handling- I screwed up

I'm so enamored with my guy. He is so mellow and just frigging awesome. I have wanted a BP for, well decades, honestly. I didn't have the luxury of research before I got him though. It just sort of happened (He was a stray). I admit, I do not handle him (or my corn snake) as much as I should. Today, the BP, Sterling, let me know I have [screwed] up by striking at me. Today was feeding day. I try to stick to a schedule as much as possible, but with MY work schedule, it's bound to get screwy. I KNOW I should handle BOTH of them beyond feeding day, But what do you DO? Does one like sit on the couch, watch TV whilst holding their BP? How many days after a feed should I wait? Is there a window PRIOR to a feed? I'm torn between not wanting to stress him and not wanting him to associate me only with food!

Don't panic !!

If I were you , I'd provide a bit more info on what actually happened and what / how you feed .

Feeding strikes / bites are pretty common I'd guess ... although I don't necessarily think he associates you with food tbh

It can happen. My newest addition, a hatchling, was anxious the first week we had her. She struck at my wife a couple times when she was cleaning up her tub. She's chilled now, had her for about a month and a half now. Day before yesterday I was changing out her water and she came out of her hide to say hello. It was more like, "hello, where's my food?" I could tell she was after a meal. I finished up to avoid any possible striking and fed her the next day. She wasted no time getting after her prey (I do feed live, btw).

We haven't handled her as much as we would like, mostly letting her get completely acclimated; our male juvenile hasn't been held in a while either but he is totally chill while being a picky eater, so we don't mess with him too much right now anyway since I'm trying to get him back on schedule.

Wait 24-48 after feeding to hold. Don't hold on feeding day, some will even say the day before.

We feed in a separate enclosure and always handle each snake for 5-10 minutes prior to feeding. Their tanks are cleaned and water bowls topped off or changed while they are ingesting.

No we don't sit on the couch with them. The temperature of the room with the couch is ~65 degrees Fahrenheit. It wouldn't be fair to unnecessarily subject tropical animals to that temperature.

Re how many days after a feed to wait for handling - the larger and more infrequently you feed the longer is the duration required for digestion and, of course, vice versa.

I handle my snakes on an every other day basis. Only for about 10-20 minutes at a time usually. I let them crawl around and get a little exercise. .. my kingsnake is the one that really loves to chill outside of the cage. I'll bring him to the man cave and he pretty much has free roam. I try to keep the ball pythons stress levels low so I try not to overhandle them. Just enough to maintain/establish trust.

I try to wait 36 hours at least after feeding though. But just a few minutes ago, one of them made a mess of her cage so I had to take her out. I saw a foot/leg pushing out against her stomach though from last nights feeding, so needless to say, I gently laid her down while I cleaned and then right back into the tub she went.

My leopard female is NOT tolerant of me whatsoever yet. It's only been about 3 weeks since I've gotten her, almost a month. So yeah, I have to use the snake hook w her.

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Young snakes can sometimes be a little nippy. Most of them tend to mellow out as they acclimate and grow. I don't handle my snakes much at all and they're all still pretty docile. I usually wait 48 hours after a feeding to handle them.

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Originally Posted by EL-Ziggy

Young snakes can sometimes be a little nippy. Most of them tend to mellow out as they acclimate and grow. I don't handle my snakes much at all and they're all still pretty docile. I usually wait 48 hours after a feeding to handle them.

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I don't handle mine much either and they are all still the way they have always been. My Ball, BRB, ETB, and big Blood have never tried to tag me. My young Bloods all got me many times when they were young but it has been a long time since they have tried as well. The GTP will bite anything...at night. During the day he is great...once he got over biting my arm because of my arm hair.

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Originally Posted by Macropodus

We feed in a separate enclosure and always handle each snake for 5-10 minutes prior to feeding. Their tanks are cleaned and water bowls topped off or changed while they are ingesting.

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Why do you do these things? Feed live?

I have never understood trying to move a snake when it is ready to eat. I cant even imagine trying that with some of the snakes I have. I would end up all kinds of bloody. It would be a circus.

On feed night I try not to do anything but feed them. Then I give them two days alone before I will take any of them out. I check them a few times a day and will give them water or take needed action then. During the night I try to do nothing more than I have to.

We feed Sunday night and don't even attempt to go in the closures until Tuesday night, (unless there's a visible mess that needs to be cleaned.) Sometimes, we go to handle tuesday and see obvious signs of extended feed mode, so we wait until Wednesday. We then handle them for 5 to 20 min either each night or every other (spot cleaning and water changes as well,) until Saturday night. Once Sunday hits, the most we do is spot clean and water change, but we try to get that done Saturday night so we can leave them alone on feed day.

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Originally Posted by KMG

Why do you do these things? Feed live? I have never understood trying to move a snake when it is ready to eat. I cant even imagine trying that with some of the snakes I have. I would end up all kinds of bloody. It would be a circus. On feed night I try not to do anything but feed them. Then I give them two days alone before I will take any of them out. I check them a few times a day and will give them water or take needed action then. During the night I try to do nothing more than I have to.

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Well, KMG, if you have to ask the question then you probably won't understand the answer. The short answer is cause I want to. We could stop here, but I'm waiting for the rain to let up a bit before we take out the garbage and pick up the mail.

We keep pet snakes, not DNA coiled up in drawers waiting to be proved out. Our enclosures consist of 10, 20, and 40 gallon tanks with high visibility and so we are aware of when snakes venture from their hides. We then can take them out for handling, feeding, and maintenance.

Hope this helps, and sorry to hear about your difficulty understanding, lack of imagination, and your bloody circuses - hopefully your situation will improve. If it's any consolation I'll give you a bow for your "useful post" :bow: