Something I would try is, while he’s in his hide, place the rat outside of the hide entrance, and completely cover the enclosure so that it’s pitch black in there, and just leave the rat in there overnight, and only open it up to do daily checks and maintenance. The next day. If this means feeding a little earlier before he pops his head out of his hide then definitely do so. I find this method works for all my snakes when they are very defensive and too scared of you to even eat.

I know people say that after several meals, only then you should handle your snake, however I found that building trust early on helps a lot with consistent meals. I had 2 juveniles who were extremely defensive. I was sitting outside of the enclosure on time, doing something else and one of them tried to strike at me through the enclosure lol. After a week of letting him settle in, I offered him food. He was in a defensive position the moment I opened the cage and striked at the rat, but didn’t constrict(which is why I knew he was scared rather than hungry). So for the next 5 days I would cover his entire enclosure with a towel to darken it. About 5 or so days I offered him food but instead I left it just outside of the entrance of his hide, covered the enclosure, and left it overnight. Next thing I know the rat was gone. After leaving him for 2 days to digest I decided to handle him.

He immediately went into his strike position the moment I opened the latches and was just staring me down. I used a hook because he was at the back corner so I couldn’t really reach behind him. But I took him out and held him calmly. I waited for about 15-20 minutes before he finally relaxed and got curious. The moment he did I held him for another 2-3 min and then put him back in gently. I probably only handled him once or twice a week, and would avoid handling the day before, and the day of feeding day. The reason I did this was so that he could build some trust with me, so that next time I open the enclosure, he knows to not be afraid. I know that trust doesn’t happen overnight, and he still got a bit defensive, but it was definitely getting better. This process took about 2 weeks total. But I’ve had him for about a month now and even when I’m moving about outside of his enclosure, he doesn’t get defensive and continues cruising around his cage. Now when I offer food, he’ll take it right away and doesn’t care about me at all lol.

I know many people will object to this and I don’t blame them because there is a risk of added stress and a bunch of other factors, but I’ve found for some reason that this has been working for me, more than once.

One thing I think is really important though is to build positive handling sessions, I wouldn’t put your snake back when it’s defensive or scared(balled up) because it can build bad habits and lack of trust. Once your snake is relaxed and curious, then that is the time to put them back.