The Snake Haus animals are grouped into categories based on their behavior and handle-ability. Most animals have a number at the top of their page. This tells you what level they are.
All of the animals go through a 3-month long quarantine period when they first arrive. During that period they go through health checks (and treatment if necessary), behavioral assessments, and training/socialization. After completion of the 3-month quarantine period, we decide what level of exposure they can handle. We have several different levels of animal.
1) These animals are the ones that not only display exceptionally good behavior and socialization, but are also very slow moving and calm. These snakes tend to just sit still and may even appear to be sleeping during a presentation. These animals are so good we can allow them to be around people that have no experience handling snakes as well as younger and less mature audiences.
2) The second level consists of animals that have undergone extensive training and socialization to be around people. They are very calm and social. They are comfortable being handled and moved around in any and all positions. They have no signs of aggression nor defensive behaviors. Their only fault is that they exhibit a higher level of energy, movement, and activity. These are the animals you can think of as very well behaved but wiggly and active. They are super fun!
3) The third level are animals that do really well with multiple people around them. We allow these snakes to be handled by experienced and mature people. This occurs most often at locations such as the Herpetological Society or similar events where the audience knows how to behave around an animal that may require special skills or accommodations to limit the animal’s stress.
4) The fourth level of animal would be a display animal only. These are the individuals that are good at traveling and stay calm with no signs of stress during show but remain in a locked enclosure. They are the animals that are really good with our trained handlers but might be nervous or stressed around people they don’t know. They also have no direct contact with the public.
5) Some of our animals remain in locked enclosures and are only handled by myself due to their fear, lack of exposure to people or unpredictability. Those animals are never allowed out around people unless under strict control by only myself and with no direct contact. They never leave our facility.
Regardless of the animal’s level, they are never allowed contact with people unless under the direct supervision of one of our Directors or officers who are in charge of maintaining BOTH the animal’s and the audience’s emotional and physical well being. We also do not take these animals to any public events unless the intended audience is made aware ahead of time that snakes will be on display. Some people have deeply routed fear of snakes and we do not feel they should be exposed to animals by surprise. We always respect our audience’s wishes to keep a distance or to have no exposure to the animals if desired.
Almost all of our animals at this time fall into the first three levels. There are a few in level four and a couple in level five. Level five is actually quite rare, but those animals do exist. We do NOT work with anything venomous or poisonous for our own safety.
