All About Snakes with Sky Lily
What Kind of animal are they: Reptile
Cold or warm-blooded: Cold Blooded (when an animal’s inner temperature changes based on the temperature in the environment)
What is their lifespan: Depending on the type of snake they can live for 15-30 years!
What do they eat: Snakes are Carnivores
What are their bodies like: Snakes all have thin linear and limbless bodies
Different types of Snakes: There are 2,700 known species of snakes
What are they covered with: Scales
Not all snakes are poisonous.
Do snakes bite?
How do Snakes See?
Snakes don’t use their eyes the way humans do. They don’t really have eyelids and they see using heat. They don’t see colors either. Different snakes have different levels of sight but Boas and Pythons specifically identify their prey by recognizing the figure in heat waves through little pivots near their nose.
How do Snakes Smell?
Snakes actually use their tongues to smell as they don’t have taste buds like humans do. By flicking out its tongue a snake gathers the scent from the air and brings it back to these sacks on the roof of its mouth.
Snakes rely a lot on smell, especially when shedding.
How do Snakes Hear?
Snakes don’t have outer ears like people do. Soundwaves hit the snake’s skin and are transferred from muscle to bone. When the sound hits the bone it sends vibrations through the inner ear which the brain then processes as sound.
How do Snakes move?
Snakes do not have legs or feet so they use their scales and muscles to move in four ways.
Serpentine method: This motion is what most people think of when they think of snakes. Snakes will push off of any bump or other surface to get going. They move in a wavy motion. They would not be able to move over slick surfaces like glass at all. This movement is also known as lateral undulation.
Concertina method: This is a more difficult way for the snake to move but is effective in tight spaces. The snake braces the back portion of their body while pushing and extending the front portion. Then the snake drops the front portion of their body and straightens an pulls the back portion along. It is almost like they through themselves forward.
Sidewinding: This is a difficult motion to describe but it is often used by snakes to move on loose or slippery surfaces like sand or mud. The snake appears to throw its head forward and the rest of its body follows while the head is thrown forward again.
Rectilinear Method: This is a slow, creeping, straight movement. The snake uses some of the wide scales on its belly to grip the ground while pushing forward with the others.
What do snakes eat and drink?
Snakes are Carnivores or meat eaters. They eat mice, lizards, insects, birds and other small mammals. Sky Lily and Raina feed most of their snakes frozen and then thawed mice or rats (depending on the snake). They give their snakes specially treated water to keep them hydrated.
Where do pet snakes live?
You do need to create the right environment for your pet snake to live and thrive in. This means maintaining the temperature and humidity at the proper levels. Check out reputable resources, such as PetSmart’s Care Guides, to see the correct temperature and humidity ranges for your pet.
Once you know your pet’s requirements fit the terrarium with two thermometers and a hygrometer (humidity gauge) to ensure your pet is in the ideal environment. A heat lamp is an excellent heat source, but only use this for half the tank, as your snake likes having a cool retreat to hang out in from time to time, too. Heat rocks look nice, but in reality they are not safe for a snake’s sensitive skin. An artificial plant (live plants or fertilizers in the soil can be harmful to snakes) placed cleverly inside the habitat, along with an extra water bowl under the lamp, can also help you reach the desired level of humidity. But if you live in a dry environment, you may want to place a humidifier near (not in) the tank or use a reptile fogging system designed to be used inside your snake’s habitat.
Make sure your snake has a proper environment
Do your research and make sure that you have the right size of tank and the right kind of substrate for your snake. This can vary for different types.
Use your temp gun to make sure that your environment is the right temperature.
Make sure that you have water and anything else your snake needs.
Cleaning up after a snake?
Every month clean the enclosure fully.
How do you exercise a snake?
Sky Lily gives attention to her snakes even when she isn’t exercising them, by reading to them every night. It can be easy to over or under exercise a snake as well so Sky Lily’s sister Raina recommends 20 minutes of handling a day.
Some special snake terms:
Substrate: The type of bedding or environmental lining in a snake’s tank.
Gravid: When a snake is pregnant
Clutch: A bundle of snake eggs
Snake hook:
Temp Gun:
Using a temp gun
Kind of like how a doctor takes your temperature when you’re sick, a temp gun is important for cold-blooded animals like snakes to make sure that their enclosure is a comfortable temperature for them. Because cold-blooded animals adjust to the temperature around them, keeping your snake in a place that is too cold or too warm can be bad for their health.
