Obnoxious newbie questions.

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Sorry if this turns out to be along post.. I'm pretty lazy so it probably won't be..

First of all, I want to reiterate what's been said many times. You don't have to fear your ball python bites. As stated earlier, it's startling. I HATE getting startled, so I still flinch! But I'm not worried... After feeding all of my snakes for a LONG time, I came to LOVE the strikes! They only strike at me if there's a rodent in tongs, or I'm trying to pull the rodent out of their water dish (after dropping it in there ).. They'll just blindly strike...

Once you get more experience feeding and handling your BP in its good and bad days, you won't have a problem at all! If you learned to read dogs, you will learn to read your BP. When he's nearing a shed cycle, or just finished one, they may be grumpy and hissy. That means if they strike (they never reach me...), it'll be a quick strike then hide motion. Nothing to worry about. If they manage to tag ya, I'd be worried that the poor thing lost a tooth ... As for YOUR damage, if you somehow see a teeny tiny dot of blood, take a picture (for the forum ), wipe it away, and notice the blood stops .

I'm sorry you had a bad experience with a RTB... I'm glad you're still interested in snakes . I want to congratulate you on picking a great beginner snake to help you overcome your fear!! They have adorable faces, lazy movement speed, terrible aim, and they come in a variety of colors and patterns . I don't remember seeing an answer to your question about their attitudes as they grow up, so I'll try to answer it here...

Most of them are docile and will curiously slither around, searching for a warm area to hide from you . Every now and then, you get a monster who wants your rodents but doesn't want anything to do with you.. These will hiss and slither as fast as they can away from you! If you touch them, they will often push away with their bodies, hiss sometimes, and sometimes they'll strike.. I have ONE snake out of 11 who will hide from me, and will do the typical "S-neck" while watching me... She has yet to tag me (more blind strikes...), but I'm sure if I got too close, she might headbutt me.. I bet your BP is one that won't bite you unless your hand smelled like rodent..

Sorry for the long post ..

PS. Don't hesitate to ask questions on this forum. Some people can be blunt, and that may come off as rude to you, but these people are often people who have answered the same exact question to hundreds of users, and they are quite past the friendly reminder stage.. They like to get straight to the point.. Lots of folks here are EAGER to help you, I promise .