Reptile & Amphibian Forums

a friend of mine recently got a hold of a rock python its very healthy and all. but my god it is agresive. as soon as it just sees you it tries to attack and makes a big fuss. and its fairly large (ill say about 2 meters) so can anyone suggest a way to make it less agressive ?

Rocks tend to be nippy and if you leave them alone they are generally pretty aggro. Age seems to calm down most snakes to a point. I'd look into some heafty gloves, your going to need them! I wouldn't reach in the cage either, pull the animal out with a hook of some kind. Move slowly and be very gentle. Let the rock glide through your hands taking the snake to the next hand not the hand to the snake. I have alot of success with this method especially with aggro snakes! Good Luck.
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John Light
JL Exotics
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My first large python was an african rock. He quickly earned the name Lucifer. I kept him until he was a nice hefty 14ft. I learned alot about what to do and not to do from that snake. Unfortunately I was only 15 and my mother forced me to get rid of him after a horrific feeding error on my part(never offer a snake a prekilled rabbit with your hand, bad things happen quickly). Rocks are some of the easiest snakes to read, they are either going to bite your head off or let you handle them, there is no in between, this definately goes for the typical agro ones. Best advice I can give is to set some ground rules for all activities involving the snake such as any time there is going to be handling make sure you approach the snake with a hook and always let the snake know you are there with the hook not your hand. If you are feeding, don't even bring the hook near the cage. Handle the snake with someone else around at all times, bad things happen quickly. Like the other post stated, let the snake do the moving, just alter the direction a little at a time, no quick movements. Hope this helps and I do plan on getting another african rock in the future, I just love them and their natural beauty is only rivaled by a few other species.
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Josh Hutto
J&K Reptiles

2.3 het pied (RDR, alan bosch x 2, BHB x 2)
1.0 Spider Ball python (Ballroom pythons south)
1.0 Vanilla Ball Python (Gulf Coast)
0.1 High Contrast Albino (Gulf Coast)
1.1 het albino (ben siegel, Gulf Coast)
1.2 het citrus ghost(Gulf Coast line)
1.0 citrus ghost (Gulf Coast line)
1.1 graz pastel female
Alot of normal BP females (some not so normal)
2 various corns
0.1 brazilian rainbow boa (alan bosch)
1.0 american pit bull terrier
1.1 taco dogs (ankle biters)
1.0 grey cat
0.1 bearded dragons

a BAD dog is MADE not bred, support the American Pit Bull Terrier as the greatest breed of dogs on Earth!!!!!

Here is my son with his female Rock. I sold it a while back against his will because we had way too many lg adults.

this one is about 9ft.

LOL, the boy's about ta lose his britches. That's a great pic.

Quig

np