Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I know alot of snakes have strong feeding responses. My bulls and brooks kings do. Was wondering which ones of your have the strongest? But are tame other than that. My bulls and brooks will take my hand off when feeding,,but the next day,,,tame like a cat....
Thanks

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Ball Python
Jungle Carpet Python 1.0
Eastern King 0.1
Mexican Black King
Great Basin Gopher
Hypo Brooks 1.0
White Sided Bull 1.0 (Envy)
Striped Pacific Gopher (Envy)
Axanthic Brooksi 0.1 (Mark Kenderdine)
Goini King 1.0 (Mark Kenderdine)
Northern Pine 1.0 (Nick Puder)
Arizona Mtn. King 1.0 (AAM Snakes)

I love the smell of aspen shavings in the morning...lol

"To serve man..it's...it's a cookbook!"

with mine it varies from day to day. My Sonoran Gopher has hit mice so hard that fur was left in the hemostats. Other times he nudges it with his nose for a bit before casually taking the mouse. I've also had my intermontane do the same thing. Violent one day, frustratingly slow another.

The best hit I've ever had though was with a 6'6" WC Texas Ratsnake. He knocked cage furniture around when he hit that rat.
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1.0.0 Great Plains Ratsnake
1.0.0 Corn, Lavender Aztec het for Amel
1.0.0 Ghost Sonoran Gohper
1.0.0 Black Bassador Retriever
2.1.0 Godchildren, 1 Evil, 2 possible hets
0.1.0 Girlfriend, WC, Adventure Chick Phase

Even garter snakes can have insane feeding responses, but not enough mass for a keeper to feel the strike.

So, if power is what you mean, then a hungry 8ft female boa packs a wallop. Ever see one of those staring at the cage door just waiting for you to dare to open it..? I need bigger tongs.
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Mark

LOL!!,....right you are!

My 8 foot female sometimes bashes the clear plexyglass top when she sees me unlocking it!,...but then again, so do alot of other things I have...............big yellow floridana come to mind. These will often "skyrocket" out of the enclosure to smash anything whatsoever..LOL!. True eating "machine" personalities!

I would hate to see a 12 or 15 foot floridana at feeding time..hahaha!, if there were such a gargantuan, they would make news headlines on a regular basis.

"Florida man found killed by yellow serpent"..LOL!

~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

I'd say my African House Snakes and San Diego Gopher are right at the top of the list as far as feeding response.

funny,,some of them,,my brooks will tear up his cage to kill a dead mouse,,,,now my jungle carpet will anxiosly await,,,i am thinking of getting a Woma,,and i hear they have strong ones,,but are calm when not feeding....

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Ball Python
Jungle Carpet Python 1.0
Eastern King 0.1
Mexican Black King
Great Basin Gopher
Hypo Brooks 1.0
White Sided Bull 1.0 (Envy)
Striped Pacific Gopher (Envy)
Axanthic Brooksi 0.1 (Mark Kenderdine)
Goini King 1.0 (Mark Kenderdine)
Northern Pine 1.0 (Nick Puder)
Arizona Mtn. King 1.0 (AAM Snakes)

I love the smell of aspen shavings in the morning...lol

"To serve man..it's...it's a cookbook!"

I've kept all the species referred to so far and of those, I think African House Snakes might win, especially when comparing pound for pound.

I have kept blood pythons and their feeding response is several levels of magnitude higher than any colubrid I've ever kept.

I've never kept retics, but their feeding response is supposed to be scary.
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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

While my retics do have quite a feeding response, pound for pound, and with unmatched consistency, my Dumerils boa is a force to reckon with.

I don't care if it's been two weeks or two days since its last meal, that sucker explodes every time with a force unlike anything I've ever seen.

Have a good one!
HH
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Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

www.natures-signature.com

Hi Mike!,......

Speaking of feeding responses and such, I hope things are going well with that female Texas Leucy you have.

When I had her, her best "response" with me was usually one that said...."leave me the heck alone!"..LOL!

I'm thinking that from what you told me previously, that your more often one-on-one handling relationship with her will be a much better home than she had here with me because of the high number of animals I have. I always like when I know my animals go to a good home!

Let me know how things are going with you two.

take care, buddy! ~Doug

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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

Hey Doug!
She's doin' great! I'm tickled to death with her. She still hasn't struck at me or bit me........, yet. But she sure took that pose to the first F/T small rat I offered her with tongs. I thought about what you said about her temperament, said to myself "Yep, I can see what Doug was talkin' about now," and started laughing.

