I recently took in an EXTREMELY aggressive female Boa (B.C.C) from a friend who was no longer capable of caring for it. I'm going to guess she's between 2 and 3 years old. Apparently the snake has not always been this way, but after several months of not being handled this is the outcome. I was wondering if it was possible to tame her all over again? I've never had any problems with any of my snakes before, so I really don't have any experience dealing with aggressive ones. I was reading in an article online that once a snake is like this there is no going back and you should give up any hope of ever being able to handle it in a carefree manner again.
Maybe I'm just too optimistic but I have a really hard time believing that. So I've come to you guys! If anyone has any advice or feedback I would really really appreciate it.
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aggressive boa
Replies (4)
Yes, in most cases it can be tamed down again. You will just have to take it slow. Start with just taking the snake out for a minute or two at a time once or twice a day. After a few days of this increase the length of time that you have it out of the cage to a few minutes longer while handling it gently and deliberately. Usually after a week or so you will see a noticable inprovement. Continue this handling precudure on a regular basis and you should find that the snakes attitude will turn for the better. Keep in mind that this may not work in every case however. Good luck.
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www.freewebs.com/bahreptiles
Although captive its still a wild animal.
"Trained" ? Not a chance,"Conditioned" into tolerating your human
presence,pretty good chance.
Being consistent with quality husbandry and regular interaction
may possibly afford some level of civil interaction at some point.
"Care free manner" and thought patterns of the like will always be conflicting in this context.Snakes can not be domesticated !
Its pretty clear and all to common for people with good intentions to get in over their heads when it comes to things of this nature.
I'll be honest with you,and assume a very subjective stance on this.
The animal is well above your skill/experience level and should most likely be in the care of someone with more experience working/caring for animals with this level of personality.
Not to say this wouldn't be a good place to begin a crash coarse LOL!! But .........
Depending on your dedication to the task at hand it will rest strictly with you as to the future life span of the animal in question.
I'll repeat this once more . . . . . .
Being consistent with quality husbandry and regular interaction
may possibly afford some level of civil interaction at some point.
If you believe you have what it takes .....then Go For IT !
TnK
The snake is not aggressive. It is displaying DEFENSIVE behaviour. It instinctively knows that hissing and striking will make predators leave it alone. By not hendling it the previous owner probably reinforced this instinctive behaviour. The challenge you face is to "teach" the snake that hissing and striking will not make humans go away. To do this you need to handle the snake. If you let it strike and hiss and do not handle it you will further reinforce the defensive behaviour. You may want to use a snake stick to get it out of the cage. Regular handling a couple times a day should produce a noticeable improvement in a couple of days.
Good luck,
Jeff
>>I recently took in an EXTREMELY aggressive female Boa (B.C.C) from a friend who was no longer capable of caring for it. I'm going to guess she's between 2 and 3 years old. Apparently the snake has not always been this way, but after several months of not being handled this is the outcome. I was wondering if it was possible to tame her all over again? I've never had any problems with any of my snakes before, so I really don't have any experience dealing with aggressive ones. I was reading in an article online that once a snake is like this there is no going back and you should give up any hope of ever being able to handle it in a carefree manner again.
>>Maybe I'm just too optimistic but I have a really hard time believing that. So I've come to you guys! If anyone has any advice or feedback I would really really appreciate it.
I'd suggest you take it out everyday you possibly can if it isn't in a shed or having just eaten. This snake will likely not come around in a week, but it will come around if you're patient. There area few tricks. One is always use a hook to take it out, one is to never put it back into the cage after it bites (you'll actually train it to bite you if you reward it by putting it back when it does), and another trick is to put it in a pillow case then sit it on your lap if it's too unruly otherwise. The main things is to haandle it. Use gloves if you need to, until you don't need them anymore.
Good luck
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Caden Chapman
slithering.serpents@gmail.com
http://slitheringserpents.com
