Handling A Ball Pythons

[Coluber42]

I wrote a post a little while ago on my attempts at positive conditioning mine to come to the open door when he wants out. It means he only comes out and gets handled when he is in the mood to and doesn't when he is not. The only time I handle mine is between feedings and when not in shed and only when he is out and makes the effort to come to me.

It has seemed to work out well so far and he has been far more active when out now that we are learning together this sort of grand experiment of "can ball pythons be trained?"

My feelings are you can break the will of any animal to force them to be hand tame but it isn't the way I treat my pets so I only handle when they want to be handled, not when I want their attention. If that means going weeks between handling then that means going weeks

This is essentially what I do. If he's hanging around by the door, I let him out. If he's awake when I'm hanging around in the living room, I open the door and if he feels like it he comes out. He does like to go on a tour of the living room every evening, at least in the summer when the living room is a pretty comfortable place for him. In the winter it's not quite as appealing!
If he comes out on his own, he always gets picked up at some point and sometimes I bring him with me while puttering around the house if he's not ready to go back in - meaning, I hold him up next to the door and let him go back if he wants. If he's had enough, he goes back on his own. Sometimes I have to just put him back because I have to go to bed or whatever. Especially in the summer though (when the house is at least warm and humid enough for his comfort, if a little too much so for ours), I see no problem in letting him roam the living room for an hour or two if he wants.

I'm pretty sure he gets that we're connected with the doors opening. Sometimes when he sees us enter the room, he'll come out of his hide and start nosing at the door to be let out.

When he's in shed or heading toward blue, he doesn't particularly want to come out, so I don't make him unless there's some reason in particular like cleaning or doing something to his cage.

I figure that when it's his choice, handling and exploring time is good exercise and enrichment. If I just haul him out whenever I feel like it whether he's in the mood or not, it's more likely to be a cause of stress or reinforce negative associations with being handled.