#pienna python

[tinyrosemarysparrows]

I still have to wear the leather glove to handle her to be safe, but there was no screaming and only one attempt to bite me when I took her out to clean her terrarium. When I picked her up to put her back in, she didn’t try to bite at all. It’s a lot of progress since I got her a couple of years ago.

She’s currently not too happy about everything being changed.

[tinyrosemarysparrows]

If you’ve been following this blog for the past two years, you’ll know that I have three lizards, the most recent of which is my baby Pienna. She is notorious for being highly aggressive and wanting me dead.

When I got her, she was completely unable to be handled and malnutritioned. She was also already two years old, so the prime time for hand training was long gone. She had been kept poorly during those two years. As an adult, she would actively try to bite my hand and scream. My gods, she screamed. There’s a video of me trying to put her in her carrier last year to move her and she’s screaming the entire time and I’m crying because I’m both afraid and feel awful that she thinks she’s in danger. Honestly, I had completely written her off as a dangerous lizard that would only ever be handled when she absolutely had to.

I’m currently moving into a new apartment and the movers are coming tomorrow for the furniture, so I had to pack the babies up and empty the terrariums. Which meant putting Pienna in her carrier. I have very big, thick red gloves for such occasions because she will draw blood.

Shockingly, all she did was puff up when I picked her up. No lunging. No screaming. No snapping. Not even very much wriggling. She wasn’t happy, of course, but she was tolerant, which is more than I ever thought that I could have with her.

I know that lizards aren’t animals that get special videos or praises for moving past trauma. They’re not emotional creatures and you can’t cuddle them. They don’t really do all that much. But I am so incredibly happy and proud that she’s come this far. Since I got her, I’ve been legitimately afraid of this animal. I love her, but I understand that she poses a risk if I’m not careful. Her letting me pick her up and put her in the carrier without any issue for the first time since she came home is all of the reward I could ever hope for in giving her this life. Our eyes met two years ago and I thought, “I just want to give her a good home and she’s going to die in this place.”

I don’t know if she knows that she’s in a better place or that she’s loved. I don’t know if she’s moving past her issues with people and being afraid all of the time. I don’t know if she likes the purple flowers I got her or the shape of the water dish she has. What I do know is that I can put my hand in to feed her and she won’t run away or try to bite. Sometimes she lets me watch her eat. And, now, I can pick her up without the usual fanfare. At the very least, she’s decided at some point in the past half year that I’m alright. I’m not great, but I’m not a threat to her. That’s probably as close to love as this one is going to get and I’m proud of that.

By no means is she able to be handled out of her terrarium—she will probably always be “display only.” Posy and Pallas are friendly enough for all three and they had a better start than she did. But she’s good.

[tinyrosemarysparrows]

Angriest turnip in the world.

[tinyrosemarysparrows]

Ranking My Kids From Lowest to Highest Levels of Bastardness

1. Posy Python

A good girl. The most perfect being on the planet. She’s probably something akin to Christ. I have never loved anything as much as I love this lizard. She likes to climb under my shirt and just hang out. I have bonded so intensely to this gecko that I can’t sleep without having her in the same room as me.

2. Ferdinand

Too early to tell how bastardly he actually is. He hasn’t tried to bite me so he’s automatically less bastardly than the other two.

3. Pallas Python

Tried to bite me when I first brought him home. I called him a moldy lemon for the first six months that I had him. Likes head pats, but not being picked up. I bought him for $10 and he’s exactly what you would expect from a lizard that was only $10. Everything he touches turns to poison. I saw his genitals once and my eyes went to hell.

4. Pienna Python

She looks like an angel and when I saw her the first time we formed an emotional connection so I had to bring her home. She actively tried to bite me every time I put my hand in her enclosure for a year. She screams at me and it makes me cry. I have to wear a thick glove to pick her up because she bites very hard. I will probably never be able to handle this gecko in my life without her screaming and biting. I love her a lot, but she is the most bastardly out of all of my children and I’m very afraid of her. I worry that one day she will escape her terrarium and kill me. A summoning ritual went wrong and the devil was sealed inside of this little lizard that is now my daughter. She takes pleasure in causing others distress.

[tinyrosemarysparrows]

Pienna now immediately doesn’t run to hide when I put her food out. We made eye contact for a solid five seconds and she watched me fill up her water bowl without screaming or trying to bite me. 

I will take this as a sign that she loves me and is grateful that I took her in as my daughter, providing all that she could ever need and more. 

