Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Me and a friend were talking today, and he said not to go out and buy one if I was living in apartment, since everyone will be annoyed with the hissing and will be reported to the landlord. I know they hiss loudly, but that was only when I came up to them closely in the wild.

... I don't know about other pits but when i used to keep gopher snakes I never got hissed at except for the first day in from the wild.

Even when they were hissing as I went to catch them honestly in my experience they made more volume of noise with their tail "rattling" when they were vibrating their tail againgst something.

You might want to ask more specifically to the type of pit you are looking at getting as some might be louder.

Sean.

Um, they don't roar like a dragon . . . if the neighbors are going to be disturbed by a pit hissing, they'll also hear the shower running and the garbage disposal and the tea kettle . . . maybe find a place without tissue paper walls?

Haha. Every complex has tissue paper walls unfortunately. Anyway, thanks. It just that some of the posters and friends make it sound like they are really loud and can be heard from 100 feet away quite clearly.

lol not 100 ft for sure. More like 10-15 foot deterant.

Sean.

I figure that, thanks, I would had not known that since I lost most of my hearing and the neighbours always complain about the animal noises.

I am disspointed in the lack of hard-copy published literature on the care of these guys. The best ones I have found are from the '50s.

Well I can't say for sure about other pit's but I know gopher snakes are pretty much as easy as it gets. I've never had to use heating for them and no more cooling then a swamp cooler cutting the worste of the heat housewide.

If the other pits are similar to the gophers then they are voracious eaters, temperature tollerant, hardy, and relaxed captives.

I assume their ease of care is the reason that we do not see more information on the raising and breeding of them.

I am by no means an expert though and I was living in the middle of gopher territory when I was keeping them.

Sean.

They aren't that loud.
I expect a good power filter for a fish tank is more annoying than a pit would be.

-=-
btw - my new '07 w. hognose snake - I swear she is louder than my 4' pac gopher.
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11.14 L. getula californiae (Cal. King)
2.3 L. getula nigrita (MBK)
1.0 L. getula floridana (Brooksi)
1.1 Pantherophis guttatus guttatus (Corn)
0.1 Pituophis catenifer catenifer (Pacific gopher)
0.1 Heterodon nasicus nasicus (W Hognose)
4.2.14 Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata - (Cal. Alligator Lizard)

My cape Gopher can be pretty loud, but not scare the neighbors loud! As someone else said, the tail rattling is worse. Also, they don't hiss all the time. My CB only does it once every two or three months, when my hubby comes too close to her! My wild-caught bulls normally settle down in a few days.

I also had trouble finding good care sheets, but I think that is because it is so easy to figure it out! I've been to California, so I knew what temps to keep my Cape at, and the other pits I've kept were pretty easy, too. Just get avarage temps from that area on the net!