Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Sorry, I couldn't find the original post, but someone asked if you can handle a Ridleyi at all or if they are just display snakes. I can't post from years and years of experience, that I admit, but I can tell you that since I've had this little gal, she's calmed down immensely with regular gentle handling and one session of learning how to be picked up (repeating picking up and putting down once she stopped fleeing over and over for 20 repetitions). Since that session, she hasn't offered to strike, has quit musking, and only rarely rattles her tail. I can stroke her head and neck without her minding and she just climbs through my fingers. In fact, she's in line with my corn hatchlings right now for handleability. She's a bit quicker and more active, but fine to handle. I'm hoping that with regular handling she doesn't suddenly decide to turn evil. I don't feed her in her box and I don't approach her while she's eating to avoid getting her worked up and getting her signals crossed.

Perhaps some of the other long term keepers of Ridleyi can comment on when they turn nippy or if they are always high strung, I'll have to let you know as she grows. She's currently on fuzzies and growing fast.

At any rate, here are several pics of her running through my hand...and a comparison pic of a corn I have that IS evil incarnate. LOL

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~~~Hurley

Hi, I think I was the person who asked that question. Thank you for your help. From what you say I am more optimistic about handling the ridleyis as long as I constantly handle them and have them get used to me. Actually, my blue beauty was the same way, when I first got her, she would snap at me all the time. With constant handling though, after a month or so she calmed down and only fakes occasionally. If the ridleyis are generally the same, I can handle that. Thanks again for your help and the great pics! I really want one! ^_^

Hurley, love the way you put your pictures together. Is that an example of "stitching"? I like that corn snake pic too

I don't keep ridleyi, but I do keep t. taeniura. I tame my babies down and train them during their first year, but don't really have any problems with these guys. Heck, my Chinese twin-spots are less handleable. They musk a lot. But not the beauties.

I keep the beauties either singly or a few in a ten gallon tank, the first winter. The tank has a large hide in the back that is very secure and far from any traffic. I take the snakes out individually for feeding. They get a chance to be handled and their reward is food. Although nervous, they get used to handling, and learn that handling is not dangerous for them. I've never been bitten by a Chinese beauty for any reason.

I also keep a few corns. I started out keeping them to use as my control group and always have compared the Asians I've worked with to the corns. Now I just like the corns for pets and am starting some projects with them. I find the corns very easy to handle, but the Asians are often just as handleable and sometimes even more so (dione are great).

Although I've never worked with ridleyi, I have worked with several other of the ssps. I would imagine the ridleyi could be fairly tame too. I wouldn't mind seeing more posts about them, so as to learn more about their natural history, behavior in captivity, etc. A very beautiful snake too.

TC

Honestly, I don't know what "stitching" is, but those pictures were all just resized to be the same width, pasted into a large jpeg with photoshop pro and borders added (crappily, note the bleed of black into the corn on the left side, I didn't notice at first so didn't correct). You can also see one of the lines that I didn't quite get out to border on the left above the corn pic. Oh well, I was just trying to avoid having to post a zillion pics when I could just post "one".

And, yeah, I just can't see this gal suddenly deciding she's terrified and wild again. If she's like my corns and Bairdi, she may go through a bit of a high strung teenager phase (yearling phase) but I would expect she should still be handleable and mellow out more as an adult.
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~~~Hurley

My bad, my bad, I didn't use Photoshop, it was Paint Shop Pro. I was looking at Paint Shop Pro and thinking Photoshop, which I'm sure would do the same thing.
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~~~Hurley

I just have MGI PhotoSuite, but I'll see if I can do that with my pics sometime.

Good luck making a pet with your ridleyi. Let us know how you do.

TC