K... If this is a baby, I can offer my usual reptile advice.
If you feel more comfortable in gloves, find a pair that not only protects, but allows you to feel the muscles of the animal. I loathe the use of gloves because I have learned short of crocs and caimen (so far in my experience) everyone else gives you some sort of muscle movement as a warning. Also be sure gloves still allow you full range of movement. (im sure some of this is redundant, but Im anal like that). I actually have a few sweatshirts with holes in the cuffs. Basically this protects my arms and most of my hands. I started this with the iguanids due to their nails, but I almost always have my sleeves down. While it isnt much protection, it is enough to offer you a smidge of comfort and also offers a buffer between your skin and the teeth. More animals have tasted cotton rather than skin.
If you havent had the snake long allow him to settle in. When I got my second borneo, he was a complete and total butthead. Beautiful but a total butt head. Striking the glass, threatening me open mouthed, lunging at me non stop. If you look back you will see I questioned if there was a chance this was caused by a switch from racks to caging. After two weeks of settling in and a few feedings, he settled down. Now he just bluffs.
Hubby is having problems adjusting to the bloods. They are such mouthy little snakes. The only really mellow one is Eva who has been with us over a year now. The two new additions are still huge bluffers. You go in their cages, they puff up and vocalize. This is just normal blood behavior.
So with that said. Assuming still this is a baby or young snake, allow some settle in time. Anywhere from 2 weeks to a month. All new animals that come in here get that. After that time has passed and the animal is feeding nicely, start with short handling sessions. The biggest thing that reptiles learn from is if they act like buttheads they get put back. Pull that baby out and do not put it back until it is settled. I have used that technique with hundreds of snakes, lizards, even an aggressive russian tort. You dont get put down until you settle down. This doesnt mean stopping all movement. However it does mean stopping any aggressive behavior.
I have also noticed that bloods do NOT react well to restriction of movement. This is kinda hard to explain, but if you want to make them curl up, you arent going to. Forcing their movements to suit you is counter productive.
While I am not an expert in bloods, nor would I ever claim to be at this point, running a rescue has put me in with some very aggressive animals. I use these techniques with all incoming animals. Its effective and has worked. But I promise it isnt without a smidge of blood given by the handler. It takes patience however and from what I have seen it works well.
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Cindy
PHFaust
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