No idea why but im scared! lol

[wax32]

I kind of understand this fear. My first ball python is arriving tomorrow morning (2010 super pastel male) and I've only ever been handed snakes as well. I handle my friends 6 ft. Red Tail Boa pretty frequently and am fine with him. It is just the fact that I will be completely responsible for this little guy kinda freaks me out. I'm going to take a vid of me unboxing him because I'm pretty sure it is going to be pretty funny seeing me trying to pick him up for the first time. I'm not so much afraid of getting bit as I am of just not being able to take the step and pick him up.

LOL I want to see this vid!

[Marissa@MKmorphs]

:

LOL I want to see this vid!

It was an epic fail, so it will not be posted. I didn't hesitate picking him up though! It is so hard to not bother him while he is settling down and getting used to his new home.

[TheReptileEnthusiast]

Yeah, the body language thing is the key. If a BP is balled up you can just scoop them up with no worry because they are not in attack mode. If they are coiled with the neck in an S, they are prepared to strike, but that doesn't mean they will. BP's tend to jerk thier head suddenly away from you more often than they strike out at you. When they are in the S posture I just keep my body in front of them and reach around the side or back and just scoop them up. They will stay focused on your body and typically once you have picked them up they settle down. I guess I have no qualms about being bitten because I used to spend my days as a boy collecting garter snakes and racers. Thay almost always bite when picked up, and racers often bite you 5 times before you can blink. BP's are like the teddy bears of the snake world. I have been keeping them for many years and the only ones that ever strike are occasionally new hatchlings and girls on eggs. Of course, once you walk into a room with a boxful of rodents, it is hands off.

[zina10]

I always cup one hand over them and use the other hand to scoop them up. Thats for the "new" or nervous snakes.

Later on, I can grab them whichever way, they don't care

I think the hand covering them like a cave, makes them feel safer as they are being picked up.

Have yet to ever be bitten by a BP.

Don't ask me about the bite from a RTB I got, though..ouch. LOL