I also have a young leucy rat that behaves like you describe...hangs out on my hand forever, barely moves, never strikes or bites...BUT, I don't think it's because he's totally "tame"...I think it's classic baby snake extreme fear/defense behavior...he's "freezing" in hopes that the giant predator won't eat him...think about it; a truly tame snake is relaxed in your hands, but moves about slowly and steadily, tongue flicking and exploring his environment--he's alert and curious, checking things out, not frozen in place...I think once these fearful babies get a certain size on them, they switch from passive baby defense to active adult defense--which is when you get the striking and biting...in the wild, they're now big enough to maybe actually scare off or injure a predator..I'm hoping very much that my guy will relax enough with me that the behavior switch doesn't happen, but so far he's still pretty terrified...I'm not counting on it...



SR

[ Show Entire Thread ]