Stimson python cant be taken out of its enclosure without it trying to eat my hand at school

[Alex5]

Hey all,
At my school we have a Stimson’s python that lives in our animal room, he is extremely food motivated and anything that has a heat signature is immediately perceived as food and instead of striking and wrapping around the person he is being held by, he actually begins trying to eat the hand by pressing his face right up against it and working his mouth around there fingers. I find food aggression outside the enclosure quite unusual and the fitting his mouth around the hand even more unusual. He is an adult and the bite can be quite of-putting for students to see so i would like any advice on how to possibly help reduce this behaviour. I believe it may be because the size prey is to small? He has a heat emitter set to 28 degrees, is this to high making him more hungry? He used to belong to a former student at this school who fed him more frequently and fed larger meals. When he was first donated he was already almost an adult and was a really friendly snake that never bit anyone. We have been feeding him a hopper mouse every two weeks for most of his time here, until recently i advised that we upgrade him to a Weiner mouse and try to feed him every week to see if that makes a difference to his biting behaviour. Its been about three weeks of feeding him weeners every week and So far nothing has changed and he still has this biting behaviour . There is another stimsons python at school which never bites and is still being fed on a diet of fuzzies as we dont want to waste the mice we have currently in the freezer. Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated, as we really want this snake to be able to teach kids that snakes aren't mean and allow for some kids to overcome there fear and develop a new found respect for these creatures.
Kind regards, alex

 

[Bluetongue1]

There is an old saying… If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it. If the snake was healthy and ‘chilled’ under the previous keeping conditions and feeding regime, why change anything? Just do what had previously been done. As for not wasting the small feeder mice, just give the snake two at a single feed once you have it back on track. You can allow a few more days between feedings if you feel that is needed.

If you have not already done so, I would recommend you check out the legal requirements of keeping a snake at school. BTW, the correct spelling of the term you were using is “weaner mouse”. A weaner is a young animal that has recently stopped suckling from its mother. Both ‘weener’ and ‘weiner’ are slang words meaning penis.

 

[Alex5]

Thank you for responding mate , will try and feed it two small ones at once, and eventually feed it larger mice. The teacher in charge of feeding and caring for them makes the calls for when and how much they get to eat, he seems to be worried about the larger size mice being to big for them, but i have reminded that for handling these particular snakes, they need to be well fed. He read somewhere that snakes live longer in the wild because they get less to eat which is why he downsized the meals when he received the new snake.

 

[dragonlover1]

Hi Alex, from what you say it is obvious your snake is hungry. I get what your teacher is saying but underfed is a big difference from overfed. To see if you are feeding the correct size there should be a noticeable bulge in the belly after eating, if not you need to up the size. I feed my smallest snake ( pygmy banded python) a hopper every week

 

[Alex5]

Hi Alex, from what you say it is obvious your snake is hungry. I get what your teacher is saying but underfed is a big difference from overfed. To see if you are feeding the correct size there should be a noticeable bulge in the belly after eating, if not you need to up the size. I feed my smallest snake ( pygmy banded python) a hopper every week

Thanks so much for replying
currently even with weaner mice the hungry snake still isn't satisfied and no bulge is present so i am trying to get next size up from them in the near future too. So far i have met the teacher half way by going up from a hopper to a weaner and i have noticed that the snake isnt trying to eat anyones hand anymore. Thanks everyone for the advice

 

[dragonlover1]

Thanks so much for replying
currently even with weaner mice the hungry snake still isn't satisfied and no bulge is present so i am trying to get next size up from them in the near future too. So far i have met the teacher half way by going up from a hopper to a weaner and i have noticed that the snake isnt trying to eat anyones hand anymore. Thanks everyone for the advice

If your teacher isn't prepared to up the size, maybe you could increase feeding to 5 days instead of 7 ???
I just noticed your CHE is set to 28C, this a bit low. Better off with 32C max

 

[Alex5]

If your teacher isn't prepared to up the size, maybe you could increase feeding to 5 days instead of 7 ???
I just noticed your CHE is set to 28C, this a bit low. Better off with 32C max

Difficult to feed every 5 days due to only seeing the snake during the week. Currently the school has purchased 3 packets of weaner mice so will be a while before we can upgrade them from that, the only way i can imagine in our current situation is to feed two at once. Would feeding two at once look like leaving an extra mouse out for the snake to come back to after its finished the first?

