when i got my second ball he would squeeze my arm very tightly when i would hold him. he still does this. i feel that it is his way of feeling secure, such as he knows he wont fall off. he hisses from time to time, it is his nerves. balls can be very nervous snakes and thus get stressed out fairly easily. if he is still new to you, he is probably very stressed out, and i think i read right but being loose in a room probably was very stressful to him. i would start by just gently touching his body when he is sitting in the cage to get used to being touched. some people will take a shirt or piece of clothing that they have warn and put it into the cage for a while so that the snake recognizes their sent. when i have my girl out if anyone else holds her, she always trys to stretch out to me if i am near, for the first 4 months i had her, i was the only person to hold her or take care of her. start by only handling him for a few minutes a day and slowly work up as he tolerates. make sure that he is not in a high traffic area as vibrations tend to make their nerves get frazzled as well.



i don't know if you are feeding in the cage or not, but some people, including myself will feed in a rubbermaid container instead of the cage. there is conflicting feelings on this. some poeple say that it wont make a difference, but i know myself that i would rather my snake know that when it is a certain container it's feeding time, and that when i stick my hand in it's cage that it's not food. i have my snakes on a schedule and they know when feeding day comes around and they start to roam their cages. like shelby514 said, get that manual, it is a great book to have and reference.



http://www.kingsnake.com/ballpythonguide/index.html that link also has a bunch of great info on balls and their care. another idea for hides is to take smaller shoe boxes(so that he will fit snugly in it) and cut some holes in the sides for him to get into, i use this for my larger girl and they work great, i can throw them away when they get soiled and not have to worry about cost. i'm sure that the size boxes that your son's shoes come in would work great! or now that plant season is coming to an end, look for the planter disks that go under the plant pots, with a hammer you can break a hole in the side and they are another cheap great way to make a hide for your snake.



hope i was of some help to you welcome to the wonderful world of ball pythons which keeps us ball python moms on our toes and always worrying about them
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~dana~



1.1 ball pythons (hailex and roxy)

1.0 cat (whiskers)

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