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Female Rattlesnakes
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by Jahon on September 9, 2008
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Something interesting that I have noticed is that female rattlesnakes tend to be a lot more aggressive than males. Seriously! I mean I'm not exactly the most experienced keeper in the world. I can count how many rattlesnake I have ever kept or seen in the wild. However, I have seen enough to see a pattern. I live in an area with red diamondbacks and have noticed that every female I have seen struck out and rattled like crazy whereas every male refused to rattle much or strike at all. Same goes with southern pacifics that I have seen and kept. Does anybody know if this is just a coincidence or if there is something to it? Thanks in advance and have a great day. On a side note I got my neonate southern pacific to eat by gently rubbing the nose of the fuzzy on his mouth with tongs.
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RE: Female Rattlesnakes
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by FSB on September 9, 2008
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Jahon, I have definitely noticed subtly different temperaments between the sexes of many snakes, especially rattlesnakes, but I don't think anyone's researched this enough to say definitively one way or another.... just personal observation is all I have to go on. I have particularly noticed that female rattlesnakes (like a lot of women), tend to be more obsessive and aggressive about eating, and that, yeah, they can be real "bitchy" when they want to be! (Especially my female N. Pacific...snakes don't menstruate of course, but she's got a permanent case of PMS).
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RE: Female Rattlesnakes
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by Cro on September 9, 2008
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In a way, it would make sense that female rattlesnakes would exhibit a more high strung temperment, LOL !
After all, they could be carrying 10 to 20 of the next generation of rattlesnakes. If something happens to the female, you are loosing not only the female, but also the young, or potential young.
I can see Momma Nature making female snakes more high strung, tempermental, or pissy just because it would have survival benifits for the species !
I know that the three female Timber Rattlesnakes and one female Canebrake (lowland form Timber) that I am now keeping are very nervious and very abpt to rattle at the least disturbance. And the female Cottonmouths that I keep are also very pissy snakes.
I do not see that behavior though in my female Pygmy Rattlers.
Best Regards John Z
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RE: Female Rattlesnakes
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by LadyBloodRose on September 9, 2008
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I;ve made that observation while watching my Canebrakes.
Every morning I go into myr eptile room an lay downin the floor infronto ftheir enclosure an watch them. If the female is around close to where i am she will rattle, an even ocassionaly strike at the glass, the male will watch me an just chill, an even come forward an move around an manover himself so he can see what I am doing. He is much quieter then she is.
I also noticed that if she is with him he will coil around her in a almost protective position, with her head pillowed on his back. The entire enteraction between both snakes with one anouther an myself is definately something diffrent and verry intresting to observe.
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RE: Female Rattlesnakes
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by geckolover on September 10, 2008
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I found this to be true with water snakes as well. Females will bite the heck out of the tong while males only bite once or twice (its a gentle giant by the way).
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RE: Female Rattlesnakes
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by earthguy on September 10, 2008
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John is right, of course. Evolutionarily speaking it makes sense for the sex with the larger invesment in breeding (eggs have a much higher energy cost than cheap sperm)to be more DEFENSIVE (not aggressive). That would be tough to quantify, but you could score different behaviors from least to most defensive (viz. escape/hide = 1; coil = 2; rattle = 3; strike = 4) and find the mean score for a number of different encounters. You would need a good number of snakes to make the comparison (n = 50; 25 m, 25 f) within one species. But it is doable. It would make an excellent high school science fair project (with A LOT of responsible adult oversight). Too bad my oldest just started elementary school. I'll have to file this one away for later...
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RE: Female Rattlesnakes
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by LadyBloodRose on September 10, 2008
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its soemthingw eird though cuz even withmy gravid female copper shes no where as agressive as my constntly cranky male but then again i think hes just mad cuz his girl came pre knocked up XD
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RE: Female Rattlesnakes
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by tigers9 on September 10, 2008
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Actually, having experience with different species (wild/exotic, wild caught/captive bred, … canines, felines, reptiles, rodents...over many years, I can say males are more ‘relaxed’. I didn’t do a scientific study where I would take notes, but I observed these (many) animals as owner for over 20 years.
Males are generally more laid back, relaxed, lazy. Females are more active, aware of their surroundings, inquisitive... sometimes ‘bitchy’, and this is not just when it comes to dogs (in dog breeding/show circles, ‘bitch’ is not a dirty word).
So for example like with tigers, females can be good for training because they are so much more active/jumpy/athletics, NOT lazy, but they also get more skittish/jumpy as they mature. Kind of like human females, we end up (with age) being more inquisitive/ paranoid / questioning everything, because we go from crazy young where nothing can go wrong and nobody ever dies (young thinking even for males I guess) to knowing what can go wrong protecting what we like/love (including babies), so YES, there is a big temperament difference between genders regardless of species.
Z
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RE: Female Rattlesnakes
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by FSB on September 12, 2008
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Of course, in the case of our lovely timber rattlesnakes, maybe they're bitchy 'cause they only get laid every two or three years!
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