Reptile & Amphibian Forums

why so few of you were able to name the one favorite snake you owned back when I asked the question.

During the last three days all my snakes have shed so I've had each and everyone of them out for some handling time while checking for eye caps... when I was done it occurred to me that I couldn't pick out a favorite if my adult BM Jade wasn't counted... she'll always be my favorite because she's a gift from my boy... and she is gorgeous!

See what I mean

And since both polyz were out and about this morning figured I'd grab a couple of quick pics of them... the female

and the male in his first outdoor adventure

So I get it... we have this snake because we like this about it... we have that snake because we like that about it... and that makes them all our favorites.

You all have a good day.

Gerry

Great animals Gerry! I like those in hand shots outside.

And you are right, its really hard to pick out just one. If for whatever reason, I had to scale back to one animal, it would be impossible to decide but these few would be in the running

too hard to decide!

Dave
DNS Reptiles - Milk Snakes

WOW! Can see why you'd be hard pressed to pick one... all really nice. I'd go with the first of those syspilia's myself.

Here's Ed from a few minutes ago.. the end of his first outing as well.

One of these days I'll have to make a post concerning an interesting observation I made today while letting the polyz and Ed out for their first "walk" today.

Gerry

Great pic of a beautiful animal!

What was your observation?

Dave

Until today my the only snake I had that was large enough to let loose out in the yard was my adult BM Jade... having just mowed my "lawn" Saturday morning I thought it was time to let the polyz and Ed stretch their "legs" in the great outdoors.

My observation was this... Jade has been out for a couple of years... under close observation of course... when placed on the ground she'd head off in "x" direction after a short time... I'd let her go until she reached the edge of the woods... at which point I'd bring her back to where I first put her down... and she would dutifully following the same path she took the first time... and I mean exactly the same path! Now I realized she was probably following a scent trail but while taking her back to the starting point for the third time I thought she kept her body orientated to the same path she'd take when I would set her down again... sure enough I'd set her down and off she'd go in the same path. Next time I picked her up I walked her all along the yard... not heading back to the starting point as the first two times... no matter where I went her head/body would turn to the direction/path she had previously taken... while carrying her I tried to disorientate her... even if I set her down 5 to 10 feet from the original starting point she'd head off in the same direction and once she crossed the original she'd follow it perfectly...

today the two polyz (Morticia and Gomez)as well as Ed, much to my surprise, did the same damn thing. Today was the first time those three had been outside for a "walk".

I thought it was fairly cool. As the summer progresses and temps warm up I'll try to repeat this on a warm but cloudy day and see what happens... that's something I don't recall having done with Jade.

Anyway...that's the observation... those four snakes seem to be able to better orientate themselves than I could under similar circumstances... rather disheartening to think that blind instinct could better serve you than higher intellect.

Gerry

It's ironic that you mention this, but I have also seen the very same thing in snakes I have taken outside in th past and put on the ground. They are somehow affixed and seem to key-in on something almost like a radar or heat-seeking missile..LOL!

Seems that no matter how you twist or turn them, they seem hell-bent on staying oriented towards, and heading back in the exact same direction they started originally. I know for a fact that snakes will usually head for dark coloration,.. which in turn equates to safe cover. Any trees, shrubbs or whatever will have all sorts of dark shadows within it that they really seem to key-in on in a big way.

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

serpentinespecialties.webs.com

"some are just born to troll and roll"

Nice to know someone else has had this occur... I always found Jade's behavior funny but when the other three did the same damn thing on their first day out it was puzzling.

And now that you mention it... I do live in a heavily forested area... everything in the direction they head is trees... but that one particular spot is occupied by a tree with heavily leaved and low branches making it more heavily shadowed.

If they keep it up it's going to make for boring walks... I get to follow 4 snakes now always going the same way.

Gerry

Yeah, The darker shadows and cover always seem to be the key feature there. When I had my own house and property I took snakes out fairly often to casually crawl around in the back yard. When I knew it was about time for a snake to poop when I picked them up, I could easily tell by looking at their rear quarters if they would be pooping. Almost ALWAYS within 60 seconds after placing them down on the ground......caploooy!....major poopage like clock-work!. This way I never had to clean it up out of the snake's cage..LOL!

~Doug
-----
"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

serpentinespecialties.webs.com

"some are just born to troll and roll"

Very interesting indeed. I have never tried something like that.