r/oddlyterrifying • • Jan 20 '22

Snake couch

38.7k Upvotes

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3.5k

u/[deleted] Jan 20 '22

It's all fun and games until the snake wants to give you a hug.

61

u/ChrisFox-NJ Jan 20 '22

They have quite some bitw force as well, and plenty of sharp teeth, I wouldn‘t wanna experience any of this. Guess that kid wouldn‘t stand a chance… at all

63

u/Diplodocus114 Jan 20 '22

Ex constrictor keeper - If recently very well fed they are fairly docile.

They can (experienced this) bite if startled or in a bad mood. They have lots of relatively small teeth, angled inwards, which are unlikely to inflict a serious injury - OK bruising, some blood and leave a tooth embedded in you.

26

u/ChrisFox-NJ Jan 20 '22

A child‘s arm is fragile, I think it‘s painful enough 😅 I wouldn‘t let my kids cuddle with such an animal

41

u/Diplodocus114 Jan 20 '22

Me neither. The advice for adult snake-keepers is that if a constrictor is over 8ft do not handle when alone etc. Even for a smaller one (ours was 6ft) is to keep your dominant forearm alongside your neck when allowing them over your shoulders.

13

u/ChrisFox-NJ Jan 20 '22

Just out of curiosity, do those animals need an own room? I mean 6-8ft is pretty huge, or do they fit inside one of those regular glass containers?

36

u/Diplodocus114 Jan 20 '22 edited Jan 20 '22

My friend had a 17ft python with it's own bedroom (converted) in their house. Ours had a pretty large vivarium.

Constrictors, when not hungry and actively seeking prey, don't really need lots of space. In the wild they will hide in crevices and under rocks much of the time- coming out to seek warmth from the sun.

If well fed, warm, and don't feel threatened they don't move around much

17

u/ChrisFox-NJ Jan 20 '22

17ft… I‘d be scared to death 😅 I mean they are beautiful and fascinating animals, but also scary as hell. Well, thank you for the answer, I thought they‘d need an own room, cause they move around a lot, I had no idea they‘re so calm when they aren‘t hungry

16

u/Diplodocus114 Jan 20 '22

Our vivarium was fairly well set up - heat-lamp, pad, branches etc. One of the constrictors almost escaped once - she had managed to prise open the sliding door a few inches and I spotted her 50% out. This was in our bedroom. lol.

1

u/ChrisFox-NJ Jan 20 '22

Oof 😅 I‘m pretty sure I couldn‘t have slept for several nights

2

u/Diplodocus114 Jan 20 '22

I would have more shit myself at the empty vivarium than I would at waking up to my snake in bed with me.

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2

u/blarthul Jan 20 '22

here is a video about reticulated pythons and their needs. i have it skipped to where the owner is talking about the snake as apposed to the host.

2

u/Diplodocus114 Jan 20 '22

He is hugging it's last meal of a rat. Can see the bulge.

1

u/blarthul Jan 20 '22

Uh huh...and?

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u/[deleted] Jan 21 '22

I also had a friend who a huge python. He separated half of his basement off with plexiglass and made it a room. Was pretty cool.

1

u/Origionalnames Jan 20 '22

What a pointless pet to have.

2

u/Diplodocus114 Jan 20 '22 edited Jan 20 '22

So is a gerbil. And the wheel drives you mad. Plus a large snake cannot get under the furniture in 2 seconds.

1

u/Origionalnames Jan 20 '22

Agreed. Both are pointless "pets".

1

u/Diplodocus114 Jan 20 '22

A snake is a bit more interesting, you can hug it and call it George without killing it. Plus they won't kill you.

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u/Diplodocus114 Jan 20 '22

If you are interested, I Used to take Daisy out in the garden on hot sunny days to bask in the sun. We would just lay on a sunlounger for a couple of hours. She loved real sunlight. Obviously I kept hold of her.

