Tell me about your BP's personality!

Hey all,

I brought home my first ball python, a baby het red fire boy, a couple of weeks ago. I knew he was a winner when I handled him at the reptile show- didn't ball up at all, no guarded neck position, just straight to exploring. He's kept that fearlessness since I brought him home, too- I've never, ever seen him ball up. What are your snakes like? Have you noticed differences in how much fearful body language they display, or how much they seem to like to climb, or explore?

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Mine are all very different. I have a couple who are super shy, one who is very explorative but very head shy, one who is just nosey and in your face kind of like a hyperactive child lol she will literally aim to crawl around your face and stick her tongue in your eye just for kicks lol xx


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My Behemoth is a fighty little monster. Other one is hissing all the time when you touch him. Rest is rather calm and shy.

Our little normal girl is very friendly :) She does ball up and will shrink away from you if surprised, but once she is out and being held she loves to explore you, and one of her favourite things to do is become a snecklace lol :D She's got a very good temperament, we've had her six months and shes only ever bitten once.

My older girls like to explore and barely keep still when you hold them. Emrys will usually chill where you put him, but sometimes he'll go on a little adventure. Tessa is the baby, and so far out of the 2 times I've held her she was balled up super tight, but she did relax a bit the second time and I got to admire her pattern more.

My ball Jeffrey with rub his head on your hand if you keep your hand in his enclosure hovering above the floor. And he LOVES people! If he doesn't know someone he'll rise straight up to them and lick their face! It's really funny when people who come over don't like snakes! I swear he can sense them! He pays more attention to those people and does funny stuff for them! He's a very interesting snake! He doesn't really act like a normal ball python. The rest of my 12 ball pythons have their own little personalities but for the most part they act like ball pythons lol



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Mine are all very different too! (and I love writing descriptions lol)

Cake: my first ball python and most openly inquisitive and confident. He has never balled up in his life. He's the only one I can carry around and put anywhere, and he'll immediately start periscoping, turning his head and checking out his surroundings. He's my go-to snake to show guests/new people. He's not even head shy, and new people can pet his head. Pretty crazy!

Yukon: chill as heck, he is not inquisitive at all and not very bright, but doesn't care about anything going on. He is a lazy blob. I can take him out and put him on a table, and he'll stay in the same position. He has never balled up in his life either. But awesome feeding response and never refused a meal in his life.

Blissey: skittish and scared of me and everything that moves haha.

Drizzle: super duper skittish and has struck at me multiple times for just holding her LOL. She hates me and the world and is either balling up or rapidly escaping/planning an escape from my hands. 0/10 terrible pet snake. But she has an AWESOME feeding response and is a total pig, so she's a keeper!

Togetic (who I don't own anymore): Head shy, but not skittish. Not inquisitive either, and sometimes balls up- just a pretty basic ball python... takes forever to take a meal. I didn't feel any connection with her, which is part of the reason why I sold her.

My Luna is awesome. She is very calm but a bit head shy. Never seen her ball up, but she will tuck her head if something approaches from above or too quickly. Short of that, she eats like a little pig, and as soon as 6pm rolls around she has her head out of her hide watching us eat dinner, and hoping a little rat will make it's way into her strike-zone. She has never bitten me, but I take extra care when I remove her from her hide, because she will head-track and tongue flick at ANY movement. Once she's out of her cage though she cruises around in your hands and tries to nose her way in between my arm and my body where its dark and warm lol.

Mine always goes into a ball once picked up 90% of the time for a couple mins then he will either just sit and chill or go exploring he isn't head shy neither

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My boy Paris is more shy than not, really headshy when he's not comfortable yet, but after a few minutes of holding him he relaxes and starts to explore more. He's not a big roamer, I don't see him out of his hides very often, but he's very calm in general. I'm looking forward to when it gets warm enough to take him outside and see if he likes that or not.

Strudel is such a joy to handle. She's sweet, calm, moves at a relaxed pace and will often just chill and hang out. Not head shy in the least, and at 1600g and only 2 years old, she's my biggest snake, too. Just the right size to be impressive but not intimidating. She is definitely my ambassador snake.

Serket is a goofball. Idk if it's the spider gene at work or what, but it seems like she hams it up more. Example: due to shenanigans Wednesday evening involving lost car key and a lock smith, I wasn't able to get to the shop I get my rats from before they closed, so everyone had to wait a day to be fed (side note, it is the most heart breaking thing to have nine snakes all giving you "feed me" eyes at once). While everyone else gave me a silent guilt trip, Serket decided to problem solve to the best of her BP ability. She started in the warm side hide in the usual waiting pose, but as it got later and no rat showed up, she decided to move over and try waiting in the cool side hide. Shockingly this did not produce a rat either. So she switched hides again after about half an hour. Each time she took up the vigil, waiting for her diner to appear, but it never came that night, and she must have tried the hide switch at least 5 times. Poor button. She was quite happy it showed up Thursday though.

Riddle is shaping up so have the same temperament as Strudel, but he's a male, so he's much smaller. He's gorgeous to boot, everyone loooves looking at him. Probably going to become my second ambassador snake.

Bean. Ooooh boy Bean. Bean was almost a year old when I got her, and had lived most of her life first with the breeder, and then in my local reptile shop. She wasn't handled much, and she's very wary of people, but she is a FIGHTER rather than a flier. Never balls, instead she puffs up, hisses, and will try for a tag two or three times whenever I open she enclosure (unless it's feeding day, then she's perfectly well behaved toward me). Once I get her in hand she mellows out right away, though. I'm confident that working with her more will produce a less defensive snake, but even if not I still love it, she keeps me on my toes!

Latula is new, so we're still learning each other, but gosh she seems curious. I was taking picks the other day and her tongue would not stop going. She even chased down the camera to sniff it!

The rest of my snakes are all pretty standard: ball up initially, but quickly chill once in hand and happily explore and sniff things. Even so, I love each one individually. They're such fantastic animals.

Ves is a powereating, locked n loaded, rat-destroying, machine. She's not aggressive in the slightest in general handling, but when you first open her enclosure at feeding time, she is at the top of her tub, ready to spring and sometimes she tags the tongs if she's really really hungry and not in the mood to wait for the rat to be dangled, haha. You gotta watch out during tub-cleaning day, because when I open the top lid man she's right there ready to spring thinking I have a rat. I learned if I squirt her with the water bottle right before I start to scoop out her aspen, she ducks away and gets the picture I'm here to disrupt her peace and clean. She hates it, I can tell by the way she eyeballs me from the opening of her hide, but she's never flung herself out to bite or anything.

The last thing I do is lift the rock off her to clean it and scoop her out. I hate this part, because she aaaalways goes in her hide, she never goes anywhere else in her enclosure, so it's always a gross surprise. I don't know why she does it. D< But she's fine and dandy the whole time I have her out. She doesn't even get defensive if you lift the rock off her, she just kind of... sits there and waits, and if I touch her to pick her up, she barely even flinches. Once she's out, she's a sweetie pie, usually likes to look around and explore at a snail's pace, but rarely just stays in one spot, and I've never seen her ball up.

I'm lucky to have a very good eater, and also a perfectly docile handling snake at the same time. It's great!