agressive ball python

[blackcrystal22]

just to make this clear is is ridiculously aggressive.

he was freakeing out really bad today when i tryed to pick him up and he was hissing like crazy and struck at me like 10 times and was moveing very fast not just strikeing fast but acctually moveing around the cage fast.


He gets worse every day. hopefully the store i got him from will take him back but i doubt it. I have a friend who wants him that has a person living with him that knows a lot about reptiles so he thinks that they could help him with it maybe.

but either way unless he gets better soon i am going to get rid of him. I have dont every thing i can for him and he still just gets worse and today it got MUCH worse than before. he will not even go into his hides.

Hey there Brandon, and welcome to the world of snakes. BPs husbandry can be complicated at first, but if you follow all of my instructions (and the other peoples on this site) I can guarantee we can help your snake.

Ok, I'm pretty sure he's aggressive because he's scared and feels threatened, not just aggressive for no reason.
Firstly, a 20 gallon long is not too small for him, in fact, it could be too big for him. I have an 900g ball python in a 32q tub, which is half of the floorspace of a 20g and that should suit him his entire life.

First of all, stop trying to feed him for right now. They can go months and months without food, that is not a big deal. We need to get his husbandry and temperatures correct.
I'm going to give you a rough checklist of things you need for this animal. Once husbandry is spot on in the 20 gallon, if he's still not eating, then you move him to a 10 or 15 gallon (or preferably a tub).

Heating

1. If you have a heat lamp of any type, remove it. However, if you want a viewing light, just get a very low wattage bulb so it does not suck out all of your snakes valuable humidity.
2. You have a UTH correct? What are you using to control that UTH. If your answer is nothing, you need to immediately get a herpstat, thermostat, or a temporary dimmer to control the heat from getting too hot, because I can almost guarentee the temperatures are too warm directly above the UTH without anything controlling it. Something like this is good, unfortunately these are the most expensive parts of owning a snake.
   http://www.reptilebasics.com/Thermostats-p-1-c-250.html
   I have this one.
   http://www.reptilebasics.com/Ranco-E...0-p-16171.html
3. Are you using dial thermometers? Trash them, they are extremely inaccurate and useless. Go to a petstore to get 2 reptile thermometers WITH PROBES and put on under the substrate above the UTH and one on the cool side. Your temps should not exceed 95F above the UTH.
4. Go to Walmart, or Home Depot and get yourself an Accurite Digital Thermometer/Hygrometer mixture. It should look like a little box with digital stuff all over it. This will tell you your ambient/air temp in the cage (should stay at 80-85F) and the humidity, which should stay at about 60-70%.

Security

1. Now that we have the dangerous stuff out of the way, lets go over the security issues making him aggressive. What do your hides look like? Are they clear or very big? If there is a large amount (or any actually) of empty space in the hide, it is too big. Get yourself some of these,
   http://www.reptilebasics.com/Hide-Boxes-p-1-c-282.html
   (I would guess a med-large for a 500g snake) and put one on the warm side and the cool side. If you don't want those, there are plenty of rocky looking types at petstores that do very well too. Just stay away from log hides! They are very insecure for bps.
2. Because he is in a 20g cage, there is a lot of open space here. Make sure you pack it down with fake plants and make the entire place look super cramped, leaving almost no empty floorspace. Don't put branches too high though, as they are not arboreal and can fall and hurt themselves.
3. Next, get some cardboard or dark paper and cover the sides and back of the tank (from the outside) so that he doesn't feel like he's in a bubble. I think the dark paper usually looks nicer, but cardboard is good for insulation if you have temp issues.
4. Also, they do not need to soak in a water bowl, so having a really big one is not needed. One about the size of a deli cup is fine, they only need it to drink. If you have humidity problems, there are other ways to fix that.

After that, THEN we'll talk about feeding. Good luck!

P.S. Your snake is also very scared because he just moved to a brand new home! Remember, he needs time to settle in, so avoid handling and feeding for a week or two, especially while fixing up his cage. :]