiped yourself down with rat urine. If the snakes were attempting to ingest people because they were underfed, but ordinarily wouldn't see them as food, they would attempt to eat wood, rocks etc etc, which clearly isn't the case. A healthy snake should pretty much always be wanting to eat, if you have a snake which refuses food (other than when it's sloughing etc) you're overfeeding it terribly.

Are you trying to say that snakes must be fed until the point at which they refuse food if they are to be safely handled?

zulu wrote: ? this post should have been called the dumbest keepers ever


I guess then it's appropriate that Zulu has been prolific in this thread.



Hix

And it follows that you couldn't resist jumping in

(Yes, I can see the irony, don't worry )

Carpets to 5 or 6 ft in ayear and spotteds to 90cms sadji,your keeping them warm allthe time plenty of energy in the form of heat and food and they are expending it in growth.My diamonds and carpetsdont eat much in winter they dont get hot enough,like ime not surprised you would have an obese snake that was still hungry ,they keepers hands with food and if you boof them with heat they get hungry alright and are smart enough to put the two together.Mine feed mostly in summer and they dont do the spastic hand feeding stuff cause there not hammered with heat especially some of the keepers that boof it to them with thermostats the feeding response is sky high over the top IMO.

 

[instar]

Mr Bredle, yes you may be right, although im not sure either trait is more beneficial or detrimental, in terms of survival in the wild. both instincts are helpful. I couldnt say your finger chewer's trait would be detrimental to it, afterall pythons are design to eat large meals, which dont come along often, as someone said, oportunistic ambush predators for the most part.
These traits are neither here or there though since both animals are captive.
On the whole the traits or instincts in a single speciman dont count for much , since they will either survive or not, neither which affects the species as a whole.
As for passing on these traits, Both of which i think are standard python traits, for the record, im not sure it works that way. There must be wild pythons that grab at anything, thus their offspring may or may not do likewise, but i wouldnt think too many pythons would actually try to eat a passing person or other animal way too big, such as cattle. The constricting thing must come into play there, i.e if it cant constrict a cow for example, its not likely to try eating it.
you dont mention wether your fella was constricting your hand when ate ya finger. :lol:

Could be he dosent realise your attached to that tastey looking hand!

 

[MrBredli]

He was contsricting my hand and fingers. I had to play dead for 10 mins just to get him to release me after the initial strike. After this he tasted his way all around my hand, and tried to swallow at several different places, including right in the middle of my palm! So he at least must have known i was the size of my hand, but that did not discourage him at all.

 

[instar]

prolly thought your hand was a strange rat, was prolly looking for the head. lol

 

[MrBredli]

I agree.

 

[Brodie]

Yeah, definetly... The snake will just see a warm object moving around its cage, inducing the feeding response! Pretty much all pythons do it! I feed all my pythons large meals once a week, with juveniles being fed twice weekly. I have had much success with breeding this year, and all of my pythons look very healthy, even according to the vet! Yet they will always try and bite my hand, thinking it is food!

A python will not refuse a meal just because it ate 2 days ago! They are opportunistic feeders, and will eat anything suitable that comes their way, as it may be their last meal for 6 months or more!

 

[zulu]

re Dumbest

Yeah, definetly... The snake will just see a warm object moving around its cage, inducing the feeding response! Pretty much all pythons do it! I feed all my pythons large meals once a week, with juveniles being fed twice weekly. I have had much success with breeding this year, and all of my pythons look very healthy, even according to the vet! Yet they will always try and bite my hand, thinking it is food!

A python will not refuse a meal just because it ate 2 days ago! They are opportunistic feeders, and will eat anything suitable that comes their way, as it may be their last meal for 6 months or more!

Thats what the average person perceive to be correct but its not,most people keep snakes,especially juvs warm most of the time and it heightens the feeding response.The wild juveniles of pythons hunt in a deliberate ambush mode and this mode is iniated during warm weather.In captivity they are under 24 7 heat and they often eat and grow like crazy under those conditions,if they are kept cooler and have a drop in air temp at night it normalizes feeding.Ive had it happen the eat the fingers and eat like crazy years ago when i kept snakes at higher temps all the time ,mine dont eat all the time especially in winter with cool air temperature.Yeh if i feed a juv mac 2 or 3 pinkies it usually wont feed again for several days because its fed and isnt hungry but when i had them warmer they eat more often and digest food faster also eat fingers.Also its the system of keeping snakes,the types of cages etc lights and sizes of cages that are most rectangular shape and a person gets a snake and sticks it in with a thermostat that gives it buggerall relief from heat and the metabolism of the snake says eat like crazy and expend energy in growth.I know most people wont agree with this but thats OK its just my oppinion. Regards colin.

 

[Wrasse]

My snake must be the exception to your rules. He doesn't have heating in winter, and is not mollycoddled like the juvies you mention. He is 6 years old now, has bred, keeps air temps, not artificial temps and will happily eat my fingers and hands whenever I put them near him. That is 'eat', not bite.

 

[krusty]

i have had the same thing done to me by
my male spotted python a number of times.
but not any more hes great to handle now.

 

[zulu]

re Dumbest

Dont worry about me wrasse i am a bit of a stirrer,i enjoy it,there has to be two sides to make things interesting and make people think,i was thinking about an eg of elevated feeding response in cativity through heat.A friend had some juvy alpine blotchies and i went over to his place in the midle of winter and it was about 10pm at night and he gets young rats and feeds the lizards.The lizards in question had a spot lamp on 24/7 i couldnt believe it.the feeding response was crazy and the growth rate very fast and they was adults in one year,or looked adult.Thats one eg of juv reptiles having elevated feeding responses due to the provision of heat,diamonds also can get like that and many other reptiles.Depends where you live to wrasse it gets cool here near the mountains west of sydney and i dont use lights to heat the air up so they dont eat much in winter and because i check the heat mats with a heat gun and set them down with a dimmer system they dont get too hot,i found that thermostats with heat pads dont work.Ive got a mac thats about 2ft he dont always eat he eats when he is hungry and you can tell when he is hungry and when he isnt by the way he reacts and if i was to pick him up and he started to eat my finger i would say he was hungry.The diamonds i got are the same they eat and dont want any more and usually wont eat after for a week or so cause they have a orange light one end thats a 40 watt thats dimmed as far down as it will go,if we get a cold snap it puts them off food. Cheers colin.

 

[MURRAY]

As some have already said, I like to wash my hands before handling and this seems to stop my spotted chewing my finger :wink:

 

[peterjohnson64]

My only advice is to make sure you don't shower with your snake