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How do you handle dozens of snakes?

G

GlitterFlame89

Animal Loving Girl
Looking around the internet, I have seen quite a few people with 10, 20, 30, 40+ snakes. My question is this; How do you handle all of them? Give them all attention, keep them all nice and tame? Is that even possible? I mean, if you try to handle each snake a minimum of 20 - 30 minutes a day, and you have 50 snakes, it's just barely possible, and there is no time for anything else. How do you pay enough attention to them and make sure everyone is healthy and what not? How do you keep all that clean? Not trying to put anyone down or anything, honestly, and I really hope I'm not coming off that way. I just can't imagine the work and time and what not that would need to go into all that.
 
When you have that many snakes, they generally aren't pets anymore. They're breeders, or future breeders. I have 104 at last count (I think) and while some of them are my faves that I try to pay more attention to, they are an investment, not so much pets. As for their care, I feed in rounds: adults, subadults, hatchlings; each on a different day so I can clean and check everyone and take some pics here and there. I enjoy handling them and I never want to put them back once I have them out, but there's no way to spend quality time with each of them. Still, corns are pretty mellow, so long periods between handling doesn't turn them wild. I have a few that think everything is food at first, but they settle down once I take them out.
 
104? Wow! You know, I think part of it is that I have never kept anything like a reptile in my life. I've had birds, cats, dogs and small animals. What I've had, if you don't give them attention on a regular basis, as in one-on-one interaction, they kind of just whither away, get mean, and can litterally die of lonliness. My assumption here is that reptiles are not quite like that? They can be perfectly happy if pretty much left to their own devices? Obviously I have no intention of doing that with my guy, but I never really looked at it as a possibility that wouldn't cause damage, you know what I mean?
 
Yeah last year i had 50+ that i was selling from my girlfiends breeder stock.

It is a full time hobby that takes over your life. Feeding and cleaning almost every day.
 
You are making the assumption that all snakes SHOULD be handled 20-30 mins a day, which to me seems excessive.

As long as they are handled at least weekly, my corns seem to stay "nice and tame".
 
I have 17 snakes. Thats not a lot of "breeding stock" but I considering ALL my snakes pets before breeders. If they breed, fantastic. If not its not the end of the world as I can still enjoy my beloved pets.

However, my snakes rarley get handled for more than 30 mins per week each (spaced out blocks). I truley believe snakes only tollerate being handled at best. I don't like to bother them too much, and they appreciate it. I have noticed a huge difference in temprement when handling less than I used to. The snakes are far more tollerant because they are not being bugged daily. I can just imagine them thinking "oh here we go again, slithery slithery, blah blah, when can I go back?".
 
I have 16 snakes (15 of them Corns) and mine get handled long enough to take them out of their vivs for feeding/cleaning, then to put them back from their feeding tubs. And adults will be fed roughly once a fortnight. So no, mine don't get handled even weekly, never mind daily, and yes, they're all tolerant of being handled and most don't bite (apart from one who thinks everything is edible until chewed, which is nothing to do with how little I'm handling her!).

Corns don't need handling daily - certainly not for 20-30 mins. I'd really think that was going to stress them. At best they tolerate handling. Regular handling is certainly advised to get them used to you so that they recognise you as "a safe place to be". However, you won't get much interaction from them - they'll spend most of their time trying to get away or crawl up your sleeves/into your pockets!

Also bear in mind that it's not advisable to handle them when they're coming up to a shed, or for a few days after eating (which risks a regurge).

New snakes especially should be left strictly alone for a few days on arrival, to let them settle down. The change of environment will be stressful enough, without having a giant pink thing manhandling them.
 
For me it's all about organization. I keep a weekly schedule of what's going on so I don't lose my mind. I don't want to even try to count what we have...probably around 60 ball pythons, 70-80 corns, some blood pythons, and around 10 leopard geckos....see that gives me a heart attack reading it! Every group has individual times that they get fed and cleaned. My baby corns and the geckos are one day, the balls and the bloods one day, and the adult corns another. If I tried to do all the snakes at once I'd be in a padded room. I also keep extremely detailed records of each animal. Shed/Fed/Poop/Didn't eat/With a male/ bred/laid, etc. I could tell you exactly what's going on with each of my animals at any given time.

As for handling, reptiles are not domestic animals. In general they don't really care one way or another. I try to handle my babies a lot in their first few months, this seems to calm them down to an extent. The adults only get handled with their enclosures get cleaned out. The ball pythons tubs get spot cleaned, so they are handled even less. Usually every two weeks or so they get completely cleaned, then the adults are held. Too much handling causes a lot of stress, I've had babies that were sent to different homes that would go off feed because of too much attention.
 
I have over a hundred snakes. I have lucked out in that my wife enjoys this hobby with me. She feeds and cleans the snakes, I feed and clean the mice and rats. (and crickets, mealworms, fruitflys, etc) I think she got the better end of the deal.

