Just got my first BP and shes a pretty old gal, but I'd like some newbie advice

[Botzenhardt]

So first a little background, I've have had several other reptiles previously and currently my little zoo consists of a Russian Tortoise(~9yo) and a Bearded Dragon(~2.5yo) and I've been catching and releasing little garden snakes and lizards since I was a kid including once a 12" snapping turtle that ended up getting me in a world of trouble as a 14yo.

All that said this is my first snake, shes a standard morph Ball Python thats about 26yo. I picked her up at a local rescue after window shopping more seriously for a snake the last few months. Shes a beautiful girl, about 4' long, and was extremely friendly and good at being handled while at the rescue. I brought her home today and she's a bit shy, but allowed me to handle her for a few minutes to transfer her into her new 40 gal terrarium.

So the reason I wanted to get some advice stems more from my lack of experience reading their body language and I wan to make sure I'm going to make a good snake dad. She was ok taking her out of the traveling case but was stiff and was coiled in for the first bit of handling, which is to be expected from what I've gathered in my research before jumping in. Getting her more settled in she calmed down and was more to the temperament I experienced at the rescue. It wasn't until I went to put her in the tank that I got the first little startle, she got spooked and coiled back hard and then pressed her nose against my arm and I'm a little worried I narrowly avoided being bitten. After getting her to the tank however after letting her settle again for a few minutes she was very reluctant to let go of my arm resulting in me awkwardly standing with my arm in the tank for about 10 min waiting for her to decide to let go lol.

Since being in there she's taken a bit of a tour of the new home and settled into her hide and is now sitting with her head poking out the door watching. So for now I want to let her have time to adjust and get at least one feeding in before I handle her too much, so I guess my question is how long should I let her rest before attempting to feed her and should I wait until after feeding her before I handle her again? I guess I'm more worried that if she doesn't know my scent before feeding her that she might be more willing to go after my hand if I'm not careful.

Any advice or suggestions are very welcome, I want to do my best to start this right.

Thanks everyone! =)

[Oxylepy]

Snake hands: The art of slow, sure movement. You'll get used to it, but almost every piece of handling advice involves not moving rapidly near their heads and making them feel at ease.

Don't smell like food.

A slow long tongue flicker is the calm snake flicker. Fast tongue flickers are usually fear. Long fast tongue flickers or touching a surface with the tongue and gradually getting closer while remaining fairly rigid and s shaped means it's about to eat something.

Ball pythons ball up for protection. Preparing to strike involves an s curved neck, shortening tongue flickers, and focus, usually with a little swaying

Leave her alone for the next couple weeks. She's old, give her more time to get used to her new home. She also doesn't need to eat as often because she's old, so she'll be fine.

At the end of 2 weeks, feed her. You can go ahead and handle her after her second feeding with you (10 days after the first one). Give her like 3 days to digest

[Botzenhardt]

Here' s a little snippet of my lovely girl Beatrice =)
Thanks again Oxylepy I'll keep that in mind when handling her more and work on getting steadier, calm hands for calm happier snake.

[Botzenhardt]

Snake hands: The art of slow, sure movement. You'll get used to it, but almost every piece of handling advice involves not moving rapidly near their heads and making them feel at ease.

Don't smell like food.

A slow long tongue flicker is the calm snake flicker. Fast tongue flickers are usually fear. Long fast tongue flickers or touching a surface with the tongue and gradually getting closer while remaining fairly rigid and s shaped means it's about to eat something.

Ball pythons ball up for protection. Preparing to strike involves an s curved neck, shortening tongue flickers, and focus, usually with a little swaying

Leave her alone for the next couple weeks. She's old, give her more time to get used to her new home. She also doesn't need to eat as often because she's old, so she'll be fine.

At the end of 2 weeks, feed her. You can go ahead and handle her after her second feeding with you (10 days after the first one). Give her like 3 days to digest

Thats gonna be a rough wait,but makes sense =)

[Oxylepy]

Yeah, it's a month wait for you to be able to handle her again, but it's worth it. Take a bunch of pics now, you won't have a chance for a while.

[Botzenhardt]

I'll use the time to practice not smelling like a rat ;P