How about taking your snake for a walk?

Taking a dog for a walk in the park is a very common thing to do. Taking a cat for a walk takes a bit more doing, mainly because cats are not really that good with leashes. How about taking your snake for a walk?



Apparently You Wang does that every day. His pet is an eight-foot-long yellow Burmese python and he takes it for a walk in the city of Changzhou in China. On hot days, he even lets his pet snake take a swim in the lake.

More information here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...-swim.html

What do you think? Would you take your pet snake for a walk? And, if you do, how would you do it?

I think this guy is either an attention whore or trying to workout.
Come on, the snake doesn't even seem to be in a very comfortable position when being carried around on the owner's shoulder. Both the head and the rear section could be constantly close to touch the ground while being "dragged" cross the street. He should have the snake wrapped around his upper body at least like the way I see how some other python owners carry their pet snakes out in the public.

I take my dogs and rat out in public so I probably wouldn't have any qualms about taking a snake out if I get one someday. So long as I can carry it without dificulty for either of us, I could take it to the part while it's wrapped around my arm or torso. If it's small enough, maybe it could ride around inside of my clothes (That's what I do with my rat. I have two shirts I use specifically for the purpose of transporting her around).

I like to take my snakes outside. And that albino burm is over 8', unless the guy carrying him is only 3 1/2 feet tall. That looks like a a 10-12 footer there. I don't have anything that will get that long, or probably that heavy bodied. I loop them over my shoulder, around my waist, around my arm, the little ones I let hand on a shirt pocket, collar, etc...

It really depends on the actual snake, how cooperative/uncooperative they are about it. But I like to get them outside. I also have to watch where I go with them, some places are better than others, and some snakes I'll take to more populated areas/parks, and some I won't.

I have never had snakes as pets. Not even as food. So I find the idea of taking a snake for an outing rather a novel idea. I know that if I take my dog to the park, I can call it to come to me when I ready to go home. So how do you call a snake to come to you?

I don't think you can call a snake to you like you would a mammal or bird. If you let them go around on their lonesome, I imagine you'd have to physically go and retrieve them when you're ready to leave. Or maybe there is a way to train a snake to stay near you or approach whenever it sees you. But if there is, I don't know of it.

Writer is pretty much right. I don't ever take a snake in a public park and let it go. They don't respond at all as mammals do. Plus, there are the environmental concerns, anything the animal may pick up there. Things that the native reptile population may have evolved to deal with they may be harmful to that species. For example, the snake mite, Ophionyssus natricis, has become common in reptile collections all over the world, and in wild reptile areas all over the world, and the one thing biologists have discovered, is that they are not native to most of those places, and noone can say with certainty where they are originally from or what species are their original hosts.

And to top all that off, you have to worry about animals there, I really don't want amy of my snakes messing with a wild squirrel, etc. Then you always have to worry about public perception. Since all the media hype on the burms in the glades here in america, many people have gotten very ignorant about snakes, and many people think a 4' python is going to eat their 8lb toy dog breed. Or their toddler. It's amazingly stupid.

I have occasionally let mine play on a tree on my own property with me watching, but I have to collect them most times.

Talking about pet snakes, I found one that a little bit longer than the one in the OP.

It's about 17 feet long and still growing. More information here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...t-pet.html

When I read the news about this snake, I am intrigued by one item. It says that the snake only eats one rabbit once every three weeks. Sounds like a very low maintenance pet. Is that true that snakes need so little food and yet can grow so big?

(08-26-2012, 06:33 PM)Victor Leigh Wrote: Talking about pet snakes, I found one that a little bit longer than the one in the OP.

It's about 17 feet long and still growing. More information here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...t-pet.html

When I read the news about this snake, I am intrigued by one item. It says that the snake only eats one rabbit once every three weeks. Sounds like a very low maintenance pet. Is that true that snakes need so little food and yet can grow so big?

Once that size, that is a good feeding schedule. The vast majority of pet snakes are overfed in my opinion. When younger and growing rapidly, its best to feed a bit more often, and slow it down add they get close to adult size. The exact frequency varies with species and individual animals. The true giant constrictors, with indeterminate growth, are in a league of their own, since they never stop growing.

Giant constrictor? Do you mean something like this?


Or something like this?


While the second photo is obviously a photoshopped copy, the first photo may be real with a bit more information about it here:
http://abyteofenews.wordpress.com/2009/1...tor-snake/

So the giant constrictors should not be kept as pets, I suppose?

(08-27-2012, 04:28 PM)Victor Leigh Wrote: So the giant constrictors should not be kept as pets, I suppose?

