My baby bally has been striking a lot last few days

[Babyballynikko'sma]

So I got a new baby Ball from Petco about 2 weeks ago. He is roughly about 6 months old. I need to bring him in to the vet still for an over all health check up. But the last few days he has been striking at me. Not so much when I handled him. I handle him everyday except for the day of feeding and day after so I don't stress him out. I have done alot of research on husbandry. He is my first snake. And right now. He has; two hides a cool side and a warm side a water dish that he can soak in if he chooses, i use cocunut saturate to help with humidity, he has a UTH with thermostat and a vine to crawl in and some greenery to hide in amd crawl on. He also has a night over the top light to help with temp (my room tends to get chilly) his humidity is maintained between 50 and 65. I spray his saturate every 2 or 3 days to keep that number he has a temp gradient that goes from 95 on his warm side to 80ish on his cool side. I test it daily with a laser therm. He has had 2 feeds since I have had him he's due tomorrow for a third. Started in mice the first feed from petco. Desided to go to a breeder and get rats instead since I have heard they are better for them. His last feed was a live pup. He did really well with it, no problems. Tomorrow will be a frozen pup. He poops regularly, he has pooped twice since I had him (once on me sadly) and theu day after I got him he actually started his actual shed. I did have to help him with that with a warm bath and the tape trick on his head. No eyes caps were retained. I dont think petco had his humidity right, we will see on jis next sjed if tje regulation in his humidity helps. Checked his mouth for any signs of RI when I got him, and he looked clean. Thay is his briefed history. When I got him he was very mellow. Stuck the guy at pet co once but that was when he was taking him out. And stuck at my phone once. I think it was the heat. But yesterday he stuck 2 times and today I checked on him in his tank and he was climbing around and stuck the glass 4 times. Hungery? Tomorrow is feeding day (every 5 days since he is a babe) stress? Could my husbandry be wrong? I don't understand why the sudden strikes? Anything I can do better or any ideas? I am still working on socializing hem. He does really well with other people my friends love him and once he calms down when I take him out he does really really well with me. Either chills wrapped in my fingers and watches TV with my or crawls though my cloths and explores. Even sits on my head times in my hair. I just want to make sure he is happy and it its something I am doing thays causing him to strike like this all of a sudden, what can I do better? Thank you!!

[MixtSpice]

My boyfriend works at PetCo and they just sold a ball python that had a lot of attitude, wouldn't really let anyone hold him and struck at just about anyone. I know they have to handle their snakes when cleaning their enclosures and whenever someone wants to hold them but other then that, their snakes don't really get handled. I think some ball's can just have attitudes, it might not be necessarily something you're doing or not doing; but this is just a hunch and I'm still learning as well.

[Babyballynikko'sma]

My boyfriend works at PetCo and they just sold a ball python that had a lot of attitude, wouldn't really let anyone hold him and struck at just about anyone. I know they have to handle their snakes when cleaning their enclosures and whenever someone wants to hold them but other then that, their snakes don't really get handled. I think some ball's can just have attitudes, it might not be necessarily something you're doing or not doing; but this is just a hunch and I'm still learning as well.

I am just curious as to why it all of a sudden started two weeks after I brought him home you know? Not when I touch him, but I looked at him in his tank and he threw a FIT probably hurt his poor little nose striking so any times.

[jbzapanda]

You should probably post a picture of your set up just so everyone can see if everything is adequate. Maybe he feels way too out in the open and he needs more cover in his setup? Or maybe he's hungry. Did you leave him to acclimate? You may want to limit handling for a while until he's completely settled

[dmt_jovi]

From what you've explained, I think the strikes are probably stress related.

Regarding your husbandry the only change I would do is lower the hot stop, 95 is on the higher-end of what is commonly considered safe to a ball-python's warm side, just lower it a couple degrees and you should be good to go. However I would like to add 2 things:
1 - If you can, provide a picture of the enclosure since it's easier that way to notice is something needs adjustment, because although it seems like on the paper your enclosure is almost spot on, ;
2 - Remember to check the temps of your warm side below the substrate, your snake can and will burrow in the substrate, he will touch and (most likely) sit on top of the hottest part of the enclosure, and if the hottest part is above 95 degrees, a burn will occur and a burn is no fun for you treat, and most importantly, it's an injury that really compromises your snake's health (or even life).
BTW, when you say he has an over the top night light, what are you exactly referring to? A CHE or a red heat lamp?

Now, regarding those strikes, 2 weeks is not a lot of time for a snake to settle-in and since you said you've been handling him everyday, except when is feeding day and the day after, I would say that is most likely the reason he started to strike at you. You are a new giant that has been wiggling him arround almost everyday, the stress got to a point that the best solution he found to be left alone is if he strikes at you. Give him a week of no handling and restart the handling sessions slowly 10 min or so every couple of days (not everyday), once he starts to show no more signs of stress (striking, hissing, etc.) extend those handling sessions a bit more. Keep doing this gradually and you might have a lovely snake to handle in no time

Tip: Once you re-start the handling sessions, if he starts to strike at you in the middle of a handling session don't return him to his enclosure immediately. Hold him until he calms down, whenever the signs of aggression disappear and he is calm again, return him to his enclosure. You might not be able to train a snake, but like most animals you can condition a snake to relate "good behavior" (aka no aggression) with him getting what he wants (aka return to the enclosure)


P.S.: When it comes to ball pythons, 6 months don't really mean much unless you know the hatching date and he was bought from a respectable breeder or if you were the one hatching him, and even then, age doesn't mean much. Weigh your noodle and it will be easier to help you with feeding-wise issues.

