Does attitude get passed down?

Yes it sure can be passed down.

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Originally Posted by MarkS

Umm, since ball pythons don't nurture they're babies, I think it's ALL nature....

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Ummm you take said snippy snake, treat him nice handle him often and he becomes a nice docile snake -- that is nurture -- :rolleyes:

Can I also just point out that 'nurture' is also doing things like momma wrapping the eggs in the wild, thermo regulating them, investing nice large yolks, etc. Nurture is not just based on social behavior, it also involves parental investment. In captivity, we humans obviously take over most of the nurturing.....


~Kat

I've seen hissy/striker adults produce babies that hiss and strike more than usual and in one case even seen it through 3 generations. For a while my meanest two snakes where a mother and daughter. I sold the mom (letting the owner know) but recently picked up a new striker adult that might be gravid so I'm far from out of the mean snake business yet. I was also a little disappointed to see that my two mojavies are hissy. I didn't own their mom as a baby and she is a bit ridged when handled so maybe they got it from her but it could have been the mojave father (breeding loan, don't know what he was like) too as the same mom's 07 baby is fine.

There is a general belief that aggressive ball pythons feed and maybe even breed better so unfortunately there may be some breeders actually selecting for aggressive ball pythons. In my case I'm just not being ruthless enough about eliminating it when paired with other genetics that I would like to keep.

I haven't produced a lot of snakes but I noticed that the clutches where mom and or dad eats f/t, all the babies switch over real quick to f/t. The clutches I have from live eaters are taking a lot longer to switch over. (I start offering f/t after 5 or 6 live feedings)

Is that just a coincidence?

I don't have any snippy adults, so I'm not sure of attitude. But I've had a couple babies that don't seem to be calming down much...

Like this girl - she currently holds the record for bites..
http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/d...e/shedevil.jpg

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Originally Posted by Tosha_Mc

Ummm you take said snippy snake, treat him nice handle him often and he becomes a nice docile snake -- that is nurture -- :rolleyes:

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I personally don't think that handling to calm them down works all that well. Most will calm down with age whether you handle them or not, so how can you tell which ones get calmer from the handling and which get calmer due to age? and those that don't calm down with age generally stay nippy no matter how much you work with them. Even those that do calm down with regular handling will often revert back to being nippy if you stop handling them regularly.

I just don't think that nurturing them plays any kind of a major roll in their personality.

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Originally Posted by MarkS

I personally don't think that handling to calm them down works all that well. Most will calm down with age whether you handle them or not, so how can you tell which ones get calmer from the handling and which get calmer due to age? and those that don't calm down with age generally stay nippy no matter how much you work with them. Even those that do calm down with regular handling will often revert back to being nippy if you stop handling them regularly.

I just don't think that nurturing them plays any kind of a major roll in their personality.

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I'll disagree and leave it at that.

I think my daughter inherited my wife's shoot first and ask questions later attitude which we joke might have had something to do with ancestors who cut beating hearts out and rolled the bodies down the temple steps. But maybe she learned it from her mom? Hard to say ... lol.

i sure hope not because my yb female just tried to bite my arm through my sweatshirt 3 times!

I've heard that yellow bellies tend to have attitudes but haven't gotten to work with any yet myself. Are they universally hissy or even more likely to be bitters than average?