• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

Eating!!

Boixos

New member
Hey everyone!

I have just got a second corn, had my other 2weeks ago!

Now my first snake has once's eat at my place (wednesday) but haven't eat again since! should i give him once a week or serve him more a week!

The otherone if got today, i haven't feed him! (loool) but when should i give him a pinkie? (there are bouth 1 month old)

Is it wrong for me to handle them already? because my corn that i have for 2weeks now, is very "happy" when i pick him up! But the otherone isn't

Can someone give some answer's! thx

BOIXOS NOIS
 
They aren't happy when you pick them up. Snakes can't be happy. They can however tolerate handling.

I wouldn't be handling them at all if you just got them and both are being questionabe about eating. Handling does nothing for them but stress them out for some snakes and especially babies, so just skip it for a few weeks and they will be eating.

bmm
 
I think that handling is also good exercise. In the wild they would probably get all their exercise from searching for food. As for snakes being happy, I don't think they have much feelings. They are not like a dog or cat. A little while ago though, I had the heat pads unpluged because we were having a nice, warm, summer- like few weeks.(rare in new england) then we had a couple cold nights and my stripe amel. stopped cruising his cage like usual. So when I was taking him out to hold him, he got realy deffensive and rattled real loud a few times. So i plugged in the heat pad and he started cruising around, poking his little head out at me, and didn't rattle or act aggresive. Did he feal happy with the warmer temperatures? anythings possible... :)
 
"Why can't a snake be happy?"

Snakes are simply not higher life-forms. We tend to anthromorphize animals; imply that they have human emotions. Having spent time around monkey and apes (even for a short volunteer period of a month), and owned several dogs and cats, I'll admit mammals do show emotion. But even they can not to the extent that humans do, they don't have as complex of brain functions. Going down the evolutionary scale, you see less and less indications of "feelings".
As for my snakes, I'm often asked by visitors if they are "happy" in captivity. The only answer I can give is "they eat and reproduce!" Some wild-caught species can't make the adjustment to captivity. Most colubrids do.
But to answer your handling question, I'm with Bmm. Babies especially have a stress-filled adjustment period before they can tolerate handling. Make that a slow transition. Let them settle in to their new homes and eat readily before unduly disturbing them. Their odds of survival will increase. And alive and less-stressed is the next best thing to happy.:)
 
So, if they can experience other emotions like fear, anger and displeasure, to name a few... then why can't they feel happiness too? I've seen what appeared to be unhappy snakes and happy snakes.... am I going nuts? How can something experience unhappiness, but not happiness?

MissHisssss
 
So they are in there terra without handeling from saterday morning now! (4days)
When do you think it's the best time to handle them again and feed them?


BOIXOS NOIS
 
MissHiss,
Snakes (and all other lower life forms) don't experience 'emotions' the way we do. We have a far more complex brain and have whole sections devoted to controling whether we are happy, sad, in love etc. In reptiles and amphibians, the brainstem controls 'emotional reactions'. These are merely insinctive responses to their environments. If they are not gaining all their requirements in a particular habitat, then they will move elsewhere (in captivity they can't move so will become ill or 'unhappy'). If all they need is there (water, warmth, food, maybe a mate) then they are instinctively 'content' to stay there. I really shouldn't use terms such as unhappy or content, because as Elrojo said, it would be anthromorphizing (sp?) them but I can't really come up with a word that accurately describes their primitive emotions. :rolleyes:

HTH :D
 
Like others said, they don't experience unhappyness or happyness or any other emotion. They just don't. They react to the enviroment in the best way which would lead to survival. That's all. Period.

They cannot make friends, fall in love, or be happy when a giant picks them up. They have no need for feelings which is why they evolved without them. They are hunters, killers and live by instinct 100%

bmm
 
Congrats on your 1200th post, Bmm!

And how appropriate that it was about emotions in snakes, something we bonded over a dang year ago. ;) Folks, don't be disappointed or find it sad that "They cannot make friends, fall in love, or be happy when a giant picks them up. They have no need for feelings which is why they evolved without them. They are hunters, killers and live by instinct 100%"
This is how the good Lord made 'em and it works to keep the species alive. Boixos, feed hatchlings every five days until they work up to 2-3 pinks per meal (at which time they get that first "fuzzy), and then back it off to every seven. If you are pushing growth rate, feed twice weekly, I feed my holdbacks (hatchlings I'm going to keep or sell to CAV) every Tuesday and Saturday. Once they are several months old, I forget the 48 hour handling rule, but have had them puke the day after feeding when cleaning the cage, so I leave them alone right after a meal for the first three months of their lives, then handle them whenever. Just my personal practice, not the advice everybody will likely give you, but it works for me...
 
I think the problem here is word usage. Perhaps satisfied is a more appropriate word than happy when referring to a snake, since I've seen many a time when my snakes were quite satisfied with a meal, or a nice warm damp hide, or just being held on a cool morning.

