Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello all,
I'm new to snaking, and considering my first purchase. At this point it will pretty much be either a ball python, or a king snake.

Anyways, I'm having one concern that I can't seem to find an answer to. Basically, how much does sound affect these creatures?

I only ask because well, I like background noise. I often listen to music, or watch television, or even play guitar. Though it is rarely excessively loud, should this limit me from owning a snake ?

I don't want to spend a significant ammount of money on something only to have the snake go crazy due to the general background noise in my apartment.

Any help would be appreciated.

Snakes hear very low frequency, bass-like sounds... and this is for detecting footfalls approaching that may cause danger. Drums for instance would be like a huge elephant coming to stomp on your snake, you can imagine how that would stress it out.

Don't put your snake on top of speakers obviously, and don't turn up the bass so that it's thumping and vibrating the walls.

My house is relatively quiet, and where my snakes are is even more serene so I don't have much experience with keeping them in a room where there is much noise. But I think if you remain sensitive to their needs and keep the noises to a sensible level, you'll do fine.
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1.0 sinaloan milksnake
1.0 western hognose
1.0 colombian boa

>>I only ask because well, I like background noise. I often listen to music, or watch television, or even play guitar. Though it is rarely excessively loud, should this limit me from owning a snake ?

I try to minimize background noise for my snakes. I don't listen to music or TV in the snake room. They don't hear airborne sounds, but they are very sensitive to vibrations of their cages and the ground. An acoustic guitar isn't likely to cause stress, but any large speakers will pass vibrations to the snake's cage. You will have to minimize this sort of vibration if you want to minimize stress.

I might lean towards a kingsnake or ratsnake as ball pythons tend to stress more easily than the larger colubrids.
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Chris Harrison

Unless you've got the boom box from Hell next to them, sound is not a concern.I have played music, the TV, you name it and my animals never stressed.

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

You may want to place a large piece of foam under your enclosure. This will absorb some vibration.

Agreed. Placing the cage on a large sheet of craft foam (found at Michael's or Dick Blick or similar store) or even mousepads (if it's a small cage) can make a world of difference.
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::i believe in joy > http://www.winds.org/nekomi/hope.html

::my homepage > http://www.winds.org/nekomi

My Growing Zoo:

1.0 Husband (Byron) ^_^
0.1 black cat (Shade)
0.1 Brazilian Rainbow Boa (Zia)
1.2 Cockatoo cichlids (A. cacatuoides yellow-gold)
1.1 WC Cockatoo cichlids (A. cacatuoides blue Peru)
3.3 Pygmy corydoras (C. pygmaeus)
2.0 Endlers' Livebearers (P. sp. Endlers)