first day problems.

Pandora's first day here is not going well on account of her massive attitude. She left me a present this morning so I figured It wouldn't hurt to spot clean, and WAM! She tagged me from her hide. I looked at her, looked at my hand and went back to cleaning and WAM! Again she tags me. Not being stupid, I clean up the wounds, grab a clean towel and place it over her hide. I get the job finished remove the towel and go on to cleaning every one's tubs. After an hour or so, I'm finished and Pandora is out of her hide moving about her tub. I walk by to toss out the trash and I hear a thud fallowed by a loud and deep hiss. I look over and there she is coiled up, neck in the “S” possession and she strikes again.

I placed the a towel over the tub and left the living room.

I hope after the 2 or maybe even 3 weeks of no contact she will settle down and stop this. At least for her nose's sake.

Is there something I'm doing wrong? All the temps are right, humidity, and every thing is set up as it should be. Should I place some news paper balls in with her?

Also I heard a rumor that females can sometimes be a bit more aggressive than males. I don't know if this is true or not. I doubt it is true, but have any of you heard this rumor?

Thanks every one.

the main thing i see you doing wrong is you started with her enclosure! you need to deal with all your other snakes BEFORE you go into the quarantined critters enclosure - cause if there is anything she can pass along to your other snakes... then this is the way to do it.

other than that. i would leave her covered if she has to stay in your living room... if you can move her to a quieter location i think that would benefit her greatly.

and in the future, when she postures or tags you... respect her feelings and get out of her enclosure. by staying there and continueing to clean you were telling her that her feelings don't matter. IMO showing her that you respect her will go a long way to assisting her to trust you. ;)

I have to go against the grain here.........

Leaving a snake after it has tagged you or hissed is just showing the snake that it wins. If it knows you are scared it will continue to do those things. My snakes get handled and messed with more if they show attitude and usually calm down once they see it has no effect on me. Even my Rattlesnakes very seldom rattle at me anymore now that they know I will not go away and leave them alone. I am not saying to stress the snake out.......just dont give in to them showing how big and bad they are.

i see where you are coming from richard but this is day one for a snake who came from a home, went into a vet office, stayed there over night... was poked and proded and now is in another home.

i think respecting her need to just chill and get her head wrapped around this new situation isn't ''feeding her behaviour".

but then again... i've been wrong before... and i'm sure i'll be wrong again in the future LOL

LOL

I hear ya........I didnt see the part about the vet and all..........I thought this was from a breeder to home deal........sorry.

Dont give into it though Jessie...........hang in there!

As for dealing with her first, I cleand up very well after working with her. I have almost a fobia of germs and I scrub very well after I touch any new snakes then I use a hand sanitizer (ps?) (it goes every where with me)and wash again befor going any where near my other snakes. (you should see me with raw chicken... it's funny.) I will start out next time with every one else, then move on to her. thanks.

We have a problem with mold in my house and I didnt want to leave the mess in the cage. I'm having my ducts cleand this week and if that dosen't work I'm requesting to be moved into a new house. for some odd reasion if something is left out over night, food, soada, snake poo, It grows mold, and I have allergies to mold so nothing can stay left out. I guess next time I will just have to wait if she trys to tag me again.

As for the living room. It is the quitest place in the house. It is used as a show room for my husbands customers online. The most we go into it is when me move in a new piece of the Home audio setup in, or to take pictures. The Demo Room. We dont have any TVs in the house and our home audio systom is rarely ever used unless a customer comes to our home but most of them are for out of the U.S. so our house stays empty.

Thanks for the tips though. I will try my best to keep things as calm and quite as can be and to respect her wishes.

Thanks again.

I wouldn't worry to much, the first day Anubus was here he was striking at everything that passed his cage. I would chalk it up to the new home experience. If after 2-3 weeks she still is Ms. Attitude I would follow nightmares approach. Patience grasshopper its only day one.

and don't forget... mites can 'cling-on' to your clothes! ewwwwwwwwwwwwwww

sounds like you have it all going on jess... ;) best of luck to you both. i'm sure you'll be best of friends in no time at all.

