While I would never, ever think of a venomous snake as "tame" with all that implies, I have found that it is not difficult to habituate both blacks and Eastern greens to routine handling to the point that they don't really react much to people. It goes just a little faster in my experience with the Eastern greens than with the blacks, but they both end up pretty calm with enough gentle handling and habituation.

Of course if you aren't skilled at dealing with their initial panic attempts to bite and flee, it's a pretty bad idea to try to habituate them. lol I really don't want to give people the idea that mambas are easy to "tame". They aren't. They tend to be absolute buggers to start with, and they will continue to be very spooky and defensive until they have been handled competently and gently a fair number of times.

Jamesons are a lot harder to get calmed down. I haven't worked all that much with Westerns. For some reason they don't tend to get imported in the same horrific shape as the other species, so they don't get dumped on my doorstep in droves like all the rest. I'm not sure why. Anyone else have a clue?

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• Mamba rescue update - MsTT, Tue May 11 16:47:01 2004
• Out of curiosity, what sex is the Black Mamba? - taphillip, Tue May 11 16:58:06 2004
• It's a boy. - MsTT, Tue May 11 18:31:37 2004
• RE: It's a boy. - bachman, Thu May 13 23:12:14 2004
• RE: It's a boy. - MsTT, Thu May 13 23:34:36 2004
• RE: It's a boy. - bachman, Sun May 16 01:37:09 2004
• RE: No Pun Intended....n/p - bachman, Sun May 16 03:56:07 2004
• RE: Mamba rescue update - fredhammes, Tue May 11 22:17:47 2004