All bark? (hissing BP--and need some cleaning/handling advice)

I know, I know, I'm a wuss--but--I've yet to be bit by either of my BPs, and I'm still kind of afraid, even though I know it won't be that bad.

Anyway, I've got two juvenile gals, one a bit bigger than the other.

I've decided to focus on handling the smaller more, as the larger one is completely insane and tries to run away in very un-BP-like fashion whenever she's picked up. The sprinter (as I'll call her) is by far the more expensive of the two, so I've decided to not really handle her too much as I'm worried she'll jump right out of my hands and end up injured, and I need her to breed successfully. I figure I can better acclimate one of her offspring that I'll have from birth, and as for the mom, as long as she lets me do stuff in her tank and move her about for cleaning, that's fine.

Aaaaaanyway, I went in her cage to clean some poop this weekend and for the first time ever, she hissed at me! I've never even seen her try to strike, just evacuate at full speed or occasionally ball up, and the hiss was totally new to me. I was surprised how loud it was!

So my noob question is: how seriously should I take the hiss? Does that mean she's more likely to strike at me now?

Lastly, she's in a fairly new enclosure and I was about to do her first monthly full-tank cleaning. Obviously I'll have to completely remove her from the enclosure for this. Since she doesn't handle well and I'm terrified of dropping her (again) if she freaks out on me, I was thinking of trying to prod her into a pillow case, and then using that to transport her to a plastic tub for the time I'm cleaning.

Thoughts? Should I get some kind of snake hook to pick her up if I'm concerned?

Again, I'm a self-admitted noob with snakes, so even the most basic advice is helpful!

Thanks!

Take this with a large grain of salt, but... my two BP's who are confirmed hissers are all talk and no action. They've never even tried to strike at me.

OTOH the 1000 gram confirmed biter, who will come flying out of her tub aiming for your nose, has never made a sound.

Your big girl sounds a lot like mine :) I just want to say that you CAN work with her, so don't give up just yet! Anyway, my girl squirms all over the place when she's out, I just have to make sure I've got a good hold on her and am low to the ground lol. She's also VERY hissy. As in, she hisses when I pick her up, when I open the tub, or just when I walk by. Sometimes she even hisses if I move too quickly when handling her.

With your girl, I'm going to assume the hiss was a warning: if you kept messing with her, she most likely would have struck. This is a new environment for her, so are you sure her temps and humidity are spot on? How many hides does she have? How cluttered is it? She may just need some more security. Also, is she going into shed, or is feeding day coming up? All of these can contribute to a feisty ball :)

That said, the bites aren't that bad. Trust me, I've been bitten more than my fair share lol. If you're really scared, get a snake hook, or put your hand in a pillow case and pick her up like you would dog poop :p

IMO hissing is like saying leave me alone. How are the temps in the tank, humidity, hides etc? She could be grumpy if the temps are off, or she just may need to be handled more. IF all the settings are good, but handling her makes you nervous you could put on long sleves and wear some gloves then as you get comfortable over time you can loose the gloves etc...

Just saw the above post after I posted mine...

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Originally Posted by bcr229

Take this with a large grain of salt, but... my two BP's who are confirmed hissers are all talk and no action. They've never even tried to strike at me.

OTOH the 1000 gram confirmed biter, who will come flying out of her tub aiming for your nose, has never made a sound.

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Oh I'd believe it. Like I said, she hasn't tried to strike. But maybe counter-intuitively, the one I'm actually trying to handle more has struck several times. She has incredibly bad aim so I'm not too stressed, and I'm more concerned about me hurting the snake than vice versa, hence not really handling the one I really want to breed.

Whoa! Got like 3 responses whilst typing this. Will respond more thoroughly.

A few of my snakes are/were hissers. My axanthics were really bad hissers when I first got them, but have calmed down a bit (sometimes hiss). A few of my snakes have even struck out, but haven't connected (even though they could have if they really wanted to). So far, for MY snakes, this has been all bluff, trying to make big to scare me away. Your snake may or may not be the same, but just showing it doesn't mean she is going to bite, or even if she strikes that she's necessarily trying to bite.

