Elusive python
Oct. 15th, 2004 09:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
djm4_ljA couple of months ago, I got Arthur the python a large fake hollow log for his tank. After a couple of days of being a bit suspicious, he moved in. Permanently. He'd stick his head out of the top when he was feeling hungry, and came out far enough to grab a rodent when I waved one at him, but otherwise he stayed happily coiled up within. I know he did come out a couple of times while I wasn't looking, because I occasionally had to clear up poo from the other end of the tank, but whenever anyoen was awake, it was his log and he liked living in it.
This was in many respects great. A snake with a place to hide in is a happy, unstressed snake. But I was a little concerned that I wasn't getting to handle him, and particularly that he'd come to associate my hands in the tank solely with food, which is an association that it's a good idea to work to avoid. So a week or so back I turned the log on its side. He could still hide completely in it, but its main opening was now at ground level, and the root system was also available for him to hide under and drape himself across. Over the past few days, he's been sticking progressively more of his body outside the log and last night I found him on the floor of the tank next to it. I picked him up (and later discovered that![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lizw also had earlier - he resisted a little, but was quite happy once I'd got him out of the tank.
I'll handle him a bit less often than I used to, I think - I don't want him to get the idea that every time he leaves the log someone's going to pick him up - but it's nice to know that he hasn't become unused to being handled while he's been living in the log.
He's grown a bit in the last two months, too.
This was in many respects great. A snake with a place to hide in is a happy, unstressed snake. But I was a little concerned that I wasn't getting to handle him, and particularly that he'd come to associate my hands in the tank solely with food, which is an association that it's a good idea to work to avoid. So a week or so back I turned the log on its side. He could still hide completely in it, but its main opening was now at ground level, and the root system was also available for him to hide under and drape himself across. Over the past few days, he's been sticking progressively more of his body outside the log and last night I found him on the floor of the tank next to it. I picked him up (and later discovered that
lizw also had earlier - he resisted a little, but was quite happy once I'd got him out of the tank.I'll handle him a bit less often than I used to, I think - I don't want him to get the idea that every time he leaves the log someone's going to pick him up - but it's nice to know that he hasn't become unused to being handled while he's been living in the log.
He's grown a bit in the last two months, too.
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no subject
Date: 2004-10-15 02:11 am (UTC)I don't handle ours at all these days which has left me feeling a little afraid of them, not much but a little...which is really silly.
I suppose that humans need regular snake time as much as snakes need regular handling!
Glad to hear that he is doing well!
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Date: 2004-10-15 04:48 am (UTC)