If you retreat and don't pick it up, you are reinforcng the behavior of "hiss/strike and get left alone". I know it can be scary and intimidating to pick up a pissed off boa but better to get them used to handling while it's young then wait till it's big.

That said, you don't want to over stress it so don't go in repeatedly. If you go in and it's hissy, pick it up, handle it, put it back. Then leave it alone for a day or two, then repeat the process. Also pay attention to it's behavior, I have a salmon that gets real hissy when it's going into shed. He doesn't strike but hisses a lot when he's starting to blue. Maybe your's has the same or another predictable behavior, time of day, time of eating cycle (just ate/digesting/hungry) or???
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Thanks,

Dave "Rainbows-R-Us"


0.1 Wife
0.2 kids
4.12 Brazilian Rainbow Boa
1.0 Hypomelanistic BRB
0.1 Het for Hypomelanistic BRB
0.1 BCI "Elvira" normal from 1989
1.0 BCI albino / het-anery
0.1 BCI Hypo / het-albino
0.1 BCI Anery / het-albino
0.1 BCI Hypo (possible super)
1.0 BCI albino het stripe
1.0 BCI salmon hypo
0.1 BCI ghost

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

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• Another question - scatha, Tue Dec 13 05:51:42 2005
• RE: Another question - Morgans Boas, Tue Dec 13 08:04:27 2005
• RE: Another question - scatha, Tue Dec 13 16:12:54 2005
• RE: Another question - rainbowsrus, Tue Dec 13 11:43:04 2005