Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i got a spider about 2 months and she is about 250 grams. when i setteled her in and gave her a week or two i tried handling her and you can see she just didnt like it. shes eats well but she is very hand shy. i only picked her up a few times and all though she didnt she certanily looked like she wanted to bite me. so today i picked her up handled her very briefly and put her back then i seen she went in her hide and came right back out so i said let me pick her back up and boom she struck but so weakly and again and again. im so dissappointed but what can i do? i didnt want to force pick her up after that so i let her be. im hoping she will get more use to me and stop this. any suggestions is appreciated. thanks!!

Ummmmmmmmm.....its a FACT of life. Nothing you can "do" about it....just be patient. Its stops with age and size.

What I have done is when I need to get snakes used to being handled is Just grab them out of their "cage" and carry them in my hand as I go around the house doing what ever I need to do. I do this a few times a day. It only takes a couple weeks for them to discontinue their extreme defense strikes. Then I ship them off to their new home which has been mostly to 10-13 year old kids this year for the normals...

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T. West
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Ball Pythons Python regius
Dumeril's Boas Boa dumerili
European legless Lizard Ophisaurus apodus
Pueblan Milksnake Lampropeltis Triangulum Campbelli
California Kingsnake Lampropeltis getulus californiae
Bearded Dragons Pogona Vitticeps
Leopard Geckos Eublepharis Macularis
Brazilian Rainbow Boas Epicrates cenchria cenchria
Snapping Turtles Chelydra serpentina
Alligator Snapper Macrochelys temminckii
American Bullfrog Rana catesbieana
Rats
Mice
Super Worms
Meal Worms

When it dose this don't just let it be ,get it out and hold it .the wort thing you can do is letting it be that just reinforces the behavior and they think ,strike ,get left alone so what dose it do when you go to pick it up? STRIKE! Some thing else to do is put a shirt you wore all day in the cage with it and it will become familiar with your sent faster and take that sent as a sine of comfort.

The trick is just to keep handling it even though it's striking. Just keep things low-key, and relaxed, so that it realizes there's nothing that scary out there. Regular handling will help it relax and get used to people.

~jenny
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1.1 normal ball pythons (Cindy and Darwin)
1.0 rex rat (Scurvy)
0.1 bunny (Spazz)
2.1 betta fishes (Vicious, Killer, and Butters)
3.1 great danes (Shasta, Odysseus, Merlot, and Watson)
1.0 fat fuzzy mutt (Smokey)
1.1 cats (Thidwick and Turtle)
2.0 horses (Buddy and Sam)
1.0 goat (Billy Jack)
2.25 chickens (Jacques the rooster and his harem)

but what I really want is more ball pythons!