The Return of Captain Obvious

[Artemis]

Hi all-

I have been off of the forums and out in the world trying to prepare myself for the responsibility of snake keeping, and I have one more fun question.

I have been realizing a lot of people I know keep snakes. One guy i work with has a gorgeous corn in his office. This snake, along with many others I have held, was absolutely intent on getting inside my shirt (it was a boy snake, go figure) But seriously, I cant help being paranoid that letting snakes slither around my body inside my clothing is not a good idea, mostly for fear of startling it and having it chomp me. Do most of you snake keepers allow your pet snakes inside access to your couture?

Thanks all- Im almost ready to take the plunge, got my eye on the new clutch of balls in at my LPS. Now if I can just chloroform my husband long enough...


Artemis

[Lisa]

i wouldn't worry about it chomping on you by getting into your clothes... if you're really that worried you could always handle it naked.

[justinO]

yeah, i like when they do that, they stay put and i figured they like it inside shirts and stuff cuz it's dark and warm!

Jessy
:)

oh, and in regards to getting bit, i don't think they would....... unless you had a rat running around in your shirt before hand.... heh
Actually, i've had that happen, i was handling a pet rat and it was crawling on the front of my shirt...... hours later I was holding one of my ball pythons and looked down to see her biting my shirt and trying to constrict it! oops! I put her back and fed her.... but now remember to always change my clothes!

[HeatherK]

Made me a little cautious having a snake inside my clothes at first ;) but it went away quickly after having it out a few times (plus, my mother had no problem with that, and *I* was supposed to be the 'snake person'). I just have to make sure I don't squish it by accident :D

I have a corn that when small, used to curl up in my sleeve and remain that way indefinately until I finally had to take her out.

[drewlowe]

I don't mind it, for corns i find they constantly like to "roam" and if they go into my shirt they usually stay put. Just be thankful that they don't go into your hair, that's a pain to get them out (specially with long hair).

[vanderkm]

Biting is less of an issue than the possibility that they will poop all over you - less of a mess with boids than colubrids, but either way it tends to be abundant, wet and stinky! even from a very small snake.

When we do demonstrations with the local club, kids are always wanting to let snakes crawl all over them, around their neck and in their hair. Not something we allow - too much risk of a snake being either too stressed or too comfortable and letting loose!

We confine snakes, especially colubrids, to our hands and arms - being pooped on once (and that was over my arm and sleeve) was enough for me - NEVER want that to happen again.

mary v.

[HeatherK]

Originally posted by drewlowe
Just be thankful that they don't go into your hair, that's a pain to get them out (specially with long hair).

I always have to keep my hair back before handling my corn, she still likes to get in there, but at least she can get back out ;)

[daver676]

Is it wrong that I find this thread mildly arousing? o>

... if you're really that worried you could always handle it naked.

Nuff said.

:D

[gonesnakee]

I always control the snakes movements as much as possible & only let it go where I want it to go. It really sucks getting a 5 foot snake caught up in your hair (trust me LOL) & they don't cooperate much when it comes to untangling. My 2 rules when it comes to any animals (or children LOL) are Controlled & Contained. Mark

[Lisa]

Originally posted by gonesnakee
I always control the snakes movements as much as possible & only let it go where I want it to go. It really sucks getting a 5 foot snake caught up in your hair (trust me LOL) & they don't cooperate much when it comes to untangling. My 2 rules when it comes to any animals (or children LOL) are Controlled & Contained. Mark

katey finds that they not only tangle the hair but grab the glasses... though if you go like steve marks and hold a fundraiser to cut off your hair you wouldn't have that problem any more :)

[Artemis]

Wow- thanks all for the responses. Yeah- the more I am around other's slithery friends, the more comfortable I get around them in general, and the more confident I get. =) the long hair tip is a good one for me though!

[gonesnakee]

They like to squirm thru the middle of your ponytail. My hair is 1/2 Rasta it seems & once they get their head into that pony its hairpulling time LOL As far as shaving it all off goes, I'm actually in the process of growing it longer. I figure I should go for all one length at least once plus its only just over 1/2 way before it gets to my butt LOL Mark

[MouseKilla]

Good Lord, still sporting the rocker coif is a courageous thing to do these days. Someone needs be around to remind the rest of us of the days before rock music died. lol! Myself I keep it shaved right down to the wood since abandoning the Kurt Cobain look a few years back.lol!

As for the snake-in-the-shirt business I had my 5 foot boa not only climb into my shirt but he managed to weave himself through it sufficiently so that he was just as much the wearer of the shirt as I was. A sort of polite wrestling match ensued to which I eventually conceded. He's just so strong that the only alternative would have been getting rough enough that I would get bitten or tear my shirt or hurt the snake. I was left shirtless and the boa was put back in his cage still wearing it because he just refused to let me have it back even after having taken it from me entirely. I retrieved it from the cage when he was done with it a couple hours later.

[Syco]

A friend of mine was handling his rather large corn snake while wearing boxer shorts, the snake managed to crawl into his boxers and ummmmm...... constrict :D
Trying to get the snake loose only caused it to constrict tighter, He,He .... Finally he had to call his wife to help him out. Of course as soon as she finished laughing she managed to "save" him! LOL!

[second skin]

I really dont know why we (as humans ) are soooo sub conciously paranoid about being bitten any way ?
if you think about it in perspective it Reallly doesn't hurt that much.

[MouseKilla]

second skin,

From an evolutionary perspective it sort of makes sense that people who were deathly afraid of snakes more often survived and had more offspring than those people that didn't fear snakes at all, leaving us (their descendants) more likely to fear them than not even though it may not be a genetic trait I'm talking about.

We didn't always have access to the knowledge of which snakes were venomous and which weren't so those who decided to avoid being bitten by ANY snake probably tended to live longer and were likely smarter all around so who knows, it may have a genetic basis afterall.

So it's not about how much a corn snake bite hurts because most other pets will have a much worse bite. I think it's just a remnant survival strategy from our distant past.