I would guess that your new snake probably hasn't been handled much (this would be particularly true if you bought him from a dealer with a lot of inventory.) Therefore, he doesn't know that you don't pose a threat. I have a carpet that was snappy for about six months after I purchased her. Usually I handled her with bare hands, but sometimes I would use gloves. One day she finally decided to stop biting, and I haven't had a problem since. She is an excellent snake in every way. My favorite of all the snakes I've come across. Here are a few ideas: let her settle in and feed a couple of times before you start working on taming her down. I'm not as conservative on this as many of the posters on this forum, but it can't hurt, and you will have her for a long time, so a couple of weeks won't matter one way or the other. Handle her with gloves if you don't want to take the bites. They aren't dangerous and don't really even hurt, but bleeding all over is annoying. A lot of people like the snake hook trick that one of the other posters mentioned. I haven't tried it, but anything that conditions your snake is a good idea in my book. Toss a sweaty t-shirt into his cage so he gets used to the smell of you. If you smell like his cage, he'll be less suspicious. Also, if he looks like he is going to strike, you can offer up the flattened palm of your hand. It is hard to get a bite in on a flat surface. Don't be too worried about all of this. One day, he will just stop snapping at you and you'll forget that he was ever a pain in the azz.

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• aggressive jungle carpet yearling - tommyb, Sun Aug 3 14:30:55 2003
• RE: aggressive jungle carpet yearling - monitor1o1, Sun Aug 3 17:00:22 2003
• RE: aggressive jungle carpet yearling - BH, Sun Aug 3 18:14:50 2003
• Give her time and he'll grow out of the snappiness - Thunderbird, Sun Aug 3 20:54:46 2003