Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have 46 baby Rainbow Boas here and cleaned their cages this evening. Only one of them struck at me. The one that struck missed hitting me and I picked him up immediately and he was placid once in hand. Nearly all of these are just a few weeks old. The recent talk about biting baby BRbs got me thinking that most of my babies take longer than these to get calmed down. I do not think I did anything different with these except that over the weekend and monday I decided my first PICs of most of them sucked and so I spent quite a bit of extra time with each of them shooting multiple PICs.
Jeff

well congrats. i personally feel and with my breeding seems that the tamer the parents the tamer the general of the babies are. i have heard of people breeding balls who have crazy snappy babies butt he parents are strickt breeders and dont get taken out but for cage cleaning same as carpets now out of my carpet babies and ball babies both groups of parents kitten tame none of the baby balls struck once all ate today for the first time no prob and out of 16 carpet 1 had a bad temper 3 were nippy and the rest a nip once per handling if lucky they are all really mellow once out and in your hand.

Tim,
...I also see lots of variation in temperment from one litter to another. When I bred Carpet Pythons it was the same way. Some clutches hatched out calm babies and some were VERY defensive or hungry. There is nothing funnier than a little Jungle Carpet that bites your hand and chews and constricts and then tries to swallow a finger. Like the BRBs they all tame after some handling.
Jeff

>>well congrats. i personally feel and with my breeding seems that the tamer the parents the tamer the general of the babies are. i have heard of people breeding balls who have crazy snappy babies butt he parents are strickt breeders and dont get taken out but for cage cleaning same as carpets now out of my carpet babies and ball babies both groups of parents kitten tame none of the baby balls struck once all ate today for the first time no prob and out of 16 carpet 1 had a bad temper 3 were nippy and the rest a nip once per handling if lucky they are all really mellow once out and in your hand.

lol havent had one chew finger but one of the bad ones i was packin up in a lil solo container and it wrapped my pinky bit the top of my hand help on and with the other half of its body wrapped around where it was biting lol two sraps at the same time from one snake every1 was like omg i was like eh it will let go in a bit lol i never knew how strong babies were untill that day holy cow.

Ok pros more questions from the brb noobie here. I changed the feeding habits of my 3 month old or so brb. He still takes shots at me lol. I can get him out with a hook and hes great in hand but if I put my hand in his tank hes taking a shot at me. Ok so I love my snakes and stuff, I have pretty much succumbed to the fact that I have to bite the bullet and takes my shots from him. I had been craving for a snake that was a bit more of a challenge and I got it. Ok so here is my problem, I have have had a lot of other types of snakes, a carpet, a retic, a ball, kingsnake all of which sometimes get the reputation of being nippy. All of my animals have been wonderful. Every time he takes a shot at me I pull my hand back, is there anyway of getting used to being nipped, I know it cant be that bad. I am positive my cat does tons more damage to me on a weekly basis.

Bezzacat,
...You really have answered your own question. The bite of a little BRB is about the same as the scratch from a kitten. When the snake strikes and you retreat you are reinforcing it's striking behavior. If you surprise them and the first thing they see is your hand right in front of them they are more likely to strike. If you hold your hand right in front of them for any period of time they are also more likely to strike. When you want to take the snake out of the cage make sure it is awake and aware that you are there and then move your hand smoothly and fairly quickly in and pick the snake up. Do not surprise it but at the same time do not give it a close target for too long. BRBs that are even partially tame will nearly always calm down once they are in hand.
Jeff

>>Ok pros more questions from the brb noobie here. I changed the feeding habits of my 3 month old or so brb. He still takes shots at me lol. I can get him out with a hook and hes great in hand but if I put my hand in his tank hes taking a shot at me. Ok so I love my snakes and stuff, I have pretty much succumbed to the fact that I have to bite the bullet and takes my shots from him. I had been craving for a snake that was a bit more of a challenge and I got it. Ok so here is my problem, I have have had a lot of other types of snakes, a carpet, a retic, a ball, kingsnake all of which sometimes get the reputation of being nippy. All of my animals have been wonderful. Every time he takes a shot at me I pull my hand back, is there anyway of getting used to being nipped, I know it cant be that bad. I am positive my cat does tons more damage to me on a weekly basis.

Do they ever stop the behavior of trying to bite you or do they grow out of it later? Does the letting them bite so it doesn't reinforce the behavior help out significantly?

All Rainbow Boas can be tamed and after they are tamed and then handled at least once a week they will remain tame. It is not so much a case of growing out of striking and biting as it is that they just need to be tamed. Untamed baby Rainbow Boas are no more prone to bite than adults that have never been tamed. If they are less than 3 feet long taming is extremely easy but, even wild caught adult Rainbow Boas can be tamed if handled correctly. This is not to say that I never get bitten by my Rainbow Boas. If they are hungry and smell rats and I move my hand within range without giving them a chance to identify it they do occasionally bite me. I also occasionally have one try to bite when I am restraining it to examine inside it's mouth or forcing it into a small container when it has other ideas about what it wants to do.
Jeff

>>Do they ever stop the behavior of trying to bite you or do they grow out of it later? Does the letting them bite so it doesn't reinforce the behavior help out significantly?

>>Ok pros more questions from the brb noobie here. I changed the feeding habits of my 3 month old or so brb. He still takes shots at me lol. I can get him out with a hook and hes great in hand but if I put my hand in his tank hes taking a shot at me. Ok so I love my snakes and stuff, I have pretty much succumbed to the fact that I have to bite the bullet and takes my shots from him. I had been craving for a snake that was a bit more of a challenge and I got it. Ok so here is my problem, I have have had a lot of other types of snakes, a carpet, a retic, a ball, kingsnake all of which sometimes get the reputation of being nippy. All of my animals have been wonderful. Every time he takes a shot at me I pull my hand back, is there anyway of getting used to being nipped, I know it cant be that bad. I am positive my cat does tons more damage to me on a weekly basis.

Also and this applies to any snake really like Jeff snake make them aware you are not a food item, I use 3 different techniques, "blow air" just blow on them that normally cools down a food response, very lightly tap them with a hook, and third the squirt bottle lightly mist them and the cage. Those 3 work on different snakes that I own but will normally calm them down and also alerts them to my presence.

Also some snakes just wont calm down nothing you can do except protect yourself and the snake and when that is the case a nice pair of reptile gloves can go a long way. Once the snake stops bitting then take off the glove, hopefully with time you wont need the glove at all.
-----
Jason A.
"Long time Herper, first year Breeder `07."

I would agree as in the last few weeks I do not think any of the 5 babies I have have struck at me. I feel the key is not to surprise them, as that will cause them to strike.

I also feel that snakes do not like the camera flash and that causes them to get defensive.
-----
Mike

6.7 BRB
1.2 Spotted Python
1.0 Cal. King