Taming Down Everglades Rat?

So there was this beautiful scaleless female Everglades at my local family owned pet store. She’s been there for 4 years because no one wanted her. She’s defensive. Very defensive. I held her and she was ok but she tried to bite the employee there about 10 times and is hell to get out of the tank. Needless to say I’m taking the challenge. They literally gave me her for $40. She’s about 5 feet. I just want to know if anyone has any tips on taming her down without being too stressful to her. I usually work with ball pythons so this is different. I’ll keep her regardless of the outcome but it would be nice if I could make her more tame.

All you can do is spend time near her. My first snake, I spent so much frequent time either handling her, or being near her where she could sense me there, in close proximity, that eventually I became like part of her enclosure. She paid me no attention at all, and would not even flinch or respond when I picked her up. Obviously this one you have sounds like a devil, but spending daily time near her enclosure, and very carefully increasing handling frequency will help.
That’s about it that I know of.


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She’s definitely out there. She watches my every movement when I’m near the tank. I was however able to hold her at the store and she was ok. I’m not scared of her obviously so I know I can hold her. I just wanted to know if there was anything less stressful to sort of ease her into it. But pretty much no one has held her for like 4 years which is sad.

A pet store is a pretty stressful environment for a high-strung critter - lots going on, tons of people and activity, etc. I would put her somewhere quiet for a week or so, and then just hang around quietly near her while reading a book or surfing the 'net. Let her get used to you being in the area and not a threat.

Obviously when you hold her don't put her away if she musks, bites, pees, etc. She needs to learn that these behaviors do not mean she goes back into her home. In fact, if she acted like that at the pet store then the employees and/or customers may have taught her that misbehaving means she gets what she wants, which is to go back to her enclosure. Also a brief - even a few seconds - handling session where she behaves and you put her away before she has a chance to misbehave is better than a long one where she behaves defensively.

She's an adult so you may not want to do this - at least not without gloves - but one trick I used to get my nippy BRB babies to stop biting was to just make a fist, put my hand in the tub, and let them bite the heck out of the back of my hand. At that size they were too little to draw blood though, and eventually they gave up the nipping when I didn't remove my fist until after they stopped biting.

She may never tame down 100% but her behavior should improve over time.

Oh the fist thing is a good idea. She’s sorta small so I know she can’t really hurt me. So I’ll try that. She didn’t musk me and only bit towards the end. She tried to bite the guy. She was ok for me when I got her out. Awful to get out though. I mean I don’t think this is impossible.

You might try a front-opening enclosure or even a tub. One big problem with tanks is that to get a critter out you are more or less forced to come in from over top of the critter to pick it up. With a tub or front-opening enclosure you can sneak a hand or hook under it from one side while you distract the critter with your other hand, so you're not perceived as much of a threat.

Sadly I don’t have a front opening thing right now. I have her in a standard 40 Breeder. I’ll just have to be careful and use a small hook and if I see a good deal on a front opening enclosure I’ll try it. (In my house you can never have too many tanks :)

Get you a hefty storage container from Lowe's. They have locking top's which prevent escape. Also you will be able to work with her as the previous poster mentioned.

Also a great idea. Because no offense to her but it would be nice to be able to put a friendly snake in her 40 gallon tank that I could watch without it trying to bite me and hitting its face (she did this today and I don’t want her hurting herself). I’m still waiting a few days to handle her

Personally I would pick up one level of an ARS 70 hybrid rack with a grey tub, you can get one with heat and tub for about $100. I would get it out of the glass tank ASAP. I had a Woma Python in a glass 40 gallon breeder, was mean as they come banging his head on the glass trying to bite me. As soon as I put it in the rack it totally calmed down the snake and was docile in just a few weeks. Rat snakes are known to be one of the most aggressive, should be a good challenge!