Give me a kiss!

[da_illest]

well, this is the most beautiful snake in the WORLD! i love ETB's and it's too bad they're so god damn expensive... in the future i'd like to get both one or two of these and one or two chondro's.... suprisingly, i can get ETB's for CHEAP! but they are farmed and i don't know wether to risk that or not... anyways, ENJOY! the owner of the pic will be here to see this so if you have any questions ask and i'll have him tell me at another place or maybe he'll sign up here...

i borrowed this pic and asked for permision.. i didn't want to steal it...

 

[scorpio]

absolutely stunning.

Makes me wanna have a pair of them. I already have a 400+ dollar reptile order in the works though......

 

[Scorpiove]

What is an ETB? How dangerous is it? It looks like it could kill you in an instant!

 

[scorpio]

emerald tree boa

huge teeth, kinda nippy, but they definitely couldnt kill you

 

[Kayv]

damn Illest thats one awesome picture/snake.

 

[da_illest]

it's a corallus caninus! i don't know if i spelled it right though... AKA Emerald Tree Boa! many ETB's are very very nippy IME.. specially if not handled as a baby... as a matter of fact, even tame ETB's will eventually bite you at some point or another more so then any other snakes.. they are naturally very aggresive and mean, but STUNNING! i currently own what is known as, "the poor man's Emerald".. ATB's, which are Amazon Tree Boa's, although they are a lot less then half the price of ETB's, they are gorgeous snakes, amazing eaters, and probably as aggresive as ETB's.. the thing with these snakes is that they have really long teeth as you can see, ATB's have BIG teeh too, just not as big as ETB's i believe... i've been tagged by 2 ATB's recently and it's pretty painful, like needles going into your hand... ETB's are defenatly not for the in-experienced in that they won't tolerate husbandry mistakes like other snakes.. and the fact that they cost a leg and a nut makes it even worse.. i'm more then ready to own any snake i choose i believe but i just don't have the money... i've experimented with ATB's and other snakes and realized that a rubbermaid is the best snake cage you can have because it's really easy to maintain temps/humidity....

 

[da_illest]

damn Illest thats one awesome picture/snake.

thanks! i wish it was my snake in that pic though... one of my buddy's has a BUNCH of ETB's and once when we where drinking we pulled one out and took a pic like this but with a camera phone.. this one is MUCH better! i wouldn't want to get tagged by a full grown adult, though.. although it won't kill you, it'd probably cause some mechanical damage if it got you in the right place.. i've seen a girl with one of these around her neck! imagine that tagging you on your neck!!

 

[da_illest]

also, i'm thinking of using this as an avatar so don't steal it please! i have to ask permission first..

 

[Lasiodora]

many ETB's are very very nippy IME.. specially if not handled as a baby... as a matter of fact, even tame ETB's will eventually bite you at some point or another more so then any other snakes.. they are naturally very aggresive and mean, but STUNNING!

Sorry, but I disagree. Unfortunately this is one of the myths that refuses to go away. Yes, there are individuals that are very defensive or aggressive but that is not representative of the species as a whole. If you speak to breeders who concentrate on emeralds you will note that they will not peg the species aggressive. Any snake has the potential of biting you at anytime of their life. That doesn't make them an aggressive snake. Feeding responses can draw bites. Also some localities tend to be a lot calmer. Amazon basin emeralds being one.

Here is a pic of an emerald I took. The snakes have never been handled for taming. I took this pic with my head in the cage. The male is not in the shot but was next to the female on the same perch. I also have hand shed this animal without restraining its head in the past.
http://arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=15740&page=2&highlight=emerald+tree

People's opinions on the aggressiveness of these snakes has in part stemed from dealing with wild caught imports. These guys are often very aggressive and never calm down in captivity. This why they are a little tougher to establish. That plus the fact that they have a stomach very sensitive to enviormental changes.

Mike

 

[Jakob]

That's quite a picture there!

 

[pitbulllady]

Beautiful Emmie! I got nailed by a six-footer once; this was strictly a feeding response, as the snake overshot the tongs and the rat and got my hand! YOWCH! Did it ever HURT like Hell! I could literally feel the teeth hit the bones in my hand, but I managed to keep my cool and not jerk my hand back, which would have made it a whole lot worse. The snake, fortunately, quickly realized that whatever it was it had grabbed, was NOT a rat, and spit it out! The snake almost acted remorseful, if that's not anthropomorphisizing too much, retreating to a corner of the cage and wadding up like a scared ball python, refusing to touch the rat I'd offered. This was an otherwise very docile animal, and as easy to handle as an oversized corn snake, but those long teeth can really hurt when they DO bite! I bled like the proverbial "stuck pig" for about half and hour, which is unusual for me, so I figured the teeth had hit a pretty good-sized vein in their. For all that, though, the holes were so fine, by the next day, I could barely tell where the bite had been!

pitbulllady

 

[da_illest]

Sorry, but I disagree. Unfortunately this is one of the myths that refuses to go away. Yes, there are individuals that are very defensive or aggressive but that is not representative of the species as a whole. If you speak to breeders who concentrate on emeralds you will note that they will not peg the species aggressive. Any snake has the potential of biting you at anytime of their life. That doesn't make them an aggressive snake. Feeding responses can draw bites. Also some localities tend to be a lot calmer. Amazon basin emeralds being one.

