Definitely let it settle in for a week or so before handling it at all. It's not that it's mean, it's nervous and scared and defensive. Only interact with it to feed, clean or change water. Also should have let it settle at least a few days before feeding at all. The trick to handling and taming is to keep handling sessions short and to end on a positive note. If the snake starts getting flighty or defensive and then you put it away, it will learn that by acting that way it gets to go to its safe place. Just handle it until it calms down and then put it back in its tub. Having said that, some SD stuff is just flighty and bitey. My SD girl is a tad flighty and cage defensive but calms down as soon as I tap her with a hook and get her out of the cage. Definitely want to hook/tap train it as well, as their feeding response is pretty incredible.
Did you get information on who the breeder was, parent snake sizes, genetics, etc? Anyone can list a 5 month old mainland and say it's a year and a half old SD. Got any pictures?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Reply With Quote