Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've started this post a couple of times and each time decide It’s become too “wordy” so…

Does anyone other than myself handle their milk snakes on a regular basis, treat them as pets and not just as a breeding project?

From the day I get my snakes I handle them every three to four days, handle them before feeding, handle them after feeding if the aren’t being skittish but even then I’ll handle them for a little bit until over a few months time they are accustomed to it.

I understand snakes aren’t generally viewed as pets… they’re never going to roll over for you, fetch the paper, be a companion on hikes etc… the upside to frequent handling, for me anyway, is being able to take photos like the first five in this post within 5 minutes of one another this past Friday evening… and they were taken within 5 minutes. Or, as seen in the last two taken yesterday morning, having the snakes eat while still in hand or with a flash going off in their face.

Delilah a few hours before shedding as it turned out

The male polyzona Gomez just cruising about

Ed just hanging out even when he should feel the most vulnerable

The female abnorma Trinity "hiding" under her favorite plant

Jade... what can you say, she just likes posing for the camera

The female poly Morticia, like the other adults and sub adults, doesn't care if I'm holding her while she eats

Trinity again, taking a flash in stride

So... does anyone else spend a little time interacting with their milks... getting them accustomed to you... or am I simply the odd man (sorry ladies, odd person)out?

Gerry

because of their skittish behavior as juveniles, i only minimally hold them their first year (when cleaning their enclosures, changing water).

after their second winter i handle them quite a bit more often. they're usually not as musky or bitey by that point and i think they're more used to my scent by then. all that cleaning and water changing and them not having being eaten by me may have them thinking i'm not a predator after all.

still, by their third year a high majority of them handle really well. there's even a few that i take out two or three times a week for up to 30 minutes.
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westmextricolors.wix.com/west1

i work with tri-colored west mexican lampropeltis. some morph, some hobby, and some locale.

everyone is entitled to their options, but no one's opinion will ever change how i feel about the snakes i keep and breed.

I hold all of my feeding snakes on a regualar basis. With some of the smaller snakes like milks and corns I usually leave them alone for 6 months to a year, but then start holding them all the time. With snakes that start out a little bigger I begin holding them as soon as they are eating well. As an example my argentine boas started out with quite an attitude as babies and I couldn't risk them getting bigger and still being strike happy since I have 3 kids, So they were held almost daily as soon as they had 3 meals down.

I've had a few nasty snakes over the years, a carpet python, wc tx rat, and a wc bull... all 3 were possessed but I put on gloves and held them once or twice a week for months and months until they eventually calmed down and would just hang out in my hands.

I've always viewed my snakes as something to be enjoyed/appreciated first, pets second, and breeding projects third (if ever). If I ever stop feeling that way, that's when I'll get out of the hobby.
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1.1 Argentine Boas
1.1 Dumerils Boas
1.1 Black Milk Snakes
2.3 California King Snakes
1.1 Nelsons Milk Snakes
2.2 Corn Snakes

No! You are not alone in handling & interacting with your snakes! Not only do I handle my snakes, I regard them more as animal companions, not pets. A hard concept for most Americans, I know. For some reason, Europeans are much more likely to care for reptiles better, providing a naturalistic setups and a varied diet.

The most POWERFUL questions all of us must ask is this one: “If I were a captive, what conditions & diet would I choose for myself?

We would be MUCH kinder to ourselves than to the poor, helpless reptile in Johnny’s room that he long since lost interest in, and is slowly dying, alone in a damp cage. If we were living in a cage, but able to decide on conditions, we would not only give ourselves much mores space, and a varied, rich diet, but also ample exercise and play options.

Providing newspaper for substrate, a single water dish & hide is not living. Worse is a rack with dozens of captive animals kept in tiny shelves. It’s a temporary, high-stress environment at best – until you complete their proper vivarium setup mimicking their natural setup in the wild. If we can’t do that, we should not have the animal.

Feeding only frozen-thawed rodents covers about 10% of the normal diet that your reptile would have taken in the wild. That’s like always giving a burger to your children. In the wild they eat insects, frogs, lizards, birds, bird eggs and more. Like you, they require a varied diet to be healthy. Herpers must stop changing diet for THEIR convenience. We must feed animals what they need for proper metabolic processes to occur.

I’m glad that Humans like you exist, and that the new trend in Herpetology is away from designer morphs, instead focusing on locale-specific animals and pure bloodlines. Maybe the next step is that “Owners” will cease adding to their “collection” and begin properly caring for only the animals that they can handle regularly and feed according to their natural diet.

Ameron
Portland/Vancouver
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