Aggresive BP and breeder practices

Okay so heres the story, I picked up my second snake, a bea-UTIFUL young bumblebee on Friday, she was quite shook up by the transport, and when I was putting her away in her tub, attempted to strike me a couple times. No big deal, doesn't bother me. Now, I tend to open my other pythons enclosure almost daily to check his set up, spot clean, change water, etc, but I decided to leave her a lone for a little longer to settle. I opened her tub to change the water this morning, and same thing, instantly in S formation, attempted to strike me twice more, and was hissing all the while. I would in a normal situation not think too much of it and attempt to tame her over time, but my girlfriend was there to see it and she flipped right out. : / She doesn't want to share the house with a 'violent snake'. I fought with her a little about it, but now here we are. What should I do? Should I email the breeder I got her from with hopes he'll take her back? Should I put up a kingsnake listing? Shes beautiful, and Im not about making money or anything, I would only want the money I payed for her, and Im sure she could grow up to be a lovely snake, but for a small time hobbyist like me, im not sure its worth the fight. My other guy is sweet as a button, and its pretty frustrating, cause my girlfriend was just starting to come around holding him and everything!! I need some serious advise here!

I think it's funny, people who want to "return" a snake because it's nippy. She'll eventually calm down. Or you can just sell her yourself, but if it were me I'd laugh at you and refuse to take her back.

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A lot of Babies tend to be very defensive. All it takes is a gentle approach and regular albeit moderate handling to ease them out of that fear response activity.

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I would handle the snake every day for 2 weeks. I may strike at you, but after a few days it'll figure out you're not a threat. By then your snake should be fine. Just ask your g/f to hold off making you get rid of it for a month so you can calm it down.

It's only been 3 days. She may just need some more time.

Is she about to shed? One of the snakes I bought was in shed and grumpy as hell when I first got her. After her shed she's been fine.

I'd say:

1. See if she's in shed.
2. Check the temp, hide, and other setup information. Make sure temps are right, she has a place to feel secure, etc.
3. Give her another 5 or 6 days alone.

Every snake has a different personality. Your snake isn't violent she's defencive aka scared aka dosen't want you to eat her. It's a snake take this time to figure out what you can offer her to make her feel more secure and not so threatened..

You could try emailing the breeder, but I'm not sure if any guarantee temperament... But you've only had her 3 days, I would give her some time to settle in. What's her set-up like? Temps? Hides? Your snake isn't violent, she's just defensive. I have one that sounds like your bee. She's gotten better with time and a super cluttered enclosure, but I don't think she'll ever be as sweet as my male. I would try to work with her, but if it's something you don't think you can handle in the long run, I'd consider rehoming her.

Young snakes can be more snippy but with time will calm down. Even if it's not snippy at the breeders, relocation is very stressful to a baby.
Are you gonna rehome every snake you get that is nippy at first???
You may be doing it a lot.


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Have you showed her the pinpricks of full grown ball python bites? Most people are shocked to see it's nothing. Explain to your girlfriend the new snake is just scared and doing what it thinks will keep it alive. She's going to calm down. I wouldn't try to return a snake for being defensive. The breeder will probably think you didn't do your research before purchasing the animal, and since their's nothing wrong with the animal, there's no real reason to return it.

I can relate to your situation. I just got into BP's and I did not want to end up with an aggressive one. Long story short, I got a female het pied for a deal at a show and she was striking at me soon as I got her home. Every time I went to get her out of her cage, she would hiss and get in that S position. I found though that once she was in my hands, she was fine. If I had her out in my hands she would calm down and be cool. If I put her on the ground however and let her crawl around on her own and then try to pick her back up she would strike at me.

So that went on for the first two weeks or so. But I can say after about a month I noticed she calmed down some. She still hisses at me sometimes, but no more striking which is great.

So my advice is ask your girlfriend to give you time to work with the snake. I'd ask for a couple months at least to see if you can get your snake to calm down. If she doesn't calm down in the agreed upon time and your girlfriend still has fears about her you can rehome her then (snake, not girlfriend). But I think if you can get more time you may be able to have your cake and eat it too.

I seriously can't believe you would even consider getting rid of her after this small amount of time. Wow...Give her a bit of a chance, and put in some effort.

Also, if I had a guy try and tell me to get rid of ANY of my animals, I'd show him the door REAL QUICK.

Younger snakes are defensive, and not all animals will adapt to their environment the same way or a the same pace.

Additionally BP are WILD animals and defensive behavior, strikes and bites should be expected, at a time or another....anyone that has not experienced those either has not own enough snakes or has not own one for long enough.

If dealing with a wild animal is not for you you may want to consider a dog.

Seems like the main problem here is really your girlfriend and the lack of support and the pressure she puts on you, something to think about.

To be honest, these are the responses I was hoping for, maybe Ill show her the thread haha. I reallllly don't want to have to give her up. : /

I had a similar issue and saw this video on Youtube and found it very helpful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7DQssbM0uk.

You're girlfriend might be relieved to see how quickly they can cal;m down with the proper techniques. My GF freaked when I was holding my bp and he jumped at her sitting beside me :)

Thanks for the Video link! Im going to show her that for sure. Like aside from the striking I haven't had trouble handling the snake (I distract her with one hand and pick her up with the other) Its just my gf is so nervous around even the well behaved ones. (much like the snake shes 'striking out' with weird demands out of fear....)