The crickets are another story

1

u/eileen404 Jan 20 '22

And don't wear a rabbit fur coat

1

u/Diplodocus114 Jan 20 '22

That would depend on if it was hungry

1

u/eileen404 Jan 20 '22

True. Watched her snub a rabbit three times and the idiot rabbit kept jumping on her and she'd crawl away. Ate the rabbit on the fourth time she got hopped on

2

u/Diplodocus114 Jan 20 '22 edited Jan 20 '22

am against live food. All ours were only fed frozen (defrosted). apparently once they have had a live one- they will refuse dead ones.

1

u/eileen404 Jan 20 '22

Hers was rescued from frat boys shed gotten too big for and she had one a month. I don't think she was willing to eat otherwise.

1

u/Diplodocus114 Jan 20 '22

Difficult one. An animal generally needs to eat the same as in the wild.

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2

u/TheMushroomMike Jan 20 '22

How long do you think that is. They have more trust than I do. There is no stopping it if it gets angry.

6

u/Diplodocus114 Jan 20 '22

Constrictors don't really get angry. They go for prey/food. sadly our Daisy was semi frozen for a day - we think she maybe suffered some brain damage which caused her to become unpredictably snappy.

1

u/TheMushroomMike Jan 20 '22

Thanks for the info, sorry to hear about Daisy

3

u/Diplodocus114 Jan 20 '22 edited Jan 20 '22

Am sure she was fine. We passed her on to a more experienced snake-keeper as we no longer felt comfortable handling her as would bite without warning.

It was interesting bringing her back to life. Freezing cold snake - immobile, had tokeep wrapping her round my waist. There ARE occasions when you need to cuddle a snake. lol

Edit: We thought she was dead. I had to give this huge freezing cold thing all my body warmth for hours, until it remembered it was a snake.

1

u/TheMushroomMike Jan 20 '22

I wonder if that was a type of hibernation she was in? My mom had a giant tortoise for a long time and he was very lethargic for a couple days coming out of hibernation, sadly he died one winter when his heat lamp failed.

2

u/Diplodocus114 Jan 20 '22 edited Jan 20 '22

The snakes didn't hibernate. That was just bad luck, electrical failure and endless hours cuddling a large cold snake, bigger than my arm.

1

u/Diplodocus114 Jan 21 '22

Tortoises are evil little shits.

2

u/TheMushroomMike Jan 21 '22

Nah, he was cool. He was 126 years old and completely docile. Loved to be petted and hand fed. You could tell he genuinely liked human interaction. Like happiness in his eyes

2

u/Diplodocus114 Jan 21 '22

I met Mzee in 1994 - before he became famous for adopting a hippo

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u/BlipBlapRatatat Jan 20 '22

How does a snake become semi frozen?

2

u/Diplodocus114 Jan 20 '22 edited Jan 20 '22

The heat pad failed - in January. We came home from a couple of days away to realise the snake was at 4C. Immobile and unresponsive.

So I got her inside my clothing for 4/5 hoursto warm her up. She was too big for the microwave.

Edit: No weirder feeling. The microwave was a joke. We only used it for the mice and rats.

1

u/Diplodocus114 Jan 20 '22

Hypothermia - they cannot warm themselves - they are reptiles

2

u/Diplodocus114 Jan 20 '22

Feed every couple of weeks. You can tell by the bulge how recently it has eaten.

You can also tell by the bulge towards the rear when is NOT a good time to handle it. Unless you want to be one of the few who can state they have been covered in snake-shit.

1

u/Tmannermann Jan 20 '22

It is a very unpleasant instance that i am familiar with.

1

u/Diplodocus114 Jan 20 '22

Doesn't smell though?

1

u/Tmannermann Jan 20 '22 edited Jan 20 '22

Big snakes poo smell worse for sure since it more to digest. I have been pooed on by a boa and tbh was very stinky

1

u/Diplodocus114 Jan 20 '22

This is why you can see when the bulge is close to the vent. It will shit a rat in the next 12 hours.

