Quote Originally Posted by frankykeno
Try to think a bit like little Herc. He's just a small snake, in the wild he'd be as much prey as a predator at this stage of life. You are some big humanoid thing that reached in over him and scooped him up, triggering his "oh my freakin gawd it's a PREDATOR!" response...so he nipped you. He had a choice to either ball up and hope like heck you go away and don't eat him...or nip and try to drive you away...just normal survival instincts at work. Totally reasonable thing to do if you are Herc. He's got not one clue you are his owner that loves him so it's up to you to get him a bit used to handling so it won't freak him out as much. Remember handling is something we want, not something the snakes need.

Try to develop handling habits and routines. Things like only handling when the snake is naturally awake in the evenings. When it's not hungry or you smell like rodent. We stroke all our snakes down their lower bodies for a moment prior to picking them up. We do this every single time so they have learned in their simple snake minds that this means it's time to be bugged by the silly humans. Snakes are such creatures of habit that given enough repitition of simple routines, they seem to figure it out and not react so strongly. We make sure that handling time in our house is quiet time. If the house is busy, the snakes don't come out. If the kids are acting hyper, they don't get to handle the snakes.

Remember though, this is a snake, not a puppy. It can and will occasionally nip or hiss sometimes for no reason that's apparent to you. That's just being a snake and just a part of sharing your life with one. Eventually you get to know your snake and you know when that hiss isn't just a "oh hiss off" hiss but rather a "I'm gonna bite you if you don't get the heck outta my face" hiss or a certain body posture means they aren't in the mood to be fussed with right now.

GREAT post!!



Welcome to the club!! Your keeping snakes. Your gunna get bit.