Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Within the past few days my young male, about the hit a year has become rather agrresive. He is not in a shed, nor has anything changed in his enclosure(Temp, lighting,subtrate,ect.). Now as soon as I open his cage he goes to strike position while hissing constantly. I do not have a snake hook so it's somewhat difficult to get him out of the cage while starring me in the face to bite. once I have him in my hands he does not show aggresion, but once on the ground he does the same thing. Could this be he is awaiting his next feed? It's been about 10 days now and thats the only thing I can come up with, or maybe he is now hitting his teen years? I dont know any info would help, heres a pic from a few months ago....

FIRST, GET A SNAKE HOOK....any responsible large constrictor keeper should have one...w/out one, you are not acting responsibly. Believe me, your life will be much easier using a hook. I am assuming that once out of the cage, that your burm is fairly tractable; that's why using a hook makes so much sense when assisting you in taking the snake out of its enclosure.

Your burm is also coming "unto his own" if you know what I mean and could just be a bit hormonal at the moment...it will pass in time (could take weeks or months) so in the meantime, use caution when working with him. Your feeding schedule sounds fine and I would avoid feeding him more.

Rob Carmichael, Curator of the Wildlife Discovery Center
Lake Forest, IL

Hi,

I have a female burmese around the same size of yours that does the same thing. I agree, get a hook, this way when you get her out you can just give her a tap, and pull her on out. Do you feed her in her cage? It sounds like it, I'm sure someone will disagree, but I think that feeding a snake that already usually has a strong feeding response like burms in its cage is a bad idea. I fed mine since a baby in her cage. I held her almost everyday, but even tho only about 5% of the time I was feeding her, she still expected food everytime the cage opened, something she still does today to an extent, but is slowly getting over it since I've been feeding her out of the cage. But the again, to each to his or her own, thats my method that has worked for years, but theres always someone that has a "better" method, and will disagree with everything no matter what it is.

Hi All,

First thing, in response to savvgawd's post: I too had an experience with my burm, during which time he was highly active and superficially very aggressive. It was stressful for both me and him, as I felt there was nothing I could do to calm him down, and he was so rambunctious that he was beating himself up with his struggling and straining to get out and about.

That time in his life lasted somewhere one the order of about four to six months, and ended sometime earlier this year. I kind of look back on it now as the rough equivalent of his "terrible 2's" (in the way that human kids are so prone to mischief and misbehaving at that age). Now, he is back to his normal self; which is very calm, curious, and friendly (even more so than when he was a 'baby'). He kind of has a laid back personality where he doesn't care about much of anything, and is never really in much of a rush to do anything. It's kind of cool to just hang out with him and watch a half hour of comedy TV. He turned out to be a great pet, though he did go through a period where he was very, very testy.

I think it is just part of growing up as a snake.

Now, regarding Rob's reply recommending the use of a hook for anyone keeping large boids: I don't. I'm getting the impression that I should? I don't ever have an issue of any sort getting my burm out from his cage. My approach is to only take him out through the right side of the cage (its the large Vision cage), and feed him only through the left side. And he seems to have picked up on this very well. When I want to take him out, I open the right side sliding glass and give him a moment to pick up my scent, wake up, or whatever he wants to be comfortable and know what's going on. From there I typically just let him come out on his own. Its only once in a while that I actually reach in and 'take' him out - for example, when I have to clean up his cage from a recent 'soiling'. I don't have much patience then, as I don't want him stuck in there with the waste, and, I don't want it to take any longer than it has to to clean up that cr@p! But, even when I do 'take' him out, he doesn't care much, and I'm always doubly sure to let him know it's 'coming out' time, and nothing else.

On the other side of that coin, when it comes to feeding time, I almost always walk in the room to find him waiting at the left end of the cage. He knows now where to look. Obviously, he picks up on the scent of the thawing rabbit way before I even open the door to the room (the room is vented negative to the rest of the house. That is, air moves out from the house through that room - so any 'scent' in the house eventually reaches that room before it is exhausted outside). There is a minor issue with this feeding method (with him waiting right at the 'door' for dinner), but I won't belabor the matter here.

Now, I do want to do what's best for both my pet, and me. So I expect that it will be well advised for me still to get a hook? I don't want the unexpected accident to happen to me, and I fully understand that it could, regardless of how diligent I am in keeping my snakes. So then, just how does one properly use a snake hook (ie, when?, how (to grip the snake)?, when not to?, etc?).

Thanks (and sorry this turned out to be so long!),
- Mark
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Very good point Antegy. I too have two doors on my cages and I do everything strictly out of the left door and only open the right one to feed. This tactic was taught to me by several "hot" keepers that utilize this technique with their cobras and other more "intelligent" venomous snakes. It has worked incredibly well for me and I do recommend it. I honastly think that is why all the main cage companies have two door cages. As far as the hook it is extremely good practice. I mean you will not be able to actually hook a full grown snake but you sure can redirect its head and coerce it to do what you want. I have used a hook on my snakes ever since they were babies and still do to this day. When they are in a bad position (their head pointing right at me or whatever) I redirect their head and then as they are crawling around I then grab them and remove them. My snakes are pretty cage aggressive (defensive really) and using this technique I have never been tagged. Hooks are essential. You all will learn eventually if you do not. Just like feedign out of the cage is a terrible idea, but that is an extremely long topic that i have written about to much in the past (as well as Rob and many other experienced people) and this is long enough already. Just note that I DO NOT condone feeding outside of the enclosure with any large snakes (really any snakes). Todd

I agree with Todd in feeding inside the enclosure is better than outside. You may do this several hundred times and not have a bad experience. But it will only take one bad one to mess you up. I used to feed outside the enclosure also, and it is exciting, but feeding inside is much safer for you.

As far as the hook subject, I cant say that I agree. I think owning a hook is probably a good thing for someone who handles hots, for a big snake keeper I dont really see it as a necessity. As Todd pointed out, you arent going to be able to pick up a large snake with a hook. So why spend $40 on a hook, when you can find a free stick and use that. Or if you want something that is even easier, lay a hand towel over the snakes head, then pick it up.

Having a hook is not a bad idea. But as far as it being a necessity I dont really think I can agree with you there. I own an extremely aggressive 10 foot female and have never used a hook.
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1.1 Java Retic