“And to think, I hesitated...”
“What was today’s agenda? Ah yes, evisceration!”
“No anesthetic at hand... shame.”
“Ahhhhhh, good! A fight!!”
“I’m taking over this operation, and you girls will be my first patients!”
- Channard Cenobite (played by Kenneth Cranham) in “Hellraiser II: Hellbound”
That photo I posted yesterday of myself and that beauty of a Red-Tail Boa was taken at Pet Kingdom over by the Sports Arena here in San Diego. The guy whom I asked about holding the snake seemed reluctant to allow me to reach into her enclosure.
She’s a large serpent, but there can be no timidity about physical contact with snakes. If you stick your arm in there all skittish-like, I tell you it really seems like snakes can sense nervousness. I know they can sense an uneven hand, so if you’re shaking, your movements start to resemble the twitchiness of a rat or mouse.
And at the point, the snake can get confused. And a confused snake is a stressed snake. Match that with hunger, and you may be bitten in what’s called a “food response”, which means that serpent’s teeth will go into you as deep as his or her jaws can force them down.
And since your hand is connected to your arm, if the animal is a constrictor, the snake will coil itself as many times around your appendage as it thinks it needs to secure its “prey”. And, in the words of a recent CNN serpent rescue expert, “It. Will. Not. Let. Go.”
(Actually, I’ve had luck with just running water over the snake’s head. When this has happened to me, this has worked. A lot of so-called “experts” will tell you to use Listerine, but personally I think this is at least somewhat toxic to the serpent.)
Anyway, this is why...
If you’re reaching your hand into a snake’s enclosure, do so assuredly, outstretch your fingers as much as you can, and gently yet firmly place one of your hands a little more than midway down the serpent’s body.
Do not touch near the end of their tail. Snakes are quite sensitive about that area because it houses their cloaca. This is where their pooper is and it also contains their private bits. (Once you get to know a snake, you’ll find that many will be most at ease when you let them coil the end of their tail around your fingers. That tendency seems to act as an anchor for them.)
So, then take the other hand, and, without losing a beat, support the snake’s belly so that you now have a hold of him or her.
And gently move the beast into your arms, trying to seem as big as possible and using as much of your body as you can do cover or “shelter” the snake.
The bigger he or she thinks you are, the less the serpent is going to think you’re practically edible.
In my experience, this is how to do it, anyway.
I am by no means a snake expert, but I have had some experience.
-- ∆☩Y§ ☨♆∀☥✠