Wolf Snake

[riddick07]

Got this wc girl in the other week. She has not eaten for me but she has shed and laid a bunch of slugs. Considering that I'm not even a little worried about her not eating yet!

She is even shiner and has more white markings on her sides now. Some of her cuts are still there but her worst one looks much better after that shed.

And then the slugs from last night. That was a surprise when I opened the container! Too bad they don't look any good.

Her fecal came back clean. Her personality so far seems very laid back and easy going. Even when I get her out from the warm side she hasn't even flinched let alone struck out at me. Seems curious. Just have to get her to eat and we will be good to go with this little one. So far I'm very happy with her!

 

[GaleriaGila]

Oooooooooooooooooooh, I'm so afraid of snakes, butttttttttttttt...
I want to take this as a challenge to be more understanding and caring.
What will she eat? Does she like to be touched, and how?
If you'd care to tell more about her, I'd love to hear.
She was wounded but is healing...
Will we have a name soon?

 

[riddick07]

Oooooooooooooooooooh, I'm so afraid of snakes, butttttttttttttt...
I want to take this as a challenge to be more understanding and caring.
What will she eat? Does she like to be touched, and how?
If you'd care to tell more about her, I'd love to hear.
She was wounded but is healing...
Will we have a name soon?

She's a lizard eater but all of my others eat either rats, mice,chicks, quail, Guinea pigs or rabbits. Snakes tend to tolerate handling more than enjoy the experience. Some seem to like coming out to stretch and get into things. Some will tolerate you touching them and handling however you want. Others won't allow you to touch their heads or flinch if you grab their tail. A lot of people are of the opinion that species like Retics have more of an enjoyment and emotional type of response. I'm not sure if that is true or not. My one retic does seem to enjoy being out and using us as a climbing gym but I'm not sure if that's enjoyment or just a natural instinct for climbing and seeking heat. The emotional thing in reptiles is often debated by people.

I don't know much about this one yet she's a wild caught and still in quarantine. So I haven't handled her much except for cleaning the cage. Since she is wild caught she came in with seem damage which is typical and to be expected. The wild definitely isn't as safe as captivity! This one isn't often found in captivity around here so I can't even give information that is generalizations on her type of snake lol. I'm not sure on a name yet....some want me to name her Red after the fairytale

 

[GaleriaGila]

Oh, myyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy...
I may have a language-barrier issue here, but, what is "wc", please?
So if a reptile doesn't have clear response to you, what is the charm of owning one? Just the joy of interacting with it, which I get?
Out West, we had a desert tortoise who would hang out in our back yard and beg for food... and he would LOOK YOU IN THE EYE!!!!! That always amazed me. I really liked him.

 

[Chase]

WC means Wild Caught

I've always been a reptile person, they have a different way of interacting than say a parrot. They all have different personalities, and they're just fun to watch

 

[GaleriaGila]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...
Thank you!

 

[SirEdwin89]

Oh, myyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy...
I may have a language-barrier issue here, but, what is "wc", please?
So if a reptile doesn't have clear response to you, what is the charm of owning one? Just the joy of interacting with it, which I get?
Out West, we had a desert tortoise who would hang out in our back yard and beg for food... and he would LOOK YOU IN THE EYE!!!!! That always amazed me. I really liked him.

Herpetology is a hard hobby to explain, especially considering about the best we get in response is being viewed as a warm tree. For the most part (save for some of the larger old and new world monitors) they are missing the portion of the brain that controls any form of what we would consider compassion in other animals.

For me, it's always been a matter of being drawn to such specialized hunters, combined with just how powerful they can be, not to mention getting past all the misconceptions people have. They are just such ingeniously designed organisms.

And WC as brought out stands for WIld Caught. In the Herp world, animals tend to break down in to the following categories.

WC= WIld Caught
CB= Captive Bred
CH= Captive Hatched

The first two are kind of obvious, the last is when Eggs are taken out of the wild and hatched (if it was less obvious)

 

[Flboy]

I am such a snake person, beautiful babies! In my neighborhood, it is known, you mess with a snake without consulting me, you have trouble! Six months ago, I almost made the 6 o'clock news when I screwed up and mistook a coral snake for a king! Fortunately coral are docile enough to keep me from looking totally stupid--and dead!

 

[GaleriaGila]

I'm so... simultaneously enchanted and repulsed. Totally honest here.
WOW.
They're animals, beautiful, natural...
Some people feel the same about birds... repulsion.

I'm loving this thread.
It's a challenge.

Thank you for caring for these animals, and educating me.

 

[riddick07]

Oh, myyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy...
I may have a language-barrier issue here, but, what is "wc", please?
So if a reptile doesn't have clear response to you, what is the charm of owning one? Just the joy of interacting with it, which I get?
Out West, we had a desert tortoise who would hang out in our back yard and beg for food... and he would LOOK YOU IN THE EYE!!!!! That always amazed me. I really liked him.

