Just a matter of interest

Just a matter of interest

Postby Unforgiven » Tue Nov 20, 2012 11:50 am

Milksnakes are known for being very nippy and squirmy until they reach about a year of age and magically start calming down

Of the 3 I have, 2 are handable to the point that they squirm but that's it. The third - tangerine honduran of about 10 months is an absolute demon that thrashes and bites wildly. Its bites are worse than the adult corns. As such me and my gf try to keep handling to a minimum.

Should I just leave it alone and try again when she hits a year old?

Could someone also explain to me why overhandling it would not work? To tame a texas rat snake down, one is advised to handle it everyday and they eventually become like corn snakes. To be honest, there really isnt much to their biting anyway. So why would this not work on milks?
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Re: Just a matter of interest

Postby Tyronen » Tue Nov 20, 2012 1:40 pm

Hi, I've got a Pueblan Milk Snake. I got it from a guy who was too scared to handle it because it was so wild. I reckon its just on a year old. I've been handling it for about 5mins every day and that seems to be doing the trick. Not sure about the Honduran as I've never had one. Good Luck :)
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Re: Just a matter of interest

Postby Unforgiven » Wed Nov 21, 2012 9:26 am

I have a pueblan as well. He is very flighty and cannot be put down on smooth plastic or he thrashes about.

My tricolour honduran is calm, but also flighty, can pick it up without being bitten, but not much fun to handle.

The tangerine is the demon. The biting alone can be dealt with, the constant flightiness alone could be dealt with, but this snake is super fast as well and all 3 aspects commbined together make for very hard handling let alone catching it to safely take it out of its enclosure.

I have since moved it into a much large enclosure and put it on newspaper. I am prepared to sit down for 30 minutes a day to handle it if it will benefit. I just want to know if I should stick to the golden rule of waiting a year before I try anything
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Re: Just a matter of interest

Postby bubblesharp » Wed Nov 21, 2012 12:24 pm

I would put it in a smaller enclosure. Just enough space for the snake to stretch out. Taking away more of the open spaces and giving more hides. A hide should be small enough so that once the snake enters it curls up and should be able to feel the "roof" of the hide against its back. This will give the snake far more security than what a large enclosure would. Use a hook stick when you take the snake out and always feed in a separate tub. I would handle it gently for a few minutes a day, but if the snake is in no mood to get out and starts striking at you while still in the enclosure, I would rather leave it for another day. Stressing it out with constant handling is not going to make it feel safer in your hands.

You might have quite a challenge on your hands good luck.

Remember that there is still a handful that will never get tame no matter how much handling it gets
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Re: Just a matter of interest

Postby Unforgiven » Fri Nov 30, 2012 2:45 pm

Here are some pics of the milks

I did consider a hook stick but with how flighty this one is I don't know easily it would jump the hook

Image
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Re: Just a matter of interest

Postby Unforgiven » Fri Nov 30, 2012 2:46 pm

It does have a second hide, I just removed it to take the picture
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Re: Just a matter of interest

Postby Tyronen » Fri Nov 30, 2012 4:37 pm

Looks very pretty! Cool Orange colour!
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Re: Just a matter of interest

Postby NewtTZ » Tue Dec 04, 2012 9:16 am

Nice snakes.

King Snakes & Milk Snakes tend to be more nervous than Corn Snakes or Rat Snakes. King Snakes & Milk Snakes are aggressive feeders so always use feeding tongs to avoid a bite. Some snakes do not calm down and constant handling will stress a nervous snake.
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Re: Just a matter of interest

Postby Unforgiven » Tue Dec 04, 2012 2:16 pm

I don't feed any of my snakes from tongs, I just put the food in their enclosure/ feeding tub and they take it.

I am going to just give this gal a few more months to settle in and then try a trick a fellow herper suggested to me when I had trouble "taming" the boa

If all else fails and she never calms down I will just come to accept it and grin and bear it
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Re: Just a matter of interest

Postby Unforgiven » Tue Dec 04, 2012 2:25 pm

Also I somewhat disagree to a certain extent about the comment on which snakes are more or less nervous

With a stereotypical example
A corn snake would be the least aggressive/ defensive/ nervous
A rat snake would be the most aggressive/ defensive/ nervous
A king snake (typical cali king) would we just below a corn snake on the scale
A milk would be the most nervous, but still less defensive/ aggressive than a rat snake

I say stereotypical because I have a few kings who are really mellow. Not jumpy at all and a few who squirm and are quite nervous until held. The corns are all calm except for one or 2 jumpy exceptions. All the young rat snakes I have seen are really nervous and defensive and only calm down after being held for a while and even then they can still strike out of nowhere if anything spooks them

I do not agree with grouping kings with milks as kings are still pretty simple to handle and rarely bite when held. I never worry when handling the kings that one might slip through my fingers and get lost. I do worry about the milks however
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Re: Just a matter of interest

Postby Unforgiven » Tue Dec 04, 2012 2:59 pm

Here's the other milk, very skittish and has as such been named skittles. We moved it the one day into a bare plastic tub while cleaning its normal tub and he started thrashing around wildly like he head had been cut off. He is quite a pain to get out and calm down but once he is in hand he calms down nicely after he realises he's not going to be eaten

Sorry for the bad picture, taken off a cellphone
Image
Heres a slightly better image
Image
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