Quote Originally Posted by DustinB View Post
Are you handling the day he eats and the day after he eats? Most snakes really don't like to be messed with up to 48 hours after they eat. He really only needs to eat an appropriate sized meal every 5 days up til he is 500 grams or so(from what I've read on here). Then every 7 days.

He also needs 2 hides so he can choose where he wants to be, mine almost always stays on the cooler side. If he is always on top of the hide on the warm side and you are using a heat matt he is probably too hot in the hide.

Leave him alone for 48 hours after feeding every 5 days, get him another hide, make sure you temps are 80-82 cool side, 90 - 95 warm side with an ambient of around 82-85. Do all of this, let him settle in a week or so, then try handling him a couple days a week for 15min and put him up. If he strikes don't put him up, just be calm with him. He will probably start to relax a bit more with time.
ditto on those lol. didn't consider the hide thing. assumed (which you should never do haha) that he would move to the cool side of the tank, but it does make sense that the place he should feel secure (the hide) would be his choice for trying to escape heat even if he is sitting on top my pythons actually do this on hot days (like 88 degrees indoors, no ac).

the feeding schedule...you should try to get a scale as soon as you can (after other priorities like another hide and what not) so you can actually weigh your snake in grams. I bought my kitchen scale from Ross (discount store) for like 10 bucks. it has the option to weigh in both lbs and grams and measures in .1lb/1g increments up to I believe 7 lbs and 6kgs or something like that which should be more than enough for ball pythons (or atleast for now anyways). if you can't find a proper scale in one of your local stores, you can buy them online for reasonable prices

and definitely leave him be for 2 days after feeding him, don't handle him during feeding either. if you use a separate feeding bin, it could be stressing him out. the way we feed is in their enclosure, taking out their hide and water dish and then presenting the prey item. it's worked best for us and our snakes never strike towards us at all. this is 2 snake experience though lol someone else might have a different opinion