Neglected BP wants to eat me!

I think about it like this.. snakes do come to recognize certain people. They become familier and relaxed with handling. We know they can see. We know they are shy and can be defensive. I believe if a glove is used to pick up a snake, you cant feel the exact amount of pressure you are using. If its a glove which is thick enough to block any teeth. A glove feels different to the snake than a bare hand as well. It looks different. it smells different etc..

For removing water bowls one can always use a small piece of cardboard, a hide, a towel, to block the snakes face and distract it. Just touching it with something will generally bring it out of feeding/defensive mode.

If the owner is nervous enough to want to use a glove, it should not be a permanant thing. It should also not be needed once the snake is lifted from the enclosure. I dont think its necessary when there are other, less stressful things that can be done but to each his own. These animals have a very calming affect. The faster an owner gains confidence and learns ways to calm the snake without causing stress, the faster they can interact with the snake and see how wonderful they really are.

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Originally Posted by Foschi Exotic Serpents

For removing water bowls one can always use a small piece of cardboard, a hide, a towel, to block the snakes face and distract it. Just touching it with something will generally bring it out of feeding/defensive mode.

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Ever get one of those moments where you go "how didn't I think of that?"
Yeah, I just got one of those :) Thank you, that will make life easier.

Taking the snake out of the tank was the issue at hand. I'd prefer to use gloves than a hook. I'm starting to question if I'll ever be able to go in glove free with this guy. (Or girl. It. Thing.) I take off the gloves when I sit down with the snake. But I'd rather the snake get used to the gloves than get tagged every time.

Thanks everyone for your responses so far! It's a wealth of information that i wouldn't have been able to find out on my own otherwise.

As far as "just getting it" I assumed responsibility recently but the cage itself has not been moved. My roommate is leaving the apartment and leaving the snake behind.

I'll give it another shot tomorrow with a glove. Any suggestions on a type of glove to use? This is kinda goofy but the only glove I really have is an oven glove which might be a bit cumbersome to handle the snake. As for pulling the snake out then I'd like to make it as calm as possible, so if it in fact does strike at my glove, should I continue to pull him out? Or should I maybe be waiting for it to figure out that it's not food?

Since the previous owner pretty much never pulled it out of the cage and judging from how it acted the day prior to feeding, I would agree that it is a feeding response. If he's awake and sees the lid slid open, his head is up and ready to strike, not to get out.

I'm about to purchase a new tank and accessories since the stress is probably way higher considering his enclosure. The heating is satisfactory but there is not a sufficient hide. It's one of those half-logs you see from Petco.

Thanks for the analogy with paper cuts. I knew that it wouldn't be something awful getting bitten but didn't think it was as insubstantial as a papercut! But I do really, really hate papercuts.

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Originally Posted by Kaorte

If you feed outside the enclosure, your chance of getting bit goes up drastically. The more times you put your hand into the feeding process, the more opportunities your snake has to bite. I feed all my snakes in their home enclosures and I have never been bit

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Kaorte, What you suggest seems to contradict almost every resource I've seen in my research on handling procedures for a BP. Most resources suggest handling the snake outside of his main enclosure, and feeding in another. Using forceps seems to be a popular feeding method. Can anyone else back this up?

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Originally Posted by rockhardchick666

Ever get one of those moments where you go "how didn't I think of that?"
Yeah, I just got one of those :) Thank you, that will make life easier.

Taking the snake out of the tank was the issue at hand. I'd prefer to use gloves than a hook. I'm starting to question if I'll ever be able to go in glove free with this guy. (Or girl. It. Thing.) I take off the gloves when I sit down with the snake. But I'd rather the snake get used to the gloves than get tagged every time.

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Did you know that at Australia Zoo they use a garbage can lid? For the really big guys. They go in the enclosure of the burmese and keep it focused on the can lid. Move it from side to side and if the snake moves and tries to direct its attention on the handler they just keep the can lid directly in front of its face. If they are moving the snake a couple people grab the snake and start walking through the park while a third person holds the can lid and just keeps it in front of the snakes face. They walk along and its the lid holders job to keep the lid in front of the face and keep it distracted. Kind of like shield.

This way they never need to hold the snake behind the head which causes alot of stress and anger. They dont get bitten and they dont stress the snake either.

I'd never do it, but that would be quite the job!

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Originally Posted by Putrid186

Kaorte, What you suggest seems to contradict almost every resource I've seen in my research on handling procedures for a BP. Most resources suggest handling the snake outside of his main enclosure, and feeding in another. Using forceps seems to be a popular feeding method. Can anyone else back this up?

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Some people are very passionate about this idea of feeding in the enclosure and I am sure you will get a long explanation from a few that believe in it strongly and that it is bad for the snake to move it. In the end, I feel like it makes little difference. I will tell you of my personal experience though as I think that there is very little conclusive evidence on the subject.
Personally, until I had 10 snakes, I fed in a separate enclosure every time. The only reason I changed was for purposes of clean up. I had several happy healthy snakes that fed in a separate enclosure for years. When I decided to change over I found two things. First of all, some of my snakes were so trained to have a feed response based on being put in a separate container as opposed to the lid opening, that they WOULD NOT EVEN EAT in their own enclosure the first few times with a mouse in front of them, but when I put them in the container 30 seconds later, they would strike right away. That is how great their feeding response had been trained. I thought it was fantastic. I also saw, upon switching to feeding in their enclosure, on the negative side, that my snakes really do look up differently when I go to take them out normally. They have that feeding look rather than being indifferent. I have not yet been tagged, but I think it is directly associated. On another note, I have tamed some mean snakes which had been fed in the same enclosure all the time, and I believe that feeding them in another enclosure was key in calming them down.
On a side note, I remember watching a BHB video online wherein Brian spoke about the aggression of some of his snakes and how it was because they fed them all in their own enclosure. I just thought that to be very interesting. (BHB is a huge ball python breeding company and Brian is the owner).
Yes, forceps are popular to keep your hands out of the way.
Hope that is helpful.

Look man just try this. If your bp looks like hes in a defensive mode in the cage just take something and tap him gently on head. He will curl up in a ball and hide then u take hide off of him and just pick him up. Trust me :gj:

I always feed in the actual enclosure. They seem more secure, and I use tongs.

Now on to something that came up here: I suggested gloves because he seemed skittish about being bit. It doesn't hurt at all, but I know when I first started, I would jump when I was bit and was scared that I'd drop the baby, so I started wearing gloves.

I don't anymore as I can ignore it, but at the start I see nothing wrong with it...I don't use a hook, seems needless.
:snake:

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Originally Posted by f4n70m

Look man just try this. If your bp looks like hes in a defensive mode in the cage just take something and tap him gently on head. He will curl up in a ball and hide then u take hide off of him and just pick him up. Trust me :gj:

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He wasn't in his hide at the time. And as soon as my hand entered the cage he sprung for it, and after failing he was going right back up to do it again. I think I'll pass on this one ;)

Plus I really don't to stress him out by coming after his head.

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Originally Posted by Putrid186

He wasn't in his hide at the time. And as soon as my hand entered the cage he sprung for it, and after failing he was going right back up to do it again. I think I'll pass on this one ;)

Plus I really don't to stress him out by coming after his head.

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It's actually not a bad suggestion. I have used a roll of paper towels if cleaning to lightly touch them on the head, or a water bottle to lightly touch the top of their heads.

It really does seem to snap them out of it.