Children's python new acquisition and experiences.

[southwestchief]

Was in the market for a corn snake so I went to the Hamburg show with my wife and daughter. Show was packed! We got there around 11am and didn't get in until 11:35am. I didn't know you could buy poisonous snakes like Gabon vipers, puff adders and rattlesnakes! The guy that had Gabon vipers told me they were pretty docile! Having been to the White Plains Expo in January, I will say that the venue in Hamburg was too small for the amount of people there. But pretty decent variety of animals and I even saw "San Diego" gopher snakes that I grew up chasing/catching in the canyons of Chula Vista as a kid in the 80's. Almost bought one out of nostalgia but remembering that we would catch and release those, I decided that the memories were good enough.

Anyway, wanted a corn snake so I could have a snake that would be a bit more explorative than my ball (Sissy) who just likes to hang out and chill. Saw a few corn morphs and different breeders but I saw a guy with a children's python next to some corn snakes. Got to talking to him (Mike T) as the corn snake guy was away from his table and got to handle the children's python. Walked around a bit and came back and even got my daughter to hold her. Mike did say that baby (this one born in September) children's could be more nippy than corns at first but this one was chill. He was right as she was chill. Long story short, we got her and a bag of pinkies then took the trek back to Philadelphia.

We named her Dottie as she had dark spots. She was so chill. My daughter held her at the show, in the car and even handled her on our table the next day letting her roam around and crawl into her hand. A couple days after the Expo I decided to feed her and she took a 1.3 gram pinkie right away. She didn't wrap right away but rather held it for a little bit and then wrapped. I fed her in her enclosure. My set up is a Sterilite shoebox size tub with a mini exo terra water dish, a few rocks, papertowel substrate and a mini hide from Reptile Basics. 4 inch heat tape along the bottom of a "hacked" Ikea shelving unit shared with my ball. I also have a portable oil space heater on behind the unit as it gets cold here in the Northeast. Temps are 80-85 with 60% humidity.

I took her out 48 hours after she ate and she was still chill although she did pee on me and excreted urea. The next day (yesterday) she pooped her enclosure so I had my kid watch her while I cleaned it out because she had a pretty decent sized poo/pee mess in the bottom of the cage. While I'm washing up my kid says that the snake is "yawning" a lot. I take her and she starts opening her mouth a lot. She doesn't strike but would intermittently open her mouth. I would touch her head but no strike until much later that night when I took her out again. She struck but missed my wife as she was typing next to me on the couch as I was holding her. Was holding her in my lap close to her hands next to me. I actually felt her tense up before the strike. Took her out this morning for a minute just to see and she opened her mouth soon as she got in my hand but didn't strike and I touched her head to see if she would bite but she just backed away and opened her mouth again.

Probably did a bunch of stuff wrong here in regard to handling and not letting her sit for a few days before handling/feeding. So I'm looking for advise as to how to tame her down and when to start handling again. And if this is normal for Children's pythons. As well as any other tips. My ball was pretty skittish when I got her so I was more careful in my handling times and she was much bigger than Dottie so she drew blood when she did strike me which was only once.

SWChief

[Yodawagon]

I would give her a week to settle in before you mess with her anymore.

[Herpo]

Sounds to me like she is trying to start a shed. Just leave her for a week.

[southwestchief]

Thanks for the replies. I'll leave her be for a week. But should I feed her? Also my ball is looking like she is gonna shed too so no handling for a while for me.

[Herpo]

I wouldn't feed because you just got her. Wait maybe an extra week to feed, then see if she eats.

[southwestchief]

Noticed something interesting changing the paper towel in Dottie's tub. When I opened the tub she recoiled, opened her mouth and was breathing heavy. I needed to get her out to clean up her poop so I put a black golf glove on to move her to her "temp" tub. She didn't open her mouth while handling her with the glove. She didn't even strike or act like she was going to strike when i put my gloved finger in front of her face to pick her up. I then put my ungloved hand in front of her and she opened her mouth and tensed up like she was going to strike.

Is it just the heat signature and scent? I wasn't planning on handling her today but had to move her in order to clean up and made this observation.

[jclaiborne]

Mine is full grown and is still cage aggressive and will strike if I reach in his cage, but once he is out he is fine, I wouldn't put too much stock into gloved vs ungloved, especially if you weren't handling a rodent previously.

[Yodawagon]

She might not realize the gloved hand is alive. Maybe she views it as she would a stick or something. That's just speculating though.

[southwestchief]

She might not realize the gloved hand is alive. Maybe she views it as she would a stick or something. That's just speculating though.

I think you might be right about the glove not being alive. I didn't handle her that long. Just enough to pick her up and put her in a temp tub to clean her poop up. When I got done cleaning I tried the glove vs. non glove mini experiment. Maybe I'm over thinking this but for the past couple days I've been lightly petting her back in her enclosure before I leave for work. Not taking her out just petting inside her enclosure for 2 minutes or so. She seems ok with it but does open her mouth occasionally.

I'm just wondering how she went from being so docile at the expo and in the days before and just after she ate. 48 hours after her meal she seemed fine then the next day she got really defensive. Don't think she is in shed because it's been over a week since she started getting defensive and she isn't showing physical signs.