Very First Snake

[Tia Badger]

I have a ball python that is 4.5 to 5 ft. long. Her name is Alice. I feel bad calling her that bc I am still unsure if she is a she, and not a he. I have an exotic vet clinic nearby and will be making her 1st exam appt asap. Id like to make sure that she is healthy, even though I haven't seen any reason to think otherwise.

Alice eats frozen rats-thawed of course. I have been feeding her 1 large rat every 2 weeks.

I joined this forum bc Alice pretty much lives in her enclosure always. I want to handle her more, and make her part of the family. I want to feel more comfortable with her. I don't know much about snakes, and of course I have been reading, watching videos, and asking as many questions as possible.

I just have lots of silly questions now, and I will have more as time goes by Im sure.

Am I feeding her enough? After 1 lg rat she seems to search for more, and she strikes at anything after eating. I have to wait a few hours until she gets out of her zone..

Why does she ALWAYS want to explore near my face? Id love to trust her, but I still dont know her very well...

[PitOnTheProwl]

That should be a good meal for her Some offer weekly while some people feed every couple of weeks.

Trust is hard, I usually put mine on our bed and let them roam around for a while.

We are all here to help each other out regardless of the question, just make sure you dont take all the answers to heart

[Tia Badger]

I never take anything on a public forum personally. Some people can be ..well..people can suck

Trust is an issue. Alice is very large, and came to me that way. It isn't like I was able to bond with her as a baby. I like your idea of letting her roam on the bed. I will have to do that and put the dogs in a down/stay on the floor. They show interest, and I dont want to make her nervous when I am trying to work with her.

[rperry03]

Am I feeding her enough? After 1 lg rat she seems to search for more, and she strikes at anything after eating. I have to wait a few hours until she gets out of her zone..

Why does she ALWAYS want to explore near my face? Id love to trust her, but I still dont know her very well...

Depends on how much the "large weighs" and for whatever reason all of my snakes like hanging out around my face. I typically trust my ball pythons more than my Boa's, they just seem more eager to try and tag you than ball's. Also trust is a bad word to use, getting to know them and learning to read them is what I believe is the most you can do with a snake.

[Tia Badger]

Any tips on getting to know her better? Is it safe to just let her crawl all over me? I keep getting this image of her biting my ear or my neck. Im not comfortable enough to let her crawl around my head. I normally just allow her on my arms and in my lap for now, and I never touch her head. She jerks away and gets shy if you get near it. I dont like people touching my face either though.

[TomC]

There is a really high probability you could let her go near your face or around your neck and nothing bad would ever happen. I never say never but adult ball pythons rarely bite if you do your part right.

My first rule is always wash your hands before handling her you do not want your hands smelling like food.

I have found that my snake is always in hunt mode after a feeding it normally only last a few minutes like up to 15 minutes. I know every formula we use to determine prey size and I am confident I am fedding her the correct amount so I think this is just normal.

I have found that snakes are really attracted to faces. Their senses don't work like ours and your face has movement, gives off smells, and gives off heat. I think that is why snakes find our faces fascinating.

I am not an expert compared to some of the people on here with decades of experience with large numbers of snakes, but from my experience if a snake is going to bite it usually happens when you smell like food, or you are doing something inside the snakes enclosure. The worst thing that could happen is some day you might get bit. If you are anything like me if that does happen you will realize it is really not that big a deal. I think I lost the little bit of aprehension I had left after I got tagged because the worrying about it is actually much worse than the actual bite.

I can tell you it will get a lot easier with time. I think from what you have said you are doing the right things the only real problem is you do not have a lot of confidence yet and the only thing that can fix that is time and experience.

[rperry03]

TomC nailed it!

I don't like anything near my face either. My adult bp just bumped my face and neck a few times tonight, no big deal he was just curious.

Let her crawl around just be conscious of where she might go...under couch, in the cushions that type of place where it could be a pain to retrieve her.

[Tia Badger]

So tonight I got Alice out once I noticed she was awake and moving about in there. I let her hang out on the bed. I laid down an old sheet, and let her go to town. She was all over the place, but held on to my hand with her tail the hole time. She likes to stand up straight and get to the tallest place possible. It's strange bc I've been hearing that they'd rather not climb , and are clumsy.

I really enjoyed my little chat with Alice this evening. She didn't try to come in my face, and she even allowed me to take some glamor shots before I put her to bed. I'll post in the gallery.

I'm going to try to keep this thread updated with our progress together Thanks everyone for the advice and warm welcome

[waltah!]

I tend to not let mine too close to my face for the most part.
The first adult retics I ever handled (at the same time even) scared the crap outta me. They both came up my body and hovered around my face. I got tongue flicked on the cheek by a 14ft retic and nearly peed my pants lol.
I do let my adult male boa around my head and neck, but he's a 7yr old animal who never struck at anyone. If anything happened it would be my fault.

Welcome to the site, and you have a very pretty reduced pattern bp

[DakotaB]

Id say u could be good with 2 large rats every 2 weeks or one every week. I have a friend with a bp the size of urs that feeds 2 large rats every week.

With the handling as long as u make soft calm movements and dont squeeze her. Shes not gonna bite u. Ever since i was a kid i was out catching snakes. Ive caught some really aggresive ones and at first they bite but after about 20 mins of handleing ive had them completly tamed down. After awhile ull be able to read ur snakes emotions and learn what to do and what not to do and when not to do it. haha