Herpetology is a hard hobby to explain, especially considering about the best we get in response is being viewed as a warm tree. For the most part (save for some of the larger old and new world monitors) they are missing the portion of the brain that controls any form of what we would consider compassion in other animals.

For me, it's always been a matter of being drawn to such specialized hunters, combined with just how powerful they can be, not to mention getting past all the misconceptions people have. They are just such ingeniously designed organisms.

And WC as brought out stands for WIld Caught. In the Herp world, animals tend to break down in to the following categories.

WC= WIld Caught
CB= Captive Bred
CH= Captive Hatched

The first two are kind of obvious, the last is when Eggs are taken out of the wild and hatched (if it was less obvious)

Yeah I always have trouble explaining why I enjoy them. I just do which doesn't really help anyone understand. I do my best to avoid the debate of science vs observation of their behaviors it never seems to end well when people debate the topic. I'm on the science end though if anyone wanted to know

I am such a snake person, beautiful babies! In my neighborhood, it is known, you mess with a snake without consulting me, you have trouble! Six months ago, I almost made the 6 o'clock news when I screwed up and mistook a coral snake for a king! Fortunately coral are docile enough to keep me from looking totally stupid--and dead!

Yeah one of my high school friends recently posted about a snake they killed because they thought it was a rattlesnake...was a harmless gopher. Even though killing the rattlesnake wouldn't have been any better. They had the yeah they are still mean and strike out mentality. I said well if I cornered you with a barking dog and a shovel I'm sure you wouldn't be very nice either.

 

[riddick07]

I'm so... simultaneously enchanted and repulsed. Totally honest here.
WOW.
They're animals, beautiful, natural...
Some people feel the same about birds... repulsion.

I'm loving this thread.
It's a challenge.

Thank you for caring for these animals, and educating me.

I feel the same way about spiders that I have seen people post about. I really really don't like spiders. I used to when I was little but at some point I just couldn't stand them. But there are some really interesting tarantulas out there and I have to admit that some are actually pretty. A cobalt blue one that some one has posted about on Facebook fascinated me but I would still freak if it came near me. I can go near them if they are in containers but otherwise no way.

Here's one of my pretty retics...

 

[Chase]

Oh, myyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy...
I may have a language-barrier issue here, but, what is "wc", please?
So if a reptile doesn't have clear response to you, what is the charm of owning one? Just the joy of interacting with it, which I get?
Out West, we had a desert tortoise who would hang out in our back yard and beg for food... and he would LOOK YOU IN THE EYE!!!!! That always amazed me. I really liked him.

Herpetology is a hard hobby to explain, especially considering about the best we get in response is being viewed as a warm tree. For the most part (save for some of the larger old and new world monitors) they are missing the portion of the brain that controls any form of what we would consider compassion in other animals.

For me, it's always been a matter of being drawn to such specialized hunters, combined with just how powerful they can be, not to mention getting past all the misconceptions people have. They are just such ingeniously designed organisms.

And WC as brought out stands for WIld Caught. In the Herp world, animals tend to break down in to the following categories.

WC= WIld Caught
CB= Captive Bred
CH= Captive Hatched

The first two are kind of obvious, the last is when Eggs are taken out of the wild and hatched (if it was less obvious)

I'd like to add on the acronyms.

CB- Captive Bred/Born (more in a second)
CBB- Captive Bred and Born
CH- Caltive Hatched

I'm using this from my personal background, because it can be kind of confusing sometimes (people don't always use the same acronyms)- Chamelons.

When I see CB, I interpret it as the animals for sale were born (some species of chameleons give live birth, I can explain more if you want) in captivity, meaning the mother was bred in the wild and gave birth once in captivity.

When I see CBB, I think that the parents are both captive bred/born animals, and I would consider these F2 (second generation from wild blood)

When I see CH, I would interpret that as eggs were laid by an already gravid female that was imported and laid the clutch once in captivity.

Like I said, I'm basing this on chameleons, sometimes the acronyms are used interchangeably (but not necessarily correctly in my opinion).

 

[riddick07]

Oh, myyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy...
I may have a language-barrier issue here, but, what is "wc", please?
So if a reptile doesn't have clear response to you, what is the charm of owning one? Just the joy of interacting with it, which I get?
Out West, we had a desert tortoise who would hang out in our back yard and beg for food... and he would LOOK YOU IN THE EYE!!!!! That always amazed me. I really liked him.

Herpetology is a hard hobby to explain, especially considering about the best we get in response is being viewed as a warm tree. For the most part (save for some of the larger old and new world monitors) they are missing the portion of the brain that controls any form of what we would consider compassion in other animals.

For me, it's always been a matter of being drawn to such specialized hunters, combined with just how powerful they can be, not to mention getting past all the misconceptions people have. They are just such ingeniously designed organisms.

