Nasty Attitude

New ball has been in the house for only a month. Still a new scene and so he's unsure about everything but man does he has a nasty streak in him. Very good eater obviously but I've never seen a ball act like this. Any and every chance he gets he strikes. If he balls up it's not for long and he's back on the offense. He's still pretty small so at least the bites don't hurt. I'm really hoping he will mellow out with time and age like everyone says. He normally gets me about 5 or 6 times and I keep going about my buisness hoping he'll figure out that it doesn't phase me. Bites just keep on coming. I've left him alone for the most part except for feeding so after this last pinky has time to digest I want to start pulling him out. Anyone ever have a ball python that didn't mellow out?

Monty was like that for a short while, but only because she was hungry. I had a red tail that when we got her she struck me.. And my chameleon is nasty (we named her charma for a reason), but never a ball really.

I have more experience with boas and they were sweeter than this boy is now. Here's hoping a little one on one time with calm him down and show him that I'm not going to eat him. Lol

Some babies are much more defensive than others and it takes them longer to figure out that the big monster predator (you) doesn't want to hurt or eat them. It will just take time, careful handling, and patience on your part.

If you want to minimize love taps from him, try distracting him by keeping him focused on one hand that's just out of his reach, while you scoop him up from behind with the other.

Also watch your lighting and movement/shadows, I've noticed that my more defensive ones get upset quickly when I'm backlit.

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Originally Posted by Tash

I have more experience with boas and they were sweeter than this boy is now. Here's hoping a little one on one time with calm him down and show him that I'm not going to eat him. Lol

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Younger ones have a hard time coping with the fact that you won't eat them. Lol. As it's been said in another comment give it time. I got monty as an adult, and she was a rescue with zero handling her whole life, so I got a few love taps, but my patience helped. What I would do is once a day, when she was out, I'd put my hand on the outside of the tank. She wouldn't strike, so I put my hand inside the tank, she'd strike but miss, or wouldn't strike at all. Patience is a virtue when working with snakes. He'll learn eventually.