Quote Originally Posted by Slicercrush View Post
First off, I would highly recommend going back to feeding her in your enclosure. She isn't seeing your hand as food, they can smell and sense the heat quite well. Even if your hand does smell like a mouse and they strike, they wouldnt be wanting to continue to eat it after. Moving the snake to a different enclosure just causes more stress, can make feeding harder, and can actually cause her to strike MORE, if out of defense.

Secondly, with your handling problem. Handling snakes takes trust between both you and your animal. If one doesn't trust the other, then it isnt going to work. You've already been through the worst, you got tagged, but when you think about it, thats the worst it can get. Honestly, I believe that if you're actually afraid to go near your animal, you shouldn't be keeping it in the first place. I don't mean this in any harsh terms, but truly, I do believe that in this you will need to work with the snake slowly to help both you and her get used to the situation. Who knows, you may get tagged a few times, but it'll be worth it in the end for easy handling for the next 20+ Years.

As for her shed, could you explain "a little messed up"? Whats her humidity? The bad shed could also be caused by what seems like the large amount of stress that you may have been putting on her. Is she dehydrated?

The way she reacts to that snake hook worries me. Did you hooktrain her? If she's holding on for dear life, she obviously thinks that its a threat, and its no wonder why shes so unwilling to move. "Used to fit inside it" also worries me, is she just not able to even go inside said hide anymore? If you want to look for new ones, reptile basics has plenty of different choices here.

Lastly...mice? At 3 feet long? How many of what size are you feeding her? Could we get a weight of both the snake and the mice provided? I usually recommend people go for rats, its much easier to feed a single, large meal then many small ones, and i've heard they are much better for the snakes as well.

I hope I didn't come off as too harsh in this post, but I feel that you left a lot of questions unanswered, as well as have been practicing a decent amount of things that many others do not agree with. Hopefully, some others can help shed some light on this as well, and if you can help by answering those above questions, i'd be more than willing to help you out more as well!

Small Edit: Agree with aerries, the size of her enclosure and such would be helpful as well.

I can't feed her in her tank because she is an idiot. When I say that I mean I will water her cage and she will be hungry (she gets hungry on Thursdays and I feed her on Fridays) and she BIT the water as it was coming down and then accidentally got some bedding in her mouth and I was SO SCARED. So I had to pick her up and use some tweezers to pull it out she was fine and didn't get hurt she just couldn't close her mouth with bedding sticking out. And she would again eat her bedding when I would put a mouse down so I started putting some cloth down (I would take some very clean never used cloth and would throw it away when done) and she still would find a way to get bedding in her mouth. She also will follow me after I put the mouse down I will close her cage and then put something up so she is basically alone (can't see me but can see around) and she will sit there and stay where she last saw me. Like an idiot. And it would take her a half hour to eat because she wouldn't be able to just eat her food. She would be laying on top of it and still not eat it. And I know it sounds like she wasn't hungry but trust me she would miss a feeding due to shed and be STARVING (she is fine I don't feed her when she is shedding cause she won't eat and I like to keep her feeding consistent on Fridays) and still not find the stupid mouse. So the second I put her in a box and put a mouse in there she saw it right away and ate it within 10 mins (I close it and leave her alone for a while).
I understand what you said about getting tagged its not fun and didn't hurt much it was just a LOT of blood and she might have gotten a little hurt in the process (She bit me and I freaked not expecting it and flung her into her tank). So one day I will try picking her up a few days after feeding when she has digested and not yet hungry and move her over to water her tank and see how that goes and work from there.
When I say her shed was a 'little messed up' I mean the tail tore off and the head bits were a little torn up too it wasn't in one full piece like normal. But her humidity is great she always has two water dishes full of water.
She doesn't hold on for dear life every time but she has always done this. When I would pick her up anything her tail can grab it will grab it. No clue why she has always been like this.
When I say she used to be able to fit inside I mean like INSIDE the hide like inside the walls of it it wasn't meant to have a snake in the walls. Under it/'in' it she can fit just fine its not too big or too small but she does seem like she could out grow it by new years.
When I say mice I mean I go to petco (only place that sells mice near me that I can actually get to) or petsmart find a "small rat" which is just a larger mouse and feed it to her. Trust me I know what she looks like when she is still hungry after a feeding. She eats one and is a happy lil ol snake. I can't weigh her or the mice because I have nothing to do so. I just look at the fattest part of her (like I have been told to do) and get a mouse or rat that size.