And WC as brought out stands for WIld Caught. In the Herp world, animals tend to break down in to the following categories.

WC= WIld Caught
CB= Captive Bred
CH= Captive Hatched

The first two are kind of obvious, the last is when Eggs are taken out of the wild and hatched (if it was less obvious)

I'd like to add on the acronyms.

CB- Captive Bred/Born (more in a second)
CBB- Captive Bred and Born
CH- Caltive Hatched

I'm using this from my personal background, because it can be kind of confusing sometimes (people don't always use the same acronyms)- Chamelons.

When I see CB, I interpret it as the animals for sale were born (some species of chameleons give live birth, I can explain more if you want) in captivity, meaning the mother was bred in the wild and gave birth once in captivity.

When I see CBB, I think that the parents are both captive bred/born animals, and I would consider these F2 (second generation from wild blood)

When I see CH, I would interpret that as eggs were laid by an already gravid female that was imported and laid the clutch once in captivity.

Like I said, I'm basing this on chameleons, sometimes the acronyms are used interchangeably (but not necessarily correctly in my opinion).

Ohhh do you breed jacksons? They are my favorite and I want one at some point!

 

[GaleriaGila]

I'm mesmerized...
Challenged.
They're natural, beautiful beings.
Oh, my goodness, I think I need to have a name... to help me relate!!!

 

[riddick07]

The retic is named Lily if that helps

 

[GaleriaGila]

I'm gonna show the Rickeybird some snake shapes... cut-outs...
VERY curious to see his reaction...
Will video maybe..

 

[SirEdwin89]

Man she's gorgeous riddick. I bred Yellow Anacondas for a while, and that was always interesting to try and explain to people, especially after one of my big females put me in the hospital.

I'm not going to lie though, I've drifted away from the scene significantly in the last few years. They will always have a special place in my heart, but I've found that now that I have kids and my time is more limited, I have less interest in the animals that can't love me back, at least from a keeping them personally standpoint. I still have my alligator snapper, and Sumatran Water Monitor though.

 

[riddick07]

Man she's gorgeous riddick. I bred Yellow Anacondas for a while, and that was always interesting to try and explain to people, especially after one of my big females put me in the hospital.

I'm not going to lie though, I've drifted away from the scene significantly in the last few years. They will always have a special place in my heart, but I've found that now that I have kids and my time is more limited, I have less interest in the animals that can't love me back, at least from a keeping them personally standpoint. I still have my alligator snapper, and Sumatran Water Monitor though.

Thanks I enjoy the fact that the snakes aren't social and needy like the birds personally.

Yeah she is still new. And man she was grumpy at first. She came flying out at me when I opened it the first time after putting her away. Luckily I diverted her with the hook and she calmed down after a few minutes. I had to wrestle the hook away from her though. Even to other snake people it can be hard to explain keeping the slightly more dangerous large ones! Especially when I explain she needs multiple people to handle and that I keep a knife nearby just in case everything goes sideways. I'm hoping to avoid the need for a hospital visit but no predicting them sometimes!

 

[SirEdwin89]

Yeah, I wish I could say mine couldn't have been predicted. Instead, I just let myself get too comfortable, and made a stupid mistake. I had been in the rat room cleaning cages, and then went in to one of my big females enclosures to clean it right afterword. Smelling like rats. I was a genius among men that day.

Of course, Conda's being one of the few snakes who will bite without actually striking didn't help. She was incredibly docile for the most part, She would actually open her mouth and sit there waiting for you to put the pig in her mouth. THEN she would latch and finish it herself. But that day I just smelled too good.

I was standing there, she had her head on my shoulder and the next thing I new she was latched on to my collar, and I was falling over sideways. When she wrapped me she about halfway crushed my throat before I managed to get her off (I kept spray bottles of rubbing alcohol in all of my enclosures, and a K-bar on my belt) luckily she released and dropped the second I sprayed her and I didn't have to kill her. And more luckily my mom is a nurse, and happened to be home that day. By the time I got inside I couldn't breathe, and she had to perform an emergency trachiotimy before they rushed me to the hospital. Fun days.

People couldn't understand how I kept my big girl after the incident. To me it was always pretty simple. Yeah, she seriously injured me. But she only did that because I was a huge dummy. I never should have been alone in the enclosure of a 20 foot constrictor, especially a Conda's. I never should have been dealing with *any* snake having the smell of prey all over me. And realistically, I never should have let a snake that large have it's face anywhere near that close to my neck, especially un-restrained. Don't get to blame the animal because I'm an idiot that day.

Tell you one thing, I'll never forget that lesson. lol

 

[GaleriaGila]

I put a black belt on the floor to see if it impressed the bird. When he noticed it, he screamed his alarm call and flew to the top of a curtain. I put the belt away, feeling very guilty and stupid. It makes complete sense that he'd be hard-wired to fear snakey stuff. I could refine my experiment a bit, but I won't. Bad me.