New Nippy Snake.. was a gift for my brother.. what to do?

[zach_24_90]

so i got my brother a 2-4 month old ball python (at myrtle beach last week) probably in the 115g range cause he didnt want a hatchlling but wanted to be able to watch it grow. well i handled him at the show and he was FINE the sweetest thing, then i get him back to my hotel and he is just like bam, bam, bam striking anything and everything. well this doesnt bother me much as i have a bunch of snakes and im used to the occasional nip but seeing as how its a gift for my brother who will be a first time owner im worried about this..ive been handling it a few minutes each day and will be feeding tomorrow with the rest of my snakes but even with the handling he is just a pissy little bp.. any suggestions? i have about a month till im giving it to him.

[weird_science04]

Gotta let the snake acclimate. Anytime you get any new snake, they need time to get use to the changes. Not only did you buy the snake from another person but that person brought the snake in a vehicle to a show. At the show, the temps are not spot on. Then the snake get handled more frequently because people want to see it. After that, you buy it and bring it into the hotel, which once again, temps are not spot on. Once you finally get the poor fellow home, the stress level in the snake is so high that the snake doesn't even know what to do. I never handle new snakes right away. I always wait until after the first successful feeding before handling snakes and sometimes even longer than that. The older it is, the longer it might take to acclimate.

I, also, bought BP's at that show and when I got them home, one balled up and hid while the other spent the whole night trying to get out of its cage while hyperventilating. No striking but you could tell the poor guy was way too stressed out. I ended up covering the cage with a blanket and everything.

Give it time to get use to everything and I am sure it will calm down.

Star

[tcutting]

Gotta let the snake acclimate. Anytime you get any new snake, they need time to get use to the changes. Not only did you buy the snake from another person but that person brought the snake in a vehicle to a show. At the show, the temps are not spot on. Then the snake get handled more frequently because people want to see it. After that, you buy it and bring it into the hotel, which once again, temps are not spot on. Once you finally get the poor fellow home, the stress level in the snake is so high that the snake doesn't even know what to do. I never handle new snakes right away. I always wait until after the first successful feeding before handling snakes and sometimes even longer than that. The older it is, the longer it might take to acclimate.

I, also, bought BP's at that show and when I got them home, one balled up and hid while the other spent the whole night trying to get out of its cage while hyperventilating. No striking but you could tell the poor guy was way too stressed out. I ended up covering the cage with a blanket and everything.

Give it time to get use to everything and I am sure it will calm down.

Star

x2

Take your time dont rush it.

[zach_24_90]

yeah i mean i am not handling him more than once a day.. i jsut dont have much time to waste on this one haha and i ended up getting 6 snakes at MB and they are all fine i can handle no problem. idk he is just exceptionally pissy

[Redneck_Crow]

My meanest ball python, Minnie, was a terror when I got her. Her first act when I untied her shipping bag, was to jump out like one of those "snake in a can" jokes and bite me.

Darth Jackass, an 09 male I recently aquired, bit me four times and crapped on me twice in his first day.

First, remove the stress. Minnie had been rolled around in a box and gotten cold in a Fed Ex shipping experience...well, she was due by 10am. I got her at 4pm and she was very cold. Darthie was hungry and thirsty. He ate a rat the first day like he hadn't seen one in a while and drank for ten minutes straight.

Both were still snappy after they got settled, but not as bad. I used a cage hook to pick Minnie up for about a week because she was snapping when I picked her up. Darthie was bigger than I like to hook, so I used the hook to touch his head so that he would ball up, then picked him up. Only had to do that a couple of times.

Minnie is so tame that at 10 months old she is letting people who have never picked up a snake handle her. Darthie.....well, he still has a way to go, but he's quit biting.

Getting a snake to let you handle it is mostly getting the snake to understand, through repetition, that you aren't going to eat him. Some of them take longer than others. If you don't want to use a cage hook put a towel on him and then pick him up. I don't like to put them into situations where they are going to bite--IMHO that reinforces that biting is what they ought to be doing, and I don't know if that is really what is going on in their pea sized brain. The picking up is the bugaboo, after you pick them up if you don't make too many jerky moves or go directly at their faces they usually do fine.

Most of the human response to biting is learned. A ball python bite isn't that bad. If you little brother sees that you consider it no big deal he will probably react to it as no big deal if it happens to him. Humans routinely play with dogs and cats and get much worse from them during the course of play.

[Evenstar]

Gotta let the snake acclimate. Anytime you get any new snake, they need time to get use to the changes. Not only did you buy the snake from another person but that person brought the snake in a vehicle to a show. At the show, the temps are not spot on. Then the snake get handled more frequently because people want to see it. After that, you buy it and bring it into the hotel, which once again, temps are not spot on. Once you finally get the poor fellow home, the stress level in the snake is so high that the snake doesn't even know what to do. I never handle new snakes right away. I always wait until after the first successful feeding before handling snakes and sometimes even longer than that. The older it is, the longer it might take to acclimate.

I, also, bought BP's at that show and when I got them home, one balled up and hid while the other spent the whole night trying to get out of its cage while hyperventilating. No striking but you could tell the poor guy was way too stressed out. I ended up covering the cage with a blanket and everything.

Give it time to get use to everything and I am sure it will calm down.

Star

x3

yeah i mean i am not handling him more than once a day.. i jsut dont have much time to waste on this one haha and i ended up getting 6 snakes at MB and they are all fine i can handle no problem. idk he is just exceptionally pissy

You shouldn't be handling him at ALL for the first week or so. Give him time and be patient with the handling. Leave him alone. He'll be fine. A month from now, he'll be a different snake. Just give him time. Once he's had at least a week to settle in, you can start training him (or your brother can) like Redneck_Crew suggested.

[DellaF]

You keep the nippy one and give your brother one that isn't if he hasn't calmed down by then I know I'm being a smarty pants just an idea.

[Redneck_Crow]

I like the nippy ones the best. They usually end up being the best feeders and less likely to go spastic under stress. Maybe "nippy" is how a snake shows assertiveness. Like "I'm not going to just sit here and let you eat me...."

[zach_24_90]

You keep the nippy one and give your brother one that isn't if he hasn't calmed down by then I know I'm being a smarty pants just an idea.

haha he will be getting none of mine.

[llovelace]

Video tape him getting tagged , did I type that. j/k
Little one are sometimes nippy, with more handling it will calm down .
I have been making it a point to handle all my well started hatchlings daily, in hopes that the new owners don't experience nippiness.

It may be hungry, most vendors don't feed prior to a show.