Sonya, I have had a pair of sweetheart corns produce some of the most nasty babies I have ever seen this year!!! Everyone out the egg bowed up and struck at me repeatedly. One holdback female is still pissy!! The mom I raised from a hatchling and she has ONLY struck at me during feeding times a couple of times since I had her. The dad is snow I picked up as an adult at a show and has been a total puppy since day one. Some breeders do think temperament is inheritable from the parents, same with feeding response. Some even notice differences in temperament between morphs. A friend of mine swears his hypo hondurans are meaner than his amel hondurans and contributes this to the bloodlines that produced the morphs. I guess it doesnt hurt to NOT breed mean or picky feeding animals. But to be honest, not really sure it matters. All species have general temperament demeanors most folks know about. Anyone wanting a docile snake are usually referred to boas, ball pythons, or corns. Baby milks are always spastic and bitey til they get older. Same with ratsnakes. Plus some are known to be more untrustworthy regardless like texas rats, or yellow rats. You never know when the cork is going to pop on those!! Still, I have run across terror boas, and even hit and run boas that were fine one minute, then BAM!!! Same with corns and cal kings.

I think as collections grow, we also loose the ability to handle our snakes as much as we did when we only had one as a pet. When we got that first snake, it usually was from someone who gave it to us or we bought it from and they calmly reached in, picked it up and gave it to us. So, we knew the snakes were "tame" and reacted accordingly. It set our minds up to be calm and sure with it and trust it. Plus, I think we read our snakes better and knew when NOT to handle them. My first snake was a speckled king that was real cool. I held him pretty much every day except after feeding, in shed, etc. Still, there were days when he hissed or arched his body away and I knew to leave him alone and try again another day. Now, I have to handle snakes on MY schedule, not theirs. So, there is probably more conflict because when I have time, they may not be in the mood LOL.

[ Hide Replies ]

• Temperament and breeding - Sonya, Wed Sep 22 14:07:04 2010
• RE: Temperament and breeding - KevinM, Thu Sep 23 10:49:03 2010
• RE: Temperament and breeding - amazondoc, Sat Sep 25 10:46:09 2010
• RE: Temperament and breeding - amazondoc, Sat Sep 25 10:48:11 2010
• RE: Temperament and breeding - KevinM, Sat Sep 25 13:42:55 2010
• RE: Temperament and breeding - curaniel, Sun Sep 26 12:48:42 2010
• Ahh!! okay! - DMong, Tue Sep 28 21:30:43 2010
• RE: Temperament and breeding - markg, Mon Oct 18 19:14:46 2010