Aggression in high end morph babies?

[lolashowme]

Hi everyone. I posted a couple of weeks back King Caesar, my beautiful queen bee male. i love him to death and hes eating like a champ (got him on frozen right away too!) but hes aggressive with me often, striking at me. once i get him in my hand he i a bt more chilled out and he doesnt strike but if hes not in my hands he s's up and goes for it.
i've read that the high end morphs sometimes are more aggro. is this true? any thoughts or suggestions.
ps: looks like im going to breed him with a gorgeous butter ghost-- what do you guys think of that?
thanks!

[Darkice]

Every snake is different. Some younger ones will be a bit nippy but they usually grow out of it. Make sure your hands are clean and dont smell like the food.

[OhhWatALoser]

being a morph has nothing to do with personallity.... It makes no sense why would it?

the only thing that i know of that causes something different than just looks is the spider wooble and thats still not going to cause aggression, they just don't move the way they want to sometimes.

im sure theres just as many aggressive morphs as there is non-morphs, which in the ball python world, isn't many. he will most likly calm down with handling, don't worry.

[RandyRemington]

Almost all of my breeding experience is with normals but I have seen strong tendencies for aggressive ball pythons to have aggressive offspring. I've seen this with two different lines through several generations.

Years ago when ball pythons where first becoming popular the main complaint about the species was that they where not good feeders. There was a common belief that more aggressive animals where better feeders and even better breeders. I have some great eating and breeding non aggressive ball pythons so I'm working to cull aggressive animals from my collection as I don't believe it's needed to improve ball python feeding. One of the things I like about ball pythons is their typical non aggressive personality. However, I could easily see someone who had worked with other more aggressive species not seeing aggressive ball pythons as a negative and perhaps even purposely breeding it into their morph projects. I don't have any inside info as to if that has actually happened or not but if aggression really is more common in morph ball pythons its one possible explanation.

It's also possible that aggression could be a side effect of some mutations. It's been proposed that in some species albinos can't see as well and this makes them more defensive. Maybe some other mutations cause chronic pain and a grumpy attitude.

[Serpent_Nirvana]

It's been proposed that in some species albinos can't see as well and this makes them more defensive. Maybe some other mutations cause chronic pain and a grumpy attitude.

Hmm, interesting theory! I hadn't heard that but it does make some sense.

Of all my BPs, my albino is definitely the "snappiest." (I come from the thrashing/peeing/striking big blood python camp, so I kind of find this behavior amusing in a little BP; he's also still a baby, though, so I imagine he'll grow out of it.) All of my other BPs are very tame by my standards. As of last night, all of them also have great feeding responses with F/T rats

All of my other albino snakes (blood, Burm, retic, BCI, sand boa) have been totally tame, however, in some cases tamer than their wildtype counterparts. Also, in hedgehogs, albinos tend to be tamer naturally than wildtype or other mutation colors. However, it's also conventional wisdom that albino rats are the devil -- but, now I'm sure I'll get lots of albino rat owners coming on to dispute that

I tend to agree with Randy that aggression in certain colors or strains of animal has much more to do with the selective breeding of that animal, and less to do with that mutation "making" it mean, for some reason. If the founder of a certain morph happened to be aggressive, his offspring will tend to be aggressive.

... Or, what I've always said is that the prettier/more expensive a snake is, the meaner it'll be 'cuz it knows it can get away with it

[WingedWolfPsion]

I've always found that aggressive balls tend to start off as poor feeders--they're too defensive, and want to kill the rats with their teeth instead of constricting and eating them. <lol>

I also don't keep aggressive balls in my collection. Fortunately, all of my morphs are nice snakes, including my albinos. The woma-lesser I produced this season is also docile.
I suspect it has to do with people keeping snakes just for pretty, instead of pretty and temperament.

[rabernet]

I've always found that aggressive balls tend to start off as poor feeders--they're too defensive, and want to kill the rats with their teeth instead of constricting and eating them. <lol>

My experience has been the opposite. The babies that are most aggressive are the first to take their first meals out of the clutch and continue to pound food, while becoming more docile as they put on weight (gaining size, means less likely to be a prey item).

[Mike Schultz]

I've seen just as many aggressive morphs as normals and hets... It's all about how you handle them!

And aggressive babies tend to eat better... I believe its because if they strike at the offered prey, even if its a defensive strike, they get a taste and realize it's food, causing them to more readily feed.

[Envied Reptiles]

I also think it depends on the source. Did you buy someones pet that was taken out and handeld regularly, or did you buy a mass produced from incubator to rack and rack only opened to throw in feeders type of snake. I think this may have more to do with it than the fact its morph vs normal. IE Basically Im saying it isnt just nature, but nurture also....

[West Coast Jungle]

I find they are all individuals regardless of morph. Some are nervous and jumpy and some mellow or outgoing. I have bad feeders that are not nervous and jumpy ones that eat great. Some hiss all the time and some come out to greet you. Besides spider wobbles most behaviors have nothing to do with morphs.