I'll chime in and agree with nboles1215 & jdillow:

Your snake is being 'nasty' because she's scared of you. I would also hazard the guess that your snake is scared of a lot of things - like her own prey at times. I've had snakes that actually seem to kill for the love of the chase or something like that, but I suspect that what you are describing is more aggressive and definitely defensive.

As for yourself, if you don't already have a good pair of leather gloves, get one. I personally prefer deer hide gardening gloves, as the leather is thin enough that I can still feel important tactile cues - like how hard I am holding onto the snake - but it is still thick enough I get a more secure feeling. You can of course hurt a snake if you go to grab it with gloves that are too thick, and don't allow you to judge what kind of a grip you have on it, so don't just grab any old pair of leather gloves. Anyhow, the right pair of gloves can be a marvelous confidence booster. I use mine whenever I am handling a new or nervous snake, and when I feed my snakes - just in case they are too excited.

The reason I went into all of that, is that one way or another, you need to handle your snake more often to get it to not be so afraid of you - and this will probably cause it some amount of stress at first, so start small: 5 minutes a day or less, but make it every day*. After a while you can graduate up to longer handling sessions, but you definitely want to keep everything simple and slow enough that you become/stay non-threatening, and hopefully, non-stressful. Once that goes well, you can of course take off your gloves (but those are there for YOU, so take them off when you feel comfortable). You say that she is fine once you actually handle her, but if she acts as defensively as you are describing before you pick her up, more handling will still help.

Also, *after feedings, leave your snake alone to digest! So many people suggest handling snakes after they eat, when all that will do is create the perfect set up for your snake to regurgitate. Leave your snake alone for no less than 2 days after it eats, and don't handle it very much between 2 and 4 days after it eats - I promise that if you haven't smelled snake vomit before, YOU DO NOT WANT TO!

Good luck!

~Rebecca
-----
0.1 Dumeril's Boa '04 (Courtney)
1.2 Ball Pythons



0.2 American Pit Bull Terriers (40lb darling lap dogs:Brandy&Mara)

[ Show Entire Thread ]