Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have posted on here many times before, but have not posted pictures of what I have really gotten into doing here in Charlotte NC. I was contacted by someone involved with a Senior Day Care facility (Piedmont Adult Living Services -PALS) to attend their touch fair with a few snakes of mine. Evidently, many seniors lose touch sensation in their fingers as they age. The lady thought that having them touch snakes would help activate their touch sensors again. Well I brought a few snakes to their fair, and from that point on, I have been going back 2x a month spending an hour at a time with them. I talk about my snakes and then let them hold and touch them. They know me now and trust me, and love my snakes. The pics I have here are from one of the first times I went, and all of my Pits and most kings were in hibernation, so all I had to use was my 3 ball pythons and my female gray banded king. I have since brought Tarantulas and blooming orchids from my collection as well. Frankly- THE HOUR SEEMS TO FLY BY! I really love these people and at the same time promote good snake PR and just enjoy a chance to share my passons with others. They love having someone come in and just spend time with them, and care about them- and I do- the lady with the white hair in her chair, loves sitting and petting her ball python, and last time I brought my 6' Female 6' Kansas bull and they LOVED her, unfortunatly the pics were to large to be uploaded. I never thought I would be using my snakes and spiders as Therapy??!!! Its awsome. So I guess Im saying this to you all, because I hope this encourages you to see if you can take your friendly animals to your local Senior care facilty or home once or 2x a month- you never know what could happen. And.. Ive found that my helping others with their touch therapy -- is reality - awsome therapy for me as well!

-----
1.1 Newton County Indiana Bulls
1.0 Kankakee Bull
1.0 Texas Red Bull
0.1 Kansas Yellow Bull
1.2 Ball Pythons
1.1 Costal Chocolate Cal Kings
0.1 Gray Banded King

those are really wonderful pictures! thanks for sharing them w/ us & bringing smiles to our seniors!

That's awesome.

That is one of the best things I've seen in a while. My hats off to you. Well done. I come from a farming family. I have video of my great grandmother, whom at the time was 100 years old, at my house sitting in front of my snakes. At the time I had all Neodeshe cages. None of my family liked snakes and I didn't want to scare my great grandmother so my mother and I put up nice sheets with velcro to the front of the racks. My grandmother never knew what was behind them. Seeing your pics now makes me wish I could go back in time and try to share that with her. Its odd to me how the older generations, especially those from farming background are/were so scared and against snakes. From an agricultural stand point snakes save the farmer mountains of money. Anyway, thank you for posting this and bringing back some memories at the same time. Again, well done! Take care.
-----
Jeremy Pierce
Shade Tree Exotics
shade-tree-exotics@att.net

Thanks I am going today and taking the 6' bull and showing off a slightly mean Cal King, but the clients wont get to hold her, but they do like seeing pretty animals. here are 2 more pics

-----
1.1 Newton County Indiana Bulls
1.0 Kankakee Bull
1.0 Texas Red Bull
0.1 Kansas Yellow Bull
1.2 Ball Pythons
1.1 Costal Chocolate Cal Kings
0.1 Gray Banded King

opps, one of those was a repeat. this one is not

-----
1.1 Newton County Indiana Bulls
1.0 Kankakee Bull
1.0 Texas Red Bull
0.1 Kansas Yellow Bull
1.2 Ball Pythons
1.1 Costal Chocolate Cal Kings
0.1 Gray Banded King

Wow that is about the craziest idea I've heard in a while. And its even crazier that it worked! That's incredible. Good job.

wow! that is trully an awsome thing that you are doing. may God bless you and your efforts!
jonathan

Good job! As a group we have really shelved the elderly in today's culture. For whatever reason; people living longer, loss of extended family ties, busy schedules, and maybe even a desire to shield ourselves from the reality of the inevitable loss of our own vitality. Not only are you doing good in your own community but by posting here you may lead others by example showing that snakes, (and other organisms) can be useful tools for bridging the gap that seperates us. By taking our snakes out into the classrooms, rest homes, etc. we can also ad value to the lives of these snakes by giving them more purpose than just a pretty thing in a cage, or a potential dollar to be made. I am always saddened when snakes are used in a sensationalized way to gain attention and promote fear. I used to be much more active with educational and public outreach programs using snakes as good will ambasadors. Thanks for motivating me to think back to what is important!

