agressive ball python

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Originally Posted by brandon82490

hes got a medium Hide that he can fit in just fine and he has a Half log that is positioned so against the side of the tank witch is black because i covered it with paper to make him feel more secure and he has the aspen built up so he is secure in there too.

I have a thermostat and two thermometers and a humidity gauge.

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Are they digital? Do they have probes?
Gauges are useless and inaccurate, you need a digital hygrometer.

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I have all the temps correct and the humidity he fits snug in both hides got a another very small log for him to rub against if he has shed problems.

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You should have two identical hides. You want him to BARELY fit inside the hide so that all sides are touching him when he is in it. You can get him a decor rock to rub on, but he needs two secure hides on both sides so he doesn't have to pick his favorite hide while sacrificing his thermoregulation.

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I have had people who know a lot about ball pythons tell me that he is just an agressive ball and that there are some that are just that way. There is not much traffic where i have the tank at. I try and feed him on Wednesdays he will NOT eat i think the strikes at the rodents are defensive cause they have to come up to him or i gotta put it in his face and move it around fast. but he will strike at me just about and chance he has.

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You should stop trying to feed him, just because it is stressing him out right now. Yes some balls are just aggressive, but 90% of the time they are aggressive for a reason. If he was handleable at the petstore, then it's even more likely that theres something bugging him.
Yes, you may have had knowledgeable people talk to you about your ball (petstore employees are not knowledgeable by any means, oftentimes they are extremely inaccurate with their information) but on this website there are hundreds of people currently hatching out baby ball pythons that cost thousands, and taking care of hundreds of animals with all of them feeding regularly.
I can honestly say, that a lot of people know what they're talking about here.

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i think there may be something wrong with him though because he seems to be supper clumsy now and falls around the cage a lot.

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Does he look like he's trying to climb out of the cage? Snakes will do this when they are looking for a more secure place. Roaming is a bad thing, and means stress because they feel insecure. They are not very coordinated snakes, because they are ground snakes and will fall if they try to climb sides of cages or branches.

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Its so frustrating but i have tried soooo much and left him alone for so long so he don't get stressed but still he is Way overly aggressive.

I really do want to keep him but so far its not looking like a possibility...

I feel really bad though because even though i have tried every thing that people tell me to do and i have all the cage specs right he still is this way its just starting to get very very bad.

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You haven't tried everything. In fact, I'm not sure what you have changed other than left him alone. I still stand on following my instructions, especially with the hides, and covering 3/4 of the snakes cage. Your case is not the first we've heard like this, and it's not unusual or different and I highly doubt theres anything wrong with your snake (neurologically) unless he is doing back flips and can't right himself back up.

i have probes one right on top of the heat pad and another one on the hot side of the tank on the surface.

lol maybe im just freaking out but he freaks out so bad when i reach in the cage that it is impossible to do anything in there .

he presses his face against the cage really really hard and you can see him shake when he does it occasionally he climbs up the walls not so much as when i first got him. I have been told to just offer him food once a week but not to force it what is what i am doing.

He does not have identical hides but they do both fit well and he has used them both so he knows that they are hides and not just things in his cage.

I don't know if I am fully getting this across to you guys exactly how bad he got today i mean it was very scary actually because he was so angry he continued to strike at me and hit the glass and he hit it hard many many times. Hopefully tomorrow he will be better and actually use one of his hides by tomorrow.

It could just be bad genes passed down to him or mishandled growing up. I mean some of us humans are born passive and some with a wicked tamper. I wouldn't blame it on his environment. Last week there was discussion about bringing your bp with you in public. Some even admitted taking them on long road trips on the dash board. I highly doubt their humidity and temperatures were in range.

Just my 0.02 cents

either that or something is wrong with him. he was decent in the store when i held him he was actually really good. The breeder droped him off basically as i picked him up.

I am gunna talk to the people at the pet store and see what they say. the people there know a lot its not a petco or petsmart its a local store with people that have a lot of experience so they know what they are talking about maybe they can tell me if something is wrong with him but if its just that he is aggressive i cant keep him i was buying a Ball because they are supposed to be very docile and not a mean snake but this guy really is very aggressive and not just aggresive because he is scared but he goes out of his way it seems like he will strike asap anymore. the he freaked on me he went from a ball before i opent the cage to striking and moving around very fast i would say he was even flipping around a little bit.

again i have had friends who have owned BP's and have experience tell me that it is just an aggressive snake and that there are some but few naturally aggressive BP's

also ive noticed he hangs off his little humidity gauge his whole body ! not just part of it and from there he likes to strike the most its like his ambush place if that makes sense or it seems like it but im gunns get off for the night i will check this again in the morning.

Dude you cannot give this snake up, not just yet...I'm pretty sure, that I'm not the only one rootin for you!...Please whatever you do, don't give up...

Don't you see? You are as freaked out as the snake is!

Take a deep breath and count to 10 backwards...

I think your doing good on the husbandry job...

Your snake is just stressed out...Just like you!

Don't you see it? You're really freaking out...hence your snake freaking out...

If anyone here disagrees, put me on blast...but I say, leave the snake alone...at least two weeks...

Just forget about him...don't look at him, ignore him...don't pay any mind to him...(just make sure his humidity and temps are good)

If he strikes through the glass, let him...

Ignore him completely...

I know this may sound crazy, but maybe you do need to get bitten...just to get over that fear as well...So you know its not that bad as you think it is...

If you read the threads...a lot of people here get bitten...and they laugh about it


True story, but i worked in a petshop over 10 years ago, and i got bitten by a BP, it was so fast and sudden, i didnt even have time to flinch...only because I didn't expect it...I actually laughed and showed my coworkers what happened...

