Have you dealt with a fearful/defensive ball??

[MootWorm]

If so, I'd greatly appreciate some advice. My little girl is extremely defensive. She's about 150 grams, I haven't yet weighed her because she seems to stress out so easily. Before you ask, I'll describe my setup a bit:

Housing: she's in a tub, it's an off brand but I think it's pretty close to a 28 qt. I only have 1 hide, but I know many who use tubs don't even provide them, so I'm not sure if that's the issue. Honestly it could be a little more cluttered. It's a foggy clearish tub, do I need to black the entire thing out? I have a ceramic water bowl on the cool end, and a digital thermometer I there as well. (Yes, I know it's not recommended to use battery operated things, but I check it regularly to make sure there aren't any leakages, etc).

Temps/heating: I have a small UTH on a hydrofarm, warm side is 91, cool is 82 as of this morning. My ambient room temp is 86 degrees, perfect for reptiles, absolutely horrendous for anything mammalian (myself included!!). Humidity is pretty high due to our evaporative cooler, it's sitting around 60%.

Feeding: she gets appropriately sized home grown ASF Not surprisingly, she's an extremely aggressive feeder, has never missed a meal with me, not even when in shed. I feed every 5-6 days, depending on who's hungry.

Now she's been a little pistol since I brought her home ( she was a complete angel when I was checking her out before purchase, go figure). She tagged me pretty good the first night when I was checking her temps. For the first 3 weeks, I didn't even touch her except for feeding and cleanings.

I've been trying to handle her for short sessions a few times a week, but she's still a holy terror. Strikes when I open the tank, huffs and puffs when I hold her, the whole nine yards. I cleaned out her tank the day before yesterday, which she was NOT happy about, but hey, it needs to get done. Then today as I was walking past and checking on everyone, she violently threw herself against the side of the tub multiple times. I think she has it out for me lol.

Now I do keep a small colony of ASF about 6 feet from her tank, should I move them to a different room? They don't seem to have any effect on my other ball or hognose, both of whom are housed in the same vicinity.

Do you have any advice about her behavior? Aside from continued handling sessions? I've read through quite a few of the posts here regarding fearful and/or aggressive snakes, I'm looking for fresh insights, or some alternatives that have worked for you.

Thanks for reading my novel Let me know if I forgot anything!!M

[Daybreaker]

She sounds just like a defensive baby to me: some are more so than others. If she's still eating and husbandry is up to par I would continue with short handling sessions. What really worked for me when I was working to calm down by Sumatran blood girl was to approach her in a confident manner (ie no hovering over her, no hesitating when trying to pick her up) and to only let her back into her tub when she was calm and not "acting out". They can really pick up on if you're nervous or hesitating: once I just reaching in there and picked her up (no grabbing of course) her behavior really turned around. Ending on a positive is good too: only end handling when the snake isn't huffing/striking/biting/etc and is relaxed.

And I wouldn't worry about moving the ASF colony, I keep my rabbits and our rats in the snake room with no ill effects.

[MootWorm]

Awesome! Thanks so much. I'll just keep up what I'm doing then. I try not to reward her 'bad' behavior, but many times after I've got her calmed down, when I go to put her away she gets all hissy and defensive if I move lol.

I'm hoping she'll calm down once she gets some size on her. Its been ages since I've had to deal with a little one, and my first baby was a sweetie from the start. My other current ball is about 700g and he's the biggest puppy dog ever.

[steve_r34]

Good luck

[Inarikins]

A stand alone tub is not the same as a tub in a rack and she still needs at least two hides. I would provide her a second hide then continue to handle. Our pastel doesn't strike all the time, but she does hiss and get huffy a lot and bluffs like she's about to strike. She's in a 28 qt tub with three cereal bowl hides in a rack system and we've been handling. She may always be 'aggressive', because while it's uncommon in ball pythons it does happen. A lot of the time babies do grow out of this stage, though. She may just need time.

[satomi325]

I suggest moving to a smaller tub until she grows up a bit. 28qts is pretty large for a 150g baby unless you put a lot of hides and clutter in. Just sounds like an insecure baby who needs more security.
She should settle down when she feels less open and vulnerable.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

[MootWorm]

Alrighty so I've got 3 identical hides in there to clutter things up, she seems to have taken to them fairly well (I haven't seen her all day lol). Entire tub is blacked out. I'll give her a few days to settle, then start our handling sessions again. I'm sure she'll be ecstatic lol. If this doesn't help after a few weeks, I'll try downgrading her to a smaller tub. Hopefully this well fix things!! Thanks for all the input guys, it's very much appreciated

[steve_r34]

just fyi i use 12q sterlite tubs from walmart with no hides i do not have a rack system set up yet but they stay in a closet that is dark all day unless im in there checking on them then i turn a light on .. the smallest on is about 120 grams and the biggest about 320-340 .. forgot last weigh in .. hopefully that helps some