Taming

[herpguy311]

I have read that one should not handle a ball much, if at all, except for normal cleaning and such, until it is a well established eater. This could be two or more months after purchasing and setting them up. Does this lenghty amount of time do harm in the taming process, or does it simply give the guy time to adjust to its surrondings? I ask this because I am having trouble getting mine to eat on a regular basis, so when I offer food and he refuses I wait a week then try again. This time without my "direct" handling will add up quickly. Any thoughts?

[Repti-Rob]

I would say get him eating first on a regular basis, ....then you can start to handle him. Taming may not be the right word as he is a wild animal and a predator.....getting him relaxed and stress free will help both of you when it comes time to interact just my

[starmom]

Tell us/show us the snake's environment. We'll be able to help out after knowing more of what is going on within the snake's world.

Also, you can't really tame a snake so not handling it for a few months out of 25 years will make little difference

[herpguy311]

Taming was a poor choice of words..more tolerant of me would be better suited
Below is a link to a picture of the enclosure he is in.
http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/g...d311/Rambo.jpg


It is a 20 long tank. The sides are covered and so is the top. I had an 18' flouresent setup, but I took it down and I am just using the ambient light in the room as the light source...I dont think he liked the bright light. I have an undertank heat pad on a thermostat and the red heat lamp on top, used mostly for nocturnal viewing. Since this pic I have installed a digital humidty gauge that stays around 55%-60%. The cool end stays around 82-83 measured from the bottom and the warm end stays around 88-90. drops at night are no more that 5 degrees. I got him out last Wed and put the mouse up to his mouth and genlty opened it with the mouse and he took it. I tried to get him to eat this week but no luck. I didn't assist this time though, becasue I know its not recommended.

[starmom]

The cage is way too big right now for the snake and it looks like the hides are too big also; both of these issues can put a ball python off-feed The water dish is a little overkill also Please get lower and smaller hides and fill that tank up with balled up paper to take up every inch of spare space. You also might think about setting up a tub for him until he eats consistently and has put on a few hundred grams of weight

88-90 is too cool for the warm side. You need to get the temps up to a constant 92-94 with no night drops; why are the temps dropping at night???

If you fix the tank, hides, and temps, and leave him alone for a week or two, he'll more than likely start eating again~

Please don't assist feed like that again until you have dealt with husbandry issues- you can really make the situation worse!!!

[herpguy311]

Wow I suck I have also gotten a smaller/shallower water dish since this pic. The temps flucuate becasue I have a moron living with me that drops the temps at night, so I am trying to deal with that. What is something I can use for a smaller hide? I tried the smaller version of the hides in the cage but they were too small b/c he couldnt even cram himsellf in them. I would do the tub thing, but I dont know where to start...Any advice on that would be nice. I also thought about moving to a 10 gal, but Im not sure how one could create a temp gradient. I will try the balled up paper and see what happens. He is doing better it seems from when I first got him. At least he comes out now

[frankykeno]

You don't "suck" at all, every new owner has to tweak a bit so no worries.

Basics here......
where did you get this snake?
what was it eating as far as prey type and size just prior to you purchasing it?
exactly how long have you had this snake and how often are you offering food?
what type of prey and the feeding method (rat or mice, size of prey and are you doing live, frozen/thawed or pre-killed)?
where is the snake's enclosure located in your home?
is the heat pad controlled by any kind of thermostat (you indicated it was but then it should not be dropping with room temps so just checking)?

Having some more info will likely help us help you better.

As far as your housing choices the 20 could work if you busy it up a bit more to use up the open space. Another hide midway perhaps, using a natural substrate rather than the reptile carpet (which you'll likely find is a bear to keep clean). If your snake coiled up is significantly smaller than the hide you can easily make some "baby" hides from any dark colored plastic bowl from the dollar store (usually 3 for a buck and smaller than a regular cereal bowl). You just melt or cut an entrance hole and you are good to go. Here's an example....

*note how smooshed in the snake is - bp's like this*

Anything you put in with a snake think easy to clean because they will drop urates and feces on anything and chipping off a dried urate or poop from some fancy bit of "cage furniture" loses it's charm pretty fast LOL.

As far as your original question about handling - no worries. Get your enclosure tweaking done, get the snake eating regularily, get it used to a simple routine of housekeeping/feeding and it will be getting to know you that way. As you work around it, feed it, etc. and establish simple routines it will come to see you as just a big heat emitting thing that doesn't particularily want to eat it. That's the first step.

[starmom]

Jo answered you well and asked good questions for you to think about and find out.
As for your negative self-talk.... don't go there. None of us were born and raised with this knowledge; we all have to learn and to continue to learn about methods that work. You are no different from anyone else who has started this journey Actually, you are more on the ball than some others since some are even afraid to ask for fear of sounding unlearned.
So, enough negativity and self-flagellation and lets get back on track with how to deal with your snake

[herpguy311]

Sorry guys just a bit frustrated. I am called a perfectionist by my friends and family and just feel like I am not properly taking care of the animal. I have a BCC and she does GREAT, and I also have a large Iguana that is thriving. But all is good now.
Ok I got the snake from a pet store a few miles away which I have dealt with in the past and they take very good care of there animals. I stop by there often just to help cleanup cages and such with the larger reptiles. She said the guy she got these from was from FL..She did not know if they were captive breed but knew they were captive born. I have my record book out so I will give you guys what I have. I bought him on 5/31/08; one week to the day she got the shipment in. She had not offered any food to them when I got him. I got him set up in his new home and waited until 6/3 an attempted to feed him a small f/t mouse but he refused. I tried again on 6/7 with a live fuzzy mouse, but that was unsuccessful as well. On 6/9 I covered the sides and the top of the enclosure and removed the fluorescent fixture. On this day I observed the snake moving around and beginning to explore his new surroundings. Also, I measured the snake while in the enclosure and it is around 18'-19'. I think I said it was smaller in another post. On 6/13 I attempted to feed another f/t mouse and it would not take it, so I assisted it and it readily ate the prey within 10 minutes. On 6/17 I attempted to feed again with no success.
The enclosure is in the same room as boa. The UTH is on a thermostat and it does not change, just the cool end. That about sums it up on a side note, it is feeding day for the boa, so that always makes my day!

[herpguy311]

One more thing, I have cleaned out small urates twice. Once on 6/5 and once on 6/12