How to tame a 4ft WC ball

[LilRobb]

I got me a nice lil WG gravid, but she strikes at the glass of the cage when I just get close to the cage.

Is there any way of taming her, or should I just wait for the hatchlings and keep on trying with em?

Robb

[Stuwy]

I was told to put a well worn t-shirt of yours in the enclosure with your snake, so it will get to know you scent. Give that a try.

[elevatethis]

You need to give her time to settle in....maybe months...possibly years?...she'll come around.

Think about it...a ball python would probably be lucky to eat 1/4 as many times as they are fed captive...so think about how old she could be and then suddenly shipped across and ocean and into captivity.

She'll need some time to adjust.

[rabernet]

Bless her heart - she's frightened - and she needs a LOT of time alone and certainly a lot of respect. She may never be tamed - and she may never adapt to captivity - it takes a lot of work, and a lot of patience, you definitely have to have to be able to read her and be willing to put in the work.


Joanna and Mike have re-habilitated a WC girl, but it took a lot of time before she ever even had her first meal with them. Hopefully she'll see this and can add her experience and expertise.

[rabernet]

I just noticed that you said that she strikes at the glass - so I'm assuming that you have her in an aquarium. For a WC - I would strongly suggest you get her set up in a nice tub with a very low ceiling, that's opaque to offer even more security. Bury the hides in the substrate to mimic a burrow, make sure you are using a quality UTH and a quality thermostat, and I would even get her set up in a dark place like a closet for several weeks and don't disturb her except for routine cage maintenance.

[monk90222]

"How to tame a 4ft WC ball"

Use gloves.

[jamesw]

"How to tame a 4ft WC ball"

Use gloves.

I wouldnt mess with her until she lays eggs, And put her in a tub like said above.

[frankykeno]

Rehabbing an adult WC....let's see what can I say about our experience with Saoirse other than one word.....patience.....major....amounts...of...patience LOL.

When we took Saoirse in she hadn't eaten in at least 8 months perhaps more. She was terrified, stressed, covered in retained shed and underweight. She didn't strike, she was more the ball up and hope I don't die sort of snake. This is what Adam suggested we do and it worked...but again.....patience...it didn't work overnight or even in a matter of days...we are talking weeks and months here...

We put her in a smaller than normal opaque plastic bin. We filled the bin with cypress mulch rather than aspen or newspaper to try and mimic somewhat a natural enclosure. We basically buried the hides so she had to slither down into the hide "below ground". That left little head room but it encouraged her to use the hides pretty quickly. We provided a small water dish and that's it. It was a major pain in the patootie to keep the humidity and temps right but it calmed her down.

We took her and her enclosure and put it in a dark back bedroom. Had we a closet big enough she would have gone in there (walk in type closet). We kept the room dark, extremely quiet and allowed no one in there except Mike and I. We didn't attempt to touch Saoirse and basically ignored her for a couple of weeks. Anytime we opened the tub to check if she'd peed or pooped (which of course not eating she wasn't doing much of anyways) we did so quietly and with little fuss or muss...in, out and leave the snake alone. Even our own kids were not allowed to come in that room, only Mike and I had any interaction with her.

After a few weeks we did notice her peeking out, starting to relax a bit. We spent a few frustrating weeks trying to get her to eat rats, she refused. We finally got a hopper sized gerbil and a rat of similar size (live)....we left them in a vented plastic bin on top of her enclosure for a couple of hours. We peeked in and noticed her noticing them. We quickly tossed in the gerbil...she snapped it up...we tossed in the rat shortly thereafter and she took that (I assume their smells had mixed somewhat). She became a rat eater. Feeding the gerbil first was a calculated risk and not one we really wanted to do but we needed to get her eating.

After that we offered her weekly feeds of quite small prey. Gradually and slowly we moved her up to appropriate sized rats (it tooks months). All this time we were messing with her, handling was NOT a priority. Other than to assist her in a shed we basically fed her, cleaned her tub and ignored her. She stayed in the dark, quiet bedroom. We would sit in the dark with a flashlight covered in a dark t-shirt monitoring her live feeds. Once we saw her constrict we literally snuck out of the room to leave her to eat in peace.

After she was established as a good feeder for us, we started handling. We would take her out for only a few minutes, in the bedroom, then return her. Eventually over time she came out of her ball, checked out my husband and basically at that moment stole his heart. Now she basically acts just like the captive born bp's we have, other than she fasts every winter, we can't get her to eat once fall comes but she starts right up again come spring. She isn't to breeding weight yet and who knows if she will ever breed, at this point it doesn't even matter. Saoirse will be with us forever.

All this information and this long post is basically to illustrate that this is a huge committment of time, energy and the outcome is uncertain when it comes to W/C adults. We were able to get Saoirse turned around but couldn't help another W/C adult last year that a friend owned and she eventually died in captivity. Some will adjust, some will not. Don't expect changes to come in leaps and bounds, they will likely come in slow, agonizing inches. Expect to worry. In the end, all you can do is try your best, treat this snake different than most and hope what you do makes a difference.

[Ginevive]

I agree; she needs time to settle into her new life before anyone thinks of taming her. I too would suggest a nice cozy tub setup with rounded corners and secure hide spots.. once she lays the eggs and you remove them, her real settling-in will occur. It could take months (or yes, years) for her to acclimate and be feeding steadily; only after that stuff would I even consider handling unnecessarily.