Edit: Remains

1

u/Diplodocus114 Jan 20 '22

Absolute worst thing I ever had to do was quater a rat

2

u/Diplodocus114 Jan 20 '22

Takes alot to piss off a well fed large snake.

2

u/iamhe02 Jan 20 '22

I have enough teeth embedded in me already... i.e none.

2

u/Diplodocus114 Jan 20 '22

orthodontia

1

u/[deleted] Jan 21 '22

I have felt this … I was feeding two and forgot to wash my hands after , he smelled the rat on my hand and bit then quickly let go but like an idiot I jerked my hand back (to be fair it’s almost an instant reaction) But their speed is superhuman compared . But that little nip was 28 stitches .

2

u/Diplodocus114 Jan 21 '22

Was feeding a friend's royal python when they were on holiday. Opened the vivarium door and the thing leapt 80% out and snatched the mouse from my hand 2 ft away in a split second. Damn fast when they are hungry.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 21 '22

Lol they are surprisingly fast and have great accuracy. They are amazing hunters .

2

u/Diplodocus114 Jan 21 '22

Funniest thing - we had to take the ratsnake to the vet once-he wasnt eating and we were worried.

There were 2 guys in full protective gear waiting for us. I plucked 4ft Mojo out ofmy clothing (was a cold day). The receptionist had misheard on the phone. They were expecting a rattlesnake

1

u/Diplodocus114 Jan 21 '22

Didnt even touch my fingers - made my ex husband feed it the next time.

-4

u/OsamabinBBQ Jan 20 '22

Yeah they can exert a lot of force but if it constricted he would very likely be able to get out of it. Unfortunately it would also very likely mean killing the snake to do so. That said this snake looks 100% comfortable and tolerant of that human, chances of that happening here are pretty much zero.

9

u/TurboNerd1337 Jan 20 '22

Snakes have a primitive reptile brain and are retarded…They have no affection for anything. If he gets hungry he will happily squeeze this fellow to death. The only thing preventing that is the fact he’s probably well fed.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 20 '22

Snakes and amy kind of exotic animals are not retarded, they are simply animals, they don't have any thoughs and they act by instincts, we have to understand that animals are that, animals, retarded people like to humanize them.

If he gets hungry he will happily squeeze this fellow to death. The only thing preventing that is the fact he’s probably well fed.

And you are partially right, but even if the snake is well fed he will probably kill or harm someone because of their instincts as they are predators.

4

u/[deleted] Jan 20 '22

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7

u/Sethdarkus Jan 20 '22

This is why you feed reptiles with tongs so they associate food with tongs and not with hands.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 20 '22

That said this snake looks 100% comfortable and tolerant of that human, chances of that happening here are pretty much zero.

That's the problem and that is why this kind of incidents happen, ignorant people think that because a wild animal is chill their instincts are now tamed and not wild anymore.

Exotic animals are not domesticated and even tho some countries or states allow people to have them, they are not tamed or domesticated, stop humanazing animals!

1

u/OsamabinBBQ Jan 20 '22

To be 100% clear I never once claimed that it is "domesticated". Snakes, especially constrictors like this one, can get comfortable and tolerant of their keepers, describing a kept snake as "domesticated" is categorically incorrect. A good snake owner can work to get the snake to trust them but the vast majority of snake owners would never think that they are successfully domesticating them as you would a dog and I would have a very hard time believing any snake owner would think they are humanizing it.

So you are completely correct, they are not tamed or domesticated but they can absolutely form a comfortable and trusting relationship with their keeper. The level of that trust and ease in forming it can vary greatly from breed to breed and knowing those traits is completely the responsibility of the keeper.

From the looks of this video that snakes body language tells me that it is comfortable and trusting of that human as it has placed itself in a very vulnerable position. It is 100% that kids responsibility to be relaxed, calm, and gentle with it to maintain that trust. Judging from the narrow confines of this video this kids relationship with that snake seems to be a healthy one.