Quote Originally Posted by Eric Alan View Post
Are you confident in that? Biting =/= aggression.
It's definitely a feeding response (Is that considered a form of aggression? It was in my neuro courses.) not fear. Theirs are all garters, so they're relying more heavily on vision than a BP would; basing this on personal experience and the fact that they're diurnal and known to chase down prey.
My BP has a history of getting aggressive around food and towards hands reaching into her home. I could see the potential for her to get very snippy and tank-aggressive if she weren't used to hands coming in there and messing with her. Some of my other snakes I could probably go months without handling and I don't think they'd bite. I feel like the truth of the "not handling makes them aggressive" statement probably depends a lot on the individual snake.
Is there evidence one way or the other, like a study or something, or is it mostly anecdotal?