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I've got a ball and have experience with other herps. I Have read that blood pythons are for intermediate herpers, my question is why?

Wild-caught adult bloods and even some captive hatched young snakes from wild parents can be aggressive. However, you'll see bunches of posts in this forum where lots of us blood owners have completely docile, puppy-dog tame blood pythons. Mine young blood is every bit as tame as my ball python, and sometimes even more tame. As with all snakes, it all depends on the snake you have to start with and how much you work at taming them (good husbandry, plenty of handling, feeding in a separate enclosure, leaving them alone before and during sheds, etc.)

Very good answer but lets look at the word aggressive as scared..It's instinct to protect oneself..
The word Bloods was used here..Many Borneos and Blacks are hatched out with very placid natures,but not all..With what
little experience I have,I seem to note that the female gender
is also quite often the grumpy ones while males are often more placid..This may be only my experience and hold no truth but it is a thought..As time go's on dispostions and other traits often thought of with a species will subside due to captive breeding..The Blood/Stp animals are a joy to work with and
I wish you the best in your endeavor to work with these animals..
Tim

Bloods are more challenging than balls for husbandry reasons more than anything. Balls are tolerant of a wider variety of environments, most notably cooler/drier than bloods. Size is also an issue to consider, the keepers comfort level with larger snakes is important. There is a big difference between a 3 pound ball python and a 25 pound blood python. If the snake makes you nervous/afraid, you won’t take proper care of it or handle it enough for it to grow accustomed to you. I’ve been keeping bloods for 12 years and have found them to be well behaved and delightful. They are certainly higher strung than balls and much more vocal. They like to huff and puff when disturbed, but its mostly all talk and no action. I have found many of them to be a bit aggressive for a year or two when they first achieve sexual maturity. However, my parents assure me I was the same way, with proper handling and care everything turned out alright.
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Dennis

>>I've got a ball and have experience with other herps. I Have read that blood pythons are for intermediate herpers, my question is why?

I just got my first boreno this fall. She is a sweet girl that is young and very tolerant of handling. One thing that was made very clear is to avoid "forcing" anything on a blood.

I do educational programs with my snakes and I can easily toss a placid ball from kid to kid. NO issues. My Borneo, aint happening. While she is great for daily basic handling, I do not see her as being excessively tolerate of grubby little hands.

One thing I can say for a fact, borneos move a lot faster than balls when angry. I really did not expect the speed.

I really like the borneos. The reputation of nasty as best as I have seen can be related to the wild caught. I played with Rich Crowleys borneos recently and short of being big lumps, not a problem.

Reputation and reality seem to be different.

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Cindy
PHFaust

Email Cindy

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