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Originally Posted by EL Ziggy
Beautiful critter Charis. How old is he and what size enclosure do you keep him in. I've heard they don't tolerate handling very well. Is that true?
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He is roughly 8-9 years old, I got him around 4 years old. He's got some healed damage on his face from rubbing against his cage's screen section. He is in an Exo Terra 24 x 18 x 24, or I think those are the measurements.
He is pretty good with handling. He doesn't strike, only hisses if he is unhappy with something. (Unless he's in hunting mode, and then he is a completely different snake! Don't go near a hunting GTP!)
I don't handle him often, just because he is usually firmly perched and removing a GTP from a perch is stressful for both parties. I usually only handle him when he's on the ground or already moving around. This time I did have to coax him off his perch onto the hook and then onto a perch in the new cage. That involved lots of hissing and took about an hour. The old cage that he came with had non removable perches, so his new one has a great many more perches and they are all removable. Will make it much easier to get him out of the cage in the future. Can just take the whole perch out.
Babies under a year have very delicate spines, so it is recommended to pretty much not handle them at all and to be very gentle when you have to. Most breeders won't sex GTPs until they are a year or more, because it can cause spinal kinks in the younger ones.
love the name
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