 

[Bluetongue1]

I can post a few pics of wild pythons eating quite large meals, for you to show your teacher, if you think that might help. Just let me know. What the teacher read, or what he remembers from what he read, is incorrect. For starters, the average life span of a snake in the wild is dismally smaller than those in captivity. Even when comparing say long-lived Aussie pythons in the wild, a well looked after snake in captivity will often live 10 or more years longer. I think it is time for the teacher to update his existing knowledge of captive keeping. He should be able to obtain a copy of the follow book through your state library -
Complete Children's Python: “A Comprehensive Guide to the Natural History, Care, and Breeding of Antaresia species” by Dr. Justin Julander, Nick Mutton, Peter Birch.

To feed two food items at one sitting there are two main ways to go about this. If the snake feeds in the open, then you can push the snout of the second mouse into the python’s mouth just as it is about to fully close on the rump of the first mouse. If this is not an option, then you can ‘daisy chain’ the two mice together. This simply involves attaching the snout of the second mouse to the rear of the first mouse, by sowing them together with a few small stitches of cotton thread.

 

[dragonlover1]

. I think it is time for the teacher to update his existing knowledge of captive keeping. He should be able to obtain a copy of the follow book through your state library -
Complete Children's Python: “A Comprehensive Guide to the Natural History, Care, and Breeding of Antaresia species” by Dr. Justin Julander, Nick Mutton, Peter Birch.

This is a great book, 1 of several in my library

 

[Alex5]

Thanks so much for all the responses,
I have a spotted python at home that is a around a year old and it eats a hopper mouse (that are a bit big for hopper mice more close to weaner mice size) and this snake is probably 1/4 of the thickness and size of the two at school. I will show him the photo i took of it eating this and hopefully this will convince him that they would have no problem upgrading. As far as feeding two at once goes, they get fed at lunch which only goes for half an hour and generally the snake doesn't finish the meal completely by the end of lunch. I doubt the teacher would be willing to sew two mice together but sounds like a great idea.
Would it be alright to feed them one at recess followed by feeding another at lunch? This Friday both only got fed one hopper mouse each and the reason given for this is to try and finish the hopper mice off. There general feeding day is Friday so would anyone recommend feeding them another hopper on Wednesday this next week as well, followed by feeding them two more on Friday ? Would this be bad for there digestion to be fed more then once a week?
Thanks again everyone for helping me with this matter.

 

[dragonlover1]

Thanks so much for all the responses,
I have a spotted python at home that is a around a year old and it eats a hopper mouse (that are a bit big for hopper mice more close to weaner mice size) and this snake is probably 1/4 of the thickness and size of the two at school. I will show him the photo i took of it eating this and hopefully this will convince him that they would have no problem upgrading. As far as feeding two at once goes, they get fed at lunch which only goes for half an hour and generally the snake doesn't finish the meal completely by the end of lunch. I doubt the teacher would be willing to sew two mice together but sounds like a great idea.
Would it be alright to feed them one at recess followed by feeding another at lunch? This Friday both only got fed one hopper mouse each and the reason given for this is to try and finish the hopper mice off. There general feeding day is Friday so would anyone recommend feeding them another hopper on Wednesday this next week as well, followed by feeding them two more on Friday ? Would this be bad for there digestion to be fed more then once a week?
Thanks again everyone for helping me with this matter.