I have been bit before (not by any of my current snakes), and it really isn't that bad. The surprise of the moment is worse than the bite itself. That being said, I'll probably scream like a little girl the next time I get bit. :P

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Originally Posted by MootWorm

Your big girl sounds a lot like mine :) I just want to say that you CAN work with her, so don't give up just yet! Anyway, my girl squirms all over the place when she's out, I just have to make sure I've got a good hold on her and am low to the ground lol. She's also VERY hissy. As in, she hisses when I pick her up, when I open the tub, or just when I walk by. Sometimes she even hisses if I move too quickly when handling her.

With your girl, I'm going to assume the hiss was a warning: if you kept messing with her, she most likely would have struck. This is a new environment for her, so are you sure her temps and humidity are spot on? How many hides does she have? How cluttered is it? She may just need some more security. Also, is she going into shed, or is feeding day coming up? All of these can contribute to a feisty ball :)

That said, the bites aren't that bad. Trust me, I've been bitten more than my fair share lol. If you're really scared, get a snake hook, or put your hand in a pillow case and pick her up like you would dog poop :p

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She's been in the cage about a month and a half now, so the cleaning is overdue. I keep it very spotless on my own, but still. I prefer a naturalistic look to the tank, so I've got a bunch of rocks in there arranged to make a series of hides. There's only one pre-made hide in there, which I keep on the cool side. Sometimes she hangs out in it. I'd say there are technically 4-5 good hide spots, although she mostly hangs out in the back corner, not really under the rocks per-se but hidden amongst them.

She's a weird shedder, in that she's been growing a lot but has only shed once since the end of may. That was maybe a month ago. So she's probably due for one.

And I've got her on a 5 day feeding cycle right now and she's got crazy intense feeding response, so I suspect she thinks every day is feeding day. Sigh.

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Originally Posted by jclaiborne

IMO hissing is like saying leave me alone. How are the temps in the tank, humidity, hides etc? She could be grumpy if the temps are off, or she just may need to be handled more. IF all the settings are good, but handling her makes you nervous you could put on long sleves and wear some gloves then as you get comfortable over time you can loose the gloves etc...

Just saw the above post after I posted mine...

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Right now she's in an AP T8. On the hot side it ranges between 88-92 depending on how recently the thermostat has turned the heater on. The cool side might be a little warm, probably never dropping below 77 or so. She frequently stays on the warm side during the day and seems to like to thermoregulate on the cooler side at night, mostly. My humidity is managed by a mistkings system connected to a herpstat, and I keep it at 60% with an 11% swing.

My pastel is 3 years old (I think) and he still hisses every single time I pick him up. In my experience, hissing is just a bluff. I tell them to get over themselves when I pick them up. Out of my 7, if I were to pick each of them up right now, probably 3 or 4 of them would hiss at me. I've been bitten once out of defense.

A hiss can be nothing or it can be something, it depends on the animal and the circumstances. But for the most part, I take my BPs' hisses to mean, "I'm not in the mood today for whatever activity you are attempting!" One of my BPs never hisses, but when I took him to the vet to get a swollen eye checked out, he hissed for the first time ever...at the vet. He only hissed once before admitting defeat and attempting to hide. That tends to be the norm. It's just their way of saying they don't like something. Now...when my boas hiss at me...that I take more seriously. Why? Because it's usually followed by a strike. But that's them. The BPs are much more relaxed.

My male mojo strikes first, hisses when I still won't leave him alone, and once he's out of the tub he just gives up. Lol. :P

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Originally Posted by WarriorPrincess90

Now...when my boas hiss at me...that I take more seriously. Why? Because it's usually followed by a strike. But that's them. The BPs are much more relaxed.

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My boa hisses are also much more intimidating. Fortunately they are very, very rare!

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Originally Posted by bcr229

My boa hisses are also much more intimidating. Fortunately they are very, very rare!

