Reading your Pythons mood

[jonjpl]

Hi Everyone,

I've had boas before in the past, now I have 1.1.0 Burmese. I'm wondering if anyone can give me some tips on reading their moods, and maybe give me some tips about some of their behaviors. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, James

	1.1 One Male and One Female

[lethargiic]

for me snake behavior is snake behavior. my female WC ball python always hisses when i annoy her and once i pick her up she's all ok whatever and chilled..lol

	Wild caught wild caught

[python04slayer]

well, burms like to bite and eat alot, some are "tame". How you read their mood is if they bite you when you stick your hand in the cage, that means they dont want to be bothered

[pjmartin]

My experience has always been very good with burms. Very friendly, and the one I used to have only bit me once (although I made a pretty major mistake which led to it, so it was my fault). She also was very "inquisitive," especially when she got bigger, although I suspect she always thought food was nearby. Oh, and get yourself a good pooper scooper, because when they get bigger...oh, man!

[Dragon]

Our big boy is quite vocal and you can generally tell when he doesn't want to be played with. I use a hook to stroke him before I take him out, just so he knows what's going on. Sometimes he will "kick" the hook off by throwing a coil up where I touch him with the hook, I usually take that to mean "sod off"

If you've got juveniles you will find that you learn to read them as they age and you grow into each other. Generally speaking though I would say of all our animals he is probably the most tolerant of handling, except for the Beardie maybe.

[WhiteLips]

It seems that all the snakes I have had over the years have made it pretty clear what they do and don't want at any given time Some of the signs are more subtle than others such as striking, tail "rattling", or when they curl up in my hand and seem to be sleeping I guess the trick is to pay attention to the snake and the environment at that moment.

[StevenLeeAugust]

One more sign is they will Musk you like a skunk… its awful

[CheshireCat]

We've not had a burm musk luckily, but the pueblan milk was a real stinker at first.
Both our burms (big and wee) shrug us off vigorously with their coils, aint had any of our other species do the same. It's so funny.
We actively watch out for and mentally note tongue flick speed, steadiness/speed of head movements and interest in surroundings. Especially know there's potential trouble with short darting head movements with high alertness.
The walkie times seem so rare when you have to leave them alone while they're blue or just fed, or hungry but not due for feeding, or newly shed. Big one seem to be in one of those states almost constantly.
Best to always be on alert and study your animal.

[jonjpl]

Hi, Thanks for the replys.

When you say musk, do you mean they actually spray or just kinda leak musk out on you? Also when you say "shrug us off vigorously with their coils" what do you mean?
So far all my guys are doing great, no problems. But, would like to know so if musking or anything else ever happens I'll know whats going on.

thanks,
james

[BrentB]

My Rock pythons behavior i cant read by looking at him, i have to hold him first, and see what his movements are like.

[Wrasse]

*shrug* to raise a shoulder/shoulders.

When my wild carpet (Skinny Snake) wants to be left alone, he does it too. Touch him and his body where you touch sort of 'heaves' up and down, as if to shrug you off. I just tell him to stop with the bluff rubbish and I handle him anyway.

Mine are all sooks though, he is the only one with attitude and even then, so far, he has been all bluff and a sook when handled.

[Cretia]

Every one of my snakes lets me know in a diffrent way when they need to be left alone. My first ball python would give a huff, it wasn't quite a hiss, and push me away with his body. My blind snake snowy does that when touched no matter if he's in a bad mood or not, just cause he's blind and hates for me to touch him without letting him smell me first. What they mean by that is, say you loosesly dangled a pen next to your snakes body, when it touches them they contract and push out real hard with their muscle, it would bump the pen making it sway away and then bump back into them. You'll notice when your snake actually does it. Anyways, watch your snake very closely and take note of everything the first time you realize it's unhappy, cause they all show it differently and before you know its personality it is a sorta a trial and error thing. My baby brb is real hard to read because they are so unpredictable and they can strike at the weirdest times from the weirdest angles, for no reason I've heard. But I have even noticed that he does one of two things: he either abruptly stops moving and tenses up with his head turned away from my hand but his eyes turned to the back staring right at it,(that's how he caught me off gaurd the first time he bit me)or he will raise his head up and go into a mini-king cobra postion with his tongue flicking real fast. he only bit me that once cause i was putting in his water, I'd just got him home, and I think I bumped and scared him. . He's only gotten me that once.

[Cretia]

You'll have to excuse me. ii wrote that horribly and I repeated myself a few times. It's five o'clock in the morning here. I'm sick and can't sleep so I'm not quite all here.

[lethargiic]

Originally Posted by Cretia

You'll have to excuse me. ii wrote that horribly and I repeated myself a few times. It's five o'clock in the morning here. I'm sick and can't sleep so I'm not quite all here.

awww feel better soon cretia..

(i saw u live in palatka which is like 2 hours from where i am..nice to know there are more central floridians around.. =D )