Most doctile snakes? I think not.

[Faber]

Ok, so im on BP number two. Both snakes i've owned have always seemed aggressive, the one i have now just hissed at me. He/She (too young to tell) has been in my care for two weeks, i've fed it once. Itold my friends last night that they're nice snakes and never bite (knowing otherwise) to see if i just lost confidence. Sure enough they held Faber (named after WEC fighter Urijah Faber), and i wouldn't say the snake was tame, but it didn't seem as aggressive as usual. I've been petting it for a couple minutes a day but never lifted it except for once to move him/her to its feeding tub. I just wanna know how to get it to be like my other friends (who always lucked out) and be more afraid then aggressive, his snakes always went in a ball when i would hold them and then stay balled up for a while, mine turns and faces me in strike position, and today hissed.

[rabernet]

Hissing is not aggression. It's acting as though it's scared and trying the only way that it knows how to try to scare you away. Many of mine hiss as well and I go "yeah, yeah - you're big and scarey, now come here!"

You may also wish to check your set-up - if it is too big and open, that would cause your snake(s) to feel insecure as well.

I don't "pet" any of mine, I just pick them up. If they are looking like they are in strike position, I simply lightly touch them on the top of their head with a water bottle or something similar, and that snaps them out of it, and cause them to duck their heads.

Remember that these are not domesticated animals, they have all the instincts of self preservation as their wild cousins.

[dr del]

Hi,

Well there are a couple of things to try. But by far the main one is help the snake feel more secure and less threatened.

This can include tips such as not reaching down from above to pick the snake up but letting it see you coming and trying to come from the side instead. And pay attention to how you reach for it - quick movements or slow, jerky tentative ones can actually provoke the snake into thinking it is about to be attacked.

You can change the tank setup to give it more/ better hiding spots and cover the back and sides - but we would really need more details of your setup to see what could be done with that.

Letting the snake settle in when you first get it is probably the step most people forget. I like to let it eat three meals in a row before trying to really handle it much but most people just wait a week.

When you do handle it try and avoid doing anything that makes it a frightening experience for the snake. So no sudden movements and keep the handling session short at first - say 5 or ten minutes then put it back in its tank.

Don't handle every day at first and never for the two days after feeding at all.

They usually do settle down quite quickly but you do also just get some that don't like handling. My largest female still poops herself (figuratively) whenever I open the tub and will try to run for the first minute or so until she realises nothing bad is happening. Every time it's the same performance.

The others quite frankly ignore me when I reach in and pet them but seem to tolerate being lifted with the same indifferance.


dr del

[Faber]

Yea those are all things i did with big snakes when i was younger, Even the hissing thing, my friends dad owned a pet store and had a few full grown and the female would hiss and he said to disregard it, but i was just surprised when i got a bp that doesn't ball. Um as far as the enclosure goes, its 110 gallon, but not to open. Ill work on some pictures. hmm.. oh yea and he's skiddish of his head like most, i went to pet him close to his head, upper-neck region and he flinched which i expected in a way, but he doesn't duck his head he faces and stares, typically thier head shakes a little before they strike but my last snake just bit me not even cocked back once, and im thinkin i might just have a bad-case of losing alllllll of the confidence i once had, hell when i was little i even once stuck my hand in a tank with about 4 agressive B-P's just so i could hold the big snake (hell of a deal right?) im sure it was entertaining.

[Buttons]

110g is a bit too big for a ball python. Most people will recommend a 20-30g at most.

[rabernet]

Very few of my 40+ ball pythons ball up. A 110 gallon tank is HUGE, and it sounds to me that it's probably very stressed.

[Faber]

idk i had my other snake in a 55 and it seemed kinda cramped for him, i wanted one that he could atleast slither around in and not touch both ends at once, and i kinda inherited an awesome 110 gallon with a stand and thats a deal you can't say no to. Well i have about a bajillion picture on my phone but for some reason they wont load right, so the picture im putting up was my set up before i added a vine, a cave, and a half-log

[sg1trogdor]

Yeah I think your husbandry may be a bit off or its just a little skittish right now. I have 27 snakes and only have issues with one whom I bought as an adult and was never handled. And being called the most docile is just a generalization of the whole species. There will always be an exception or two to the rule.

[dr del]

Hi,

I understand the desire to give them more space - but it can actually make nervous ones even more scared and thus defensive.

Half logs don't really make the best hides for them either I'm afraid.

The ideal hides for them are totally dark, cramped and touch them on all sides at once.

They don't need to be expensive though as drip trays etc ar perfect and cost almost nothing and you just make a hole for them to get in and out of.

Judging from the picutre the tank looks open on all sides which might also make them nervous - you can use aquarium backing to cover one side and both ends and it looks quite attractive - and you can then put insulation round the outside to help keep the temps stable etc without making it look odd.

Which brings me to the next point - how do you keep the temps and humidity at the right levels in the tank?

That is generally the problems we get asked about most often.

What are the temps inside the hot and cool end hides and how are you measuring them?


dr del

[Faber]

My blackberry is actin up but heres another picture
[IMG][/IMG]