Nature's Marvels

Exotic Reptiles, Murdoch's Muses, and Related Merchandise

Kayuadi Dwarf Reticulated Pythons - $250.00 each

(download)

3.4 CBB Kayuadi Island dwarf reticulated python babies for sale. These are offspring from the first Kayuadi CB babies raised to adult breeders. Parents were born to Bushmaster Herp in Boulder CO from two imported tiny gravid females that laid 9 and 11 eggs respectively. The parents are now 10 years old and this female has bred every year but one since the age of 2-1/2 and produced up to 48 babies in her clutch 2 years ago.


Babies hatched late 3/09 and are all little pigs like mom and dad.

Local pickup in Philadelphia, PA area.
FedEx certified shipper
Shipyourreptiles.com /UPS registered shipping as well

Feel free to contact me;
Winslow (Family Doc)


winslow@naturesmarvels.com

610 440 4088

Handling and Taming Snakes

Getting Bitten

If you keep snakes, you WILL get bitten. This is why it is prudent not to casually keep venomous snakes. I can not even begin to tell you how many times I have been bitten by snakes, but I have never had any teeth left stuck in my skin. Perhaps because I really try not to flinch when a snake bites me, which tends to tear out their teeth, and also tear your wound. I have been bitten many times on the hands and wrists, once on the collar bone, once on the left earlobe and in the face. It is problematical whether I could honestly point out even one scar on me due a bite, while I can point out some good scars from handling feeder rats.

This is worth mentioning. Snakes teeth are like little needles, and at least in an adult, almost any bite will bottom on bone, but the bite is usually clean, and probably needs only washing with soap and water as first aid. If you have green soap, use it, as it will help suppress bleeding, which is often quite abundant. If you don't flinch, usually the wounds are minimum, and hurt very little. Bites are not usually particularly painful. About the only painful one for me was when a boa (not one of mine, TG) got me on the right hand and hit an artery, resulting in a large hematoma, which was quite uncomfortable.
Essentially all bites came as a result of stupid feeding errors (SFEs). This brings me to one precaution not often mentioned. I normally wear glasses. The one place that you could REALLY get hurt would be the eye. If you do not normally wear eyeglasses, you might want to get some safety goggles to wear until you develop confidence and propertechniques.
Snakes are often triggered to bite by smells. Heavy perfumes will do it, as will the smell of snake urine, or when smelling a sexual rival. Both of my boas have an attitude with regard to cats. I think this is instinctive. Many snakes, have a reflex to bite anything that moves away from them suddenly. If you lack confidence in your ability to control yourself in this regard, you probably should not get any snake. One that can be expounded on, but not necessarily scientifically. If you approach an animal with fear of it.... you are likely to transfer that fear to the animal. Snakes not only use their mouths to eat, they use them as a source of defense. A fearful snake is more inclined to bite, no matter how big you are. I tell kids that in this case they should not pet the head, but the tail, since the tail does not bite. When they ask if my snake bites, I always answer yes, and then ask them, "Do you bite?" The snake will bite them if they do something that the snake does not like, and usually it takes very little imagination to understand the particulars of each event. You must be prepared to trap and contain your snake when in public when someone comes up wearing an unsuitable perfume, perhaps taking the bite yourself rather than having another human be bitten. The first time you see this, you will be surprised, for you will not believe how fast a boa or python can move out in attack mode. Again you must be prepared to trap and contain your snake, or face the wrath of an irate cat-keeping neighbor.

You will hear a lot about SFEs, Stupid Feeding Errors. Even the gentlest snake can be dangerous once it is thinking lunch, so you must be careful when feeding. Wash your hands before handling the snake, just in case you have any odor of food on you. If you are feeding multiple snakes, this may be a lot of hand washing. Watch out for little baby snakes. They are VERY hungry, and feel very vulnerable. You can read about feeding shields, proper snake hook techniques, and handling tips in the other section.
Adapted from a post by Charles Mosher

Handling Concepts

This species is usually kept as a look but donÌt touch display snake. Frequent handling is often avoided due to fear of their long teeth, their vigorous feeding response, and generally nippy behavior as neonates. They can be safely handled by the average intermediate level keeper. If you do decide to make them more like a pet, realize that you have to respect their behavior. Try handling your animal every few days, except for a few days after feeding or pre- shedding. Charles Mosher states "Some people say handle them every day to tame them. I do not necessarily agree with this. These people arbitrarily handle a snake every day, and just "yank it around." Do look in on every snake every day, check if it is warm enough (carefully reach in and touch it, pet it a bit but not if it is alert and acting wary or hungry), check where it is opacity wise, check to see that the water dish has the right amount of water, that the habitat is clean, all these good things you can do. Snakes startle when awakened. If you think the snake is sleeping, touch it gently to awaken it. Don't just grab it and yank it up out of its habitat." Realize that your animal has several modes of consciousness, and activity. Asleep animals will startle if awakened , therefore use you hook to start. Awake at rest, or ambush mode is another state. Hunting/prey acquisition is another well known behavior, especially to python keepers, so watch out for feeding responses, which can be savage. 

