My Ball keeps striking/biting me

[Smitha]

I've had my Ball for 5 months now, and she's always been really mellow and I've never had a problem taking her out of her cage and handling her. About a week ago I went to take her out of her cage to put her in her feeding tub, and she struck at me and bit me. At first I thought she was just eager to get her meal because I feed her on the same day every week, but ever since then she keeps going into a defensive position and has tried striking numerous times. I'm not sure how to go about handling her now? Any help would be greatly appreciated

[therunaway]

First of all, don't bother taking her into another tub for feeding, causes more stress, and may be one of the reasons why she's striking and going wild. What're your temps, and humidity? Pictures of the enclosure?

[Smitha]

I've always been told to feed them in a separate tank because they'll associate your hand going into the tank with feeding... Temps are normal range, I have a basking light that is 90 degrees, a warmer side of 80-85 and then the cooler side that is around 75 degrees. She has two hides, one on both sides of the tank and I keep the humidity around 40% with a misting in the morning and at night.

[therunaway]

Ah, the myth of tank aggression, trust me it's not true, and never will be! Can I get pictures? & your humidity needs to be up between 50-60% & do you have just a light, or do you also have a UTH, if not I would be looking into one with a thermostat & ditching the light all together, the main reason your losing humidity.

[Smitha]

I have a UTH too, and alright I'll get the humidity up. I was actually thinking about switching her over to a plastic opaque tub, to keep the humidity and temps in a regular range.



The yellow hide is on the warm side

[Mike41793]

Feed her in her enclosure

Thats pic isnt showing up. Is your uth being regulated by a thermostat?

[Smitha]

It is. I still don't understand why she is biting, or how I go about stopping it though. She's had the same conditions since the first day I got her and she's been fine, so I'm a little confused.

[Mike41793]

Bc shes hungry and instead of feeding her in her home where shes comfortable youre pulling her out and putting her in an open space to eat where she gets stressed. Is my guess

[PorcelainxDoll]

Bc shes hungry and instead of feeding her in her home where shes comfortable youre pulling her out and putting her in an open space to eat where she gets stressed. Is my guess

X2
Feed in her enclosure.
Also bump up your temps a lil.
Cool side 80_82 hot side 88-90.

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[The Serpent Merchant]

Bc shes hungry and instead of feeding her in her home where shes comfortable youre pulling her out and putting her in an open space to eat where she gets stressed. Is my guess

x3

A BP isn't going to think that your hand is a rat... your hand doesn't look, smell or give off the same thermal signature as a rat. If you get bit it isn't because your BP thinks you are food.

Moving a snake to a feeding tub increases your chances of getting bitten vs just feeding in the snakes cage. nearly every major breeder feeds their snakes in their cages without any issues. Personally I have 7 snakes all fed in their cages and I haven't ever been bit because of it.