I’m sure you’ve all heard this a million times so I’m sorry! Believe me, I’ve read the threads!

Let me start with: I’m Re and I usually keep corn snakes! I fell in love with snakes through my corn snakes and I thought ball pythons are lovely as well so if I was gonna cap myself at 5 snakes I would make one of them a ball.

I have two 6 year old corns I’ve raised and two 6 month old corns that I got about the same time as my BP. My corns are growing and thriving and sweet as sugar, but my ball python isn’t following the same path.

I KNOW they are not the same snake and I don’t treat or care for them as such. My ball is a normal male about 6 months old. He lives in a ball box (it’s all black except for the door) with two heating pads (each with a thermostat, one at 78F and one at 90F and I do verify temps with a temp gun), a water dish, 3 pretty tight hides, 3 fake plants for cover, coconut husk substrate, and a hygrometer that normally reads at 70%. I change his water/spot check every other day and full clean his enclosure/items once a month.

He is a male 6-8 month old normal poss het pied and clown and he was an unwanted pet, the family said they never had time to handle him so he started getting a bit nippy and they wanted him to go to someone who could give him that time. They said he was established eating f/t mice but had refused his last meal which I thought nothing of. They gave me some of the mice he’s been eating (small) to take home and in the two months I’ve had him he’s eaten for me once, 2 weeks after I brought him home. I offer him once a week, warmed and temped (80-85F) f/t small mice. He strikes at them a couple times, misses and gives up. So it seems he wants to or is trying to eat. I leave them for him overnight by his hide and they are untouched in the morning except that one feeding. I once tried a rat of similar size which got the same reaction. I can’t seem to find live feeders in my area to try.

I don’t have a length or weight on him which is a no-no but he’s just so defensive. He has pretty typical behavior in his enclosure but as soon as I reach for him he strikes. As soon as I get him out he strikes. As soon as he strikes at me he recoils into an S shape for about 30 seconds and strikes again. And again. I think the longest I’ve held him is for 15 minutes once a week, if that. There have been a few weeks I haven’t held him at all, like the first week he was here and a couple of others here and there. I try to keep it quiet and dim when i bring him out. I try not to be scared but I don’t know.. a bite is a bite and I know it will do me no harm but the striking makes me jump and I can’t help it. I’ve tried gloves and big hoodies to feel confident but he lunges straight at my face/body and it shocks me. I’ve tried putting a bandana that I’d worn in his enclosure to get him used to my scent but it’s made no difference.

I would appreciate kindness, but I also do need to know what I’m doing wrong however anyone chooses to point it out. If I left something out please let me know. Thanks all.