Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Several times over the last several years, I have seen messages posted about the temperament of emerald boas. Often, the messages are from people who have heard that emeralds are bad-tempered and are wondering if itÕs really true.

Forum user viperbitex mentioned in a post dated November, 2004:

A few people I have talked to say that they have heard of (but never met) hand-tamed emeralds... Does anyone have, or know [of] a hand-tame Emerald?

To which Danny, at Urban Jungles, replies (also in November 2004):

A tame emerald is not unheard of... Emeralds...don't deserve the rep [that] they have... There's no question that there are tame emeralds out there, [but] handleable ones are a different story. Emeralds only feel secure when they are holding on a to a Òbranch.Ó When you try to get them off this branch, they get defensive and will bite. Most of my emeralds are fine as long as we keep the physical contact down to a minimum. Remember that these guys have evolved for millions of years now up in the canopy where getting grabbed only means one thing...

If you're looking for a snake that you can tame down and HANDLE, then I recommend you not choose an emerald. I generally don't think emeralds need to be handled for anything other than necessary medical procedures; it's very stressful and they don't cope with stress very well.

As the owner, myself, of a large female emerald named ÒLianaÓ (see the photo, below), I have to take issue with a couple of things that Danny said. If you want any animal to get used to being handled, then the solution is not to Òkeep the physical contact down to a minimum.Ó Animals get used to being handled by being handled... gently and carefully. Danny says, rightfully, that Ògetting grabbed only means one thing... [i.e., being attacked and eaten]Ó He also says that handling an emerald is Òvery stressful and they don't cope with stress very well.Ó Okay, so donÕt ÒgrabÓ your snake. Pick it up securely, with a minimum of fuss, commotion, and subsequent stress.

When I want to remove mine from her cage, either to clean the cage, to give her her bath, or to take her out for a nature talk at school, I start by gently stroking her to wake her up (emeralds are asleep most of the day). If itÕs cage-cleaning time, then, yes, I leave her on her branch as I take it out of the cage and prop it up out of the way somewhere where she can watch what IÕm doing. (By the way, her ÒbranchÓ is a real branch, a dried and sterilized section of a limb from a box elder tree, with a couple of side branches. It gives her a more natural surface to cling to than a piece of plastic pipe.) If I have to actually take her out, then I gently unwrap her from her branch as I offer her my arm or neck to wrap herself around so she can get secure again. (She seems to like to the warmth of a human body and soon settles down, often draped around my shoulders.)

She has never bitten anyone here, either myself, my wife, or the children. She has bopped both me and my wife a couple of times with her nose as (I believe) a gesture of annoyance at something that weÕve done... possibly moved a little too fast around her when we first got her... and once, during one of those Ònose bops,Ó has slightly scraped me with one of her teeth. But she has never done the serious, wide-open-mouth-full-of-needle-sharp-teeth, lunge-and-bite thing. Never.

Her gentle temperament is even more interesting because of LianaÕs background. When I got her, in September of 2003, she had been bitten by live rats (that had probably been left in her cage by people trying to get her to eat), had been burned more than once by a heat lamp that was left too close to her cage, and had a bacterial infection all through her body. I found all this out when I took her to a vet for a checkup after I received her. The result was that she was afraid of live rodents (even tiny mice), wouldnÕt touch dead ones (i.e. wouldnÕt eat), had scars on her body, and was sick! So, we had to give her a daily injection of Baytril for a month, treat her bites with gentian violet (that bluish-purple liquid thatÕs often used for treating cuts on cows and is also great for reptiles), and force-feed her with Ensure and Pedialyte for 4 months. I then got her to start eating (finally) live baby chickens, which she loves. She generally eats five or six of them once a month. They are a good source of both nutrition and fiber for her, and she does well on them. She now also eats live mice in the winter, when chicks are not to be had. Then, she gets one or two mice every week or two. (This may seem like somewhat more food than most people give to their emeralds, but Liana is a full-grown adult, almost 7 feet long.)

However, Danny is right about one thing: an emerald boa is not the first choice for a snake that is to be counted on to allow itself to be handled a lot. Mine is the exception, not the norm. But you can find them.

Another forum participant, TimRash, has said that he has 5 emeralds and that:

...all of them are tame.

Maybe he would tell where he got his and how they got to be so tame.

ÊÊ

I've kept a female ETB for nearly two years now, which does not make me an expert and only provides the observation of one animal. But she too, is "tame". By that I mean she has never bitten or even struck at me. I will be amazed if that should ever happen. She was sold to me as "captive borne" but I have no further information of her origins. She is a "northern type".
She eats f/t rats and has never refused a meal. She has easily doubled in size, and now at an estimated four years of age, she is well over four feet and thick.
I "handle" this snake as needed, probably no more than weekly. The perches in her Vision cage are removable and she is taken from the enclosure by removing the perch she is resting on at the time. I then transfer her to a stationary "tree" that Ive constructed for holding and exercise.
Once out, I can carefully (slowly) remove her and handle her in in uneventful fashion.
The only time I need to to use caution is at feeding. When she is especially hungry, she will meet me at the glass. I am always careful to present the rat very directly. On a couple of occasions for whatever reasons, she has missed on first strike, and on those occasions, has gone into a bit of a frenzy, going after anything moving, the heat source, etc. If she ever does tag me, (God forbid, I've seen her her teeth when she yawns) it will be my error and resolve around feeding.
My read is that a healthy animal that has adjusted well to decent conditions of captivity, will only bite out of fear or an erroronious feeding response. I suppose I could illicit a strike by deliberately provocing her, but I can't imagine why I would do that.

