Loosing his tamness

Hey Everyone!
With both school, work, and studying, I often find myself to tired or too preoccupied to hold Pua as often as I'd like to. During the summer the id usually hold him everyday to every other day, and two days after he eats and the week he sheds I leave him be. Now I only hold him once or twice a week. Is this going to make him untamed again? Will he loose his familiarity with me? I just don't want him to become a aggressive or people shy with the less frequent handling. Of course, I still have time to feed, clean and water him, just, not enough to have him out with me. How often do you guys hold your animals?

We have 22 snakes. Some only get held once a month during tub clean. Some get held a couple times a week. They are all mellow (except the babies of course) regardless.

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I think it could be a problem, IF you never tamed them at all. Once they are tamed though, I think it is fine to handle more infrequently, if desired.

They are never "tame", they tolerate us.

I don't necessarily believe any snake will ever "tame", just tolerate our handling it. Of course this toleration does facilitate calmness when handled frequently. However, I believe that once you as a keeper learn a snakes body language, proper approach and execution of enclosure removal becomes second nature and frequent handling becomes less necessary to achieve the level of "tameness" desired during a handling session. Just remember to keep these sessions short and positive and you'll never have to worry about a bite or any other negative experience when handling.

"tame" to me, means that a snake can be handled and be in your physical presence without stress. My oldest male, is very "tame" in that I can pick him up, touch him, clean his hide, hang out with him, whatever, and he shows no signs of stress at all. It took a couple of years of us being around each other, but he is friendly with me, and fearless of me know.

That is all. these young hatchlings that I have recently acquired though... not tame, lol :angered:

Without fail my snake growls at me if I dare touch him while he has gone blue to shed. Ever single time for nearly 7 years now. He is however the sweetest snake I have ever held outside of those times. My point is tameness is pretty relative but once you get a ball used to people, I don't think they ever forget it.

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Originally Posted by SDA

Without fail my snake growls at me if I dare touch him while he has gone blue to shed. Ever single time for nearly 7 years now. He is however the sweetest snake I have ever held outside of those times. My point is tameness is pretty relative but once you get a ball used to people, I don't think they ever forget it.

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And this is where your animal's individual disposition plays a part. Mine has been handled during shed, manhandled after shed (lazy idiot didn't want to leave his hide to shed right) by my concerned GF while I was trying to remove the shed stuck on his neck, and never puffed or hissed or bit either of us. Not even any attempts. Some are far more inclined toward tolerance than others, which a similar trait was what led to the domesticated cats, rats, and dogs we have now, after a LONG period of cohabitation and "exclusive" breeding that inherently favored those traits.

Maybe in 40, 60 years, if enough of the well-disposed animals are bred together, who knows?

So honestly a major part of the answer to OP is: it depends on your animal's disposition. If they were barely tolerating handling to start, it might be a concern; probably at longer intervals than a week, however. But if they're one of the individuals whose more tolerant of humans, they may never lose the behaviors that you attribute to "tameness", even with extended non-handling.

For example, I was talking to a person on the snakes reddit the other day that was rehoming an adult female who was housed in a 10G with bad husbandry in a heavy-smoking household, handled at random intervals by random people, pretty much only fed since someone else had dumped off the snake and the house's owner didn't want the poor thing to starve. They ended up blessed with a snake that -- as much as a BP can -- seems to tolerate whatever is done to it with nary a complaint. And yet some people have adults they've had since hatchlings that'll snap at their fingers over minor affronts during sheds, etc. I think we really discount how much effect a snake's personality can have on its behavior in terms of response to stressors and other environmental effects.

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Originally Posted by hollowlaughter

And this is where your animal's individual disposition plays a part.

I think we really discount how much effect a snake's personality can have on its behavior in terms of response to stressors and other environmental effects.

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If that is true, then I am NEVER selling my male normal Ragnarok for less than $1000, because he is super cool and tame personality. :) You have a point, he was always fairly docile since I have known him as a juvenile I rescued.
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...k/IMG_0146.jpg

Pua tolerates handling pretty well. He's only snapped at me during shed like twice, but other than that, he moved around when he's out and flicks his tongue out and stuff. He also likes to climb up my arm and around my neck and chill there. He's still pretty young, 10 months old, so I'm pretty sure that he's got a ways to go in terms of "tameness".


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