Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi, I am wanting to get into arboreal snakes and am wondering which would be better in terms of handling, etc. I suppose I am going to get biased answers since I am on the ETB forum but I would appreciate any advice or info anyone has to offer.
Thanks,
Andrew

Please define "handling"
CraigC

Hey Craig, thanks for the reply. I have always heard that boas are a little more nasty than pythons across the board and that they tend to be a bit more feisty. Do you find this to be true?I have a fair amount of reptile experience but my only real snake experience has been with ball pythons. Thanks.
Andrew

Hey Andrew,
Although folks tend to apply general disposition characteristics to a species as a whole, IMO you have to take each animal as an individual. My experience and interest lies soley with emeralds. I am not one to handle them unless necessary for health or maintainence reasons such as vet visits where "hands on" is required. All of my perches are removable, so when I take an animal outside for exercise they are removed from the cage on the perch, then transfered to our "jungle-gym". Then depending on thier "mood" when it's time to go back to the cage, I will most often free handle them for the return trip. That is basically the extent to which we handle them. The only 2 times I have been bitten by adults were once helping with a bad shed on a fresh import and when I startled one from sleep. Niether bite was bad.

Neonates on the other hand are handled quite often for inspection and maintainence from birth until either sold or a year old. They bite like the dickens for about the first 2 weeks. Then they must realize we are no threat. Even ones that require assist feeding to get them started generally don't bite.

I have 2, 2 year old female NL's that we raised from about 10 days old. They are as sweet as can be, but a friend that aquired thier mother refers to her as "Satans Spawn". Guess we have been lucky as we have never had a nasty emerald.

CraigC

Craig,
Thanks for the great info. I also got some from the GTP forum as well. I am not quite sure which way I will go but I appreciate the advice to a (possible) beginner.
Andrew