I'm with anunakki and stack on this one. Love snakes!!!!!! In and out of the frying pan. Great pets and darn good eatin too!!!
Saw a TV show where they measured the pressure exerted by a big python. It was thought to be equal to a small car pressing down on your chest. Turned out to be equal to a schoolbus! Yes, the pressure compresses your chest to the point that your heart muscles simply cannot expand and contract. Same show described three methods of freeing yourself from a python's grip: alcohol, cutting it in half, and one other thing which I can't remember. Basically, if it starts tightening up on you and you don't act in the first 30 seconds, you are dead!
If a snake constricts, or at least attempts it, just give of puff of air into its mouth. It hasn't failed me yet. When the mouth is not accessible, depending on the size of the snake, either unwrap from the tail or have a helper unwrap from the tail. Snakes do make quite fascinating captives. Not quite the same as a dog or cat, but quite fun to keep regardless. As long as you can get over the feeding aspect. Tim
You guys have no clue how awesome they are as pets! These are my two roomates. I've had the red tail boa going on 8 years now. She is maybe 7 foot long and very chill. Never been bit and the only scare I have ever had was when she disappeared for a month only to be found in the couch. The albino burmese python is only 3 and is still a baby. However the last time I measured him he was 9 feet and growing rapidly. I get plenty of looks when I take them out in the yard and always end up with a crowd standing around wondering who will get bit. However I'm telling you that as long as they are well fed they are as docile as dogs. Not to say the day will not come when I disappear and nobody will find me after all this time I've never even been struck at. They have there own bedroom and I let them roam the house when I'm home. The boa likes to sit around but the albino loves to go through the whole house tearing stuff up and knocking things over. Snakes are great pets guys once you get past the creepy part of it. I can feed them and if I have to leave to go on a trip they are good to go with a bowl of water for a long time. I have yet to have one wake me up in the middle of the night barking because it has to go outside! Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Anyone keep venomous snakes? I know a couple of people who do. One keeps them in glass boxes. The other was bitten several times and has built up an immunity so he lets them run around his house. If someone knocks on his door, it can be a long time before he answers, as he has to round up all the cobras and mambas and put them away first.
I'm not up for the venommous kind. To me that is a totally different animal but to each his own. Accidents happen and if you slip up for one second with a poisonous snake you are usually in for a real bad ride. They are beautiful but it just doesn't seem worth the risk.
I was be facetious. That snake is huge, it can't just disappear to be found in a couch a month later.
I had a rattlesnake for a couple of years. It was inside a plexiglass fish tank with the cover screwed down and an air pump circulating the air. Even though there was no chance in hell it could ever get out I still had nightmares about it at least twice a week. When it got to be about 4 feet long, I called a guy with a company called snakebusters who came and took it to release in the Santa Monica mountains. Before he left he held it so I could touch it. He milked it of venom too! I never had another dream about it after that.
I had a Timber Rattler and a copperhead many many years ago when i was REALLY into snakes and lived in PA. I was bit by the rattler. Trip to the hospital was a bit scary. I still have the visible scar on my hand. I decided not to have venomous snakes after that.
Be careful with those large constricting snakes. Here is a pertinent story for the folks keeping large snakes in the house: http://www.wtopnews.com/?nid=25&sid=1503062 Police believe pet snake killed owner October 23, 2008 - 4:04pm VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - Police believe a 25-year-old Virginia Beach woman was strangled by her pet python. Police say Amanda Ruth Black's husband came home around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday and found her lying in a bedroom. The snake's cage was open. Black was pronounced dead at the scene. A preliminary medical examiner's report indicates she died of asphyxiation. Police say Black was trying to give the 13-foot tiger python medicine when the incident happened. Animal control officers found the snake in the bedroom and are holding it at their office. The case remains under investigation.
