I just got my third BP from the Atlanta show last month. She is small and came from a larger breeder (gourmet rodent) so she had zero handling before I got her. She is exhibiting extremely tense behavior whenever I have to clean her tub, pick her up, etc. During handling, she will ball up and when she un-balls, she will remain very tense and ready to strike. i.e. After having her out for about 5 minutes, she un-balled and I was holding her in one hand. She struck multiple times at my other hand (and I wasn't baiting her or making fast motions etc.). She connected with my hand once and attempted another strike. At that point I did something I have seen in a justin Kobyukla (sp?) video and put my hand over her head, at which point, she balled back up... but never went into "flight" mode.

I have even seen her do defensive strikes at her food... She ate fine the first 2 feedings taking the mouse right off. The third, she struck defensively a few times and didn't eat (I later realized that she was in shed). At my last feeding, she eventually took the rat pup, but only after 2 defensive strikes and leaving it with her alone in her tub (f/t).

At this point, I'm not sure if what I am doing will help mellow her out with time or if I need to do something differently. Hopefully I didnt just buy an extremely bitey (for life) BP as she is mostly for pet purposes.

If you have any input on what has worked for you in the past in similar situations, that would be great.

Thanks for your feedback!