Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi peoples i have some questions about my year old carpet python that i got yesterday at the show in hamberg pa.it is my first carpet and he is mean bit me 14 times already is this normal temperment for yearling carpets? or are they just bad tempered in general? will he calm down soon and grow out of this or what? he is a beautiful snake hate to have him this aggressive when he gets bigger.i tried to feed him a fuzzy but he will not take it yet. maybe i should give him some more time to adjust to his new enviroment.all advice is appreciated. thank you

use a snake hook or some gloves to take him out of his cage. and just handle him often!

not an expert
from Alex

Gentle handling is the key. Handle it for no more than 15 minutes at a time though. Also, feed your snake in a seperate enclosure. I've always fed my female IJ in her cage, and she was fine for about a year, but now she's a little more alert whenever I open her cage. Bo

I would guess that your new snake probably hasn't been handled much (this would be particularly true if you bought him from a dealer with a lot of inventory.) Therefore, he doesn't know that you don't pose a threat. I have a carpet that was snappy for about six months after I purchased her. Usually I handled her with bare hands, but sometimes I would use gloves. One day she finally decided to stop biting, and I haven't had a problem since. She is an excellent snake in every way. My favorite of all the snakes I've come across. Here are a few ideas: let her settle in and feed a couple of times before you start working on taming her down. I'm not as conservative on this as many of the posters on this forum, but it can't hurt, and you will have her for a long time, so a couple of weeks won't matter one way or the other. Handle her with gloves if you don't want to take the bites. They aren't dangerous and don't really even hurt, but bleeding all over is annoying. A lot of people like the snake hook trick that one of the other posters mentioned. I haven't tried it, but anything that conditions your snake is a good idea in my book. Toss a sweaty t-shirt into his cage so he gets used to the smell of you. If you smell like his cage, he'll be less suspicious. Also, if he looks like he is going to strike, you can offer up the flattened palm of your hand. It is hard to get a bite in on a flat surface. Don't be too worried about all of this. One day, he will just stop snapping at you and you'll forget that he was ever a pain in the azz.