Well best I can say is it depends on the hiss and on the snake. Perhaps some examples from our own collection.....Originally Posted by Kizerk
Malachi, our male BP has always been a hisser but he's not a striker or biter. Since he was a baby he always hisses when you disturb him...sort of snake grumbling really. It basically means nothing and we treat it as such and go about our business with him. Someday he might follow through but so far he hasn't and his body posture isn't tense either. He just likes to remind us he's a big ole boy and yadda yadda LOL.
Saoirse, a mature female, never hisses...ever. She also never strikes or acts up. One day I was cleaning her tub and she hissed...twice...very VERY loudly and VERY deeply. I took that as a definite "bugger off NOW" hiss and made sure her hide was between me and her at all times. Different snake...very different hiss and attitude.
Brannagh, another mature female. Never hissed...but tried to bite us every chance she could when we first got her. My husband always said she never hissed because she didn't want to give us any warning and miss the chance for a delicious bite of human LOL.
I guess basically you need to know what the hiss is about, what's driving your snake to act up a bit that particular time (if you can figure it out) and go from there. If we let hissing put us off, we'd have never handled Malachi LOL. I usually just grumble back at him..."oh hush up you!" If I hear a hiss or get jabbed at (a strike where the snake doesn't seem to be seriously trying to bite) I just pay attention to what's going on and judge whether what I am doing is worth pushing a snake that doesn't want to be pushed at that moment. It's a fine balance between not letting them "be in charge" versus ignorning their signals and respecting that they have boundaries too.
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