To handle...or not

[Lori P]

Greg, very cool project you did there. Thanks for sharing!!

Being so new to garters, I don't have much practical experience but here's my little thoughts...

Like Sid said, I never wanted snakes as lap dogs. (Lap dogs, I have loads of!) So my initial thoughts were that the snakes would provide me with something beautiful and interesting to watch, and allow me the pleasure of providing for them the best care I could, but without being "needy". And so I never did handle them much, and I still don't; I prefer to be the caregiver-from-afar and leave them to live their own lives.

However.

Having lately to handle Miriam and Mordecai more, it's been dawning on me that I may not have done them justice. They have never gotten over their fear reaction to me... and now I'm starting to think that hadnling them a lot more may have stressed them initially, but as they slowly got used to me as a part of their environment, they overall would have been more relaxed and content.

Does that make sense? I wouldn't expect them to recognise me as a "friend", but at least to not panic when I reach for them. And as we do have to handle the snakes from time to time, it seems to me now that having them precieve us as an unthreatening moving branch, lol, would actually be kinder in the long run.

It's like with the horses... in order to raise a "bomb proof", sane, well adjusted foal, you have to scare them with big bad things (tarps, umbrellas, plastic bags, etc) until they are used to them and no longer startle. But it is hard to know you're scaring your baby and stressing her, just to make her life easier in the long run.

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

I totally, 100% believe that my garters have absolutely no fear of me. I keep my garters in community groups, which I have found they seem to prefer over living alone. I decided to keep them this way after noticing that in early morning on my grandparents farm, the garters come out to sun themselves in the field, but do not lie alone, they are always laying in the grass in groups, out in the open, usaully 3-5 of them.

The females have the luxury of a 55 gallon long fish tank. And the males a separate one. These tanks are cleaned quite frequently. When I walk into the snake room, my garters are the ONLY snakes in that room that go zipping to the front of the glass. All are 100% tame and handleable. They all eat from my hands and they all are very inquisitive of my presence. If I stick my arm in the cage, I will have 5 garters up my arm in no time! I totally feel a bond with my garters and this is what has made me love them and cherish them far above my other snakes.

The same goes for my babies. Especially my hypo's five little ones. I recently lost the "runt" of that litter.... which I could see coming... he never really grew... shame

but as for the other four... I consider them my children! They sit in my hand when they eat their guppies and pinky chunks, (prevents fighting), they tolerate me wiping their little faces clean (prevents a jealous sibling from trying to eat her fishy smelling brother) and come straight to me when the cage is open.

I never really thought of snakes capable of "liking" a person or another snake, until I started keeping garters, and until I got ahold of behemoth and golianne. These two were a pair of half cornsnake half black ratsnakes, half siblings, that were together from hatchling days, hets for snow. By the time they arrived in my care they were six feet! tragedy struck a year later, golianne beame eggbound and lost the fight. She was able to lay just one egg before her passing. I incubated the egg and it began to hatch, but the baby died before he came out of the egg, and to think the only egg, and there was a 1 in 16 chance of getting a snow and he was just that! Behemoth, who steadily ate one a week, did not eat for three months after Golianne passed, and he was constantly restless as if searching for his cagemate. and to this day he will not pair with another mate. That expierience, along with my garters, totally changed my view of snakes.

[EdgyExoticReptiles]

i handle mine a lot , i always handle my garters and they all are extremely tame now, when i open the cage they come out to great me, i hand feed them without problems, i pick them up without them squirming or musking, seem to be more adventurous and curious, and they dont shy away when i walk past their cage.(and many others things like that). My tamest ones are the ones ive raised from birth (usually) they seem to bond better. Curious was one of the tamest garters ive ever had/seen(and i held him a ton) i dont dont have him anymore though but lori can vouch for me on how tame he is

[Stefan-A]

I handle mine a bit (except the snappy one). Not much, maybe once or twice a week and not for very long, a minute or two at the most. I don't even do it to inspect them, I can do that without touching them. It's simply because I'm convinced they will get used to it and be less aggressive as adults.

[GarterGuy]

I only handle my garters every so often...when cleaning cages, feeding, ect.....but sometimes do let them come out and "cruise" around. I think garters seem to have more "curiosity" then some other snakes, and always seem to be investigating things. Makes you wonder if they show this, what do they do with what they discover? They tend to be very visual snakes and tend to have a bit more going on upstairs, much like other visual snakes, like racers, coachwhips, indigos and cobras. It's almost like since they're taking in more environmental imputs, their brains are wired a bit differently. I know my garters all come up to the glass to see what's going on when I walk into the reptile room and often while cleaning them out, they're climbing up my arms....not to make a quick escape, but just to kind of check things out. I hate to put human characteristics on to animals, but I do definitely think there might be some more intelligence going on there.

[Loren]

James, I pretty much treat all of my snakes like you with your garters. I try to take all of my snakes out and handle them every so often for inspection,cage cleaning, and possible weighing, measuring, and photos. Other than that, I dont handle most of them regulary. With 60-something snakes and a full time job, I just dont have time to hold them all really often. I do try to take them out here or there just for enjoyment, though.
Thats actually one of my favorite things, is when I actually have time just to take a snake out and hold it just for fun.
Then of coarse, there's a few that I just plain dont handle, for my health.

Lori, I do agree that by handling them a certain amount, you can hopefully convince them that you are not a threat, thereby reducing stress on them when you interact with them.
This of coarse is a little different with every snake. I've had some that calm down with some simple semi-regular handling, then there's been a few that want nothing more than to bite me no matter how much I try to "tame" them. I'm trying right now to convince my baby everglades ratsnake that I am not a threat- she's a slow learner, but I want to teach her while her teeth are small!

[Lori P]

Reed, Curious is no doubt the most outgoing snake I've met. I absolutely adore him, he really does shoot to the front of the tank when you approach, he eats straight from my hand, and does not panic when I pick him up. You did an amazing job with him!! You can't help but fall in love with him, that little face is always looking right at you with no fear, just-- well-- curiosity. He's an awesome little guy and I'm so thankful you trusted me to adopt him!!!!

See, I wish M & M were so convinced I wasn't going to eat them. I think they'd be more content overall.

LOL, that's the word for Curious... he's a very content snake!

[SerpentGirl]

I only handle my snakes about 1-2 times a week. I just don't think that it would be a lot of fun to just own them to look at. The ribbon & green snake are nervous at first, but they do calm down after a few minutes, & the rosy boa is calm as soon as I pick him up, he really doesn't care.

That is just my preference... I just love them, and like to hold them.

[anji1971]

I'm the same way with mine -- they're so darn cute, I can't help but hold them every day! And Deejay is so calm that I believe if I picked her up while she was asleep, she'd not even bother to wake up!
Even little Stitch only gets twitchy when I first grab him, and within half a second he's having a blast twining thru my fingers!

[drache]

I've got snakes I handle and snakes I don't so much
it seems to me that some snakes kind of like it and others don't and most probably fall in between