Interested in ATB

Ok, so first of all please don't hate me. I've never had a reptile besides a bearded dragon when I was like 10 and it died... I'm now 21 and I've been keeping fish mostly for the past few years, hardcore is what most normal people would call me. I mainly keep cichlids b/c everything else is boring... Well I didn't learn too much until I joined forum sites. I now work at a pet store called Petland and before that I worked at one called Pet Warehouse, always working in fish of course. Well this new one is fish and reptiles, and ever since I worked at the first store I've been thinking about getting a snake. Well we had a small brown ATB in the other day about 18" or so maybe a little longer. I absolutely loved the thing! We actually handled it quite a bit. I myself got him (or her) out at least 3 times that day and then we ended up selling it... So after that night I read up on them for like 3 hours, I tried to find a forum site to ask questions but never found this till now, and I'm glad I did. No one knows better than those who have them or have had them. So anyways there's the preface haha. After reading up on them I've been looking at colors and sizes and size tank I'll need for an adult. I've found a baby orange that is about 16" that I'm really considering getting. Here are my questions... again please don't hate me. I know they are naturally mean snakes and I've only heard of a few nice ones, if I get it at this young of an age and handle it quite a bit, could it get used to being handled and be less aggressive towards me? My boss said he had one and another guy that works there used to have a reptile store and they both said they are ok once you get them out of the cage, is that true? And my next question is... if you had to suggest something different that I could handle and would be about the same size, sweet colors, I love the tree part about them, and about the same price, what would you suggest? I also want to start with a small one like 16-18". Thanks to everyone who helps.

Zack

ATBs are great. Neat looking snakes like mad.

No snake is mean. They just have particular stress levels.

ATBs are great. Just be ready for it to tell you that it is a little beyond when it should have been put back. You'll come to see the signs before that over time.

Although snakes have a limited amount of recognition, the more handling they get, I feel the more used to it they get.

Good luck with your ATB, just get some crazy weird color going on.

Erik

I agree - ATBs are great,
and less dependent on rigid attention to husbandry details (like temp & humidity) than ETBs...in other words, though you still have to keep them within an acceptable range, they tolerate a wider range.
As for attitude/temperament, it varies. After a while, you get a feel for them, and even the ones that are inclined to bite can be easily dealt with if you pay attention to the cues. The whole "once they are out of the cage" thing is only slightly more pertinent with any other snake, and that is because you often have to get them off their perch (and when they don't want to come off, that can be an adventure in itself, lol). Move too fast, or do things they don't like, and you could find yourself with a few new holes - regardless of how long it is out of the cage, or how often you handle it.

A couple of hints - they tend to prefer thin branches/perches
- they will spend more time on the ground than you expect
- use long tweezers/tongs to feed them (unless you plan on using live )
- don't overfeed
- if it regurgitates even once, figure it is something you are doing wrong. check and correct all husbandry issues, and make sure you give it time before feeding again. If it regurges again, get it to a vet for a fecal

Hey guys thank so much for the info thus far. It's really helpful. I'm glad to hear snakes aren't mean and they just have different stress levels. I'll probably end up getting this little guy next week or so. He won't have the best conditions at first but within a week of getting him I'll have a nice cage for him. I get a pretty sweet discount at Petland of 25% and could easily talk my manager into 30% on an exoterra cage that is 18x18x24. Sounds good right? As for husbandry, are we just talking about general care of the snake when we say that? And feeding live or dead, what's the difference? As for overfeeding I think I'm going to only feed it once a week considering it'll be in my dorm room (shhh.... ) and I won't want it to grow too fast. Thanks again guys, and I'm really grateful for the quick responses!

Zack

Husbandry includes temperature and humidity. How they are being kept.

Feeding live means lots of potential bites to the snake which can be extremely painful for the snake and expensive for you. I had one BCC that got bit once and refused to feed for the next two months. Of course, I went through the process of switching them over immediately after that.

I tend to think that I would prefer to die by asphyxiation through carbon dioxide rather than being caught and suffocated, personally. Just another bonus to feeding frozen/thawed, I don't think the mice/rats suffer as much.

Get your conditions proper before introducing the snake, it is much less stressful for the poor guy and you'll probably wind up with better results coming from a happy snake. 18x18x24 sounds big enough. Like HH said, be sure to give some ground hides and such, mine used to curl up underneath the water bowl for some odd reason.

Alright thanks for the info so far guys, really appreciate the help. Well I went out and bought a cage for him tonight and I think I'm going to get him next week hopefully. They were out of the big ones so I just bought a 12x12x18 until they get the bigger ones in in about a week and a half and my boss said he'd let me trade it in for the bigger one. So he'll only be in this one for a short period of time, and since he's only about 16" I didn't think it would be too big of a deal. And as for feeding dead mice, I'll probably do that just to be safe. What are we looking at for heat and humidty? I bought gauges tonight. thanks again.

zack

I've kept a number of them and yeah they are nippy even when babies but some settle down and tolerate handling.. They are pretty easy to keep but if you'd like something that is just as easy or even easier look at The Solomon Island tree boas, they don't get very big and I've never had one try to bite me though I'm sure some must. The only problem is that there are not many captive bred available though you can find WC easily, just make sure it is a long term Captive and feeding on frozen thawed rodents before buying. Though I've never had much trouble getting fresh WC to eat it is best to go with LTC or CB animals . They are usually fairly inexpensive and you would do best with a sub adult or an adult as the babies are really small and are work to get started on pinkie mice. Either way you go be it ATB or SITB you'll have a good starter Arboreal... Randy

thanks ravensgait for the help. I'll probably still end up getting these ATB though, but at least now I know another option. Ok so like I said I bought the cage tonight and here are some pics. I also was wondering what am I looking at for temp and humidity? The cave is decently ventilated at the top and even has some front air vents. It's a pretty sweet cave, maybe you'll like it.


Here's the whole cage

Here's a look inside with the doors open

Heres the doors open and you can see the ventilated top

And here is where I'll be hiding it from other people in the dorm, haha.

Zack

I also put some exoterra jungle earth in as the substrate, tree bark, stuff, says its good for humidity and I hear ATB's like it humid.

Zack

Zac, you'll need to cover the screen top to keep humidity up.. Cut a couple pieces of plexi to fit and you should be fine... Randy