Crush, My First BCI, One Year Old

[fire-eyes]

Crush my first BCI, a male salmon pastel from JimiSnakes (excellent experience!) turned one year old on April 17th. It has been a wild ride, and it's taken a lot more work than I expected, however it's all so worth it! He's the best.

He was quite a challenge for me. Not only was he my first boa, but he was exceptionally aggressive for the first four months. The first week was pure rage, which I guess might be expected. While he calmed down a little, that first month was pretty crazy. He managed to be incredibly intimidating, and just plain mean. If I could even get him out (I tried every single day, except for the 2 days after he ate), it was no more than 3 or 4 minutes, sometimes even only a few seconds. He would just completely freak out and panic. Following that first month, he began to calm down more, but the progression was remarkably slow. I became very worried that I simply had an aggressive snake, and I would just have to deal with it.

Still I pushed on, and he dropped the “strike at the sight of you” act and backed off to just hissing a lot. Which was fine, I would hold him and he would just sit in my hand and hiss. And hiss. And hiss. Huff and puff, until he was exhausted and he'd stop for a while. Then he'd do it over and over again. It took a while but I realized it was all an act, and I started ignoring it. Picking him up despite if he liked it or not was the best (yet most intimidating to me) thing to do, as it sort of forced him to deal with me.

Once I made a post expressing my concern for his aggression, which was disappearing but so slowly that it really bothered me, he took a major leap forward in calming down. That very night, for the first time he began to look at me and carefully explore my face. I still remember being terrified that he was going to rip my nose off, but I knew that he was making a pretty bold move in exploring so I just went with it. Trust had to be built.

This all progressed to the point that he no longer strikes or hisses when I go to pick him up. He doesn't freak out as if he's going to fall all the time. He doesn't make fake “acting” moves as if he's going to strike, nor does he any longer attempt to intimidate me. Today, I call him friendly and occasionally sweet. He'll happily crawl over my shoulders, face, ears, top of my head, and I don't care.

It's been a lot of work but wow has it been worth it. What a great animal, very rewarding.

These pics and the full size versions can be found here: http://fire-eyes.org/gal/v/ob/n/rep/sn/spb/sy/1yo/

[LaFilleClochette]

wow hes gorgeous!

[Danounet]

Awesome story and badass name

[fire-eyes]

Awesome story and badass name

Thanks. The name came from a few things, I had replaced the dinky sized water bottle for the humidifier with a 2L bottle of Crush. I looked at the orange label, the words, his colors, then looked back a few times and it clicked.

[jben]

he's a looker, congrats

[Falconsmith]

Looks like your admirable patience paid off. Congrats on his taming. He's awesome looking too!