Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Are there any tips in getting pissy hissy bull juvies to settle down? Pits definitely have personality and I dont want to do anything that is counter-productive to acclimating them to handling. Any suggestions and advice would be helpfull. My pair isnt psychotic, but definitely a bit untrustworthy and you never know when they are going to snap.

They're not being kept overly warm are they? I've heard many times that one's snakes calm down after they drop the temps a bit in the cage.

Otherwise, I think just keep handling them and get them used to crawling about the hands. Good luck.
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- Matt

1.0 Black Milk '04
1.0 Andean Milk '06
0.1 Eastern King '97
0.1 Bullsnake '09

The easiest way to start doing this is to just plan on spending about 20 min per snake every other day. When I want to work on acclimate a snake to use in programing, I get it out of its cage in the most gentle way possible. For bulls, this might mean waring cloth gardening gloves, or simply sliping on a pillow case over your hand to pick the snake up, in case its a striker. once it is out of its cage I want to make sure it feels supported as possible, almost cradling it. The last thing a nervous snake wants to have happen to it or to feel, is constriction or being restrained and the last thing you want to do is really grip the snake.

Then find a spot where the snake has no place to go if it gets out of your hands. Sitting on the couch is an example of a bad place to work with your snake. I worked with a very spastic baby Honduran milk by sitting down on the floor in a long hallway where there was no crevices or holes for the snake to go if it got out of reach. Thus, make sure there are no floor vents for it to crawl down into... Then just work on geting the snake to glide through your fingers over and over again and over your arms and hands, so that it smells and becomes comfortible being in your hands and on your arms. This takes practice for you and your snake but the more you do it the more you both learn what each wants and prefers and both of your confidences will go up. Yes you do learn from your snakes- and you must be willing to let the snake teach you what it wants, and it can be really cool for you to see the snake get more and more calm over time.

This is a start, its hard to put all of what I do down here, but thats the basic theory behind what I do. Watch the body language of your snake, and with time youll be able to really understand what it wants. Try to put yourself in the snake's skin so to speak and see your hands as REALLY large and how your arms might be strange but odly comfortible moving branches- be the tree, be the branch.

Working with your snakes can definatly be alot of fun and really relaxing in the process, because you have to let go of yourself and not think about what you want, but what the snake wants, and thats a good mental excercise as well!

Can't top this post! Well done!
Helping your snakes to trust you is for sure a Zen exercise.

I minimize handling babies and juveniles. Particularly babies. If you must handle them, e.g. cage cleaning, use a small hook to get them out of the cage. It seems to excite them a lot less than a huge, warm human hand. Nervous snakes (like pits) adapt and eat better if handled less frequently until they are mature. IMO pits really do not "like" handling, but they will tolerate it. They just tolerate it better when they are larger and more confident.

My babies get handled about every four to six days when I transfer them to their feeding containers and back. Otherwise I don't bother them much, just let them digest their food in peace. Even that minimal amount of handling helps them to learn when The Hand comes for them it is not a bad thing. The juveniles also get about the same amount of handling. I don't "play" with them, although some of the more confident ones I will let climb from hand to hand or coil up in my shirt for a nap. If they seem nervous I let them have that all important sense of security under their hide.

Thanks for the pointers. Its easy to see the differences in attitude with the bulls compared to say corns, or even kings (both of which I am very familiar with). They seem to have their own pace for sure as far as tolerating being handled/disturbed for various reasons, which is more unpredictable than I am used to LOL!! I just want to make sure I am approaching them in a way that is not detrimental to their long term adjustment and doesnt turn them into six to eight foot pychotic messes in a couple of years!!

Why do you transfer them to a different feeding container to eat? I have heard of other keepers doing this, but I do not understand the rationale. For what it is worth, if I have a nervous feeder I simply put the food item in a small cardboard box and set the box in the snakes cage. Snakes love to investigate new hide boxes and when they do, they discover the food item. Simple stuff, I know, but it almost always works for me.

Three reasons I do the feeding containers:
1. No chance they could ingest substrate along with their meal.
2. No chance they will associate The Hand with food if I feed them in their habitats.
3. Transferring them to their feeding containers affords an opportunity to socialize with them. Even the little babies are becoming confident with the frequent handling. If I just tossed the food in the cages I would not expect them to learn to trust me. I have only 16 pet snakes so this container feeding is practical, but if I had a huge commercial operation maybe I'd do things different.

So it is not about nervous feeders, but about social conditioning. When I first got some of my baby Pacifics they were very shy, so I put the pinks in little cups next to the hides which the snakes could find on their own. I liked the cup because I could see at a glance whether or not the pinks had been discovered and consumed. After a month or so of cup feeding they were introduced to the feeding container method and are fine with that now.

The older ones do a funny thing; when they are getting hungry they come out of their hides and watch me expectantly as I move around in the room. If they could sit up and beg or meow at me they would! LOL! When I reach in to pick them up they know a good thing is about to happen.

A good thing happening! Yum!

Apparently this technique is working very well for you. If it works, I would not change a thing. Beautiful animal.

Thanks for the compliment on my little Gomez, my only wc pit. Rescued from cat last April. This baby pic and the other pic are when I first brought her home, cleaned her up (parasite treatment as routine) and fed her her first batch of pinks in captivity. The stuff on her in this pic is just some loose moss. She was uninjured.

I guess I just expect the snakes to be mellow and for the most part they are. For a tiny creature to trust me moves my spirit in a big way.

The posts above are very good. I just wanted to ad my two cents. When they are coiled or in a defenceive posture. Just grab em. Dont let them intimidate you. Show them your not scared, and dont hesitate. If you hesitate, they will realize that you are scared and there defenceive posture is working. It doesn't always work but most of time they will go into get away mode and aren't as aggressive. Show them who is boss!

I'm raising up 2 Bulls that were so pissy and aggressive but age has changed them and now that they are subadults they are good to handle. So dont give up and give them some time.

Jason

Thanks Jason. I think you are right about seeing past the bluff. The male reacts fairly predictable. All huff and bluff but generally calms down and just hisses when in hand. The female tends to remain erratic and sometimes flings backward and snaps. No big deal at their age. I just want to get them predictable so I dont have a six footer snapping back at my arm at unexpected times LOL!! I am not handling them consistently and should try to work with them two to three times a week at least.

basically everyone is saying dont put up with any Bull Sh*t and youll be fine!
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1.0 Boa- Hogg Island
0.2 Bull- yellow
1.0 Bull- Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada
2.1 Bulls- normal
0.1 Kingsville TX Red Bull
1.1 Corns- Okeetee Area, SC
1.1 Foxes- Western
1.1 Gophers- Sonoran- Cochise Co. AZ
1.1 Kings- Black Easterns (L.g.nigra) Todd Co. KY
1.2 Kings- Coastal CA
1.1 Kings- NC Eastern Chains (M from Union Co. & F from Mecklenburg Co.)
1.1 Kings- Gray Banded 'Blair's'
1.1 Kings- Speckled, Harris Co. TX
1.1 Pines- Carolina Northerns (M from NC, F from SC)
1.1 Pines- Louisiana (pure descendants of Terry Vandeventer stock)
0.1 Pine- Southern: faded pattern
1.1 Pythons- Ball
1.1 Rats- Black, Henderson Co. NC
1.1 Rats- Western Green, Mt. Hopkins, Cochise Co. AZ