Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm certain that there is a thread like this somewhere here, forgive me for bumping or reposting, please.

I'm somewhat new to serious herp husbandry. I've had a store-bought red tail (who knows what variety) and a similar ball for some time now and about 6 months ago, I "adopted" two larger (5.5 and a 6') red tails.

My feeding tank has a hole in the top on one side, I figure it's no big deal because they're only in there for a small period of time. The male has figured out where this hole goes (FREEDOM!!).

I had him in there recently and I had turned the top around so the hole was on the other side. He kept poking at the side where the hole used to be and, eventually, found it on the wrong side.

How much memory do these guys have? If he can figure that out, are they trainable? SIT! Sit pretty! DANCE!!!!! That would be cool.

(Just to brag, I've attached a shot of a nice yellow Amazon Tree boa I got at the show in Hillsboro over the weekend)

I'm not experienced enough to have any answers, but thought I'd comment on your tree boa. Beautiful snake. Something about the arboreal species that intimidates me though. Maybe it's just a lack of experience. Looks very nice though.

My family was sick, else I would have liked to make the show, and I missed the last one back in Aug.

Shane

Just about any animal is trainable. At the same time- no animal is 100% reliable. Sometimes dogs just won't stay.

My beardie sorta knows "come here" (way too many waxworms later).

Domestication is, however, a really long process. I think you'd have to have a pretty amazing bond with your snake to make it remotely feasible. But boas are smart- no doubt about that. The trouble is convincing them that they want to do what you want them too. Additionally animals that are largely kept in cages tend to be less trained than animals people are literally constantly interacting with (birds aside). My cat's behavior just affects me more constantly than my reptiles.

I would think (although I'm by no means sure) snakes would clue in more to visual gestures than sounds... could be wrong- probably varies from type of snake. But just a thought...
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1.1.0 beardies
1.0.0 bloodred corn
0.1.0 leopard gecko
0.1.0 golden gecko
0.2.0 mourning geckos
1.1.0 cats

soon to be:
0.1.0 amel motley corn
BRB!!!!!