How to handle desert Baby Ball

[r.rose89]

Hello, I have a two month old desert ball female, she is my first young bp i have had. shes had 3 meals so far and ive had her for about two weeks.
I have watched videos and have tried some of the tips on here and she still strikes at me over and over, she doesnt ball up, should i just try to feed her and leave her be or keep trying to handle her?
I have her set up with a hide and her tank covered on three sides in a low traffic area.

I have pics of her but havent figured out how to get them on here yet.

[Daybreaker]

Can you explain your setup more? What are the temps, what are you measuring them with, how big is the tank, etc

Pics would help: upload them to photobucket then paste the IMG code here.

[r.rose89]

Shes in a 10 gallon tank ambient temp at 80, i have a temp gun, i currently have her with aspen bedding she has a undertank heater and a 60 watt red light on at night and a uv bulb on during the day. i have one hide in her cage and a water dish. the cool side of the tank is around 70 degrees. she seems pretty happy in the tank, until i try to hold her.

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I have her pictures in my gallery

[Andybill]

Do you have a thermostat for that UTH? If not get one ASAP. Hot spot should be about 90 with a cool side about 80. Check this out for reference:

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...s%29-Caresheet

She could be a bit irritable because of temp issues. How old is she? Babies are nippy and take some time to get used to the handling...

[AK907]

Shes in a 10 gallon tank ambient temp at 80, i have a temp gun, i currently have her with aspen bedding she has a undertank heater and a 60 watt red light on at night and a uv bulb on during the day. i have one hide in her cage and a water dish. the cool side of the tank is around 70 degrees. she seems pretty happy in the tank, until i try to hold her.

You really need to up the temps on the cool side. Hot side should be 88-92 and cool side should be about 80 degrees. You should offer more hides than just one. At the minimum you should have one on each side of your tank. How are you controlling the temps on the under tank heater? Do you have it on a thermoSTAT? What kind? How are you controlling the temps of the 60w red light? How often are you feeding her?

Also, ball pythons do NOT need UV lighting. In fact, they don't need any special lighting whatsoever. In fact, excess light can stress your snake out.

Babies can be nippy, but chances are from the facts that have been presented I am leaning towards her being extremely stressed and husbandry being off as being the main culprits to her nippiness.

[rlditmars]

What a beautiful girl. Just follow the tips on the care sheet tha Andybill posted the link for, give her some time off from disturbing her and you should be good. Little snakes are nippy and usually settle down as the get older.

[hypnotixdmp]

Can we see pix just to see them?

[HerpsForDerps]

Justin Kobylka also has a wonderful video in his Pro Tips that shows how to handle nippy babies should she still decide to be a bit touchy. I'm not entirely sure how to link on my phone but you may want to check it out on YouTube. Best of luck .

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2

[Madkatter]

I have 1 male hatchling left out of 7. All I can say about the Desert is that they are a more aggressive ball python. My adult male has calmed down a bit since breeding has ended but I still would not stick my hand in his face. The hatchling I have strikes from the time you open his container, until you put him back. He is in the rack right next to a normal female clutch mate who is as calm as can be. Every last hatchling I had, had the same philosophy. Strike first and strike often. It's as if they are born thinking you owe them money. You have to be on your toes with them. I find that once you pick them up, keep the head pointed away from you and they will calm down a bit.