#snake behaviour

[glxtterdreams]

Alright Carlo ye snake

Knew something was off from the minute he willingly went the strand

Especially with his money who willingly goes there nah soz

Wish you all the best for the future NOT ye rat

[rainbowsnakes]

Both Leon and Levi are provided with full spectrum UV lighting. This is via Arcadia T5′s which are quite bright, but still feeble compared to the power of the sun. 

It is interesting that they will seek out these patches of sunlight that fall across their vivariums in the morning (weather permitting). Levi will actively move with the light and factor it into his morning basking routines.. Leon spends a lot less time in the sun patches... but for a “cave dwelling rat snake” I was surprised to see him choosing to sit in the sun patch at all.    

There is no UV in this sunlight (as it does not go through the glass) and they have that already anyway... So there must be something about the intensity or spectral composition of the sunlight specifically which is attracting them for whatever reason... be it the light itself or maybe the deep rooted association with warmth.   

Either way its fun to watch. 

[rainbowsnakes]

@fimbry your awesome time lapse videos have won me over... I finally bit the bullet and got one of those IP security cameras with infra-red for night time viewing.. Time to see what the snakes are getting up to at night! 

[rainbowsnakes]

Russian rat snake stuff

That last anon reminded me of  a great paper I found (Takatsuki 1938) about some scientists documenting the antics of this one russian rat snake in captivity. 

I feel like it captures the personality of these snakes...particularly their determination when it comes to climbing!  

The Russian is being kept in a big outdoor terrarium made of zinc sheets with a shallow pond next to the institution. There’s a cherry tree on one side outside the terrarium. The walls of the terrarium are 135cm high bent inward at the top. The snake is 157cm long and weighs 1010 g. 

Taskatsuki, R (1938) Some observations on snakes, Animal Psyche, Vol 4:1 , p1-7  (Psychological Institute, Keijo Imperial University)

June 26- 

A little alteration was given to the terrarium formerly used for tortoises and I put into it about 1 o'clock in the afternoon the snake above mentioned together with some smaller ones belonging to Elaphe rufodorsata and Natrix tigrina lateralis. It made an escape from it between 3.00 and 4.00 p.m. but it was found soon on a cherry-tree..”

June 29- 

“Seeing that the animal was fled into the pond of the terrarium at 12.40 p. m. the author inspected it stealthily from the laboratory window.”

“It went along the wall to the northwestern corner and tried in vain to climb up though it could stand straight almost as high as 100cm. against the right-angled walls.”

“Between 5.30 and 6.30 when he was absent for his supper, it again took to flight and was found to be on the cherry-tree.. It. was immediately replaced in the terrarium.”

“It commenced to creep at 8.15 exploring along the wall and at last succeeded to thrust itself between the catch of the door and the wall ; at 8.40 after a skillful climbing-up struggle for about 5 minutes using its tail most effectively (plates 1 and 2), it’s head reached the top of the bending edge of the wall and soon lifted half of its body over the wall. Again it was placed down at once into the terrarium. Since it seemed a little tired and could not move until 12.40 a.m. of the next day, it was 'confined in a small box placed in it,” 

July 1 - . “At 6.00 p.m. the animal was set free from the box. It did not move for a long time. At 9.40 it succeeded to run away from the same place by just the same means as before. It was put down at once. Hiding under the mat, it never came out. Though it was driven out, it remained quite motionless.”

July 2 - “It succeeded a third time to escape, It’s body posture is indicated in plates 1 and 2, the latter showing the pose which was seen at about one minute's lapse after the former.”

“The catch on the door was removed to a new place x as illustrated in fig. 3 in order to make it unable for the animal to climb up along the wall, the space between the catch and the edge of the wall being changed from 4 cm. to 9 cm. It was set free from the box at 3.00 p.m. Betraying the supposition of the observer, it escaped cleverly between 5.00 and 8.00 p.m. and absolutely no route of flight could be traced anywhere.”