I don't know if feeding in such a short sequence would work but it might, snakes are opportunistic feeders. Or maybe you could try feeding,Tuesday and Friday for instance. This gives a couple of days between feeds

 

[Alex5]

On second thought i will try offering the idea of sowing the two mice together but if he isn't willing to do that then feeding Tuesday and friday sounds like a good alternative.

 

[Colin41]

Hey all,
At my school we have a Stimson’s python that lives in our animal room, he is extremely food motivated and anything that has a heat signature is immediately perceived as food and instead of striking and wrapping around the person he is being held by, he actually begins trying to eat the hand by pressing his face right up against it and working his mouth around there fingers. I find food aggression outside the enclosure quite unusual and the fitting his mouth around the hand even more unusual. He is an adult and the bite can be quite of-putting for students to see so i would like any advice on how to possibly help reduce this behaviour. I believe it may be because the size prey is to small? He has a heat emitter set to 28 degrees, is this to high making him more hungry? He used to belong to a former student at this school who fed him more frequently and fed larger meals. When he was first donated he was already almost an adult and was a really friendly snake that never bit anyone. We have been feeding him a hopper mouse every two weeks for most of his time here, until recently i advised that we upgrade him to a Weiner mouse and try to feed him every week to see if that makes a difference to his biting behaviour. Its been about three weeks of feeding him weeners every week and So far nothing has changed and he still has this biting behaviour . There is another stimsons python at school which never bites and is still being fed on a diet of fuzzies as we dont want to waste the mice we have currently in the freezer. Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated, as we really want this snake to be able to teach kids that snakes aren't mean and allow for some kids to overcome there fear and develop a new found respect for these creatures.
Kind regards, alex

Hi Alex
I know what you mean. My Stimsons is about full size now. She is 2 years old and 91cms long. When she was growing I had no trouble with her biting, but wyhen she was getting to about adult size she started biting each time I put my hand near her. At that time I was feeding her weaner mice, the reason weaner mice was that the adult mice looked far too large for her to be able to eat. I just was not confident enough to feed her the larger mice. Someone on here told me that the adult mice should be OK for her and so I started feding her adult mice and low and behold, she had absolutely no trouble getting down an adult mouse. She hardly ever struck out at me after that, and that was my own fault for not washing my hands sufficiently after getting her food ready. About a month ago I started to feed her baby rats and she gets through them good. My temp is set at 31degrees.

It is amazing just hoiw big a rodent the Stimson's Python can eat. I am now feeding mine on small rats and she is eating them very well. Best of luck.

 

[Sdaji]

Why is anyone entertaining the idea of feeding weaner mice or even smaller to an adult Stimson's Python? An adult Stimson's Python can happily eat multiple adult mice. I usually feed them rats about 3x the size of an adult mouse. Sure, feed multiple items rather than waste them, but two hopper or weaner mice for an adult Stimson's? That's like someone giving you one mouthful of roast beef and calling it a meal. You're obviously going to be hungry.

Sewing items together can be a useful technique for fussy feeders, such as when a large snake eats mice but not rats, so you can stitch a 250g rat to a mouse which allows you to get a decent feed into the fussy feeder, but if the snake is desperate to eat whatever you give it whether it's a mouse or even a human, just feed the thing, he'll sort it out for you.

Surprised to hear anyone things wild snakes live longer than captives! The average wild snake lives to less than one year!

 

[Alex5]

Update on the snakes
Convinced teacher to by a packet of hopper rats and when he saw the packet said it would choke the snake.Two days ago I managed to convince him to try the hungrier one who wasnt the original bitty snake but was recently displaying very hungry behaviour like striking at the glass and anything that moved. Low and behold the snake grabbed the rat immediately and ate it, so glad it did because was worried it wouldnt have liked the smell or taste of rats cause i have seen people struggle getting snakes eating rats from mice. As for the original bitty snake, since eating weaner mice, he has completely stopped biting and he’s being upgraded now to adult mice. Thanks for everyones help