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My Corn Is "Potty Trained"
- Thread starter Peanut Lover
- Start date
Carinata
Ever Evolving Exotics
People are trying new things all the time. Reptiles have been around longer than mammals, their roots are embedded much deeper. I think attempting to waste your time line breeding for temperament uproots the millions of years of instinct these animals have embedded in them. I think whoever tries will fail, and prove my point.
Nanci
Alien Lover
Intelligence doesn't have anything to do with domestication. Quote from Wikipedia:
Charles Darwin describes how the process of domestication can involve both unconscious and methodical elements. Routine human interactions with animals and plants create selection pressures that cause adaptation as species adjust to human presence, use or cultivation. Deliberate selective breeding has also been used to create desired changes, often after initial domestication. These two forces, unconscious natural selection and methodical selective breeding, may have both played roles in the processes of domestication throughout history. Both have been described from man's perspective as processes of artificial selection.
The domestication of wheat provides an example. Wild wheat falls to the ground to reseed itself when ripe, but domesticated wheat stays on the stem for easier harvesting. There is evidence that this critical change came about as a result of a random mutation near the beginning of wheat's cultivation. Wheat with this mutation was harvested and became the seed for the next crop. Therefore, without realizing, early farmers selected for this mutation, which would otherwise have died out. The result is domesticated wheat, which relies on farmers for its own reproduction and dissemination.
Nanci
Alien Lover
I'm actually surprised that either so many people really have no actual hands on experience with snakes, or are just not very observant.
BABIES will learn QUICKLY about being fed. I had a regimen whereby I would clean all the babies due to be fed that day the first pass through, then when the frozen/thawed pinks were ready, I would then go through and feed them all on the second pass. Even the aggressive feeders very quickly picked up on this, and knew not to bother getting excited about being fed till the SECOND TIME I opened up the deli cup lid.
As for breeding for temperament, OF COURSE you can. That's exactly what I had been doing for generations. I would always tend to keep the calmest animals and rapidly weeded out any that seemed resistant to handling or captivity in general. Connie did the same thing with her leopard geckos and had then where they were literally puppy dog tame. She selected the "keepers" for personality over any other criteria, because they were pets to her. She selected ones that not merely tolerated handling, but actually seemed to enjoy and prefer it.
Heck, for that matter, why do you think snakes generally tend to become more mellow with age? Well, do you think, perhaps, that they have LEARNED that YOU are not a threat to them. What do you think "scenting" really is? It's getting a snake to LEARN that the smell of something they don't initially want to eat is actually FOOD.
Surely most of you have noticed that every snake has it's very own personality?
No, you will never be able to train a snake to go fetch the newspaper, but they most certainly DO have the capacity to LEARN about their environment and act upon that knowledge.
Heck, for that matter, I'm having sort of a running battle with a wild gray rat snake around here. He wants to be in the bird feeder near the house, and I really don't want him eating our birds. So I just pick him up and carry him off to the far reaches of our property and release him. I've done this about a half dozen times now. I know it's the same one because of a unique marking on the side of his neck. At first he was quite nervous about being handled, but after the third time, it's now old hat to him. He has LEARNED that I am not going to harm him, and he just gets a free ride off into the woods. Now I will take him to a different place each time to release him, even spinning him around in circles to try to disorient him, and he STILL finds his way back to the bird feeder. He just KNOWS where he wants to go. Might take him a few days, but he seems to be able to figure it out.
BABIES will learn QUICKLY about being fed. I had a regimen whereby I would clean all the babies due to be fed that day the first pass through, then when the frozen/thawed pinks were ready, I would then go through and feed them all on the second pass. Even the aggressive feeders very quickly picked up on this, and knew not to bother getting excited about being fed till the SECOND TIME I opened up the deli cup lid.
As for breeding for temperament, OF COURSE you can. That's exactly what I had been doing for generations. I would always tend to keep the calmest animals and rapidly weeded out any that seemed resistant to handling or captivity in general. Connie did the same thing with her leopard geckos and had then where they were literally puppy dog tame. She selected the "keepers" for personality over any other criteria, because they were pets to her. She selected ones that not merely tolerated handling, but actually seemed to enjoy and prefer it.
Heck, for that matter, why do you think snakes generally tend to become more mellow with age? Well, do you think, perhaps, that they have LEARNED that YOU are not a threat to them. What do you think "scenting" really is? It's getting a snake to LEARN that the smell of something they don't initially want to eat is actually FOOD.
Surely most of you have noticed that every snake has it's very own personality?
No, you will never be able to train a snake to go fetch the newspaper, but they most certainly DO have the capacity to LEARN about their environment and act upon that knowledge.
Heck, for that matter, I'm having sort of a running battle with a wild gray rat snake around here. He wants to be in the bird feeder near the house, and I really don't want him eating our birds. So I just pick him up and carry him off to the far reaches of our property and release him. I've done this about a half dozen times now. I know it's the same one because of a unique marking on the side of his neck. At first he was quite nervous about being handled, but after the third time, it's now old hat to him. He has LEARNED that I am not going to harm him, and he just gets a free ride off into the woods. Now I will take him to a different place each time to release him, even spinning him around in circles to try to disorient him, and he STILL finds his way back to the bird feeder. He just KNOWS where he wants to go. Might take him a few days, but he seems to be able to figure it out.
Nanci
Alien Lover
Since the ratsnake has a territory of several acres or larger he's most likely aware of where he is when you drop him off.
I have many of the snakes, and even my fish, trained to come to the front of their vivs when I tap. This means they are going to be removed for feeding. They catch on very quickly. Even the youngest hatchlings figure it out after several feedings.
I have many of the snakes, and even my fish, trained to come to the front of their vivs when I tap. This means they are going to be removed for feeding. They catch on very quickly. Even the youngest hatchlings figure it out after several feedings.
Christen
New member
This is very interesting.
Lennycorn
Just see the truth
ratsncorns
Bird Nerd
Like clockwork, every 5 days my young snakes are at the front of their feeding bin waiting for food. They have learned my feeding schedule! Smart little critters 
crotalis40741
Nanci said put sexy bangs
Sorry really no signs, and if you stay in snakes it is gonna happen. Just wash your hands and go on is all you can do lol