Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Out of curiosity, how can you tell if a snake is about to strike? Alllllll of them balance their head and neck in that so-called tell tale position, but mine's never done it. The only thing she ever did that intimidated me was shaking her head back and forth. She didn't strike, and ended up deciding that crawling between my fingers is more fun. I really don't know WHY she was doing that head shaking bit, I wasn't moving or anything. Man she's being weird lately...

This is no good! I thought we just got over this "new aggressive behavior" problem My snake who had a reputation at the pet store for being "such a sweet snake" is now putting off bad vibes and getting antsy and even jumping (not striking mind you) at my hand when i move around the outside of the tank. Mmmmmph!
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purrhisswoofmeowblubsqueakneigh

well i already replied in the cornsnake forum, but i didnt see that last part over there. Snakes can't see very well, and if you dont have a proper setup where your snake can hide and all, it's going to be monitoring the perimeter constantly, and will see something not sure what it is and get defensive.

how old is your snake? what is your setup?
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The reason mainstream thought is thought of as a stream is because it's so shallow. -George Carlin

A fool doesn't learn. A smart man learns from his mistakes. A wise man learns from the mistakes of others. Which one are you?

My Website
Rat/Corn snake care sheet I wrote

Current snakes:
0.1 Licorice Stick Black Rat (Lola)
1.0 Neonate Black Rat (het for Lic Stk's) (Frankie)
1.1 Texas Bairds (Jose and Rosa)
0.1 Blue Beauty (Brunhilde)

She can't be too old. She was only 22 inches when I first got her, and I know she'd been there a good while because they got her from a reptile show when she was just a weeee baby, about 8 inches long. I bought her back innn... ooo when was it... it was either November or December of last year. She's always been the sweetest snake I've EVER met, really I mean that, and the pet store employees ALL remember her! No one ever bought her because she was on the top shelf, a "boring ol' white snake," at least compared to the red tail boas and sand boa and ball pythons and milk snakes and tangerine honduran (which I unfortunately chose first and he got lost in my car the first night!!!!! $200 down the drain... but maybe it's better this way, I ended up with a dollbaby instead!) and kingsnakes and yadda yadda yadda... Now she looks about 26 inches but could be more. For the life of me i've tried to measure her but she thinks it's a FANTASTIC idea to wrap around the measuring tape (it's the soft kind).
As for my setup (after all the babble) right now she's in a 20 wide tank which sits in like a big wooden cubby next to my computer. I gave her half a coconut shell she loves to hide under, there's a decorative little tiny half wooden log they gave me at the pet store, and i put some fishtank leaves in there to give it some flare. She loves crawling through the leaves. I took the wooden plank out because it just falls over. I guess it's not a very clear view for someone crawling on the ground. I'll have a 55 gallon long in 20 days though! Juuuust for her Any suggestions for what I could use that she could have some fun climbing? She LOVES to crawl up the sides of the tank and scale the ceiling until she's totally stretched out just about and falls down.
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purrhisswoofmeowblubsqueakneigh

might be too high.....this gets snakes moving around a lot and very irritable......

check it against your care sheets

keith
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I'm not sure I want popular opinion on my side -- I've noticed those with the most opinions often have the fewest facts.