I think that this is our job to bring reptiles eduction to the public. Seniors, adult and children's.
some pictures from my work with schools in my area:

3rd grade classroom.

-----
Too many animals to count......
HerpsGai

Thanks everyone, and glad I could bring some smiles to ya and hopefully inspire us to share our wonderfull creatures. Here are some thoughts on doing this, gained from my experiences. I posted the same post in the King and Milksnake forum, because I have both bulls and kings and they brought up some concerns about snakes bitting or hurting people- which is valid, and that lead me to jot these thoughts down.

What I do with this PALS group like I did today was: bring 4 nice snakes that are touchible or holdible. I bring each out one at a time, while leaving them out to be held or passed around. Now this goes against some legal instincts, but the main reason why I was contacted origionally by PALS was to help these people with their touching sensations. So holding and touching is at the core. The lady in the pics with the ball python, loves to sit with one, so she got her python today and was very happy. Another guy loves to hold my 6' female Kansas Bull, who has been used with children and adults since she was 1.5' and has grown up around people- she has been the most popular snake at the Nature Lab at Camp Mondamin, NC (you can google it for more info). She just coils around your arm and sits there, and has gone to sleep sitting on my lap.(The man joked that hed love to take it home with him but his wife would flip- but the pleasure and smiles it brought to him was soooo cool- he really got talking and awake with it)If you want to use your snakes in this way you have to really work on training them.

YES you can train your snakes. My bull recognizes my scent over other people, and realized this when after being held by a camper she was tensed up- yet when I held her up to my nose and she flicked her tong on it, she relaxed in my hands. I figured that we tend to have alot of oils on our noses, so I started letting the snakes flick mine with their tongs to form a recognition and it has worked over time. I also trust my animals and this takes work and effort. Today for example, my male Cal king was fine and nice but after letting him on the floor as a few clients wanted to see, and then trying to pick him back up, he got startled and musked alot. They were kinda freaked by it, but I used it as a teaching moment, while I cleaned the snake and me off. We talked about snake defense and what the snake thought of me and what I was doing to it. Tensions calmed right down, and as soon as the king was on my arm and comfortible again, he was perfectly happy to be stroked and touched by those that were nervous about him just a few minutes before.

I have been using snakes around people since I was 20 and running summer camp nature programs and doing environmental education. Get to "know" your animals very well- before you even think of using them. If a snake might be pissy when you take it out but fine when you hold it, thats ok, just dont let others touch it, because it probably knows your scent and you and might not be ready to be touched by many. Again watch your snakes and also pay attention to YOUR FEELINGS AND CONFIDENCE level. Baby steps is a good thing! Also work on your public speaking skills.

Good entertainting and relaxed speaking skills are very important, if you tend to be a shy introvert, you need to do some public speaking practice before you get infront of 20 or so folks. If you naturally like talking about your animals to others, thats a good start yet- keep things brief and not to technical. Figure out 3 points about each animal you use. Often, folks want help in understanding the snakes in their yards or what they have seen- and could care less about the behavors of the Green Tree python. So study up on the behavors and how to identify your native species, and how to deal with them if they come in contact wtih them- thats SOOOO key and perhaps the area of most asked questions I ever get.

-----
1.1 Newton County Indiana Bulls
1.0 Kankakee Bull
1.0 Texas Red Bull
0.1 Kansas Yellow Bull
1.2 Ball Pythons
1.1 Costal Chocolate Cal Kings
0.1 Gray Banded King