Ball Body Language?

[Cam]

I have been reading through a lot of threads related to bites from BP's...and the phrase 'learning to read your snake's body language' keeps coming up as a way to not get bit.

I am new to BP's (since Saturday). And already a bite from the 3 week old BP we brought home.

He did not appear to be in what I would think of as a strike position... Our cornsnakes have a very definite "S" when they are getting stressed and thinking of striking out.

So any information on reading BP Body Language would be REALLY appreciated.
Thank you!

[Mochelem]

Baby ball pythons strike a lot, and with little warning. As they get older they will do things that will tell you they are going to bite. Mine I noticed will make their neck in a S shape as you mentioned and shake their heads back and forth a little bit.

As far as babies just try to pick them up from an angle that their head is not facing you. With most snakes the initial picking up is the time you are most likely to get bit, once you have picked them up they seem to calm down a bit... Just remember keep your hands away from the front of their face...

[Freakie_frog]

Its not only about their body posture but also their breathing and movement. I have some that will tag you at the drop of a hat then some that wouldn't bite you even if you smelled like rat.

Watch their breathing and see when the tense up. That a good sign something is coming.

[Sonya610]

Not to hijack the thread but it does say "body language". What about other types of body language? Yawning while being held, etc... Any clue on how to tell if the bp is relaxed?

Also are the girls often a bit more temperamental than the boys? There are always exceptions, but in many species (except humans...haha) it seems females can be a bit more moody.

[Freakie_frog]

Not to hijack the thread but it does say "body language". What about other types of body language? Yawning while being held, etc... Any clue on how to tell if the bp is relaxed?

Also are the girls often a bit more temperamental than the boys? There are always exceptions, but in many species (except humans...haha) it seems females can be a bit more moody.

I my limited experience I can't say whether yawning is a sign of being relaxed or not. But a ball is relaxed when they aren't trying to get away/striking/ or being an all around pain.

As for if one sex is more temperamental than another I have more Females than Males so my perception is skewed.

[Sonya610]

As for if one sex is more temperamental than another I have more Females than Males so my perception is skewed.

So that is an implied yes huh?

[Mochelem]

Not to hijack the thread but it does say "body language". What about other types of body language? Yawning while being held, etc... Any clue on how to tell if the bp is relaxed?

Also are the girls often a bit more temperamental than the boys? There are always exceptions, but in many species (except humans...haha) it seems females can be a bit more moody.

I have never had one of my girls even strike at me, but the 100% het albino male I have will strike at just about anything, he is very aggressive. He will eat live or frozen and never takes more than 10 seconds to strike his prey....

And as far as humans women are... well lets just say full of estrogen.... Lol

[Freakie_frog]

So that is an implied yes huh?

no no

it just means that most of my snakes are females so I have 20 females and 5 males and 3 females are a pain and no males are then it just means that I have a higher sampling of females temperament than males. Now if I have 2000 females and 2000 males and 500 females were pains and 5 males were then I'd feel comfortable saying yea females are more prone to aggression but right now I can't make that conclusion..

[Seneschal]

I've noticed that when they get defensive they tend to take a breath of air and hold it in, and puff up their bodies to look big, and tense their muscles; if they're holding your arm, you can feel their grip go from a relaxed, calm, but firm and safe grip to very tight, and they become like a bar of muscle around your arm. You'll know they're upset, but usually they don't bite when being held, though they'll usually jerk their heads back if you move near it, and scare the bejeezus out of those around you. :p

But like people said before, most of the time you're going to get bitten when you're reaching in to pick them up or if you smell like rat.


But just for the record, I've only been "defensive-strike" bitten twice, and both times by males. The other times were by my hungry females, twice in the case of "smell rat, bite, identify object bitten later", and once in the case of getting over excited at the smell of food and coming flying out of the tub...neither of which I would count as aggression.

[Jenn]

So much about the relationship between an animal and a person cannot be put into words. Some people who have owned a certain snake for a long time can just take one look at it and understand it's mood. For me, the most rewarding part about snake keeping (aside from coming up with the next hot morph combo) is learning my snakes. They are all different.