Can My Snake Lose Trust For Me?

This is a bit of a dumb question, but here it is. Can my snake lose trust for me? Like, if I accidentally freak my snake out, or drop her onto the carpet, does she lose trust? Or does she just forget it happened in the first place?

If your snake thought you hurt it on purpose then yes, that snake will hold a grudge and never forget.

Ball pythons can become conditioned. If they begin to associate you or people in general with repeated negative experiences they will react accordingly. The same goes in reverse. Most ball pythons can learn to tolerate people and some even seem to enjoy some level of interaction. Some, no matter what you do, want nothing to do with people.

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Originally Posted by JodanOrNoDan

Ball pythons can become conditioned. If they begin to associate you or people in general with repeated negative experiences they will react accordingly. The same goes in reverse. Most ball pythons can learn to tolerate people and some even seem to enjoy some level of interaction. Some, no matter what you do, want nothing to do with people.

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Ok thanks. These were just very rare instances, and she seems to still be ok. I was just wondering.

My snake was on oral antibiotics for a month. I had to take him out, open his mouth and stick a plastic syringe in there 60 times. He HATED it and for almost a week after his meds ended he still balled up whenever I came near him. Now he's back to "normal" and I can handle him fine. Depends on the snake, I suppose.

Ball pythons can be conditioned to fear/dislike. I have a story the breeder told me about a black pastel BP I used to have- he brought her to a reptile show for a few days, she did not like it, brought her back home, and she hissed at him every time he opened her tub for a couple months all the way until I bought her and he shipped her out to me. He told me this just to warn me about this hissing.

When I got her, she has not hissed at all the entire time I've had her. I figure she recognized the breeder/previous keeper as the one who brought her into a stressful environment and held a grudge. But recognized that I'm not the same person and this is not the same environment. LOL