As for mites she is mite free. She came to me right from the vets office. When going to any shows, peoples homes and after handeling there snakes I change and toss everything into the landry with color safe bleach. I fear the world around me and I dont trust other peoples snakes to not have mites or other buggies! EWWWWW!!! LOL and actualy I dont have OCD :giggles: .

i thought that about my RTB - she came straight from a woman's house and stayed a moment at my favorite petstore until I took her home... she had mites.

i got my hog island boa from one of my (at that time) favorite breeders... he had mites.

i always always always spray the new enclosures with Provent-A-Mite before bringing in a new snake.

cause everyone says their snake doesn't have mites... in my limited experience anyway. :sigh2:

I have PAM and do the same thing. I learned that from the pet store I worked at. one of the only good thing i learned there...*grumbles*

well at least you learned ONE thing... many of my fellows employees at the pet store didn't even learn that much :rofl:

lol I tought most of the people I worked with about the reptiles they had for sale. and my boss suposedly (sp?) had a PHD in Hepitology (god I need to learn to spell!!) You wouldn't know he did by the way I found the reptiles the first day I started work there. And now that I'm gone .. the animals are most likely back in the same tanks, over crowded, sick, and dieing. I feel bad for the poor Frog Eyed Gecko. She was placed in a tank with 3 very large Tokays 2 days after I lfet the store. Some people just never learn :disbelief

too true... too true!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jessie_k_pythons

I tought most of the people I worked with about the reptiles they had for sale.

---

FANTASTIC! ... I love pet stores with well educated staffs.

-adam

Don't be so hard on yourself. Her temper is just basically (at least I think) a reaction to being under a lot of stress/moving around/etc. Some of them keep this temper their whole lives, others don't.
From now on for me, any new snake I get is getting the Provent-A-Mite treatment. I have no faith whatsoever in any snake that's not mine, not having mites. I believe in this stuff wholeheartedly; PAM finally wiped out the mites in my collection. Anyone that I know who keeps herps now has to listen to my PAM spiel, lol.. and they learn a thing or two!
On a side note, that's an awesome home-entertainment system you have there!

Pet stores scare me now...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Rapture

Pet stores scare me now...

---

LMAO! ... :love:

-adam

ha ha ha I dont blame you... I walk in a pet store and I always go to the reptile part... I always get some one asking me questions or wanting me to look at there pet what ever, and I end up coming out with a case of the willies.... "OH GOD!! I'm contaminated!!!!!! AHHHHHHHH!!!" I end up taking a shower, washing my cloths, and even changing shoes. I would do the same thing after work... 5 of the 6 puppies we got in one time had Parvo, and we had pure breed Rotties. (rotties, even with the vacxcine (sp?) will get Parvo if full blooded) Then we had a mite problem, and I had to put my whole house under the "Big Q" and every one had to be treatd for mites. I hate pet stores with a passion.

I do how ever want to own one like the one I saw in Orange County. Prehistoric Pets. No outside reptiles alowd and if your animal is being treated for mites at the store they have to go through the back door to the treatment room and both customer and vet staff have to wear disposabale rubber clothes. It was so cool. each night after closeing each reptile is checked by the on staff vet, cages are cleaned if needed, and eggs are checked and so forth. The one thing I liked the most is that This place had BP's... and had morphs. the best part was each BP had it's own cage. no babies piled up on eachother.

One of the people I know there works in the place and has a few BPs from there. I'm planing on going there the next time we have a Car Audio Show at our shop.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jessie_k_pythons

I always get some one asking me questions or wanting me to look at there pet what ever, and I end up coming out with a case of the willies.... "OH GOD!! I'm contaminated!!!!!! AHHHHHHHH!!!"

---

You're a true hero to our little scaley friends ... keep up the good work. :sweeet: :puke:

-adam

I just cant afford to be careles with my animals. #1 I love them way to much to see them get sick, or hurt, and #2 my vet here charges and arm and a leg for reptiles so I cant afford the vet bills. A clean house, a quick shower, and a change of clothes can mean a clean bill of health for my babies, and a happy pocket book.

Thanks fot the complment on our home audio setup. my husband dose this stuff for a living. It gets old after a while though. he always wants me to guess what his latest car audio sub box will sound like and then after that he wants to know everything I thought about it. and if i give him the "I liked it, it was nice and deep" he in turn askes why did i like it.. ... like I said it is getting really old :P

I guess I'm somewhere in the middle on whether or not to push a snake that's hissing and tagging you. For me, it really always depends on that particular snake, the circumstances of that moment...I guess what I'm saying is the bigger picture - so for me anyway, there's no hard and fast rule. Some snakes I'd back off and give them their space, others I wouldn't but again that's entirely dependent on a lot of factors that are specific to the situation and the snake.

