​I'm a new ball python owner, but I've had two corn snakes in the past. With my corn snakes, I never had any aggression issues, so I guess I got nervous when my bp started showing signs of aggression that I haven't experienced before, and I'm not sure how to deal with it.

I've had her for about 3 weeks, she's a juvenile about maybe 20 inches long, and she's eaten successfully for me twice. She's in a 20 gal tank, hot side 95-100 F and cool side 75-80 F, with 40-60% humidity that I mist daily and keep a damp towel over half the enclosure.

The first time I fed her, she ate two pinkies (I know those are too small for her size, but pinkies and fuzzies were all I had at the time, and I wanted to use them up - I figured feeding her at least 2-3 of these smaller mice would make up for a larger single mouse). I left her alone for 48 hours, and she was a little skittish when I tried to handle her after that, so I left her alone for an extra day and after that third day, she was fine. I'll handle her for maybe 10-15 minutes daily, either in my hands or let her crawl around on a blanket while keeping an eye on her.

After that first feeding, I waited 5 days, then upped her to a fuzzy mouse, which was closer to an appropriate size prey item for her, but she still could have consumed something larger. My plan was to feed her two of those, but because she was finicky when trying to feed her two pinkie mice in one sitting, I was going to feed her one fuzzy, wait 48 hours, then feed her another and have that be her feeding for the week.

After the first 48 hours, I went to try to handle her, but she was skittish again, so I figured maybe she just needs 3 days to digest. The next day, it was the same thing, and I was honestly a little nervous to try and pick her up because she looked very tense, her neck was in an S curve and her head and neck were tilted upwards, looking like she might strike, so I hesitated. My hesitation probably made her more weary, so I left her alone. The next day, I was just going to face my fear and pick her up whether she liked it or not, so that's what I did, and I held her for about 30 seconds despite my nerves, but then she opened her mouth slightly and closed it facing toward me, and she seemed tense, so I thought she might strike and I put her back, and she started being skittish again, slithering away very quickly around her tank.

Why is she being so aggressive, or is this all in my head? Are my nerves making it seem worse than it actually is? I've never feared any of my pet snakes before, but the prospect of getting bit (even though I know it's not the worst thing in the world), or making her afraid me by having repeatedly bad interactions with her makes me nervous. My friend who also owns a juvenile bp says don't let the snake dictate the interaction, be calm, confident, and swift when I pick her up, which I had been doing before she started being like this. I also wonder if it's just because she's still hungry, which I'm planning to feed her 2 fuzzies tomorrow and hope that satisfies her and gets rid of that aggression. Those are my last two fuzzies, and I'm planning to up her prey item for the following feeding. Is she just super hungry? Please help!