Posted by:
varanid
at Wed Nov 11 03:39:22 2009 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by varanid ]
I've had one female for some time, and recently (last week) got a group from John Cherry. One of the males is displaying some odd defensive behavior when handled. he'll just spaz out, wriggle violently for a second, flip over on his back, poop, and then fling himself as far as he can. It looks like he's catapulting himself off your hand (I'm still trying to figure out how the hell an animal with no legs can jump!). It is similar to behavior I've seen in some other colubrids (Coach whips, although they add biting to the display, and some bull snakes, ditto) but none of the other house snakes exhibit that sort of behavior. Even my older female I've had a while (who is very not tame) simply does what I think of as the more traditional squirm&poop.
I'm just puzzled. Has anyone else observed similar behavior in these guys? There's a few other skittish ones in the group (hatchlings) and they just do the usual stuff--poop on you and try to squirm out of your hand.
There's also one that thinks my hand is a mouse which I think is funny as heck...she can't weigh over 5 grams but she'll try to eat my thumb :P I almost peed I laughed so hard.
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 defensive behavior in house snakes - varanid, Wed Nov 11 03:39:22 2009
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