Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've always loved the way bloods look and their size. I've kept plenty of snakes (mostly boas and ball pythons) and I've always wanted a blood, but have grown to believe that their temerament is kinda bad and that they're nippy. Is that camparatively correct? What have you all experienced?

I can only speak for my little blood, but she's absolutely as tame as a ball. Never even hisses, and so far not an aggressive feeder.

I was concerned just like you, but not anymore! I'd get another one if I was in the market.

Other snakes behave differently, of course.

As said in the last post, i can only speak for my blood, he is fine. The breeder I got him from worked with him so he was tame for me. I do hear alot about wild caught being very nasty, but again this is going to vary from snake to snake. Id still go with a breeder if you were to get one, and as with most snakes, im sure babys will be a bit nippy. just work with it. They are beautiful snakes.

Your both right and wrong. Generally in my experience most babies are nippy. They do however grow out of it. Most baby snakes are a bit nippy/nervous though. I'll post some pics below showing some calm adult animals. IMO they are well worth the effort as they are very impressive as adults! I keep 2.2 malaysian animals and the only one that's nasty is a LTC imported animal. Captive bred animals from calm adults will give you the best chance at having calm offspring. I don't know which kind of bloods you like but I hear the black bloods are supposed to be the most calm (also smallest of the bloods). Look around, I'm sure you'd have no problem finding calm animals. Don't get the hissing mixed up with thinking they are a nasty animal. All of my bloods hiss. My 2 big girls are as calm as ball pythons. Watch their body language.

8ft 4in gravid female and my 2 yr old daughter:

Here's me a couple of yrs ago. I was lucky to purchase this male back in the 2.2 when I purchased the group:

-----
John Light
JL Exotics
Contact Me

I own more bloods than you can shake a stick at. Every single one is very handlable and all but about two WC animals are very friendly and fun to handle. Some babies if not handled much when little can take a little work, but I truly believe they are as tame as any snake out there.
-----
"It's my snake, I trained it, so I'm going to eat it!" - Mad Max, The Road Warrior

Thanks a bunch for the tips. I'm interested in some of the red bloods and i'm sure that you have to work with them just as you do with all others. I think the blood gets a bad reputation often. I heard it from my local reptile store guy. But, I think there are several species that get a bad rap (retic/anaconda). I thinks the blood is the smallest python with a bad reputation. One final question? Is the humidity requirement a big difference to other pythons/boas? Thanks again.

They do require higher humidity then other species yes.
-----
John Light
JL Exotics
Contact Me