I'm more scared of a chihuahua than a BP,

I say get bit today, and leave him alone for two weeks...completely, forget about food and all...

And whats wrong with an aggressive snake? They're not dogs...they're more like fish...as where you really can't pet a fish...:taz:

Please don't give up not just yet...

Where's the Snake Whisperer when you need one? :snake:

Put a dark towel or blanket over his cage for a week, checking his water every couple days.
See how that goes.

okay guys thank you for your help i talked to the people at the pet store and they said they are going to talk to the breeder about it and they said that they think he actually had something wrong with him and that the setup was just fine the way it is. they also told me to take him sometime if he don't quit and maybe they can refund him maybe. either way i am going to try to get him to behave better but if he don't soon im going to have to find someone who can take care of him better or else if the pet store will give me a refund.

also i didnt try to feed him today and today was the normal feeding day but im doing like you guys said for now with the dark towel and leaving him alone for a week he has been in his hide a little bit lightly but he still spends a lot of time out he just kind of sits there and if he can see you on the side of the cage w/o the towel he will still try to strike at you .

also idk if i said this or not but he has been pushing on the glass very hard wit his nose and ik that its supposed to be a sign of shedding but hes been doing it for about a week or two and had not been showing any signs of shed at all since i got him. any one know what that means ?

Forget about feeding him for now...and he shouldn't be able to see you through the sides, being that you have the three walls of his tank covered, with foam, or paint or backround paper or whatever you have....and make sure he doesn't have a day light as well...

Hi,

Also a sign of stress if it carries on for any length of time I'm afraid.

It is normal for them to explore any new tank and try and find a way out at first but they normally stop .

I think your guy is just scared. :(

Can you get us the pics of your enclosure you mentioned a couple of pages ago?

The only ones we can see is the one in your avatar and that is obviously unsuitable and out of date.

On a similar note you mentioned people talking about cage carpet quite a bit after you said you were using aspen?

On the 21st of may;

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Originally Posted by brandon82490

and i have aspen bedding so i cant feed him in his normal cage or else he might accidentally eat some of the bedding. that's what i have heard anyways plus i don't think you are supposed to do that anyways.

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But on the 28th;

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Originally Posted by brandon82490

also this is getting confusing because i hear completely different things from some people like the whole feeding in the cage or not and some people told me that my snake was WAY to hot and a lot of people are telling me cage carpet his horrible and others are saying its great........... but thank you every one for all the advice so much also i will be getting a thermostat soon i ordered it so my temps will be a lot more stable witch will be awesome because where i live the temps vary a LOT every day is different.

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And similarly on the 23 rd you mention planning to buy two of these hides the next day. This is also when you planned to order the thermostat mentioned in the quote above yes?

Also on the 28th you mentioned your intention to tape paper to the sides of the tank.

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Originally Posted by brandon82490

but i am actually going to just get some paper and take it on the sides so i can take it off if ever needed.

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So it has really only been since the 31st or so that things have been corrected at all;

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Originally Posted by brandon82490

yea i think he will eat soon i hope so but he still is really aggresive towards me i used the black construction paper for the back to block it off so he couldent see and i got a thermostat and all that stuff two hides and whatnot but he still wont let me pick him up w/o striking and he never ever just curls into a ball like a ball python usually does.

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On the 2nd of june you do mention that the hides are not identical (one being a half log aginst a covered side) but I don't think that is the major cause of your problems.

It has only been 5 days approximately since you actually corrected the problems that would have made the tank less than ideal.

If you have a nervous snake then every change you make to the tank can mean you need to let it settle back down for another week.

And on the handling thing - I'm worried your not getting the idea behind the advice.

You tried feeding him (in a seperate container ) on the 21 st of may.

Since you had to put a towel over him to get him back in the tank that would also have freaked him out a bit. You then tried to feed live in his tank on the 28th - stressfull again for the lil guy.

But on the 31st you planned to handle him again which was too soon as you had only just changed his cage in some major ways (for the better but still changes ).

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Originally Posted by brandon82490

yea idk hes been doing a lot better i guess but im rly going to try and handle him for 10 mins about every two days or so to get him more comfortable and to get me to get a little more comfortable too.

it might stress him out some but he needs to get used to me sometime and i gotta get used to him too.

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And on the 2nd of june;

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Originally Posted by brandon82490

he was freakeing out really bad today when i tryed to pick him up and he was hissing like crazy and struck at me like 10 times and was moveing very fast not just strikeing fast but acctually moveing around the cage fast.

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but either way unless he gets better soon i am going to get rid of him. I have dont every thing i can for him and he still just gets worse and today it got MUCH worse than before. he will not even go into his hides.

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Your plan to wait the week with the towel covered tank is the best one - the more time he has with nothing he sees as stressfull happening to him the better. But cover the whole open section of the tank as you mentioned "if he can see you on the side of the cage w/o the towel he will still try to strike at you ".

As advised above - when you reach in to change the water etc and he freaks out totally ignore him. Don't try and pick him up or anything obviously but also don't draw back - just try doing nothing. :)

There really is nothing to be gained by trying to rush the snake at this point.

If it takes him 2 or 3 weeks to learn that nothing is going to eat him that really is ok - you have 20 years to get used to each other and at 500g+ he is in no danger of starving to death because he misses a couple of meals. :gj:

You tank was off and, once you cover the rest of the open section, now it isn't - treat it as a brand new beginning and go from there. :please:


dr del