Posted by:
HappyHillbilly
at Thu Mar 6 07:55:45 2008 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by HappyHillbilly ]
> > > "I bumped him lightly on the nose with the hook and just shoved his rear end out of the way."
Laura,
Since I'm fairly familiar with your writing style, the way you say (write) things and what you mean, I didn't take the above comment as literally as it appeared to me. But for the sake of the silent readers I feel a need to make sure they understand a few things.
Literally, the quoted comment is a "corrective" action, one that works with most mammals, animals with higher intelligence than reptiles. I don't believe reptiles understand, and/or react postiively, to this method. I feel that they interpret such actions as aggression towards them, which will only make matters worse. Like I said, I don't think Laura meant it as literally as the comment appears. If this thread wasn't about dealing with aggressive burmese pythons I probably wouldn't have even said anything but I just felt compelled to make sure everyone's aware of the ineffectiveness of corrective action on reptiles. 
> > > "The real question is, if your Burm is a light hisser, even when out of the enclosure, and you don't want to put him back until he's calm, when is that?"
This is why it's important to be able to read an animal, to interpret it's body language, hissing, actions, reactions, etc... This comes more natural to some people than others but it's an ability that I feel can be learned by all and it is vital, very vital.
In my previous post I said, "My 11ft female hisses every now & then when being handled but with her attitude, actions and reactions, it's almost as if it's more of a joyful whistle."
She actually hisses every time she's handled, but not with every breath, it's somewhat sporadic. It's not an aggressive hiss like when some snakes inhale deeply and exhale forcefully, it's more of a steady "whistle". The length, duration, of her hisses aren't much different than her normal breathing. There isn't any defensive or aggressive body language along with the hisses.
She hisses when she's crawling around the house while I let her exercise. One time she was at the other end of the hallway crawling back toward the livingroom. She hissed (breathing somewhat loudly) as she was crawling. I stepped into the middle of the hallway admiring her and when she got to where I was she rose up and put her head to my chest, her head being aprox. 4ft off the ground. She was hissing (her style of hissing) as she did this. I put out my hands & arms and she crawled up in them, hissing (whistling?). I was whistling. I was a whistlin' Dixie. Ha! Ha! What a magnificient sight, experience.
> > > "He's just a hisser and if I put him back while he's hissing, does he think he's 'won'?"
Not necessarily. I hope what I just said said above kind of clarifies what I meant. In my other post I was referring to your burm hissing at you while you're doing cage maintenance, plus, you said, "With mine, it depends on the size of the food item, but I find that I have to give him a good 4-5 days at least."
My female has never hissed at me during cage maintenance or specifically for handling it less than 4 - 5 days after feeding. I can't help but feel that my burm hisses for a different reason than your burm does. I don't mean any criticism by that, I'm just trying to get you to see the difference and find out what that difference is. You seem to already see some variation with prey size in relation to it's temperament. If cage maintenance seems to draw some ire, pretend to do some more often, within a safe distance and/or under safe circumstances, of course. Get it used to normal activities with repetitiveness, without being too repetitive (too frequent, to the point of stressing them).
I'm afraid to go back & proofread this, I hope it makes sense to you & everyone else. The jury's still out on whether I sometimes have a hard time of putting my thoughts into words or if I'm just a hillbilly ignoramus. I see ya'll a snickerin' and a noddin' yer heads. 
Later!
Mike
-----
Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American
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RE: Aggressive burm - HappyHillbilly, Thu Mar 6 07:55:45 2008
