Personality Change

[Q Ball]

My friend and I would like to breed are BP so we asked a caretaker at a local pet store and he told us that if we would like to keep our animals as pets its not a good idea because they tend to aggressive afterwards...I wanted to know if this was true do to i would like to keep handling my BP

[Thomas Jones]

Thats not true at all. They do get a little food agressive right after they lay but they lose alot of weight due to laying eggs. They are just as calm after breeding as they where before. Tell the pet store guy to find a different job cause he does not know what in the world he is talking about. If you have any more questions feel free to PM me. Good luck and have fun.

[West Coast Jungle]

Pet store guys are not a good place to get breeding advice, ask a breeder. Ball Pythons can be protective of their eggs when they are still on them, it is quite natural to protect them.
Once removed and given a wash to remove egg laying smell they will be just like they used to be only much thinner. After a few days the will be hungry but that again is pretty normal. Washing the scent off them is important to get rid of the egg defense behavior. Like any animal some will have this behavior and some wont.

If you are gonna breed snakes I suggest you do alot of research from competent sources, there are many online sources from experienced breeders. Pet stores again are the worse place to start. They give more false/incorrect advice than anyone.

[JenH]

Pet shop guy is really wrong. The only ball I've ever been bit by are babies. But they grow out of it in a couple months. Most of my adults are happy to sit around my neck and hang while we watch TV. Now, I do leave the girls along when they are gravid, like all pregnant animals, they can get a little pissy... :-)

This is a great place for info - welcome!

[frankykeno]

It's one of those "consider the source" type of things. Before you take advice from anybody, you need to make sure they know what they are talking about or take what they say and validate it elsewhere from an indepent and trusted source. Some people talk out another hole in their body.

As far as temperment, any living creature during breeding is focused on breeding. That's an instinct far greater and far more ingrained than pretty much anything else other than pure survival. No one should expect a mature breeding animal, snake or otherwise, to act as it does every other day of the week I think.

Same with a gravid snake. That female is fulling her genetic destiny. That's all her resources are focused on. That's natural and normal and to be expected. You, as her owner, are really not important in her scheme of things at that time. Same when she lays her eggs. Again, whether it's a snake, a dog or a human female. When we birth, we could care less about pretty much anything else and yes females get snarky while in that process. Again, a totally natural and expected occurrence.

This doesn't mean a normally easy natured snake will suddenly and always turn difficult. It does mean that if you intend to breed anything, you need to understand the process and what to expect - what is normal, what is not. Hopefully this thread and others, plus your own independent research will help you accomplish that.