Thanks for a great snake at a great deal! And thanks for the pleasurable time we spent getting to know each other a bit better. I enjoyed it!

Catch ya later!
Mike
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Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

www.natures-signature.com

Mike,...the pleasure was all mine!, and I'm real glad you are happy with her.

And yes, had a great time with you at the show as well!

later!, ~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

Well, I haven't kept any large retics, but I have kept a number of Dumerils.

If you thing a Dumeril's feeding attack is scary, get a Blood Python.

Of course, individual variation probably accounts for as much as species differences, but I've never seen a Blood that wasn't frightening.
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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

the retics aren't so bad; I'd actually say it's about on par with my AHS. It's just that the retics get a lot bigger...

Although I've never kept anything "frightening" like a Blood Python, without a doubt the snake I own with the strongest feeding response is my 2007 anery female KSB (named "Optimus Prime"). Any hand reaching into her tank has a 90% chance of getting bitten and constricted... The last 10% is for when she's in her humid hide and there's just not enough room to strike. If I let her, she'll keep eating until she physically can't fit any more mice in her body, and within 24 hours of her last meal she'll be poking her head out of the shavings, ready and waiting waiting to strike again. All she thinks about is food.

In the first photo I posted below, you'll notice she has a bunch of shavings in her mouth. That's because she viciously struck at the camera when I was trying to get a photo, even though she ate just a few days ago. And yet, as soon as I take her out of her cage, she's the most docile snake you could hope ever for, the kind you would want to take to presentations for children and stuff like that. She didn't even seem to care when I had to stick my finger in her mouth a few minutes ago to get all those shavings out of there.

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- Natalie
(San Francisco Bay Area)

Sounds like a Macklot's python I used to have many years ago. She was downright FEROCIOUS about zapping anything that came into, or near her enclosure. And as you mentioned, once she was pulled out(with a hook..LOL!) and knew she was out of her cage, she was absolutely nice as could be.

She actually went to eat me several times from her enclosure, and it was very ugly and painful each time. She was seven and a half feet long.

Almost twenty-five years ago, a big fourteen foot Burmese python did the same thing,...again, very ugly and painful!

I Guess that's why it's called food "association"..LOL!

~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

Sounds terrifying! Did you feed those snakes in their enclosures? My gluttonous sand boa has never once been fed inside her enclosure, so I don't know why she would automatically assume that anything moving in her cage is food. I just feed her on top of another cage, and she's actually a lot more calm up there with food right in front of her than she is in her cage with no hint of food anywhere!

She actually shares her tank with two other Kenyans (it's 60-something gallons), but I never see bite marks on them or shavings in Optimus Prime's mouth unless I've triggered a strike, so I guess she knows how to tell the difference between her tankmates and everything else (which falls into the category of "food" to her).

I never could have predicted what a monstrous eating-machine she would become...

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- Natalie
(San Francisco Bay Area)

Actually, yes I did feed her from her enclosure, so it is no surprise she associated anything within grabbing range when the lid came off as potential food. But I basically have to feed all my snakes this way because of the high numbers I have always owned(100-200). If I only had a few, it wouldn't be a problem to take them out and feed them in another location. But it just isn't practical whatsoever in this situation.

The important thing is I am always very aware and careful, and can "read" all the snake's behavior very well, but over the period of several decades of feeding and handling snakes, a few accidents are bound to happen once in a while..LOL!

At least your Sand boa isn't a "problem feeder", which is a very good thing..LOL!

take care!, ~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

I had a wonderful KSB many many years ago that always made me think of that movie at feeding time Erupt up from the ground mouse in coils...it was amazing to watch.

There was a WC male savu I had years back--1990's--that, although she wouldn't take F/T, was a monster with live rats. Got him in trouble though, cause he hurt himself a few times striking at the glass while I was getting to his cage with the rat. Then one time he actually busted out some teeth and got a nice little infection going *sigh*

Absolutely has to be my yearling snow corn snake!! Just kidding!

But a funny thing happened recently. Usually when I feed her, I offer a FT mouse by hand, or put her in a dark container with it.

This time, she was REALLY hungry. She struck and missed the mouse, grabbing the end of my thumb instead. In about 2 seconds she was completely wrapped around my thumb, constricting it! When I moved my thumbed she tighted up more. By the time I stopped laughing, and thought about grabbing my camera, she had let go.

I then offered her the mouse, and she ate it while still wrapped around my thumb.
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Kent

Hands down my female SD Gopher and my 2 male Cal Kings.

reako45