They can be quite dissatisfied too, for example, they may be dissatisfied with the hamster pup I gave them for their weekly meal and decide to roll it around the cage for 2 hours before leaving it and going back into their hides.

They can also be curious and frightened, the two being almost opposites when it comes to behavior (but I think there have been times where they are both at the same time, yeah they're confusing... "my gosh I smell dinner out there but there's this big thing walking around, mebbe I'll just stick my head out and try to nab the mouse before he looks... oh damn he saw me")

And I think that pretty much sums up the extent of their emotions.

-Lemur 6
 
OK OK OK!!

It's not happynis he feel, but it's no anger also!!!

I have leave them alone for 4-5 days now to adjust them to there new home (because they wont EAT!!!)
Is it now the wright time to try to handle them again and give them the chance to eat??? (they haven't eat in 2weeks now!!!!)

BOIXOS NOIS
 
Handling isn't the issue here

You need to get a meal in them. Question number one is always WHAT IS THE TEMPERATURE in their cage? Are you feeding frozen/thawed? If so, make sure they're not only thawed out, but nice and warm. If still no luck, try live pinkies. Let us know. There are many more tricks in the old book, some pretty grizzly, but usually work.
 
HAHA Thanks Elrojo, I am INDEED a member with no life. LMAO...Well o.k. a member with no normal life, although I have a very full snake life. :D


and Boixos- Try Elrojos suggestions. Its not a bad thing either that snakes can't feel the emotions the same as humans, In fact its one of my favorite parts about them. They are able to live with or without us which gives me a good feeling about raising them. And they aren't as needy as other pets, which IMHO makes them more enjoyable. If snakes were more emotional, maintaining a decent sized collection would be impossibe. LOL :D

bmm
 
bmm said:
If snakes were more emotional, maintaining a decent sized collection would be impossibe. LOL :D

bmm

LOL, yeah can you imagine if you had a whole room of snakes giving you a puppy dog look 'love me please' 'play with me first' 'no me ME ME' 'you don't spend enough time with me' kinda thing? Well obviously they can't talk but you get the jist of it.... :p
 
Sorry Elrojo that my 'emotions' question took away from your eating/handling questions. So I'll just say that people used to say that dogs, cats, etc didn't have emotions/feelings but now most agree that they do. I could really get into this subject, but all I'll say is that several people seem to have agreed that they have seen some sort of display of emotions/feelings in their snakes, so if it's agreed that we see it why not admit that it's happening? I'm not saying that they feel these feelings as much as we do... but until I am a snake I can not say that they don't.

Back to you and your questions Elrojo.

MissHisssss.
 
I guess Rachel and I were sending messages at the same time. I hate to say this, but I have a few snakes that seem to be giving me the puppy dog look from time to time. Or the guilt trip look. I'll walk by their terrarium and they'll have their heads sticking out from their hides, with arched necks and starring eyes.... watching me as I walk by as if saying, "Please give me a mouse, or please please... will ya pleeeeeeaze?" Then there is the shy one that ducks back in as soon as he sees me. (What is shyness?). Perhaps they are doing emotons in snake fashion, but like I said... until I am a snake.... I can not say if they do or don't, I can only say that sometimes I see that they do.

MissHisssss
 
MissHisssss said:
So I'll just say that people used to say that dogs, cats, etc didn't have emotions/feelings but now most agree that they do. I could really get into this subject, but all I'll say is that several people seem to have agreed that they have seen some sort of display of emotions/feelings in their snakes, so if it's agreed that we see it why not admit that it's happening? I'm not saying that they feel these feelings as much as we do... but until I am a snake I can not say that they don't.

MissHisssss.

People used to believe that we were the only 'intelligent' life forms capable of showing emotions. Now, with neuro science, we can PROVE which animals are capable of showing complex emotion behaviour. We know which parts of the brain are responsible for emotions, instinct, olfaction etc etc and reptiles simply do not have the complex brain that many mammals have that would make tham capable of showing higher forms of emotion. They can show emotion as an instinct based reaction only and that's a fact. There are some other animals where it is debatable whether thay have the ability to show the kinds of emotions that we have (a 'grey matter' area I would guess, LOL) but the simple brains found in reptiles and amphibians leaves us with no doubt at all that they react on instinct. They only have a primitive emotion 'centre'. Boixos, sorry for getting away from the point of the post, but at least some poeple reading this might learn something new...a post with 2 for 1!


ps I can't believe I made a 'grey matter' joke. I'm turning into one of those lab coat geeks.... :rolleyes:
 
Ooops, once again we crossed paths Rachel. I commented on the puppy dog look in the a post just before your last one.

Back to the main issue. I agree to try and get the snake to eat before handling it. I know you're dying to, but for the sake of the snake.... do the food first. Then once accomplished, (always) wait a few days before handling.

MissHisssss
 
Ooops sorry! :)

Yeah I would maybe try leaving the food with the snakes and just leave them completely. They are maybe still trying to settle into their new home.
 
Back
Top