Help the house sitter - Do snakes move much?

[saximus]

Haha it's not such a big thing when you've seen it a few times. Did you see him out in the open yet since the shed?

 

[SnakeNumpty]

He came out last night. He's so shiny!

 

[Snakewoman]

They look wonderful after shedding, my little MD shed the other day, and his colour is great

 

[SnakeNumpty]

Holy crap! I just stood in front of his enclosure and he struck at me. Through the glass, of course but gee, it was fast! I am so glad the enclosure is shut.

Would he have hurt himself?

He's much more lively now. I think maybe he couldn't see as well before because he had the stuff over his eyes so he stayed quiet as he probably would in the wild to avoid trouble at a vulnerable time.

 

[saximus]

Yeah that's exactly correct. They are definitely more vulnerable when they can't see properly.
He probably wouldn't have hurt himself but they can if they do it continually. He might be hungry. How long ago was he fed?

 

[Southern_Forest_Drag]

Amazing how they all can have different personalities, seems alot of people have placid murray darlings, the one where i used to work when i was 15 stopped me getting a snake for 4 years and stick to dragons/monitors/geckos lol, used to strike at me everytime i went past his tank (no exageration) and kissed 4 staff members lol i refused to feed it in the end and made someone else, although the owner of the petshop is in jail right now so i wouldn't be surprised if it was a wild caught. However we had an amazing Jungle that was the most placid snake you will ever see, strange heh.

 

[SnakeNumpty]

Yeah that's exactly correct. They are definitely more vulnerable when they can't see properly.
He probably wouldn't have hurt himself but they can if they do it continually. He might be hungry. How long ago was he fed?

He was fed a week & a half ago.

used to strike at me everytime i went past his tank

Fortunately this one seems placid enough. I think I caught him by surprise.

 

[atothej09]

you should change the water though...where's the key to enclosure??

 

[abnrmal91]

you should change the water though...where's the key to enclosure??

Read previous post key was located about 2 days ago all good

 

[SnakeNumpty]

Yep, I messaged to owner and discovered the key was right near the enclosure. :lol: I cleaned the water dishes and filled them up.

 

[Snakewoman]

That's good snakenumpty, if you have to change it again keep a close eye on the snake... if it starts coming towards you even just slowly, watch out, sometimes that means they're coming to bite you... I had this happen with my first snake... I learned quickly after that

 

[SnakeNumpty]

Thanks for the tip. Fortunately I got to change it when he was hiding in a hollow rock thing right in the far corner. If I change it again, it will just be the one in the front and I'll be careful to do it when he's tightly curled up. When he struck, he was sort of partly coiled on the wire but sticking out, sort of zig-zagged. The owner said to change it during the day.

Is there some sort of glove you can get that protects you from a bit without damaging the fangs?

 

[saximus]

You can get gardening gloves that have really thick rubber coating or just welding gloves. I wouldn't worry though. You will be fine if you just keep an eye on him next time you open it

 

[slim6y]

Perhaps avoid gloves - just on the reason that if you react you're likely to pull teeth out of the snake if they get caught in the fibres.

Although the teeth do grow back (one of many snake features) - they don't grow back overnight and the snake toothfairy doesn't leave any money either!

By the sounds of things you won't get bitten if you change the water during the day like you say - the snake will most likely be sleeping then anyhow.

 

[SnakeNumpty]

ooh, good thinking on the gloves pulling teeth and you can bet I'd panic and pull away. Wouldn't it suck to lose teeth when you're almost due to eat?

Thanks so much for the advice, everyone. It's made a huge difference to my house sitting experience.

 

[cagey]

and as a tip- when you take the water container out, shut the door while cleaning and re-filling it. Open it to put the container back again.

 

[SnakeNumpty]

Yep, that's great advice. Don't want to be chasing a snake around the house.