Husbandry and interaction with blind reptiles

[Smittiferous]

Hi guys and girls,

As some may know, I recently ascertained that my young Mertens is, for all intents and purposes, blind, due to a visual defect known as a coloboma in both eyes. This currently doesn't seem to pose much of a problem for the little chap, as he's quite capable at navigating his enclosure with ease, and has no real trouble finding and consuming food items thanks to his sense of smell, although it does sometimes take him a few tries to bite down in the right spot to snag his meal.

I do predict difficulties in the future however, as any physical contact that surprises him results in him (understandably) flailing about and often launching off in any random direction, and once he gets some size to him I'm concerned he'll do damage to himself, his enclosure and also me.

I've had a bit of a think about it, and all I can really come up with would be auditory and olfactory cues (sound and scent/smell) to alert him that he's about to be interacted with by myself, and I'm not going to eat him. This basically would mean talking to him/using a clicker or equivalent to announce I'm opening/accessing his enclosure, and well, offering my wrist to him to "sniff" before physical contact. The tricky bit for me is how I can get him to associate said cues with my presence and not a reason to panic wildly. Currently any sound is mostly often disregarded, occasionally noticed and whenever he's in his hide, a cause for defensive behaviour (intense hissing), and smelling my hand or wrist usually results in him recoiling and going the other way.

When he's out, he's great. He was relaxed and placid as a beardie during his trip to the vet, but any interaction in his enclosure often sends him in a wild panic. For an animal that can't even be safely "herded" out of the way for enclosure maintenance or whatever reason, this isn't going to be suitable when he's larger, for his own sake.

I'd love to know if anybody has had similar experience with blind reptiles, or training any blind animals for that matter, or anyone's thoughts and opinions on how i'd like to tackle this special case. Any referrals to anyone who would be versed in this area would be greatly appreciated also.

Cheers.

 

[pythoninfinite]

It seems to me that this is perfect opportunity to do some home research into alternative stimuli for a sight-impaired reptile, using varied sorts of non-sight detectable announcements such as auditory and vibratory cues, drumming fingers on the enclosure glass, or whatever else you can use that the animal picks up without sight. If you start as early as you can, using different cues for different activities, you may be able to train it to respond without panic. At least it's in a safe environment without the prospect of predation, so if you can teach it what to expect with different cues, you may be able to reduce the panic response over time as it learns to anticipate what comes next.

I believe that monitors are fairly intelligent, especially the larger ones, so it will be interesting to see (or hear!) how you go in the long-term. You'll need a bit of patience,,,

Jamie

 

[Smittiferous]

I've done quite some web searching about it before I posted, I really couldn't find anything relevant, just lists of reps that are naturally blind. Might just be using the wrong key words. I guess I posted this here quietly hoping somebody had been in a similar situation or knew someone who had. Not every day you meet a blind monitor, and as Shane Simpson said to me also, he'd never ever seen one presented to him either.

Edit: Since found a couple of vague, badly-written pieces about training blind reps with auditory cues, but nothing really helpful.

 

[pinefamily]

There was a post on here the other day about "training" a python to let it know when the keeper was coming by drumming their fingers on the enclosure.

 

[pythoninfinite]

There was a post on here the other day about "training" a python to let it know when the keeper was coming by drumming their fingers on the enclosure.

I often drum my fingers on the enclosure glass if a python is "sleeping" (i.e. not alert & hungry looking, or in ambush pose) to see if it's likely to be interested in feeding. If it doesn't respond or buries its head further into its coils, I pretty much know it won't be interested in feeding that evening, so the rat stays in the freezer until I get a positive response.

Jamie