This happened a little over a day after I fed him a small rat. I pulled him out of the tank just to have some touchy feely time. I was holding his head side in my right hand and his tail side was draped over my left wrist. He was bobbing and weaving, swishing and swaying, checking everything out. Smelling my room and looking in every direction. My left hand was open since he was draped over my wrist. He moved towards my pointer finger and sniffed. He didn't strike or bite but he opened his mouth like he was ready to swallow a fresh kill... Now it could have been a yawn but when I clenched my hand into a fist he followed my finger and half-heartedly gave up when he saw it wasn't accessible.
Telling a story often causes me to use misdirection to keep the readers interest, though I don't lie.
He spends a lot of time outside his hide paying attention to what I'm doing, which makes me think he's hungry. I just fed him a small rat a couple days ago. The previous owners fed him once every two weeks which may not have been enough. The only way I'll really know is if I offer him something to eat.
The title of my post brings a question to my mind. What if he had bitten my finger or something else...What's the best way to get him off?
I have a dog and a cat who are very curious and sit a distance away staring. If Zeek smells them does that make him nervous? Will he get used to it if he smells them and nothing bad happens? If I have him on my shoulders or around my neck while I'm sitting at my computer and the cat or dog get close, what kind of problems might that cause? Would he get used to that interaction?
Today I brought him out and set him in my lap while I sat on the edge of my bed. He went searching nearly his body length towards my pillows before I stopped him. Then he went towards my shelves and I stopped him before he could get too entangled in the uprights. He went down the side of my bed but I didn't have to stop him at any time before he came back up at probed the surface.
I am really excited to have a friendly snake that doesn't mind being handled and is very inquisitive. Honestly when I first took ownership of the 3'6" python I was a little scared. I've never handled a snake so big and I've never been the one to pull a snake out of it's enclosure. Zeek has been a great suprise and a first owners dream. I'm sure if anyone who had been into ball pythons for a great deal of time had imagined a snake for someone getting into the hobby to have, their expectations would have been exceeded by Zeek, he's great.