[tinyrosemarysparrows]

I give my daughter fresh, plump worms. I go out and I buy these for her and her siblings and I offer them to her in a special dish so they can’t escape because I know she only eats live prey. I give her the privacy she wants to eat because she likes to think I don’t know she’s there even though we’re in the same room. 

And what does she do? What does she deign to do with these worms I have gotten her? She puts them in her water bowl! For me to find! When I’m making sure she has plenty of water! Worms in her water! The nerve! 

[tinyrosemarysparrows]

She did bark at me a few times to let me know where we stand, but she seems to like her new set up. I would take pictures of her without glass between us, but that would risk her taking off my fingers.

[tinyrosemarysparrows]

I am happy to announce that Pienna ate off of the tongs today and then ate out of her bowl in front of me! She didn’t scream once.

This is the friendliest she’s been since I brought her home last fall. Very excited about it!

[tinyrosemarysparrows]

I had gone to buy more worms for the kids today and it seems the shop is keeping leopard geckos again. They must be new additions, because they seemed alert and somewhat healthy. Poor things. 

Pienna was my last leo and I’m not planning on making any more last-second additions because I felt a connection and they pulled at my heartstrings, but gods do I feel sorry for the animals that shop keeps. I’ve had Pienna for around eight months now and she’s still extremely aggressive and nervous just being looked at. Only recently has she stopped snapping at me and that’s only because she’s begun to associate me with food (she still eats like she’s competing with seven others). 

Don’t keep leopard geckos on sand. Don’t keep them in pairs or groups. Respect the animals and understand that their needs are more important than how much space you can save or your neat little ideas of them being social animals (they’re not). 

[tinyrosemarysparrows]

Pienna has started coming out of her favorite hide to hang out in the open areas of her terrarium. She still eventually runs to hide when she sees me watching her, but it’s so encouraging to see her relaxing in her own space. When I first got her, I would never see her and she would bolt as soon as she heard me move. 

I’m still nervous to reach into her terrarium without gloves, but I think in a few months I might be able to. Cleaning is still a big issue because she gets so aggressive, but she is definitely making progress. She’s miles from the gecko I first brought home last year.

[tinyrosemarysparrows]

A new behavior in Pienna is that she associates any part of the feeding tongs with food, regardless of if there is a worm at the end. So there’s been a lot of lunging and biting the tongs. I’m hoping she’ll adapt her behavior once she starts realizing she doesn’t find food anywhere aside from the ends of the tongs.

It’s a pro and con of the new tongs. These have a rounded edge and are longer than the old ones, so I’m comfortable feeding the gecks directly from them. Unfortunately, Pienna has formed the wrong behaviors and I am once again nervous about getting bitten by her. But I’m going to continue with this feeding method so I can know exactly when and how much they’re eating. I’m still really shaken up about Posy.

It kind of reminds me of when Posy was a baby and I used to just put her in a little critter keeper for feeding and take her out when she had eaten enough. It ended up being a pain because it took her a long time to realize food could exist outside of the box. It’s kind of bittersweet to see Pienna doing something similar.

[tinyrosemarysparrows]

Pienna is back to screaming at me when she sees me and I'm convinced this is just how she's going to be. I bought her with the intent of having another hand-friendly gecko like Posy because Pallas has never taken to handling, but it seems like her two years before coming to me are not going to let that happen. It's frustrating and disappointing, but I'm not going to force it. Poor thing wasn't kept properly before me. I don't want to stress her.

She's still a permanent member of my little family and I adore her. She eats well and seems to like her set up (I'm going to be changing it up to make her feel more concealed), so I can be satisfied with that.

It just stresses me out so badly when she's constantly screaming at the sight of my hand. I know it's going to be a long road to her tolerating me after bad handling and she might never calm down all the way, but it's still discouraging. I just want her to feel safe.

I don't regret buying her and I know I can provide what she needs. Just wish that she had been kept better before me. Poor girl.

[tinyrosemarysparrows]

She hates me, but I love her so much.

[tinyrosemarysparrows]

I don't think she's seen calcium powder before because she's going nuts over it.

[tinyrosemarysparrows]

Today on "What Have I Done With My Life," I attempt to bribe a gecko full of rage with expensive hides in hopes that she no longer hates me.

[tinyrosemarysparrows]

Pienna looks like a little angel cupcake with her colors and how she curls up so perfectly. Do not be fooled. She is like a beaver. Not evil, because her previous keepers kept her badly and made her this way, but definitely mean.