Opinion On Handiling Baby Ball Pythons?

[philip444]

so i just got a young female pastel pied and she is so sweet. shes a bit shy but very curious. im letting her acclimate to her no enclosure so im not handling her at the moment but i was curious on how often holding ball pythons is good for them, well handling is not necessarily "good" for them but you know what i mean. what is a appropriate amount of handling time to keep stress low and letting her get used to me

[Godzilla78]

There are no hard and fast rules, but in general the babies are terrified of us, and the less handling the better for them. The little bit of handling that you must do when you clean their cage is plenty at first. Eventually they grow up a little and become accustomed to your presence, and then you can begin more handling sessions, but until then keep it minimal.

[philip444]

There are no hard and fast rules, but in general the babies are terrified of us, and the less handling the better for them. The little bit of handling that you must do when you clean their cage is plenty at first. Eventually they grow up a little and become accustomed to your presence, and then you can begin more handling sessions, but until then keep it minimal.

thanks for the reply. i agree with you and that is what i plan to do because it is honestly best for em, though the babies are just so cute and soft i love em . but in all seriousness thank you

[redshepherd]

It depends on the individual snake. My first 3 ball pythons all had no problem being handled for 10-20 minutes daily (besides feeding/digesting days) as babies. Some babies might be more easily stressed.

Just be sure your BP eats a couple meals first before handling at all. Then you can handle under 20 minutes, every other day. And go from there. I think the only real rule is not handle for too long per session.

[Craiga 01453]

With new snakes I personally keep handling to an absolute bare minimum until they have eaten 3 consecutive meals without refusal.

Like redshepherd said, it varies by animal, beyond that. I stick to a basic "guideline" of keeping handling sessions short and sweet at the beginning and gradually increasing frequency as well as time of handling sessions. To elaborate a bit, I start out with maybe 10-15 minutes max every other day to every three days for a few weeks and then increase gradually depending on how comfortable the particular animal seems to be with handling.

I also should mention that I don't handle while the animal is in shed or after feeding.

[cchardwick]

A couple years ago I bought a ball python hatchling that was super aggressive. I would open the tub and she would give me the evil eye and snap at me so hard she would flip upside down. I handled her for short sessions but it didn't seem to help. Even now when I try to feed frozen thawed or fresh killed she gets scared of me and is a problem feeder, she will usually only take live, I believe because if she sees me she is very scared, too scared to eat.

So after that experience I got another ball python hatchling just this year (a female Clown) and the guy said that she was super aggressive, the most aggressive hatchling he has ever seen. So this time I decided to handle her right off the bat for about an hour. She was coiled up in a ball for about 20 minutes, then slowly came out of her shell and by the end of about an hour she was totally relaxed and crawling through my fingers. I haven't handled her since but after that one positive experience she has never snapped at me and I'm comfortable picking her up. I think the handling session timer should start the minute they come out of their ball and relax. It doesn't do any good to handle for short 15 minute sessions if they are all balled up and scared to death, you are just reinforcing that fear.

[Godzilla78]

A couple years ago I bought a ball python hatchling that was super aggressive. I would open the tub and she would give me the evil eye and snap at me so hard she would flip upside down. I handled her for short sessions but it didn't seem to help. Even now when I try to feed frozen thawed or fresh killed she gets scared of me and is a problem feeder, she will usually only take live, I believe because if she sees me she is very scared, too scared to eat.

So after that experience I got another ball python hatchling just this year (a female Clown) and the guy said that she was super aggressive, the most aggressive hatchling he has ever seen. So this time I decided to handle her right off the bat for about an hour. She was coiled up in a ball for about 20 minutes, then slowly came out of her shell and by the end of about an hour she was totally relaxed and crawling through my fingers. I haven't handled her since but after that one positive experience she has never snapped at me and I'm comfortable picking her up. I think the handling session timer should start the minute they come out of their ball and relax. It doesn't do any good to handle for short 15 minute sessions if they are all balled up and scared to death, you are just reinforcing that fear.

omg! I had this EXACT same experience with Snappy my het piebald male! He gives me the evil stink-eye every time I look at him. He turns his head towards me really slowly like the exorcist demon, and he's all tensed up in s-shapes all the time. I have to turn his face away from me, and come from above to make him ball up, when I pick him up. His eyes seriously look evil! I thought maybe I was just projecting, but I swear he makes this evil eye expression to intimidate me. it is kind of cute, in a mean, funny way.

I will get a picture of his mean eye, because someone is coming to buy him in a couple of hours, so it will be my last chance to see his evil eye face!

[Godzilla78]

It is hard to capture his evil eye without a video, but here is a good one... he's getting ready to come and kill the camera...lol
The main reason I am selling him is that he refuses to eat thawed, because as Hardwick pointed out, he is scared of me and associates the dead rat with me. Plus, he came was a package deal and was not even one I picked out or wanted.

[philip444]

It is hard to capture his evil eye without a video, but here is a good one... he's getting ready to come and kill the camera...lol
The main reason I am selling him is that he refuses to eat thawed, because as Hardwick pointed out, he is scared of me and associates the dead rat with me. Plus, he came was a package deal and was not even one I picked out or wanted.

haha hes adorable. DAT stink eye doe

[Joci]

It is hard to capture his evil eye without a video, but here is a good one... he's getting ready to come and kill the camera...lol
The main reason I am selling him is that he refuses to eat thawed, because as Hardwick pointed out, he is scared of me and associates the dead rat with me. Plus, he came was a package deal and was not even one I picked out or wanted.

HA that’s the face mine does after he eats. I think it’s his, “Watch out! Iz feroshuzz hunter! I ate dat whole fing!!” face .