Well, if you have a giant constrictor (burmese/indian python, north or south african rock python, reticulated python, or green anaconda), there are things you have to take into consideration. First, at some point, you will be FEEDING it things that are bigger than most of the pets people people on here have, and you have to be concerned if you have other pets, like cats or dogs. You also have to make sure you have help available, because if a 15' snake doesn't want to go back into its enclosure, it's pretty hard for one person to convince it otherwise.

I won't say that you should never have one, but there are many things you need to consider before doing it, it's a very big commitment (pun intended). Telling your neighbor you've lost your cat or dog because it got out generally incites a much different reaction than a huge python.

I think you have a valid point there. If you have a big snake as a pet and you are living in Thailand and you lose your pet snake, chances are your pet snake would end up in someone's pot. If you are living in Malaysia, chances are your pet snake would have been beaten to a pulp before you can find it.

From what you have said, I take it that there is no way to train a snake to be subservient to its master. Right?

Subservient? No. not that I've ever heard of.

I see. So having a snake for a pet is, more or less from what I have understood, a matter of amiable co-existence. That's a lot of difference with keeping a dog as a pet. A pet dog actually becomes a subset of your life. In many cases, the dog literally lives for its master.

I'd say that's a good way to put it. Its not wholly unlike having fish. Same snakes can be very personable, but they are certainly pretty far from dogs in personality, lol.

I think one possible reason why keep a snake as a pet is different from keeping a dog as a pet may be because dogs have been domesticated longer and more extensively than snakes.

Perhaps if snakes were kept as pets for another couple of hundred years, things might be different. I mean keeping the same snake and its offspring for a couple of hundred years, not keeping different snakes for a couple of hundred years. If generation after generation after generation of snakes were bred by man, they may start acquiring characteristics not found in wild snakes. Kind of like dogs acquired characteristics not found in their forebears, the wolves.

Off-hand I can see many advantages of keeping a snake as a pet. The immediate one that comes to mind is the low cost of maintenance. Can you think of any other advantages of keeping a snake as a pet as compared to, say, a dog?

Snakes are dumb, but make easy pets. I have a corn snake, a cat, a 50 gal tank, and a 5 gal tank. I've also had dogs, rodents, and chickens.

Snakes are SUPER low maintenance. I feed my snake once every 10 days, and pick up poop/pee once every 10 days. I change the water every day, and I completely change the substrate twice a year. You can also choose to have live plants in the cage.

In return I get an animal that will cuddle on me while I can focus on other things, like reading or drawing.

Snakes are really dumb, and will never be as smart as dogs. The most "training" you can do with a snake is get it accustomed to your smell and being handled. A snake that isn't handled very often starts to associate opening tank lids and human hands/scents with feeding and might be prone to being bitey. I don't ever see snakes playing, unlike dogs or cats or even fish. Because snakes don't eat very often treats are not a concept. You can train fish to do tricks because doing x trick gets them y treat. For snakes the most you can do is train the snake to equal hands with food.

I take my olives and carpets outside for a look around once and then but im not so sure about taking them to a public park .-.

Personally I'm pretty against taking anything besides a dog, cat or maybe a larger "small furry" pet like a rabbit or ferret outside for a walk. There are so many variables outside of the owners control which could come into play. Small animals are really vulnerable to attack from dogs being walked or wildlife, and if they escape it's much harder for them to survive as natural "prey" creatures than it would be for a dog. I think they're also harder to catch; many domesticated dogs will approach a non-owner if they'd escaped but I don't see a rabbit or snake looking for humans who might be willing to take them to a vet or shelter!

There's also the issue of vaccinations... I currently keep hamsters and I really don't know enough about what diseases they might be able to pick up outdoors. I used to walk my rabbit in my own garden but she had the "full suite" of vaccinations to go outdoors. My hams don't have any as the vet didn't recommend any, but I believe there are diseases of mice/rats that could affect them, so I don't intend to take them for a walk anytime soon.

And one final problem with the snake walking dude (I don't usually write such angry-sounding posts, haha, I just got a little carried away here - I'm always a worrier about pets' safety) is that there are quite a lot of people with serious snake phobias who might react badly to his pet... I know there are people with dog phobias and we don't all stop walking out dogs, but 1) I think snake phobia is more common and 2) dog walks are essential for welfare but snake walks aren't!

I agree people are scared of snakes. Tho when I have a pet of any kind I am obligated to look after it to the best of my ability. I often almost everyday take my 9ft 4 carpet python out his large cage so he is able to enjoy the outdoors. Which he has since I recently adopted him. He has gone from a recluse with no interest of anything especially people (wasn't handled for years) to a snake who actually seems to enjoy human contact nowadays. He does have his own personality which did surprise me. I have enjoyed watching him change. I am a responsible pet owner. As such if I was to walk my snake it would be done in a manner that would be respectful to the public. Am most importantly my snake. Peple that don't like him... That's their problem. But I would cross the road for them.