Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a friend who purchased a baby eastern indigo about 9 months ago. This snake is the meanest snake I've seen. She bites the hook, strikes at everything, rattles her tail, hisses and puffs up when you try to get her out of the tank. Once out she is fine. She actually has to be caught because she is fast as lighting. I was told by a breeder in western pa that all indigos are mean and nasty and never make a nice pet like a boa, ball or woma. Will she grow out of this? Will she tame down. My friend is worried as he has young children and doesn't want a mean snake. He has 2 balls, a woma, 2 hognoses and an angolan. All those snakes are nice and the children easily hold them. Can someone give some advice from their own experience with indigos. Also the snake is held 4-5 times a week for no less then 20 minutes a time.

I'm not as experienced as some others on this forum, but I can tell you that whoever said all Eastern indigos are mean and don't make good pets is talking out his ___. My indigos are quite "friendly". Yes, they get very excited when it's feeding time, and you need to be careful, but characterizing them as mean is absolutely inaccurate. I don't think I could get mine to bite me if I tried. And I use mine as educational presentations, no problem at all being handled and petted for fairly long periods of time. Maybe you friend just unluckily got a bad seed, but without knowing details, my wild guess is that something is wrong with the husbandry that is causing the "mean" behavior. Again, just a guess...

Thanks,
Ed

Young indigos are the most prone to bite. That said..I have never
been bitten by a eastern indigo other than in a feeding responce
which can happen when i'm careless. I keep them in fairly small
enclosures for the first year or so, make sure they have a hide,
water available at all times and please dont overheat them.
I keep my youngsters at low to mid 70s at night to high 70s in
the day. Hope that helps. Also..If this PA breeder guy is talking about eastern indigos then he doesn't know what hes talking about.

The snake is about 2.5 to 3 feet long. She is in a 2'x3'x18" animal plastics tank. Fresh water every day. the hot side is 79 deg f and the cool side 73 deg f. There are 3 hides on the floor and one on a basking shelf. One on the hot side, one on the cool side and one in the middle. She seems to prefer the middle or the basking shelf hide. She never misses a meal and is fed FT rat pups. He also has a log in the center which she uses. Always a good shed. Does this sound ok? Do you think she will tame down soon?

sounds more like a cribo type...

As others have said, what you are describing is a fairly typical feeding response, some get around this by not feeding in the same container that they live in. I would advise your friend to use a hook to remove the snake when he wants to take it out and by the way do not feed it from a hook.

All baby snakes are pre-programed to strike at anything that gets too close to it's face, and yes it will become tame if you show it some sunlight every few days, let it crawl in the grass and scout around, and feed it well, most new indy owners way underestimate how much they eat in the summer, and feces!...handle it and soon will learn to love you for letting it out. oh and they dont like the smell of other snakes, and don't handle the snake with your dog or cat's sent on your hands...

Longtailed snakes dont like to be housed off the ground, Coachwhips will handle it better than Indigos or Racers.

Interesting that you mentioned this. I was having trouble getting my Indigo eating for awhile, and raising his enclosure off the floor a few feet was like a miracle cure. Suddenly he eats everything! I guess mine's just an oddball...

They will take cover in trees and brush when persued in the wild but typically stay on the ground, I know of a few cribos that were housed 4 feet off the ground then began to eat after their cages were placed on the floor...they're all individuals like us...

So he has to keep it in a room by itself. I don;t think that is possible as his home is very small. Should he feed her twice a week?

Wow, this is getting complicated. The set up sounds adequate, but there is some individual personality to snakes in my experience. I once had a wild caught Cal king that would very deliberately bite and chew when handled. It never did quit, and I just regard it as a quirk, having raised many dozens of tame and non biting Cal kings. Maybe this Eastern Indigo is a "quirk"...? I have only rarely been bit by an Indigo, and it was my own fault,as I failed to wash rodent/chick scent off my hands. Feeding response bites are common and you must avoid them, they are predictable. The defensive bites you describe are atypical, and hopefully it will outgrow them. Mine seem to go through a personality change at about 40", perhaps they no longer feel so threatened as likely prey to others animals? Good luck, I really think this is an exception, and not at all typical of D. couperi. Vic

