So apparently having rats around is making my snake think every day is feeding day. **** Aneira and her constant want for food. I'm keeping the rats in the other room, but I swear she knows they are there. I'm taking precautions when I handle the snake after the rats, i.e washing my hands, changing my clothes if the rats touched my clothes, but anytime I go near my snake she gets all excited like its feeding time. Once I get her out and I'm handling her she starts to calm down, but outside of that she is a food crazy little snake and thinks our new ratties are dinner. Oh boy. Thank god for her new locking tank.
Is there anything else I can do to get the rat scent off me before I handle the snake? She strikes when she gets ansy about food and I'd rather not get bitten. I'm using a snake hook to get her out of the tank and that definitely helps. I use the hook to pull her out enough and use my other hand to pick her up off the hook.
On the subject of snakes, I've been talking to a snake breeder since before we ended up with the rats and I'm getting my old school classic bloodred hatchling. I've been wanting a bloodred for a while and I like the look of these old school style darker cherry red bloodreds better than a lot of the brighter red ones I'm seeing a lot of people have now. Should be picking up my new little guy hopefully next week or the following week.
The ratties are doing well... Well I should say Holly the dumbo is doing well. She is a social butterfly and likes coming out of the cage to play and loves the dog toys lol. Noelle still won't come too close to me. I had to take them both out to clean their cage the other day. I spent a good half hour trying to encourage her to come out with treats and she would start to but then turn and go hide again. Finally I had to reach in and pick her up since Josh and I had to leave and I still needed to clean the cage first. Soon as I grabbed her she bit my finger hard. I hope she will eventually come around, but she is still really unsure of us. I don't know her background... I'm guessing she was prob a petstore rat? Not sure how much handling she had prior to being handed over to me. I do think I made a haste decision to decide to keep her, but I'm trying to work on her building some trust and I'm hoping she will come around. She is curious about us at least and will come to the bars of the cage to watch us as long as we aren't trying to grab her. She watches Holly play with us and sit on our shoulders so hopefully watching us interact with Holly will help her to start feeling more comfortable.
Is there anything else I can do to get the rat scent off me before I handle the snake? She strikes when she gets ansy about food and I'd rather not get bitten. I'm using a snake hook to get her out of the tank and that definitely helps. I use the hook to pull her out enough and use my other hand to pick her up off the hook.
On the subject of snakes, I've been talking to a snake breeder since before we ended up with the rats and I'm getting my old school classic bloodred hatchling. I've been wanting a bloodred for a while and I like the look of these old school style darker cherry red bloodreds better than a lot of the brighter red ones I'm seeing a lot of people have now. Should be picking up my new little guy hopefully next week or the following week.
The ratties are doing well... Well I should say Holly the dumbo is doing well. She is a social butterfly and likes coming out of the cage to play and loves the dog toys lol. Noelle still won't come too close to me. I had to take them both out to clean their cage the other day. I spent a good half hour trying to encourage her to come out with treats and she would start to but then turn and go hide again. Finally I had to reach in and pick her up since Josh and I had to leave and I still needed to clean the cage first. Soon as I grabbed her she bit my finger hard. I hope she will eventually come around, but she is still really unsure of us. I don't know her background... I'm guessing she was prob a petstore rat? Not sure how much handling she had prior to being handed over to me. I do think I made a haste decision to decide to keep her, but I'm trying to work on her building some trust and I'm hoping she will come around. She is curious about us at least and will come to the bars of the cage to watch us as long as we aren't trying to grab her. She watches Holly play with us and sit on our shoulders so hopefully watching us interact with Holly will help her to start feeling more comfortable.