snake muzzle pics

**cornspot** · 04-24-07, 11:33 PM

it is made out of paper towel tubing and masking tape. It is held on with elecrical tape. The electrical tape came off very easily with no skin/scale damage.

this is an upset cali posing as a hoggie (I wonder if her tongue is sticking out?)

this is Whirlpool working his magic (no pics of the actualy hook up though)

**DaemoNox** · 04-24-07, 11:36 PM

Very interesting! Did you have to bait the male first? I cant wait to see what the babies look like!

**cornspot** · 04-24-07, 11:52 PM

Yes, you can see the okeetee on the left part of the 2nd pic. I hope I get some jungles in there; I did breed the cali about a week prior to another cali, so we'll see what comes out!

Once he was "excited" he wouldn't give up which is good b/c the king was not a very willing participant. They did eventually tie though, but it sure did take awhile.

**cITrUS** · 04-25-07, 12:22 AM

I read the previous post on here where people were suggesting a muzzle for a snake (with a film container & electrical tape). My initial thoughts on it were it was ridiculous.. absurd. I can't imagine taping something to my snakes head. Now seeing it I feel the same way.

This of course is my opinion, but to me this just looks really weird and made me feel somewhat uncomfortable to look at it.

I personally have never bred a king & a corn together. I know there is are risks involved with breeding the two types together, but I don't think I would adopt or encourage this technique.

Denise

**desertanimal** · 04-25-07, 12:41 AM

I also thought it ridiculous and absurd, but in a hiLARious sort of way!

Kind of like when you put tape on cats feet, or give toddlers strange things to eat to see what faces they make. No harm, no foul, but PLENTY entertaining! Anytime I need to see something funny, I'm going to look for this thread!

**MohrSnakes** · 04-25-07, 08:36 AM

Very interesting. Keep us updated on the results.

Kevin_Letts · 04-25-07, 03:49 PM

Honestly I really can't believe somebody has done this, and shown pictures as well! To me personally, I feel this borders on animal cruelty. You voluntarily put tape on a snake, which is basically a snakes worst enemy, and no it does not matter that you used electrical tape. After talking to a few breeders that have produced jungles, bred jungles, and kept kings and corns, they all thought this was the most ridiculous idea ever. I don't really see how taping a "muzzle" is going to stop the Kings instinct of killing, and I hightly doubt that it will make it want to breed. There are many other ways to trick the snakes into doing this, all one has to do is a bit of reading and research. Or just go out and buy a pair of Jungles and let them breed when they are ready. Hope this stays up...

Kevin

**EeekSnakes** · 04-25-07, 04:02 PM

I am surprised that the tape did no damage. I'm glad it didn't though

Good luck with the babies.

I do agree with the above posters though, this is NOT a practice I would recommend.... tape of any kind, and a snake, usually don't mix. Kevin has posted it best.

Not something I would recommend, but good luck with the babies.

**MattKennedy** · 04-25-07, 05:03 PM

I've gotta echo what Denise, Kevin, and Christina said. I'm not so sure about this muzzle thing either. How much is this stressing out your king? A technique, such as this, certainly cannot be said to be stress-free. I have heard of several other methods which would be nearly as safe and significantly reduced in the amount of stress inflicted on the snakes involved. I just don't think this method is all that practical.

If a method like this is necessary to create the hybrid, is it really worth it?

Just my thoughts...I've never attempted to produce jungles before and, for all I know, this is the accepted technique by most breeders. I think I'll stick to corns...

Matt

**Carol** · 04-25-07, 05:32 PM

Honestly, I doubt it stresses out the female king as much as breeding her to a male king. If you've ever watched kings breed there is a lot of aggressive biting and thrashing evolved, really rough stuff. Looking at it with a different perspective, I'd say using a little bit of electrical tape and a male corn is a lot less "abusive" than breeding her to a male king which I doubt anyone here would have a problem with.
Electrical tape is quite different than regular tape and I can't really see how it could cause harm to a Cal King's scales if you use it with care and common sense. Cal Kings have very tough scales. I've put electrical tape on my own skin before and it sticks less than a Band Aid. In fact, unless you wrap it around and stick it to the rest of the electical tape it will fall off fairly quickly. From my experience with the stuff I'd imagine it doesn't stick to the snake at all and just sticks to itself.
Just a different perspective. BTW, that is one wicked Cal King female!