We do a spot clean on feeding day but then do a thorough clean on another day, so each snake gets picked up twice a week. But that is just picked up, not played with. I agree with the others, I don't think the snakes require it, it would be more for your own enjoyment than theirs.

I have the rodents set up in large racks and each colony has a food bin that will hold about 2 weeks of food. They all have automatic water drippers. The time consuming part is that they have to be cleaned once a week for sure or they will stink to high heaven.

I move all the mice and babies to a new tub with clean wood shavings. I then dump the litter from the old tub, wash and sterilize it, and stack them for next week. I harvest what ever mice I need and freeze them. It takes me about one full day to do them all.
 
I have 42 corns. That's a mix of babies, yearlings, sub adults and breeders. The babies are only held at feeding time to move from one place to another. The rest are held at different times. Maybe once a week sometimes every other week or so. I only have one adult that is a wild child. He never bites, or even strikes, just acts all crazy trying to get away when you hold him. Other than that all of the other snakes are calm and pretty laid back.

On another note..I also have 4 boys in my house that will take out any of the snakes, not babies, any time. They never get bit and certain snakes actually seem to like certain kids. LOL My oldest son is 11 and the youngest is 7 so not holding them all the time doesn't seem to make them wild.

This is my oldest with his favorite girl Yelina. She gets out like this about once every couple weeks.
P1020152.JPG
 
I'm like Bitsy, I've said it before but the fact that the snakes don't need or seek out attention from me is one of their more attractive attributes. As long as they tolerate a few photo sessions and being out for feeding, I'm happy.
 
diamondlil said:
I'm like Bitsy, I've said it before but the fact that the snakes don't need or seek out attention from me is one of their more attractive attributes. As long as they tolerate a few photo sessions and being out for feeding, I'm happy.
Click to expand...

Which in turn leads people to ask the the question: Why do we keep snakes as pets if we are not bothered about handling or disturbing them daily?

My answer would be: Because I enjoy watching them thrive in captivity in an environment I have created/provided. Oh and they feed my photography addiction...
 
Pretty sure most snakes that came from a dealer weren't handled much, probably just to transfer snakes to feeding tubs and the occasional check-on times. 300-400 hatchlings + older juvies and breeders would take quite a few ppl to have regular handling of all their snakes.
You could have one or two people that all they do is take snakes out and look each over every couple days, but how much handling time would they get per snake? Can't be that much until you buy them.

Funny thing I just thought of. You would smell like so much snake if you handled more than a couple dozen!:rofl:
 
If they are venemous, then with great care.

Seriously though, I have 14 snakes. I break them up into 2 blocks of 7.
They are fed and handled every 7 days and Block 1 is done on Friday and Block 2 on Saturday.
Each handling and then feeding session takes about 2 hours, not too long in my eyes.
The moral of the story, Time Management.

Ciao
 
GlitterFlame89 said:
Looking around the internet, I have seen quite a few people with 10, 20, 30, 40+ snakes. My question is this; How do you handle all of them? Give them all attention, keep them all nice and tame? Is that even possible? I mean, if you try to handle each snake a minimum of 20 - 30 minutes a day, and you have 50 snakes, it's just barely possible, and there is no time for anything else. How do you pay enough attention to them and make sure everyone is healthy and what not? How do you keep all that clean? Not trying to put anyone down or anything, honestly, and I really hope I'm not coming off that way. I just can't imagine the work and time and what not that would need to go into all that.
Click to expand...

one at a time.
 
I guess I thought snakes needed more handling than they do. Is the snake who will just hang out happily for hours on end pretty much a misconception than? I know I read somewhere that they need at least an hour a day, but that's somebodies opinion anyway.
 
I only have eleven. I like the adults the best- the ones that will just coil up and sit with me and watch a movie. The babies are cute- but they have to be moving constantly! All my adults will sit still without having to be held. I'd say any of my adults will hang out happily for as long as I'd like.
 
GlitterFlame89 said:
I guess I thought snakes needed more handling than they do. Is the snake who will just hang out happily for hours on end pretty much a misconception than? I know I read somewhere that they need at least an hour a day, but that's somebodies opinion anyway.
Click to expand...


I wouldnt say it is a misconception as such. Personally i think its more of a confidence thing. For begginers its best to handle more to get used to the snake/s.

If you have had them years you tend to see snakes different to when you first had them.
 
I sort of have a weekly favorite, that gets the hanging out/holding treatment. As we are going through the cleaning feeding ritual, one will catch me eye.
Then he/she will have an extra long hold to study it and wonder at the shape /colours.
The only one that doesn't get *the treatment* is Sid, as if we played with him too often, he would stop hissing. (and I like him hissing)
MIKE
 
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