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Very true. I don't hear them all too often, but boy can those guys hiss!!! The first time I ever heard my BCI hiss, she was tiny still, and it sounded like it belonged to a MUCH larger animal. :P

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Originally Posted by WarriorPrincess90

Very true. I don't hear them all too often, but boy can those guys hiss!!! The first time I ever heard my BCI hiss, she was tiny still, and it sounded like it belonged to a MUCH larger animal. :P

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The hiss surprised the heck out of me! I was using plastic aquarium tongs to grab the poop from the very back corner, and I thought at first it had to be something else in the apartment (maybe a CO2 regulator broke on my tank?!). I sort of went, "Huh! Was that you?" and I intentionally provoked her by lightly nudging her in the side with the tongs. She did it again, and that proved the source, haha.

I have to say though, I'm not sure if she'll ever calm down. She's probably just over 650g now and I don't think she's ever really been handled as she was tub-raised as a breeding project. Maybe she'll calm down with age and fatness, but I'm not super confident about turning her into a snake I can handle. Of course I've never done this before, but it's just the feeling I get. I'm not giving up, but I'm not exactly hopeful.

Don't give up. I have only handled my Mojo and Lesser a handful of times, aside from removing them for cleanings. My mojo is extremely feisty, but after a couple minutes out of the tub he calms down. Lucky for you, your little lady just hisses. He strikes all over the place at first, then hisses, then gives up. ;) If you work with her she will calm down. Eventually. :rolleyes:

I would definitely start working with her. Imagine how much fun she'll be when you have to pull her off eggs :)

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Originally Posted by MootWorm

I would definitely start working with her. Imagine how much fun she'll be when you have to pull her off eggs :)

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You're totally right. I wish I wasn't such a wuss! Part of me wants to just pay the vet a little to deal with it when it happens, but the logical remainder of me knows that'd be buying sushi when I could farm tuna.

I've even been bar-mitzvah'd (like a decade and a half ago). If only that meant I was a real man!

Haha maybe they should have feisty balls at bar-mitzvahs!!

(Just joking, please don't take any offense, religious or otherwise)

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Originally Posted by MootWorm

Haha maybe they should have feisty balls at bar-mitzvahs!!

(Just joking, please don't take any offense, religious or otherwise)

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It would definitely explain why they lift you up on a chair and then dance around like they're trying to avoid the floor.

Just sayin'.

If you see this:
http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...807_214525.jpg

Then you should watch out! I had to hook this guy the first month I got him. He never got me though =)

Now my 2200 gram girl, Miss Hissy, hisses all the time and has never struck. Even just peeking in her tub gets a hiss from her lol

Don't worry about the hiss, all of mine do it. The only one that hisses and bites is when it's feeding time and it's my black pastel.

Yeah, my 2 cents are you just need to be consistent and your confidence will grow. The more confident you are when you handle your snakes the better experience it will be. It is good that you are worried about accidentally hurting your snake but don't let that hold you back from handling her. I got my first BP 5 months ago for the first month or two I wasn't really confident and I realized that my nervous attitude was actually making my snake nervous too. Over time I've learned to read their body language more and now I just pick him up. Point here is keep trying. Since getting my first BP I got 2 baby BP females and one is a hisser. She hisses every time I open up her hide. The first week I had her she would strike at me when I tried to pick her up. Now she was so small, it was kind of funny to watch her defend herself. But over the past 2 months I've had her, I handle her about 3 times a week. She hasn't struck in a long time. She is actually really cool to handle once she is out of her enclosure. I think you said your snake was around 600g. You might want to get a hatchling BP too. I've found by having hatchlings it's really helped me realize more about BP's and helped me gain more confidence with them. My male is about 650 g now, but the babies are around 130g.

I've only ever had my normal hiss at me once. I was cleaning his tank, and he had just suffered a burn (due to my negligence. He has long since healed). I lifted his hide and he proceeded to ball up and give me a loud hiss. Scared the crap out of me. Hasn't done it since, though. He's a pleasure to handle now, too.