Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i just got a new ball about 4 weeks ago and she does not like to be handled. last week she hissed wheni tried to pick her up and today she was just about to strike me and i decied to not try any further. im hoping in time she will come around. i have a few others and they never went to strike or ever hissed. anyone can give me some pointers on how i should go about this is greatly appreciated.

If he conditions you to back off every time he hisses or even looks like he's gonna strike, he wins. I always come at a nervous snake with my hand flat, palm down towards the TOP of his head. Sometimes, if his head is raised this means going at him from a bit behind. Bring your hand down slowly till it touches his head. If he jerks back just be still till he resituates himself and go again from there. Once you've made contact he should calm down. Then gently pick him up with as much of his body in your hand as you can manage. With a larger snake this just means you need to use the other hand to support his lower half. This is what works for me. If you're more comfortable with gloves, by all means use them, but a small ball bite is really not much to fear. God luck.

Quig

thanks for that reply!!

Are we talking about a hatchling or an adult?

150 gram baby.

what i have done in that situation is get the snake used to touch for a while before picking it up. slowly go in there and stroke the snakes body slowly and gently. doing this a few days in a row gets it used to the fact that you are not going to hurt it.

if it is in strike position, i flatten my hand (like the "stop" command) and slowly proceed forward and touch the top of its head.

there are different variations of this, but one thing i always do the same is: if it hisses, i make sure i continue contact to condition him that hissing doesnt work.

mine settled down in a very short time. before i got it, he had almost no contact from the breeder and was not used to handling.

hope this helps...

my 2 cents
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1.0 ball python "wolfgang"

Don't give up on it keep trying .A method I have used on a lot of problem snakes &lizards is to put a shirt or glove that you have sweet ed in but not gotten grease or chemicals on into there cage and leave it over night and take it out the next day. This will condicion it to your sent and learn that no harm come from things with that sent. It may take 2-7 day to work and if it doesn't work after a week or so it won't help that animal. but
I have had grate success with it .1or2 in the last 35 years that it didn't help . thanks
GOOD LUCK WITH ALL YOU DO !!

good point on the sweaty shirt trick

i did the same thing while calming down my bp, just to get him used to my scent

seemed to work great
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1.0 ball python "wolfgang"

that sounds like a great idea. but i was able to take her out today with no promblems so maybe she was just a little pissed off yesterday? also maybe part of the reason was i tried feeding her and she didnt eat yesterday and about 1 hour later i tried to take her out maybe this had something to do with it? also i guess when i get my first ball bite i will hopefully see theres not much to worry about.(lol) thanks for all the help everyone.

Ball's and other snakes are instinctual and most of the time strike out fear or hunger.
Ways to avoid this is to always make sure your hands are clean and free of any sent.
Watch your ball and learn it's body language. Once you know when they look like they are going to strike you can come at them like Quig said.

Most of the time snakes think you are 1 of 3 things, prey, predator or substrate. After you get your hand on their body somewhere you will most likely become part of their environment. Most of our Balls are a little head shy so trying to touch them or pic them up this way is not to effective. Once you have them out and they think of you as part of their environment you can get them use to you and your sent. Now how much the remember like sent and so on I don't know

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2.2.0 ball python (gondor, aragorn, arwen,`eowyn)
1.0.0 100% het pied (frodo)
1.0.0 columbian boa (squiggles)
1.0.0 rat snake (alabastered)
0.1.0 corn snake (baby)
0.0.2 whites tree frog (trevor, kirmet)
0.0.5 pacific green tree frogs
3.2.0 cats (rockie, bs, brownie, lerrado, kole)
1.3.0 kids (dilyen, dakota, chyanne, sierra)
Brian n Chrissy

"snakes are kind of like potato chips, you cant have just one"