Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I recently got a pair of 04 Northern Pines babies - couldn't be nicer, very tame and interested in their surroundings - the best snakes I've ever owned. I wanted to try black pines and got two '04' babies. They are like night and day. I've kept and bred a wide range of snakes over the years but never have I come across such a nasty buggers. I've tried patient handling of the male for a few minutes a day 5-6 times a week for a couple of weeks. It attempts to bite (and does) every time. While the male holds its ground and wants to fight, the female thrashes around violently to get away. They are eating fine however. Is their any hope they will even approach the temperament of the Northern Pines?

They should come around.

I have bred both subs...and typically, the black pine babies I produced are hissy, bitey things like yours. The adults were laid back as can be.

Give them some time and with gentle handling they should be as easy going as the northerns.

The hatchlings of all subspecies are usually like that for a while. The time it takes them to come out of it varies greatly - some settle down within weeks(probably like the Northerns), and some take up to a year, seemingly regardless of how much you handle them. Very few(I'd say 1 out of 20) remain that way all of their lives.
P&S Pituophis

I agree to some extent...but on average, the black pines I've hatched out have been WAY more aggressive than the northerns or southerns.

Pretty much every one of them was hissy bity and didn't calm down even when held. The other subs weren't nearly as bad.

Maybe that was just my stock...but the adult black pines I had were gentle as can be.

Hmm, could be; we haven't hatched as many Blacks as Northerns and Southerns, but nearly every one of them is like that at first. Of all the adults we have, I'd say we have three that are still nasty tempered - a Black, a Southern, and a Bull.

P&S Pituophis

When they are 6 footers, it's another matter altogher

Absolutely. Fortunately, very few stay that way by the time they are that size.

what do you mean fortunatly?? I would love to have one that would stand and hiss..they sound so cool.....

>>I agree to some extent...but on average, the black pines I've hatched out have been WAY more aggressive than the northerns or southerns.
>>
>>Pretty much every one of them was hissy bity and didn't calm down even when held. The other subs weren't nearly as bad.
>>
>>Maybe that was just my stock...but the adult black pines I had were gentle as can be.

Yeah, baby Black Pines are nasty tempered little cusses...but they got NOTHING on baby Louisiana Pines.
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We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children. Ralph Waldo Emerson

UNLESS i make them MAD!

almost down the hatch