FAQs
A. There are fewer opportunities to reinforce a snake's behavior than a cat's or a dog's, since snakes don't eat every day, and don't have any strong instincts you can exploit, like a dog has. The only positive reinforcements for snakes are feeding, being at the right temperature, and being touched appropriately.
Here are some training secrets from the experts:
Start out slowly, since you don't want to frighten the snake from the
beginning.
Don't push past the snake's point of comfort. If you pay attention
to it you'll soon learn when it is comfortable and when it is not.
Once the snake tolerates you walking by its cage, changing the water bowl,
feeding, and cleaning, you can try touching it gently.
Then, hold the snake for a few minutes at a time, a few times a day.
When (and if) the snake has gotten to the point that it doesn't try to
slither away after you pick it up, try taking it out of the cage and
actually holding it outside. It will probably try to get away, so hold
it gently until it calms down and realizes that you're not going to eat it.
A. Ok, the worst place to get bitten (or squeezed) by a snake is ANY place, especially if it's your place. But seriously, where on your body do you not want to be bitten? Yes, of course there. But also...if you're squeamish, stop now. Ok, you have been warned.
Dr. Charles Mosher, a snake educator and retired electrical engineer in Menlo Park, California, says the worst place to get bitten on the eyeball. If this scares you--and hopefully you thought about the possibility before reading this because otherwise this is just going to give you one more thing to worry about---get yourself some plastic OSHA safety goggles, if you don't ordinarily wear glasses. (If safety glasses seem too flimsy, perhaps a welder's helmet.)
What about constriction? Experts say the worst place for that to happen is around your diaphragm. Most constricting snakes in the wild won't wrap themselves around your around your arm, because they're not really interested in doing a blood pressure reading. No, it's your chest that's in danger, especially since a snake's technique is to tighten each time the victim exhales. And if the victim struggles, well, the snake just wraps harder. Cute, eh?
A. Snakes don't have emotions as we know them; for example, they're not real happy to hear from an old snake friend, and cupid's bow (boa?) and arrow rarely, if ever, strikes them.
But just because they don't become elated, or fall in love, doesn't mean they don't have primitive "feelings." The hypothalamus is the part of the brain where most of our emotions come from, and since snakes have a hypothalamus, maybe they have a soft romantic side we don't know about. Well, maybe not...
But they do experience the most basic emotions, like fear, aggression, pain, and pleasure. We can see that snakes avoid what causes pain and what they fear, attack what makes them angry, and seek out what is pleasurable. Don't we all?
A. Is your snake going hog wild over food? You can tell if your snake is overweight if it
has exposed skin between the scales;
is unable to coil properly;
has "fat lines," or vertical folds in the scales, created when a
heavy snakes remains coiled for long periods of time, similar to people's
"love handles" or "inner tubes."
A.
Handling--especially when young --does seem to make snakes, well,
cuddlier.
Holding a snake close to your body may help get it to like you more.
Buy captive-born rather than wild-born snakes, since the latter may think
that anything handling them---or even noticing them is preparing to eat
them.
The younger your snakes are when you start handling them and holding them,
especially if you start when they are hatchlings, the better off you'll be
later.
Be as calm as possible whenever you handle your snake. The snake can
sense if you are afraid and it will make it nervous.
Restrain yourself from restraining them.
Don't yank snakes. They don't like it. (Would you?)
Touch them carefully. (You can yank a doodle dandy, but please don't
yank a snake.)
Occasionally keep the habitat temperature at the low end, maybe lowering
it two to four degrees, so that when you pick the snake up, you're a treat
(I would NOT suggest this with Rainbow boas-they have very specific temperature
requirements).
Create a "dining room"-like atmosphere for your snake to eat in,
and only give it food when its mood is right. In other words, take the
snake out and feed it in a separate container--but not if it's acting surly.
Handle snakes at times that are right for them. Boids, for example,
are nocturnal snakes, so to calm them down, and get them closer to you, you
should handle and feed them at night.
A. A mature adult may reach a maximum of seven feet, although an average length is closer to five feet. Female are normally larger than males due to the extra space needed for reproduction.
A. Sexual maturity is reached between 2.5 and 3 yrs of age. While breeding before this has been witnessed, such copulations usually resulted in no viable fertilizations.
A. Captive life spans have been recorded of up to and including 22 yrs.
A. In captivity their diet consists of mice, rats, chicks, and guinea pigs. In the wild their diet consists of rodents, birds, and possibly some forms of aquatic life and lizards.
A. Brazilian Rainbow Boas inhabit the rain forest regions of Central and South America from Costa Rica to Argentina.
A. A large Brazilian adult should weigh no more then 10 pounds (4.5 kg). They are a slender boa, so a 6 foot rainbow is nowhere as near as massive as a 6 foot common boa.
A. Yes. But with patience and increasing periods of handling they should calm down. Some owners indicate a wariness and lack of complete trust in rainbow boas, although I personally have not noticed this. Nonetheless, this species is NOT a snake for children to interact with.
A. Neonates and juveniles can be fed every week to 10 days, with subadults and adults feed every 10 days to two weeks. Do NOT overfeed. Overfeeding causes snakes to become overweight (which is unhealthy and can lead to problems) and can cause laziness.
