My snake is just special!
I have wanted an Eastern Indigo for while and Cribo ais similar in size a behavior. This one is a bit more of a challenge than most though. My long term strategy to pacify him down is to keep him full and bored. Hopefully he will learn to look forwards to my visits with food.
According to the guys in the store the Cribo sold many times, but always returned to the store for refund. One of customers made a big impression on him because he returned vicious and has been that way every since. The guys at the store also told me that he injures himself when ever he swallows larger prey such as rats. I had to take out the rats from his cage and replace them with mice. It is mice only for now.
He is working through his shed now and does not appear to be eating so I put a large volcanic type rock in his cage for him to rub against. He still is looking ratty though. If I don't see progress soon I am going to take him out for a bit of exercise, sh-t spraying and peeling.
I don't have a snake hook so I am using a rifle rest for this purpose. It looks like a 3-4 foot long cane, and is made from tough plastic It works pretty good except that it is that it is hard to pick up a snake using it because the tip that you hook a snake with is too large. On the plus side, it does not have sharp points that might cause injuries.
This snake does a lot of striking. He strikes at me through the class and he bites my snake rest hard enough that I can feel his teeth bite down on it. When he raises his arm-thick body 18 inches up in the air, ready to strike it gets the adrenalin going. I wondered how far away he can strike. He is about 7 feet long so he should have a range of 3-4 feet and can hit me from just about anywhere in his 4 foot long cage! I can’t do any work on his cage if I have to worry about being bitten all the time.
I decided to take counter-measures to improve this situation.
Now I knock him around a bit with my snake rest whenever he raises is body up to strike at me. I push on him and pin his head against the side of the cage to prevent him from striking me and to show him who’s boss. This had a positive effect as he does not strike as much now.
I also got him a better place to hid so he could retreat instead of attacking. I put a elbow joint for a 6” diameter PVC pipe in his cage for this purpose. The pipe bends 90 degrees, so one side runs across the cage and up against the glass so I can peek inside at him. The other side runs along the back of the cage with that end open. He is happy with this setup and we avoid the stressful confrontations as he remains in his hide during my visits. I recommend that you take a look at this kind of hid for aggressive or large snakes.
It is pretty funny watching him try to fit in the pipe. It takes three turns through the pipe for him to get completely inside it and he tends to forget and leave his tail outside.
Conrad
