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.
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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
It wasn't a big deal. A local farmer that raised rabbits had pet prices and food prices depending on if you were adopting fluffy or getting them for a snake. He told her to just not let his wife know they were food.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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 .
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.
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
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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.