Agressive Female

[coreyl]

A few weeks ago I posted about my aggressive female. I was told to try feeding her in her tank and touch her with a paper towel roll to let her know that I'm not food. The problem is that she doesn't just strike at me, she full on bites me, latches on, curls around my arm and squeezes. If she was a baby, I wouldn't have a problem with that, I'd be able to take a few bites and she'd hopefully learn not to do that. However, she's a 4 year old and she's the biggest snake I've ever owned so getting bit by her isn't exactly fun. Also, whenever I even enter the room she pokes her head out of her hide and immediately goes into the S shape ready to strike so I'm afraid to even open her tank. What can I do to curb this behavior. I'm hoping to breed her to my Hypo Mojave Male this year, but he's not nearly as big as her and I don't want her to be aggressive towards him, or me when I'm introducing them. I also want to be able to handle her without the fear of her biting me. I've never owned or even heard of an aggressive ball python.

[stickyalvinroll]

Ok.... Touch her head with something longer. Pray that she continues to aggressive because aggressive bps are best at breeding and eating. Just leave her be and handle a less aggressive snake when you want to play

[coreyl]

I guess I could try, but she still looks at me like I'm dinner. She is definitely very good at eating. I fed her a rat and she immediately wanted another! It was a decent sized rat, it may have even been slightly too big for her. It seems like I can't feed her enough. But they're good for breeding if they're aggressive? How does that work? Can you elaborate?

[bcr229]

How much does she weigh, and how much do her feeders weigh? A bite/wrap is a food response rather than a defensive response.

If she's a big girl and you're feeding her a small rat, she may need a medium. Also there's a ton of variation among feeder vendors, I recently picked up a bag of 10 "small rats" from a local source that all weighed between 95 and 110 grams, while the "Arctic Mice" brand small rat is 50 grams. So, make sure you know how much food she's gettting, right now she's telling you she's underfed.

Two tricks I've used so that my snakes don't mistake my hand for food:
- Wash them well in cold water, snakes like warm food.
- Lemon-scented hand sanitizer, snakes don't like the smell. Alternatively you can rub a few drops of white vinegar over your hands.

[beeze]

Here's an older post I found that might help you decide how big of a meal she needs.

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...ht=feeder+size

i've been using this one for my BP and he seems to be happy with his feedings.

[coreyl]

I haven't been able to get her out to put her on a scale, but last time I weighed her was about 2 months ago and she was 900 I believe, she seems to have put on a lot of weight. Apparently the owner before me didn't feed her regularly so she's pretty small for her age, but she's put on a lot of weight since I got her. I can try to get her out and weigh her again tonight but I'm not sure yet. I thought about increasing the food size, but the rats I give her are slightly bigger than her stomach so I can't really go much bigger I don't think. I have a picture of her with a rat in her mouth and thr lady at the pet store said it looked too big for her.

[boafa]

U need to get a small snake hook....

[lorrainesmom]

If she's trying to wrap you, it really seems as if she needs bigger meals. You stated that she was small for her age and is putting on weight, she may be in catch-up mode, as in growing. My BP was underweight when I first got her, and I took a few bites from her at first. Once she got to a normal weight, she calmed down and is now as tame as can be, all it took was time and food, lots of food.

[squatsnstilettos]

I have the same challenge. The moment Seshat feels my presence in the room she goes into full S hunting mode. This even happens right after she's eaten. I recently increased her rats from a pup, to a small, and her last meal was a medium, to the point where I felt it might be too big. However, it was smaller than the largest part of her body, so I figured it would be fine and was sure it would satisfy her. Nope. She wanted more. She's a bottomless pit.

What I find helpful is to have a little blankie near by. I have shoeboxes for her huts so I can drop the blankie on her box then remove the box with her in it, take her to another room where feeding never occurs and finally, pull her out. In classic ADHD fashion, she usually gets distracted with all the sights in the living room.

I agree that they don't like the smell of citrus, vinegar or anything alcohol based. I once held her after work before showering, which means I still had perfume on. She would not go near my neck. So you could put that on your hands. Rats don't usually smell like Chanel!

[C2tcardin]

Gotta agree with bcr229 and Boafa, may be too hungry from too small a size feeder and in the end you may need to hook train that one and treat it like a venomous, plus you can and tell everyone it's you Gabon viper LOL.