Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have had my pueblan for about 3 weeks now. She is the typical pueblan - likes to basically hide all the time and is pretty shy. I have been trying to hold her for at least a few minutes a day (except the 2 days following feedings). I'm curious though if I'm going about it right. I began holding her the second week home (gave her a week to settle in). At first she was fine. She would crawl from hand to hand and didn't seem all that distressed. Lately though, she is getting more testy and messing on me almost everytime I pick her up. The last two days she wouldn't even crawl around, just sat in my hand all tense, every muscle locked. Should I just leave her alone for a few days at a time or keep forcing these "handelings". Also, she NEVER comes out of her little hermit crab hut, so in order to pick her up, I have to pick up the hut and then pick her up. Is this removing all sense of security she has in her hiding place? I'm brand new to owning a snake and want to make sure I'm going about this right (and also would like to avoid getting bit!). Anyone with pueblan experience have insight to share about how to handle them properly?

THANKS!!!

Have you put a hide for your snake in both the warm end AND the cold end of the enclosure / tank?? Your snake may like the hiding you have provided even if it is too hot and you have it on the hot end of the tank, it would rather be too hot than uncovered. Same thing applies to only having a hide on the cold end of the tank: your snake will stay under the hide and freeze to death (ok not death but it will be uncomfortable) rather than be left out in the open on the warm end. Snakes need to feel comfortable with where they can hide on both ends of the tank in order for them to be "happy" about properely thermo-regulating (controlling their temp by balancing how long the stay on the hot end versus the cold end). A happy snake will be much more fun to handle than a grumpy snake
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"Colubrid-aphilia", adj; An inordinate love of Colubrids.

Yes, she has a hiding spot on both sides of the tank. I have a hollowed out "half" log on the cool side and a small hut on the warm side. I've been thinking about putting a hut on the cool side too just in case she prefers that to the log.

Hey; you may not like to hear this, but most all colubrids are pretty skittish, and wild tempered when they are hatchlings to sometimes yearlings. I doubt forced handlings would help very much, and may stress the snake out. When the snake is larger, about a yearling or older, it should be very tollerable. Just like hondurans: flail wildly, musk, and bite; but when they are older they are very calm and tollerable to handling. From my experiances,time is all that will really help(though I handle my snakes only when necessary).
-Sean

Thanks for the post! I'm fine with not being able to hold her much. I knew she was not going to be the type of pet that wanted to spend "quality" time with me, but had read that they needed to be handeled to get them used to you. I definitely do not want to stress her out and am fine with being patient and not forcing her to be held much. I just wanted to make sure that if I laid off on the handeling that I wasn't going to somehow make her difficult to deal with later on. It's good to know that they mellow naturally with age. I guess I just assumed that that was only with a lot of handeling. Thanks again for the posts! You can only read so many books, sometimes it helps to hear from someone who has experience! I'm thankful for this forum!

was that he got much better if I held him for a short time almost every day, excluding the post feeding days. I would scoop him up, and cup one hand over top of the other one while I was holding him. I limited my time to about 5-10 minutes once a day. He seemed to get much calmer when I did it this way. I would be leery of waiting until a snake was a year old (as I hate to get bitten by older snakes). Just my experience, though, and yours might be totally different.
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phflame

Do you take him out from his hiding spot when you pick him up or wait for him to come out? Mine almost never comes out of her little hut, so to pick her up I have to lift the hut and then scoop her up. I hate disturbing her in her hiding spot, but she would never get fed or held if I waited for her. Just curious as to your experience.

I have almost always had to lift up the hide spot from my snakes to get them out. I also make sure that they are awake before I reach in to get them. Just tapping lightly on the floor of their tank seems to wake them up. I watch for their tongue to start flicking to make sure they are awake.
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sue