Here is a pic of an emerald I took. The snakes have never been handled for taming. I took this pic with my head in the cage. The male is not in the shot but was next to the female on the same perch. I also have hand shed this animal without restraining its head in the past.
http://arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=15740&page=2&highlight=emerald+tree

People's opinions on the aggressiveness of these snakes has in part stemed from dealing with wild caught imports. These guys are often very aggressive and never calm down in captivity. This why they are a little tougher to establish. That plus the fact that they have a stomach very sensitive to enviormental changes.

Mike

your probably right mike... i know for a fact that WC individuals tend to have much more sensitive stomachs then CBB ones leading to contant regurgitating.. about the aggresiveness, i really can't argue that with you being as how you have much more experience with these then i do.. i've only had encounters with them a bunch of times, i don't actually care for one... that said, what you say sounds right in a way and only proves my theory right... i bet when you took the pics you had no fear right? well, i believe that snakes sense fear, hesitation, nervousness, etc... and they percieve you as a threat because when a predator goes to attack the snake the predators body get's all riled up... when humans get scared and nervous, the heart pumps quicker and our body's heat up MUCH more then usual, and you know that these snakes have EXTREMELY sensitive heat sensors which only adds to the problem.. i've had my ATB attack it's heat source in the past! lol.. while i was handling it too! the heat clamp was near by and the ATB i have is 4-5 feet long... it makes sense, but i still believe they are more aggresive, or more prone to aggresive behaviour then many other snakes simply because evolution has made them that way.. think about it, in the wild, arboreal boids, such as ATB's and ETB's, are much more exposed then, let's say, ball pythons or sandboa's (who hide most the time and aren't as exposed)... arboreal snakes usually have 1 of 3 encounters in the wild; to be eaten, to eat, or to breed... 2 of the one's i just mentioned involve a bite, wether defensive or hunger strike, it's a strike... this is what i believe to be that naturally makes them more aggresive, it's a matter of survival.. if the snake isn't quick to strike, it could mean being killed/eaten or missing it's prey and starving.... i also believe that evolution has not only made them more aggresive to survive, but given them larger fangs to ease the trouble of catching prey and killing predators... this is the reason that not all boa's have teeth like these, take BCI's for example.. no comparison, yet they are both boa's... also, i've heard people mention that light and darkness come into play somewhere here... like in the day they're nice, but at night (being as how they're nocturnal) they're really active and you can't even get near the enclosure without a defensive reaction... that last bit is hear say, though, so i take it with a grain of salt... i've once had to probe an ETB with my buddy and i grabbed the snake by the back of the head without a real problem.. it struggled a bit but who wouldn't...

and those are really beautiful snakes you have! i'm feeling the set-ups too.. i just have mine in rubbermaids with sticks for climbing and they seem content... arboreal snakes are my favorites...

 

[Lasiodora]

Scared or not I was still worried but made sure not to disturb them. I've worked with the pair prior to that pic and had a sense of what they were like. They were both asleep at the time the pic was taken so body heat wouldn't have made a difference. They remained still as long as I didn't touch them. Even when I have, they buried their heads in their coils. Oh, and aboreal boids are not as exposed as people would think in the wild. These animals are the colors they are for a reason (they blend in). A lot of these guys spend their time in trees nestled on branched surrounded by foilage. They are a sit and wait predator, so this means that they are well equiped not to stand out. Remember not all animals see the same we do. Some colors are not picked up by all creatures. Aggression as a tool for survival in this species well...WC amazon basin adults are known for being very calm snakes in captivity. How would that be explained? Plus a defensive strike can only serve to deter predators for so long. Some predators are very persistant (look at the secretary bird). Hiding and fleeing are usually the best modes of survival. Nothing is written in stone though and you will find that personality will come into play a lot when it comes to aggression.Yes, chondros and emeralds can be strikers at night. This is normally a feeding response. I can't put my hand in my female chondros cage at night without the risk of being mistake for food. Thanks for the compliments on the snakes.
Mike

 

[da_illest]

shot down....