Adrenaline junkie? (snake photos)

[spark]

I got bitten by a snake today. It was actually sort of on purpose. I would much have preferred to not be bitten, but I also much prefer being bitten now, when the snake has fangs less than 1mm long to being bitten in a few years, when she's grown.

In other words, I got a new snake, and she's a nippy little thing, so I'm handling her to help get her used to me and tamed down, so later on she'll be more mellow.

Her name is Chromatic Scales, and she's a brazilian rainbow boa. My fourth snake, so I presumably know what I'm doing by now, though she's the first boa I've had. (I have one python and two colubrids.)

Here's a picture of her when she came out of her travel cup on the day I got her (she was a bit traumatized, poor little scared snakeball.)


And here's her tonight, after microscopically puncturing my knuckle.


I've got to say that even knowing it was coming, and even with it not hurting at all, I still got a massive adrenaline jolt from getting bitten. It's just so dang fast! You have no chance whatsoever to react in any way, by the time you realize it's happening it's over and the snake has already let go! It really gets your heart pounding.

I don't think I could ever get used to it, but hopefully she'll grow out of it before I get the chance to find out.

[BlaqueKatt]

awww she's adorbs!

<gently hugs tiny snake>

[Dreamstalker]

She's beautiful I love snakes.

[pitmonkey]

We got our first snake about that size when we got her. It was fun for hubby to put her in his pocket and the reaction of people when she would pop her head out.

[Lachrymose]

Chromatic Scales = awesome name

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Pretty girl, she is. Love that skin pattern. Just gorgeous.

If she broke the skin, you still need to clean it out. Snakes have very dangerous mouths, even the non venomous ones. The bacteria in there can mess you up. Make sure you wash the break well, and put some antibiotic ointment of some sort on it, just to be safe.

Same for any reptile, folks, Just because they're not poisonous doesn't mean their bites are safe.

[MoonCat]

She's gorgeous. I like snakes.

[spark]

Yep, tiny little wound has been cleaned. I always do, though snakes are cleaner than some things that have bitten me. And the list of animals that have bitten me is a long one with a few strange entries, I gotta say... Though cats and dogs are the worst thing on it, as far as infection danger goes. Well. Unless you count cousins, the human mouth is even worse, but he never managed to break the skin.

[Miss Maple Leaf]

Aww...she's absolutely gorgeous, spark. I just love snakes, they're such beautiful animals. And really cool name too. It fits her perfectly.

[firecat88]

I'm typically not one for snakes (I used to be terrified of 'em until several years ago when I got to help hold one, now I'm only slightly icked out by 'em), but she is darling!

[Kogarashi]

Definitely pretty. I'm not much of a snake person; don't mind looking at them in controlled situations, but not sure if I could bring myself to handle one. Snakes on the loose make me twitchy, but snakes in a box or tank, or in the hands of a handler who isn't all, "oooh, let's scare the ophidiophobes in the room!" don't bother me unless I know they're venemous. Venemous snakes just wig me out in general.

But yes, very pretty snake. I love the patterns on its skin!

[spark]

Thanks everybody!

Venomous snakes freak me out a little too, I think people who keep them as pets are insane. But then my mother thinks I'm insane for keeping snakes at all, so...

I have two snakes that are very good for outreach to nervous people, they're both completely child safe and everything. One is a runty corn snake (he was a bad feeder as a baby, so when we got him at a year old he was still only a little bigger than a new-hatched snake, and though he eats fine now, he just doesn't grow fast.) He's very mellow, but also an explorer, give him half a chance and he'll go down your shirt. The other one is a ball python, so he's a good bit bigger, but still small enough to be easily held, and he's VERY mellow. Also slow, literally and metaphorically. Even warmed up he moves at a snail's pace, and he is the dumbest snake I've ever seen. So he's quite unthreatening. My last snake is a gopher snake, and she's actually wild caught (and will be returning to the wild this year, I only kept her temporarily, because she is beautiful and interesting, but she will be happier out there than living the rest of her life with me, I suspect.) For a wild caught snake she's incredibly mellow, and has only bitten me a couple of times. You can handle her safely if you take care, but I wouldn't let anybody who wasn't very comfortable with snakes hold her, because you never know with a wild animal exactly what it's going to do.

[spark]

I thought I'd post a little update, as I took a new photo today.

Chroma, being a nervous little snakeball, spends most of her time hiding. She doesn't seem to like the fake rock and fake tree hides I got for her, but I also covered the tank in moss, and she loves to burrow in that. Some days I don't see her at all.

But here's the place she "hid" today:

[teh_blumchenkinder]

That's so cute! :3
She's purty... Snakes are cool; and I'm just not scared of them for some reason.
... Spiders, on the other hand... Fuck spiders. Yeah ecological niche good for the world blah blah-- them.
I want to hold Chromatic Scales. ...
Which btw has the initials of "CS"
Yaaaaay snake!
EDIT: can we has moar snake pics?
I like how you use the tank as a post-board

[spark]

Well, Chroma has hidden for real today, but I could get pics of the others, I suppose. Maybe I'll do that. Will post 'em later today.