“July 4. About 4.00 p.m. the observer  met with Mr. SAI TO ZYU, a school guard, on his round of inspection and told how the animal escaped from the fence on July 2. Then all at once Mr. SAI noticed that a Chinese magpie was cawing in a low cherry-tree near a pile of the newly cut branches of a planetree about 30 feet to the south of the terrarium and that sparrows were also chirping in crowds near it. He at once said intuitively that the snake must be near that tree. The observer drew nearer doubting at first but astonished at finding the missing snake in safety on the pile of the branches. It was captured after an absence of about 24 hours and again was shut up in a feeding box in the laboratory.”

“July 9-  It began to climb up the door as usual supporting itself in such a way as shown in fig. 4. on a catch removed and succeeded to place the head on the top of the wall at 9.38, being, however, soon after put down. It started to climb up again at 9.40 in another way illustrated in fig. 5. It lifted its body by degrees pushing itself earnestly on the concrete margin of the pond and at length succeeded to get away at 9.55.

From these observations, it could probably be supposed that the animal had run away by the same method as above stated on July 2, too.

Such being the case, the catch was then transferred to the middle of the upper end of the door as was shown as x' in fig,. 4 and the observation was continued. The animal tried hard to climb up several times in succession at the door first and then at some corners, but all was of no use...

Their first conclusion from all this is ? 

1). The snake, Elaphe schrenckii, has an apparent tendency of learning.

[rainbowsnakes]

is it true that if your BP bites you, you shouldn't put it back into its cage immediately because then it will associate biting with getting it's way? or is that stupid and should i put her back quickly and leave her alone after she bites?

I think there could be an element of truth to this. It’s essentially operant conditioning.. In other words a certain behaviour from the snake (biting) becomes associated with a certain positive response from the keeper (being returned to the safety of the enclosure).. So the animal is more likely to repeat that behaviour to get the desired reaction if it becomes a pattern..   

 This could happen with a snake, positive reinforcement training works with many animals, even fish. So yes, If you are bitten by your snake when handling them its best to try remain calm and wait a little while,  until they are relaxed again before returning them to their enclosure, not just immediately stick them back. You only need to wait like 3-5 minutes it will be enough to stop them making the association between a bite and being returned straight to the enclosure. 

Equally though, If your snake is biting defensively when out it is a sign it might be stressed out. So you don’t want to force the issue.. or your snake is just going to associate being out with being stressed. The best way Iv’e found to progress with bitey or nervous snakes is to keep handling sessions quite short and positive if possible, particularly make sure to end on a good note when the snake is calm. Gradually the snake learns that you aren’t a threat and so will be less stressed by the interaction and less inclined to bite.. 

So yes, don’t let the snake learn “biting always makes the human go away” but also it’t important to work within and respect your snakes comfort zones.    

[rainbowsnakes]

are ball pythons classified as terrestrial snakes as opposed to fossorial or aboreal?

Hello anon, yup they are terrestrial.  Though I have heard a few keepers say ball pythons used to be more commonly classified as semi-aboreal. 

Certainly there are populations of wild ball pythons that live in mangroves and are very commonly found in trees and even feed on avian prey (birds made up 70% of the diet for males and 43% of the diet for females).  Male ball pythons seem more inclined to climb that females and even have a different parasite load associated with their more arboreal lifestyle, particularly during breeding season. [x] [x] [x] 

This is why I think captive ball pythons should be given enclosures with a bit of height to accommodate some climbing structures for enrichment. :)    

[thefionahamer]

WHY DID THE SNAKE CROSS THE ROAD?

WHY DID THE SNAKE CROSS THE ROAD?

  The most common way I see snakes around here is on the road.

Sometimes alive. Sometimes dead, if they’ve been unlucky enough to meet with a car.

On the cool, windy- but-sunny days we’ve been having lately, I’ve seen them quite frequently, probably because they’re too slow to be gone before I get there.  They probably also like the heat of the gravel or tar.  When Craig was collecting snakes in…

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