Jessie in the end this is a snake and she's doing exactly what a snake will do given a certain set of circumstances. I don't see this as a "problem" at all, just normal stuff that one deals with when we choose to share our lives with snakes. :)

I also think it was due to stress.

One thing I have heard that helps snakes who are really agressive, is to place something in the tank that smells like you, so they get used to your sent. I have never had to do it, but I know several people who have. IE a small face cloth, that you carried around with you for a few hours. Also if you are worried about her tagging you again, wear gloves, so you aren't as jumpy is she strikes at you again.

She is doing much better today. She was soaking today and didnt even let out a hiss. she just watched me walk by. then when I found her soaking again I had to take her out to check for mites. not sign of mites at all. and every thing is normal, temps, humidity, all fine. I think she just likes to soak sometimes. ... I might have to take her back to the vet though if she keeps the soaking thing up.

Some of them just like water :)


My little female confused the heck out of me yesterday by sticking her head under the water and blowing bubbles at me 4 times!!:eek: I've had her for about 5 years and never seen her do anything like it before - stick her head under water yes, snorkling no.

I'm guessing she also thinks it's feeding time as when I went down on one knee to inspect her ( well you would at that point wouldn't you) she came right up and we stared at each other nose to nose for a couple of minutes.

I swear I could hear her thinking " stop standing there like a big hairy blamonge - go get me a rat"


dr del

LMAO Del that's the best line I've ever heard! So did you run get her a dang rat or what????

I called the lady I got her from and she told me she started doing it after her 19 yo lost her in the car on a road trip. she has some scaring on her side from that, when the teen turned on the heater. The snake was in the dash near the heating elements and got a thurmal burn. I knew the story but I didnt know that was when she started soaking. Her scar looks good now and it happened 2 years ago.

would something like that make a snake soak? as in a form of habbit? or anything like that?

Well my male has some burn scars from when he wrapped around a bulb in his youth and I can't say I've noticed him soaking much. If it bothers you or you think they're doing it too much you could always just replace the waterbowl with one thats too small to fit in :) .

frankykeno,

Nah tonights the night for feeding - I swear they get to know the schedule and if I walk past the tanks now I get a row of heads popping out one after the other.

Lately it seems they are all shedding much more than usual - I have the horrible suspicion their planning something.:confused:


dr del

i would think the story itself gives you the answer to your question https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil.../4/7/baby2.gif

Well I'm going to be giving her another week to see if she soaks again ad if she dose then I will replace the bowl. I dont need belly rot on top of all this...

Baby and Freebe wouldnt eat for me this past feeding time and all they are doing is paseing back and forth in there tubs. Angel has a very bloated tail, like she has to poop but she wont go. and Lazy Lunged at me on feeding day. I opened the tub abs he struck right at my face. Then struck again just as I was moving the rat into his view... He has always been a piggy when it comes to meal time but good lord!!!

Oh I completely believe they get to understand basic routines Del. Ours are always out on feeding night...some lurking from hides, some on top of hides and others in full strike position glaring at the place the lid opens at LOL. Two of our older and bigger females will come and nose about at the lid locks as they seem to know that is where the human hand that delivers food will come to first (course we then have to trick them by opening the other end as they eat live and can't have food dropped right in front of them...we're just as tricky as the snakes LOL).

Sounds like he has a great feeding response Jessie. That's always a good thing! :)

I will have to keep the Trickyness in mind. Thanks. I wish it was as simple as drop a rat on the other side of the tub with my male Baby. He has gotten so picky about eating that he wont eat unless you do all this stuff first. and he ended up taging me today... A first for him. But i was running a slight fever and I smelled like rat and was warmer than the rat I was holding. well you can see where that was going. LOL

I am sorry to bring up and old post but i just ran into this myself. I got Ed's banded female. And the second day I had her whack whack whack she is like a gun firing at anything that comes near while I'm holding her talk about waiting for the inevitable. I am got to give her a couple of weeks of water and food and no real contact and see where we are.. LOL

Good luck!

well Pandora is doing just fine, but she is as nasty as ever. she strikes at anything that walks by and when you stick your hands in to clean out her cage. I now wear gloves when getting her out of her tub. less chance of her making contact with my skin and less chance of me ripping my hand back and taking her teeth with me. (I dont fear her biteing me I fear hurting her.)

Once you get her out she is fine and stops hissing and striking.