A tricky rehab, help and advice much appreciated!

[Namea]

A tricky rehab - Thoughts and advice needed.
Hello all! I have a bit of a challenge on-hand currently.

A little background: My Dad is a herpetologist, he loves all animals and reptiles but his specialty is ophiology, aka Snakes. Growing up we always had at least a half dozen snakes in our home, usually rehab snakes or snakes in transit to permanent homes. Of course we also had our personal beloved pets. Raising snakes and nursing them to health has been a lifelong passion for me as a result and I've been doing it for almost twenty years now. I've seen snakes at death's door that were healthy and happy when I was done with them but this little guy is a different conundrum altogether and I'd like some advice from you lovelies. Of course I'm consulting my Dad as well but even he is starting to wonder.

Ball pythons are without a doubt my favourite snake to have as a personal pet. I love their temperment and with the right care they really are an amazing pet to have. Recently I decided to finally attempt to find one for our family. My son is old enough now to appreciate and handle snakes safely with supervision. All of my rehab snakes have previously been in my snake room with various areas for different kinds. We've had ball pythons in there before but it's time for us to have one to keep. I talked with local breeders and had found one I liked when someone contacted me out of the blue and needed emergency help with a ball python that their friends needed to get rid of. So I took him. Cuz I'm a sucker.

Anyway, he's approximately 10 years old and while the previous owners claimed a lot of stuff I can tell they lied about most of it. They gave me a tank with him (It was filthy and had a film of excrement on the bottom) and heat lamps and such. None of it is appropriate for a ball python whatsoever so it's sitting newly cleaned in my spare supplies closet. He now has an appropriate set up, we've done the incubation period and he's comfortably eating now and pooping solidly and predictably. So far so good. He's a little over three feet long, he was underweight when I got him with his spine showing too clearly but he's in perfect shape weight-wise now.

He looks relatively healthy for the most part, good weight, bright scales and eyes, no mucus or evidence of common ball problems except some very minor beginning stage scale rot on his belly and given the condition of his habitat when I got him I'm not surprised. I treated it and it's now gone as of yesterday's shed. He sheds perfectly, a lovely scaley rolled out condom every time. He eats perfectly, no fasting or refusal. I feed frozen of course.

The issue with him is different, it's his temperament. Contrary to normal ball python behaviour this little guy is downright aggressive. Not shy or skittish, full on aggressive. Of course I am the only one handling him at the moment.

I've dealt with bps who were a bit nasty at first due to lack of handling or discomfort and always they've tamed down nicely after a bit of work.

Not this poor baby. I've had to put him in a completely secluded area at the back of my snake room where I won't have to walk past him to get to anything else. His enclosure is a custom wooden/plastic made by me with three sides completely solid. I tried him on a typical full solid enclosure first but he seemed miserable, he was striking at the corners of the tank any time he felt movement in the snake room. He calmed down a lot when I switched to one side open. Even so when there is any movement in front of him he strikes out in its direction. If I move his lid he strikes at that, he strikes at his own shadow, seriously. I'm worried he's gonna hurt himself if he keeps it up. Can't be pleasant going nose first into solid stuff all the time. He also refuses to use his hides except for right after eating. Otherwise he'll lay on top of them. I've tried switching hides but he just doesn't seem to like anything. I finally got the old owner to admit that the hides they gave me (the hollow log kind, the kind you DON'T want a ball python to have!) weren't ever used because they wanted to be able to see him all the time. Ugh.

The previous owner had him for 9 years and claimed he used to handle him daily until his wife recently got pregnant. I'm not so sure about that personally. I'm worried that he was kept more as a piece of art than a beloved pet. I wouldn't be surprised if he wasn't handled very much at all in those 9 years.

I've gotten him to the point where I can gently move him into my hands with my hands fully in the enclosure for a couple of minutes and let him put himself down as he pleases. As long as I don't withdraw my hands too quickly he doesn't strike then. Even that has taken more time than any other rehab I've done. I don't use a snake stick or tongs with him because he automatically goes defensive when he sees or feels them and will strike over and over at them. I don't want him to hurt himself or lose a tooth. When I use just my hands he is less likely to strike and if he does I don't mind. I'd rather get a nip than have him injure himself.

Vet says he's healthy other than the mild scale rot he had when I got him. I made sure to get a herp-inclined vet that was recommended to me by a breeder I trust.

So, tips? Advice? Anything I might not have considered as I try to get him calmed down and acclimated to humans? Even if I can't do that I'd like to get him to a stage where he's comfortable enough to not strike at everything and possibly hurt himself. I'm fine if he ends up being a snake I only handle when moving him for cleanings and such as long as he's healthy and as content as he can be. I'm not giving up on this guy, he deserves a safe environment.

Oh, and his name is DangerNoodle NoodleSnoot. My son named him. We call him Snoot for short.