Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My little wc female yellow rat is pure evil. I have been trying to work with her just to get her familiar with my scent and the presence of my hands and she's actually making some progress - she won't haul off and nail me right away anymore. However, when she does hit me, she sometimes will get the end of my finger (which is roughly the same size and shape as the rat fuzzies I feed her) in her mouth and will immediately start swallowing! The crazy thing is that she will not do this to the f/t fuzzy when I'm trying to feed her - I have to leave her alone with it for her to eat! Now I have been keeping all kinds of snakes for many, many years, but this kind of reaction is a first for me! Funny little rat snake! Anyone else ever have a snake try to eat them?? LOL!! Billy

They can be perverse little critters. Don't know why they do that, but yes..probably one out of every five I have caught had attitude.

Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

I have been attempted to be "swallowed" by several snakes I wouldnt attribute this to agressiveness but rather to a feeding response. An aggressive snake that is trying to ward you off will probably not try to eat you. One good way to prevent yourself from being "preyed" upon would be to start feeding your snake in a different enclosure. When a snake gets fed everytime the cage opens they start expecting food (Pavlov's response working with snakes?). I used to feed all my snakes in seperate enclosures (grocery store paper bags, can you still get those?) when I had few enough to manage that way. When I would put them in the bags they would sit curled looking up for the food to drop from heaven

Good luck TravisG

Hey Travis. I'm with you on the defensive vs. feeding response and that's what I find puzzling with this little girl. She is definitely not looking for food when my hand is in there and her feeding response is really kind of poor with regards to striking f/t prey items. But if I keep my hand in there too long or aggravate her even just a little, she will strike defensively and then get the heck out of dodge! She does the same with prey items. But on the off chance one of her defensive strikes lands just right on my finger, she will start "walking" her mouth up my finger. Like I said, I have to leave her alone with the prey item in her shelter for her to eat it, though she has yet to refuse a meal. Anyway, just thought it was kind of interesting how her defensive strikes can sometimes turn into a sort of a feeding response if her mouth lands in just the right position. Billy

>>I have been attempted to be "swallowed" by several snakes I wouldnt attribute this to agressiveness but rather to a feeding response. An aggressive snake that is trying to ward you off will probably not try to eat you. One good way to prevent yourself from being "preyed" upon would be to start feeding your snake in a different enclosure. When a snake gets fed everytime the cage opens they start expecting food (Pavlov's response working with snakes?). I used to feed all my snakes in seperate enclosures (grocery store paper bags, can you still get those?) when I had few enough to manage that way. When I would put them in the bags they would sit curled looking up for the food to drop from heaven
>>
>>Good luck TravisG