Hi. I've read your post and I have kept Indigo's as pets for close to 10 years (Easterns and Texans). I'm no total expert, but I have some experience to share that may help you:
First of all, it seems that your friend is doing a lot of things right already, but consider this:
Feed her twice a week and see if she eats twice a week...(Indigos Do have a slightly higher metabolism than some of the other snakes, espcially the young ones). Sometimes feeding them a little more will also help calm them down. It's just like some humans that that don't eat enough (more restless and cranky until their bellies are full).
If ,(and only if), she has an aggressive feeding response (usually indicated by her lunging at you WITHOUT any type of warning as soon as you stick your hand in the cage), you may consider placing her in a different container first (on feeding days), then feeding her. After feeding her, put her back in her regular cage. Do that all the time (if you go that route).That way she will not associate a hand going into her regular cage as food!
You may also want to put her in a room where she can be more exposed to people just walking past her cage all the time. Eventually she will realize that seeing people coming near her cage is no longer a threat. It takes some time, a few months up to a year (be patient), but it should work. My female Eastern Indigo was also a little skittish when she was younger, but she's calmed down a lot since then. (She may have also been nervous because she can probably smell the larger male nearby, in another cage, which could be perceived as a threat to her due to his larger size and the fact that Indigos will eat their own kind in the wild if there is a size difference) My male on the other hand has always been calm and fearless, even when he was just a hatch-ling. But what I think has helped a lot (for my female), is that she is in the living room where people walk past her cage all the time. I believe if you keep a young Indigo in a separate room where exposure to humans is less common, it will naturally take even longer for them to calm down (even more so if it is a very dark room - Indigos are primarily diurnal and need to have some light during the day).
I also think you should stay clear of that breeder in western PA....He sure is ignorant to this species of snake!
Let me know if you have any more questions.....
Here's a pic of my niece who's never held a snake before until that day (with my male Indigo when he was younger at around 5 foot. He's over seven feet now.)

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"I am an expert on everything, but I know so little and have so much to learn!" -Carsten "Zee" Zoldy-

First I would like to thank you for some great advice. I told him to start feeding her twice a week and not in her tank. Although I am no stranger to snakes, ( I've had many boas and pythons) I am a stranger to indigos. I don't think it's a feeding response, I think it's more defensive. She doesn't come at you until you go to her with the hook. That's when all hell breaks loose. If you just go in the tank, she will hiss and thump her tail and go back in a strike position and try to get away. She has plenty of light and there is traffic in front of her tank. Feeding time she is crazy. She goes for the rats with much enthusiasm (for lack of a better word).
Second I would like to tell you that your snake is beautiful.

Everything sounds pretty good as far as you've told me... Your friend may just have a jumpy/nervous animal and it will just take time for her to get over it. I know my female is a little on the skittish side, but she has tamed very well over the last year and a half. She used to hiss a little and rattle her tail a lot, but that was when she was smaller (around 3.5-4 feet). Once she grew close to around five feet, she really mellowed out and became very familiar with the smell of my hand. I actually have NO problems feeding her in her normal cage, because she checks my hand first, then decides if it safe to eat (provided she smells the mouse).
My male on the other hand, doesn't care and just wants to charge, especially when he's hungry, and may actually bite me when my hand goes in the cage (always thinking it's feeding time and he IS a garbage gut), because he IS fearless, but NOT defensive. The way I avoid being bitten and give him a sign, is that I put my hand in the cage and grab the mid section of his body right away (before he knows what's going on), and proceed to gently pick him up. He has become so used to this, that it immediately shuts off his feeding response and he is as tame as an earthworm! I even do this when I know he's hungry, and it still works. I guess I've done it for so long, that he's literally trained for this...(a grab at his mid-section means handling time ONLY - NO FOOD!!!)
But I'm pretty sure if you just give that little female some time she WILL come around, especially when she gets some size on her.
The only bad thing (in my opinion), about Indigos, is that they are far more restless when being handled than most other snakes. They like to stay on the move a lot, not like Ball Pythons, which can just lay there all day long. But DO continue to handle her, (once a day is good), but make sure you don't handle her for too long at a time (until she gets older), that way she will always be comfortable (versus being stressed or too warm from being held for too long). You have to also remember when holding her, not to force her to sit still - if she wants to glide out of your hands, let her - never restrict her movements - if you do it can scare her a lot (they think they're about to be eaten then).
Here's a pic of my 7 foot plus male, when he was only around 30" long, back in early 04'. Now he's a BEAST, but a VERY friendly beast that I have taken to local schools for educational purposes and many kids have handled him, and he doesn't mind at all (now that he's older)!

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"I am an expert on everything, but I know so little and have so much to learn!" -Carsten "Zee" Zoldy-

I can only speak for my one Indigo, but he can be a wild man until he's out. I just use a hook to take him out and then he's completely wonderful. (Except the time I discovered that the poop can be aimed upward and wound up with it in my ear...)