Hey everyone,

Just last night I adopted a ball python, Charlie, from someone who was moving and needed to find a home for him. At first, I thought it was just going to be a good deal because he came with everything for a low price, but he is in terrible shape! Here's the info....

-3.5 year old male
-450 grams (so low!)
-Shed skin is everywhere in the cage = previous owner kept no humidity gauge and didn't even spritz the cage
-Cage aggressive and territorial - he is even aggressive about his feeding box!

Me and my boyfriend have another ball who is very healthy and we are very diligent about the heat and the humidity. So far for Charlie we've remoistened the soil, put a moist towel over the top screen to increase the humidity, and we fed him. The temperatures are fine so far. Apparently the previous owner only fed him once a month - which is obvious from his extremely low weight.

When we fed him, he was in a striking pose when we tried to get him out of his cage and into the feeding box and when he was done eating, he tried to strike at me and it was very difficult to get him out of the feeding box.

I am wondering what we should do about his aggressiveness. Our other ball python is a sweetheart and we've had no problems with her so we have no experience with aggressiveness. Earlier I just wanted to hold him, and he was territorial about his cage, but once I got him out he was fine. Is there anything else we can do to make him a bit more friendly/accustomed to humans besides trying to handle him?

Will handling him stress him out too much??

Any advice is welcome!

-Nicole and Tyler

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