So, I picked up a Peruvian Long Tail on Saturday from LLLReptile. It wasn't an impulse buy as I've been looking at picking up a Red Tail for some time to offset my "boring" ball pythons.

I watched him for 20 minutes while at the store, and after seeing him cruise around for a bit, I asked if I could check him out a bit closer. I think what piqued my interest in this particular snake was when I watched him blow bubbles underwater repeatedly.

I handled him with no problems in the store. He was active and curious in my hands, but non aggressive, wasn't particularly head shy, didn't mind me and my wife handling him.

After we purchased him and began the drive home my wife swapped him out of the bag that we had him in and put him into a plastic tub that we bring with us when ever we go to a reptile shop. Again, the snake was calm as could be, and my wife briefly handled him before placing him in the tub.

We got home and placed the snake in a larger habitat that had already be set up (2 hides, branch, water dish) and regulated for a few days. Thats when our problems started.

Since placing him in the large tank he's been doing nothing but hissing and striking at everything that passes by. Using my snakey logic, I say "oh, he's stressed" and I put up some black plastic around the enclousure to isolate him and give him time to acclimate himself. It didn't do much. Even peeling back the plastic to check on the Temp and Humidity gets a loud hiss. I also need to freshen up his water dish as he deemed it to be a good place to poo.

I'm not adverse to him tagging me once, or twice. He's much faster than my Bumblebee, and I have a jerk back reaction. Its also odd that he doesn't always go for just my arm or hand, but occasionally my head for my face.

More so, I'm afraid that I might be over my head. If I can't get him to calm down at his current size, I don't know what I can do as he gets larger.


What steps do I need to do to calm him down that aren't common to ball pythons?