Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Is handling a snake always causing the animal stress?
Because every now and then mine keeps sliding his head around the glas where i have the door and when i open and hold my hand up he crawls on my arm and wramps around it totally calm en when i lift him up out of his tank and put him in a basket near my computer he remains very calm and seems happy be out of his tank for a little while, i even have a bit of trouble getting him back in now and then. I'd also like to know a good page that explains how to put a lampropeltis to wintersleep and at what weight it needs to be before i can put him in sleep.

oh and he is around 1000/1100 gram now and hasnt eaten for 3 weeks

It could be that the snake wants to brumate (aka wintersleep), and the higher temps in the cage are making him ancy. This is common.

You can either just heat one end of the cage and make sure the other end is cool so the snake can feel more comfortable, or you can do a full-on brumation. In either case there is no danger and the snake doesn't have to be a certain size. I've brumated non-feeding hatchlings and adults alike with no problems.

For brumation, you basically put the snake in a dark place (or cover the cage with a towel or paper bag) with no drafts, and let the temp drop to the 55-65 range until around Feb or March or anytime inbetween. Offer fresh water but no food. That is it. Pretty simple actually. Usually the floor is the coolest place. Just make sure there is little or no foot traffic around the container or cage, and don't let it get below 50 deg for an extended period. I use a plastic ice-chest with an air hole, newspaper bedding and a water dish. I actually put multiple snakes of the same species in one ice chest. I put the chests in the garage.

Guess its impossible to hibernate him then since his tank is in my room and we have no other place to put him where none comes and if i put him in the garage or shed the temps will drop below 5 c causing him to die.

Do you have a basement or crawlspace? Sometimes the temps there are pretty close. As for handling...I think that most of us want to be able to handle our snakes on a fairly regular basis, and the more regularly we handle them the more they become used to it. Therefore, the less they are stressed by handling as time goes on. New, young, and wild snakes are often stressed by handling, but I really think that as time passes the stress levels go down. Some folks disagree with this and think that handling causes stress no matter what, but I think that just as many, if not more, of us feel that handling our snakes is part of the plan, and it is perfectly OK. Good luck. Duffy
ps
How cold is your home in the winter? Be creative in looking for a likely spot if you want to brumate. If none is available, it is likely that your snake will be fine, decreasing the frequency and size of its meals (maybe down to zero for awhile). If it fasts for months, you may need to find a cool spot for at least a few weeks to cycle him back up.

before you brumate him. That would mean that you would have fed him his last meal at least two weeks prior to cooling down his cage. You also should cool it down in stages, not all at once. Drop the temp by about 5 degrees or so every three to five days until you get it to the normal brumating temp.
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sue