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I've had my Ball Python Vergil for about 6 months. I bought him from LLLReptile at the Sacramento reptile show last year. He's been a great pet, but he's gotten into the habit of biting at me when he's getting fed.

I feed him F/T mice in a plastic drawer that I put a layer of lizard liner in(his tank doesn't have the same kind of bedding in it so that isn't the reason). Here's my feeding routine: I'll thaw out the mouse in the sink, place his box on the counter about 4 ft. or so away from the thawed mouse, get Vergil out of his tank, walk into the kitchen and put him in the box, close the drawer, grab the mouse with my tongs, hold the mouse inside the box, and he'll eat.

The problem occurs after I've set him down. When I'm pulling my hand from the box is when he'll bite at me. He's done this at least 6 or 7 times since I've had him and I can't figure out why he's doing it. I don't handle the mice before I get him out of his tank. When he bit me just now it wasn't a little nip, he hung on to my finger after I'd jerked away and was dangling from it! I pulled him off after I'd grabbed him behind the head, but it wasn't an "I'm trying to swallow this" kind of bite, it did feel like he was trying to get his teeth out when i was pulling my finger out.

I'm going to start having wearing a pair of gloves that I'll only wear when I'm feeding him, thinking that he'll stop assotiating my hands with feeding. Any other ideas on what I can do correct this?

Easiest fix would probably be to not move him on feeding day. If you're worried about him swallowing substrate, just make sure the thawed rodent is dry so nothing sticks to it...should work fine. And with tongs...no bites.
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Dale....dgoins222@yahoo.com
www.LibertyReptiles.com

The best idea is to feed him in his enclosure. If you do not want to do that put him in the container in a different room away from the mouse. He is probably smelling the mouse and striking at movement. Snakes have very good smellers lol.
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Congratulations - you've conditioned him into a good feeding response! He knows that going into that box means dinner time, so in his little snakey brain, as soon as he gets set down, he thinks "ohmigosh, it's warm, it must be food 'cause I'm in my eating box!" and thus, you get bitten.

Change the order - put the mouse in first, and then the snake. He obviously is ready and willing to eat the second he gets in that box, so use that to your advantage and have the mouse ready to go in the box so he has the chance to get to it. If it's busy biting the mouse, it's not going to bite you!

Also, you got the snake in Sacramento in July? If it's been eating regularly, a single mouse is probably too small a meal for it by now. Try upping to two mice, or to a small rat. The snake just sounds hungry to me.

~jenny
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"Polysyllabism in no way insures that what you're saying is actually worth being heard." - Blake (an e-friend of mine)

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For what it's worth, I gree with all 3 replies that you have received thus far. All have made good points.

Try feeding him in his enclosure. He will not be able to bite you. Hope this helps.

thx for all the tips! 2mrw i'm gonna try putting the mouse in his box first and if that doesn't work i'll start feeding Vergil in his enclosure. i would have fed him again 2day but my local reptile shop isnt open sundays :/

ill let u know how it goes

Good luck! BTW, you may want to switch to rats. Hope this helps

this has nothing to do with conditioning. the air smells like food (rodents) and your hot little sausage fingers attract the heat seeking eyes of the snake. as far as it is concerned, your hand is offering 5 hot little mice, and it is in feeding mode.

wearing a glove will hide the heat of your hand. and feed the snake in the cage, there is no reason not to.

best of luck.
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robyn@proexotics.com

Pro Exotics Reptiles