TAMING THE SAVAGE RAINBOW BEASTGraham Jantosh, Mount Gambier, South AustraliaBeing new to keeping reptiles we thought we wouldshare some of our experiences with everyone thusfar.Back in December my eldest son Josh was gifted abeautiful little baby hatchling water python “Phantom”for his efforts over the year with his schooling.Phantom was the second snake to join our house,the first being our beautiful girl “Medusa” - a superplacid and social MD yearling.After much research and discussion with the breeder,we decided to house the little fellow in a large glassenclosure which would be his home for many years,rather then in a tub which appears to be commonplacefor most baby worms. This brought us mixedresults. In his new home he responded very well, andafter only a couple of days he became comfortablewith his surroundings, regularly basking on his branchand swimming in his water hole, not seeming to mindthe activity in the room around him. Three days aftersettling in, we thought we’d try to offer him his firstfeed in his new home, which he was very quick toput away. This was very pleasing as we didn’t expecthim to take a feed so soon after the big move. Overthe next six weeks, we fed him a 4g pinky rat everythree days and every time without fail, the little rodentwas inhaled.where I gently got hold of him and lifted him out, whilethe whole time being tagged. This went on for a coupleof months. Every few days we would get him out forabout two minutes and every time he would give us“love bites”. Over time, the “love bites” became lessand less, to the point where we were able to get himout without a single “love bite”! Our persistence waspaying off! After a number of weeks (without a “lovebite”) we decided to try keeping him out for longer,starting with five minutes and then moved to ten.At this point, Phantom stopped feeding, so in turn westopped handling to see if this was the problem… Itwasn’t, as after two weeks of not handling, he wasstill refusing his feeds.He had shed a couple of weeks earlier, so we knewthat this was not likely to be the problem. So, aftersome more thought and a discussion or two withsome very helpful, more experienced keepers wedecided to run a little experiment…At the seven week mark, everything was going sowell and Phantom had his first shed (a perfect shedat that). We were beginning to think being a slave toa young Water Python was an easy gig.Now that Phantom had shed and was feeding withease, it was time for the next hurdle…. Handling…As everything had gone so well with this little Pythonsurely the handling won’t be too difficult!?! We haddone a lot of research and spoken to people in theknow, but as new slaves none of this could prepareus for what was to come. Our first attempt saw thisplacid little fellow launch himself across the tank atme - he was not to keen to come out and say hi! Sowe left him for a couple more days and tried again.The second attempt was more of a success (of sorts)The Experiment - After having some concerns thatwe were handling our little Phantom too much, weagain turned to the experts with questions. Mostadvice received said to persist with the handling andlook for other reasons he might not be eating. So thenext thing in the firing line was his new home. He hadbeen very happy with his home up until we startedhandling him every three days, so while it wasn’tan issue when we were only handling him once aweek, now that handling had increased, he may befeeling a little insecure in it. So our local guru CarolynDean suggested the idea to move him into a tub fora few months and see if a little added security wouldchange his mind about feeding and handling…The Results so far - three days after moving to thetub a pinky was offered, after thinking about it for awhile he finally took it. What a great start! Then thequestion was how would he handle, and would the18
added security make a difference to his mood? Threedays had passed and his little bump had gone, so itwas time to try. He was still a little unsure as my handcame closer to pick him up and as I touched him, hemoved a little but what just happened?! There wasno “love bite” and he didn’t seem as angry about meinvading his space!Three weeks have passed since the tub experimentstarted, with the results so far being three out of fourrats offered have been inhaled! As for handling, heis now relaxed every time we get him out! No morebeing tense! While still a little jumpy and grumpy (heis a Water Python after all), he seems to be a muchhappier, healthier snake for the exercise!Once out of the tub we noticed another huge change- he wasn’t tense at all! This was very pleasing ascoming out of the enclosure he was always tense fora minute or two before calming down.At this early stage we have seen Phantom changefrom a great feeder and very poor handler, to a greatfeeder and good handler. The transformation hasbeen huge as it’s almost like someone snuck in andreplaced him with a different snake one night!The exciting thing for us now is being able to watchthis little rainbow snake on his journey and who knowswhat further changes we may see.We will keep everyone updated in a couple monthsas to how he is going and how we, as slaves, aregoing with his transformation.19
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