Snake Handling Tips & Techniques

[SYNeR]

My jungle is fine now.. I just grab her with my hands. She acts all flighty and is a bit cage defensive, but is fine once you're handling her.

The woma, however.. I couldn't believe how incredibly quick she was a couple of nights ago. I was just watching her, and she saw a shadow or something move and within a second had flung herself out of her click-clack on to my lap

 

[blakehose]

It's only a hatchie, give it some time to grow and gain confidence. If none of them were defensive and secretive in the wild, there wouldn't be many left!!

 

[Schnecke]

Well I didn't try the bag technique tonight but had an awesome 10 minutes with Moose. I took him in his CC into a spare room and plugged up all hidey holes and sat with him on the floor. Opened the lid and waited. 5 minutes passed before curiosity got the better of him. I moved my hands with him as he came (slowly for once) out of the CC and I just manouvered him with my hands. Then I used the hook to help pop him into the temp CC, cleaned what I needed to then used the hook to help coax him out of the temp and handled him for about 5 minutes. He was so calm the whole time.

I must say, a night like this really gives you confidence (and it only takes once I know) so I'm stoked. little steps is all it takes.

I never would have thought that sitting on the floor and waiting for him to come to me was the right way to go, but it helped the both of us...

 

[cement]

This is my 8.5 ft bredli girl who weighs in at around 8 kgs. She is one of the hardest hitting pythons I own at feed time, and the only one in my collection that I do not trust. She IS the snake that no one wants. I guarantee that if a hand goes in there pain will quickly follow, however, I do not use a hook to get her out. Everything in her enclosure is removable, when I need to clean her and get her out I use the rubber end of the hook(golf club handle) to maneuver her gently around by rubbing her back or gently pushing her face to where I want her Then lift her out by hand or wrapped around a stick, stick and snake at same time. if she bites the rubber (which she does at times) she does no damage to herself.
This is where we have to realize that the snake is scared. She is not grumpy, or aggressive or vindictive, not ever. Just simply scared, and therefore needs to be treated with respect, or she will smash you. With snakes like this you need to focus completely and not make mistakes if you want to avoid spilling blood, she is a magnificent example of a big healthy python,she just isn't puppy dog tame. And never will be