I think you're going to have to work more on your girlfriend than the snake. Explain to her this is your hobby/passion. That this is what makes you happy and that you both are perfectly safe. My boyfriend isn't a fan of snakes but he wouldn't dream of trying to tell me no. If it's between boyfriend and being able to have pets, I either get both or he gets the boot. Now that we live together and he's around them more, he's actually asked to hold my oldest one a few times. This is him asking on his own, and me never pressuring him to touch or hold him. Or when I have him out on the couch with me he sometimes cruises between people to climb on and my boyfriend is ok with that now. It used to be he'd have a disgusted face on if he touched him. Now he talks to him in that voice people use for dogs and has no problem maneuvering him to keep from going in the couch or something.

To me, if it's going to work, she's going to have to work on her fear. She doesn't have to like them, touch them, or hold them, she just has to not let her fear dictate what you can and cannot have. I've noticed that if you just keep doing what you're doing and don't pressure anyone, that most level headed people will start to ask you questions, this opens up the doors to teaching them and showing them they aren't that scary, and eventually they ask to touch or hold them.

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Originally Posted by devonascended

Thanks for the Video link! Im going to show her that for sure. Like aside from the striking I haven't had trouble handling the snake (I distract her with one hand and pick her up with the other) Its just my gf is so nervous around even the well behaved ones. (much like the snake shes 'striking out' with weird demands out of fear....)

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See you can tell her they have something in common :) They both need time to calm down

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I find maybe one in ten or one in twenty babies are genuinely nippy. Most of the snakes I've had shipped to my house have arrived in a bad mood, especially if they were shipped in cold weather. But most of them also calmed down after a couple weeks. The two genuine biters I had (which includes Mr. Nibbles, my very first ball python) both calmed down after their second winter, and are only a little grumpy right around shed time. So, worst case scenario, the baby will bite for a year, and then calm down. But there's at least a 50/50 chance it'll stop biting after it's settled in and had a couple meals.

Anyway: point is, it's not really the breeder's fault. Snakes have a limited number of ways of interacting with the world, and some baby ball pythons are just defensive. If the breeder is willing to give you your money back, minus the shipping, that's great. If not, you should be able to get most of your money (probably minus the shipping) by selling her on kingsnake. Somebody will almost certainly want a really pretty female bee.

(Just wondering: has she eaten for you?)

When you do find a buyer, I recommend using Ship Your Reptiles.com, and following their directions carefully to make sure you ship her correctly and legally.

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Originally Posted by Crazymonkee

See you can tell her they have something in common :) They both need time to calm down

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Dude now I have coffee all over my monitor! OP don't tell her that. Just... don't.

loonunit, no I havent attempted to feed her yet, my snakes are on a Sunday feed day schedule and I figured Id give her settling time before I attempt it. Judging from her attitude i feel like feed wont be a problem...

Man, I took home a lovely little Lesser girl from the CRBE because she bit me.
The first captive to do so. She already doesn't get so defensive when I am in "her space". Her body language is nervous but, she isn't anywhere near the snake I brought home.
Just work on the snake, it will get the hint soon enough most likely, hopefully the same applies to the gf.

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Originally Posted by Crazymonkee

See you can tell her they have something in common :) They both need time to calm down

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:rofl:

Seriously though, tell her what I told my mum (who was terrified to photograph my babies). How would you feel if all of the sudden a giant ripped open your house, tore you out of your bed, scooped you up in their giant paws, and started carrying you around when you've spent all of your rather brief life tucked inside a safe, cozy egg? You'd try to bite too! Heck, if you think about it, what's really amazing is that they don't all bite us all the time.

UPDATE: Success!! Convinced my girlfriend to calm down about the issue, and showed her that the snake has already calmed down considerably (although shes still very active and obviously still adjusting/stressed she is no longer striking blindly as anything that moves) It looks like all that worrying (on everyones part) was pretty much for nothing lol. Now my GF is still nervous but hopefully time and patience can make that work too... (And hopefully by then she'll stop calling me a 'rat murderer')

Quote:

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Originally Posted by devonascended

UPDATE: Success!! Convinced my girlfriend to calm down about the issue, and showed her that the snake has already calmed down considerably (although shes still very active and obviously still adjusting/stressed she is no longer striking blindly as anything that moves) It looks like all that worrying (on everyones part) was pretty much for nothing lol. Now my GF is still nervous but hopefully time and patience can make that work too... (And hopefully by then she'll stop calling me a 'rat murderer')

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If she eats meat of any kind she can't talk. :P

Good I'm glad it's going well :)

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I think my snake is an angel..knock on wood,he eats like a beast,never snaps at me and I handled him a little while he started to shed with blue eyes and all,then when he finished shedding which was in one piece ,I fed him 30 mins later...I'm feeling blessed,lol

Babies tend to be a bit on the "I'M GONNA EAT YOUR FACE, HUMAN!!!!" kind of crazy side. Most of them chill out and grow up to be very even tempered. That being said, I have three exceptions to that in my 60 snake collection. All three (a normal female, black pastel female, and pinstripe male) were all handled often and raised the same as all the others. They were CRAZY as babies and are still VERY grumpy as adults. It's just a matter of knowing your snakes and knowing what you can and cannot deal with. See how you deal with it growing up and sell it if it still bums you out. It's not the worst thing in the world to do.

I would have sold our carpet python a year ago if my fiancé wasn't so attached to him. I bought him for our school tours since carpets are so gorgeous, but I get mauled every time I have to clean his cage. I can't bring him to a classroom and I'm not fond of him. Though oddly enough, he's never once bitten my fiancé. But, I have known breeders that LOOK FOR aggressive attitudes. A lot of times the aggressive ones eat better and breed better. True, at least from my perspective.