I bought 3 out of the 5 Northern Emeralds I had from Jeff Hudson 2 of them were Tony Nicoli animals and the third was from a unkown breeder. All of these were calm animals when I got them and with a little handling a few times a month they just stayed laid back. The
fourth one was a LTC female I bought from Damon Wyatt of Texas. She was a little jumpy at first but not a spaz. I did the same with her handling her a few times a month. The 5th and last Emerald I owned came from Karen and Craig Clark from one of Al's litters. She was a little jumpy also but not bad at all, I did the same handling with her and she was fine also. One thing I never did was wave my hand in front of their faces. I never grabbed them out of the cages by their faces only from under them or behind them never in their faces bad move if you try more than likely. I was gentle and moved slow no fast movements at all. From this they stayed laid back. If you start out with a spaz they may never be tame like mine were. I totally think starting out with a captive born baby will help in having tame adults. I sold all of my Emeralds earlier this year which I really wish I didn't but I will pickup some more. They are awesome animals.
My harddrive died a little while ago so I lost 90 percent of my pictures.

Tim Rash

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Tim Rash
www.nocturnal-creations.com

What were you thinking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!????????!!!!!!!!!
your seller's remorse is well deserved....

I was blinded by my little hotties below. They cost a ton but they are awesome too!!!!!

Tim Rash
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Tim Rash
www.nocturnal-creations.com

Absolutely stunning Tim. But youneed both species, Bro

Tim, thats a 180 degree turn from an arboreal leaf colored snake with a large head and compressed body to an earth colored trrestrial small headed snake with a humungous body. I am not into bloods but man are those on fire!!! what morph are they? Is it safe to look at them w/o sunglasses?

I told my wife I started giving the green snakes mircle grow to help them bulk up a little bit for breeding season and I woke up one morning and they wont perch no more and they glow now. She didn't believe me and went straight for the check book to see what I spent. I didn't get away with that lie. I was on the spot and couldn't think of anything faster.

They are Cherry Bomb Albino Bloods from Tracy Barker at VPI. No one else is working with them but her. Its her line. And just think they are very, very young and the Red has not even began to start coming in. Wait till they are 3 or 4 years old!!!!

Tim Rash
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Tim Rash
www.nocturnal-creations.com

wives can be funny about little things like spending thousands of dollars on a snake. My wife's only demand is that I not buy any GTPs (seriously). She says why buy a GTP when you can have an ETB.... Cherry Bomb is an excellent name for that Blood morph and says it all....To be honest I am not into frankensnakes and freaks nor even albinos BUT, those Cherry Bombs seem to bring out the best attributes in Bloods as opposed to just creating something that is bizarre. Some natural intergrades are as close to perfect as possible (yeah, I know thats a very subjective statement) such as coastal milks and I dont know why anyone would want to screw with them. But Bloods have such potential for bringing out their potential bold colors w/o departing too much from their "natural" look.

I think you misunderstood Danny's advice. He is a Naturalist and those type of enthusiasts tend to be "hands-off" keepers. I think with Emeralds or in general animals there are things you can do that for the most part won't cause too many upfront problems but could lead to things down the road you didn't anticipate. I think stress is one of those things that after enough time rears it's ugly head at the point that it is almost too late.

Personally I think occasional handling isn't a bad thing and will keep an animal somewhat used to being interacted with and gives them a bit of a work too out but there is that grey line somewhere in there you have to watch out for but can't really see until you cross it. I think really what Danny is advocating is being careful in how you handle your animal and how frequently. He is taking a "less is more"" approach which is the more prudent way to go as you know for sure it won't do any harm to the animal.

Even by your own admission your female has "batted" at you a couple times. Well, all it takes is once for her to do some serious damage. If that time happens to be when one of your kids is handling the animal and she decides to go off the deep wnd you'll be dealing with a real mess and possible nerve damage from a strike. Is it really worth it? But, that is the beauty of having "your" animals I guess, you get to make these decisions but I think overall Danny's advice is sound if you want to insure a long lived animal.

EE,
Thanks for the great informative post.
I keep up on this forum because I'd like to have a couple of Emerald Boas. I have around 40 snakes now and think I know what I'm doing, but keep up w/ this forum to increas my knowledge on how to care for an Emerald.

My big concern here in Montana is can I keep my snake room warm enough to keep Emeralds. The snake room is in the basement and stays cool in the winter months. Heat panles may be my answer.
Sorry now I'm rambling.
Thanks again for your great post.
Dell Despain

definitely a heat panel and a helix DBS1000; and a back-up generator if the electricity goes out....
none of my ETBs were nippy past the 1st few months and I never handle them except to take them out and exercise/poop/summer sunshine.

the best advice for ETBs is give them what they need and leave them the #*&% alone....otherwise get a common boa.

This was the first and only Emerald I have ever handled. I too keep up on the goings on of this form because I want to eventually have some of my own. A new friend of mine has a couple of northerns and a couple of basins. I got to hold this Amazon Baisn and it was a jewel. This is an adult male that had a very good temperment. I was cautious because I too had heard about their occasional temperment problems. My friend said that his northerns were more nippy, grumpy, call it what you like, but that the basins were very well behaved. They were CBB so also take that for what it's worth. The experience calmed any concerns I had of getting into the emerald hobby.

Rich

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bigdnutz
1.2 Suriname Boa
1.0 Venezuelan Boa