[Babyballynikko'sma]

You should probably post a picture of your set up just so everyone can see if everything is adequate. Maybe he feels way too out in the open and he needs more cover in his setup? Or maybe he's hungry. Did you leave him to acclimate? You may want to limit handling for a while until he's completely settled

I tried to post a picture but for some reason I could not. He may be hungery, like I mentioned tomorrow is feeding day. He is in a 10 gal tank, there is not alot of open space he has 3 plants in there with his two hides. When he struck he was on top of one of the plants. I did give him time to ajust. The first week, aside from helping him shed and feeding i did not really handle him. It was just all of a sudden today. Bam bam bam. When I held him earlier He was cool. Super chill exploring. A little jumpy but that's expected as a baby right?

[dmt_jovi]

I tried to post a picture but for some reason I could not.

Here you go :

How to Post Pictures

[Babyballynikko'sma]

From what you've explained, I think the strikes are probably stress related.

Regarding your husbandry the only change I would do is lower the hot stop, 95 is on the higher-end of what is commonly considered safe to a ball-python's warm side, just lower it a couple degrees and you should be good to go. However I would like to add 2 things:
1 - If you can, provide a picture of the enclosure since it's easier that way to notice is something needs adjustment, because although it seems like on the paper your enclosure is almost spot on, ;
2 - Remember to check the temps of your warm side below the substrate, your snake can and will burrow in the substrate, he will touch and (most likely) sit on top of the hottest part of the enclosure, and if the hottest part is above 95 degrees, a burn will occur and a burn is no fun for you treat, and most importantly, it's an injury that really compromises your snake's health (or even life).
BTW, when you say he has an over the top night light, what are you exactly referring to? A CHE or a red heat lamp?

Now, regarding those strikes, 2 weeks is not a lot of time for a snake to settle-in and since you said you've been handling him everyday, except when is feeding day and the day after, I would say that is most likely the reason he started to strike at you. You are a new giant that has been wiggling him arround almost everyday, the stress got to a point that the best solution he found to be left alone is if he strikes at you. Give him a week of no handling and restart the handling sessions slowly 10 min or so every couple of days (not everyday), once he starts to show no more signs of stress (striking, hissing, etc.) extend those handling sessions a bit more. Keep doing this gradually and you might have a lovely snake to handle in no time

Tip: Once you re-start the handling sessions, if he starts to strike at you in the middle of a handling session don't return him to his enclosure immediately. Hold him until he calms down, whenever the signs of aggression disappear and he is calm again, return him to his enclosure. You might not be able to train a snake, but like most animals you can condition a snake to relate "good behavior" (aka no aggression) with him getting what he wants (aka return to the enclosure)


P.S.: When it comes to ball pythons, 6 months don't really mean much unless you know the hatching date and he was bought from a respectable breeder or if you were the one hatching him, and even then, age doesn't mean much. Weigh your noodle and it will be easier to help you with feeding-wise issues.

Thankyou so much for the advice. I will try to get a pic up. I do have a little mat under his saturate too to help with the hot spots but I will def turn that down. It just struck me as odd that he didn't strike while I was handling him but while he was in his tank.

His light is like a red light but it's dark blue. I am not sure what it's called i will have to look. But it did say it was a night time light. So i am assuming it's one that's ok to leave on at night and wont affect his 12 on 12 off schedual.

I will definetly get a little scale to weight my noodle haha. Thankyou again!

[Babyballynikko'sma]

Here you go :

How to Post Pictures

Thankyou as soon as i get home I will post a picture

[cchardwick]

I have a ball python that has decided to be down right mean, just snaps at me all the time when I open up her tub. Almost got me today, struck at me and actually touched my hand at the end of the strike but didn't get me. When I first got her home after having her shipped to my house I put her in a glass aquarium with a hide and wood chips on the kitchen counter. I'm pretty sure she associated me with the rough shipping and maybe thought it was my fault that she was getting roughed up. The only reason I had her in that tank is that my new ARS rack arrived the same day and I still had to set it up and it wasn't ready for her. Not sure if that's the moment she decided she didn't like people but she has never been the same since. Now I have snakes held at the FedEx shipping center so they don't get roughed up.

I also think it's partly her genes too, she is a 'bumble bee', or a pastel spider. Seems like a lot of them are mean, maybe that's why they call them bumblebees LOL. I'm hoping she mellows out as she gets bigger. Seems like she won't eat frozen thawed, only live.

Not sure if any of that relates to what you are going through, just thought I'd share my experience. Once they decide they don't like you I think it's hard to break them out of it. In my case I'm not really concerned about it since she is not really a pet, just a breeder. You could always resell your snake on Morphmarket and add a note about it's attitude, a breeder won't care much about that.

Also, I just remembered that I used to spray her enclosure with a spray bottle and I'd spray the snake directly, seems like she didn't like that and seemed to make her associate the negative experience with me. Now I actually pour water in the tub instead of spray it down.