The basic tenets are;

1) Do not regularly handle newly acquired animals until they have at least finished a minimum three month quarantine except for necessary inspection, and maintenance. This also assumes they are eating well and healthy.
2) If they are in a feeding mode, they will be aggressive.
2) If they are pre-shed or shedding they might be unpredictable.
3) If they are gravid or mating, they can suddenly turn.
4) They are often more excitable at night when they are active.
5) The babies and juveniles tend to calm down at eight to fifteen
months.
6) Neonates tend to jump from their perches and snake hooks so be careful.
7) Young animals have very fragile tails so handle them infrequently and gently until about two feet long, or six to twelve months of age. This helps avoid "kink tail syndrome."
8) Smells sometimes set off feeding or fight or flight responses, so wash your hands pre handling.
9) Chondros usually go up if given the option, so if one is on a snake stick, raise the snake end of the stick if things are getting uncomfortable for the handler.
10) Avoid drinking (alcohol) and handling. Also avoid perfumes or other strong smells. As noted, cat scents may also trigger panic responses (as reported with boa constrictors).
11) Use a clear shield (18 X 18 inches is fine) with a handle screwed into the center for feeding safety.
12) If you do receive a feeding bite and constriction wrapping (from a SFE), consider splashing a few drops of vodka or other strong libation onto the snakes mouth membranes. I have never had to do this on myself (except when two animals nailed each other), but it works like a charm.
13) If the animal is acting ornery, leave it alone. Learn to listen to their behavior and posturing. They have a lot to say.

Try to pick the animal up the same way each time. I recommend the use of a snake stick with a curved hook on the end. I usually will try to hook a forward coil about a quarter of the way down the snakes body. Too forward an approach usually makes the snake back pedal, and pull away. After the forward coil and head are raised slightly, I use another stick, or my hand to carefully touch towards the tail, which motivates the snake to crawl up onto the snake stick. Since they usually tend to crawl upwards, I always keep the hook handle angled upward. The snake will likely not confuse the hook/pick up routine with feeding process. Gently have the snake either crawl up the handle onto your hands, or place it onto your palms, and try not to squeeze, or inhibit its movements in any restrictive way. It may be best to do this in a bathroom where if you lose nerve you can easily get the snake back without it racing under furniture etc. Also, try handling it over a bath of lukewarm water, and let him soak, and cradle your hand under the snake and lift it up gently. My partner Sean Jacobs uses a different method. If the snake is acting alert, and comes toward the front of the cage as he opens it, he will quickly and decisively push his open palm right up into the snakes face, and "flood its senses." He then gently pushes the head back into the snakes sitting coil, and then cradles the coils on either side of the perch, and gently works the snake up off its resting place. This two handed scooping up technique also works well for resting pythons, but since you might get a sleeping snake to strike as it is awakened, he usually cups his hand over the snakes head first. I now use this "fearless" technique to pick up resting Chondros, as it gives them much more support than a snake hook. Any neck holding is generally met with fight or flight response, so try not to manhandle the frightened little bugger. As the snake starts to crawl along, donÌt forget to keep rotating your back hand to the fore part of the snakes body, without getting too close to its head. Hissing and initial striking are often early signs that the animal is upset. This can usually be worked through once the animal is picked up. Wild serpentine get away movements with lateral biting swipes usually means the animal is beyond calming back into the search and explore mode, and you will want to try again later. Try to present food always in the same way that is different to how you will approach your animals for play pickup, or feed them always in a separate container ( I do not). You always are trying to attain the explore/curious mode with handling, and with time it will come. Fight or flight, once triggered, may take upwards of an hour to settle down, so if this is what you feel your animal is in, give it and yourself a rest. 
Winslow

I found that many terrestrial snakes will generally calm down with time. Some of this may also apply to arboreal boids. Putting an article of your clothing in your snakes hide box may help it associate your smell with safety, thus making it more comfortable with you. If you would like to tame her down, the way I do it is to first just "hold" him/her in a snake bag for a few hours a day for the first few weeks. Then I would let his/her head out of the bag and hold him/her that way for a while... this usually works but be aware that not all individuals will calm down.
Adapted from a post by Paul Huang

To truly enjoy your animals, take them out to see them in indirect sunlight. For the yellow varieties, the colors were best when seen under direct sunlight. Be careful, as direct light, and heat can send these animals into a panic. Perhaps, being from tropical climes and nocturnal, exposure to direct sunlight (especially if disoriented and on guard to begin with), is perceived as a life threatening event. They are much more prone to wild thrashing attempts at escape under these conditions.
Winslow