Sounds like you have had your share of rock experiences. I too have gone through the good and bad experiences with numerous individuals. In the 70's and 80's I had kept over 20 rocks easily, but only one was tame and it was a great big male. He was so tame I often wondered if he had some form of brain damage, lol. Like NO response to stimuli sometimes, he was so kicked back. The others all resided on the other end of the spectrum and would try everything in their power to hurt me. They were all imports back then except the big tame guy. But the most aggressive one of them all was a little 9 or 10 foot male. He would lunge at the cage wall (glass) any time I was in view. If I opened the cage he would launch at me, mouth wide open, "swimming" across the carpet to bite me. I would always capture him and handle him with relative ease, which would make him hate me even more. But yes, those imports were what I would call, "untamable".



Nowadays, every rock python I have, male or female is basically tame, though highly territorial. When I go to remove any of them from their cages they immediately begin to hiss and go into their "posturing" or raising off the ground and facing me. Knowing it is bluff I just ignore it and grab them. At this point they forget about scaring me and try to go further into their cage, but by this time I have them out and they are fairly calm about it. Now,.. neither of the breeders that I got my present breeding stock from took any time with these rocks to calm them or tame them. I got some as yearlings and others as 2 year olds. So I would think that they likely wouldn't even posture and bluff if they had been worked with as youngsters. And I expect them to calm dramatically with time.



About you getting bitten and attacted while doing a presentation,.. there does seem to be something about rock pythons when they are taken outside. One of my larger males goes balistic when he is taken outside. I think that maybe their instict may kick in when they smell out of doors smells. Was your presentation in an outdoors area? Just curious.



Thanks for your input.







>>I have had several African rock pythons, though I do not have any now. The mighty African rock remains the only python that I've had in my 12 years of keeping snakes that has ever gotten the better of me. I am fascinated by them, but that one big one I had was nasty, nasty, nasty and nasty some more. (I had a few smaller ones that were fairly tame, but had other issues.) After I got rid of that big one, I said I would never have another one. So far, I haven't. I made the mistake of using him in a presentation in front of 120 Boy Scouts at a day camp. The snake went crazy, defecated on me, took a plug out of my left forearm and then wrapped defensively around my right arm. I don't know whether the Boy Scouts were amused or terrified -- probably a mixture of both emotions!

>>

>>I figure African rocks are a lot like retics used to be. Several years ago, retics had a reputation for being aggressive, but it seems that much of that aggression has been bred out of them as more captive bred babies become available. The same will happen with African rocks, if it isn't happening already. I wouldn't entirely rule out the possibility of getting another one, but it would have to be trustworthy enough to be shown in front of an audience.

>>

>>That being said, I have had quite a bit of experience with these snakes, and would enjoy talking more about them. I got a big kick out Jeff Corwin's encounter with that angry African rock on Animal Planet. That was one mad snake! He/she had Jeff jumping around like a clown!

>>

>>They are beautiful snakes, very interesting and of course enormous. Very cool snakes, but -- at least in my experience (which was admittedly several years ago) -- a little on the aggressive side.

>>

>>RP
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It isn't "Ideas" that fail or succeed,... it is the "Systems" which are instilled to launch and sustain the idea that either fail or succeed.>[Me.]

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