Reptile & Amphibian Forums

well my farmed red blood is eating great now but he all of the sudden turned into a seriously mean snake hahah..he kinda scares me!! i dont handle him but when i open the top to check temps and stuff he seems to want to take my head off!! when should i start handling him to calm him down if he will,,,,is farmed considered wild? because i know they say wild snakes cant be tamed? i still like him if he is mean or not im just worried about when hes gigantic and i need to clean his cage hahaha

hey there,

My advice would be to not worry about it. I think you had written a couple of posts down that you just got the little guy to eat for you...let him get another good couple of meals in him before you start worrying about the handling issue. Young bloods tend to be kind of grumpy until they get some size to them, and many get 'cage defensive' but are fine once out of their enclosure.

My first blood was a captive hatched yearling female. Sounds like a recipe for disaster, doesn't it? In truth it turned out her attitude wasn't that big of a deal. I gave her a long time to settle in, and i learned to read her attitude. I started out by just setting her in my lap in a quiet room for about 10 minutes, then slowly upping the handling and handling length. She still loves to hiss, but you'll learn to distinguish between a 'talking' hiss and the kind that come right before you get nailed. I added the pic below (its a couple months old) to show how much of a sweetheart she has (mostly) turned into. *note* I don't make a habit of carrying my bloods over my shoulder like that, that was just for the one picture.

What i'm getting at here is give your blood time, then when you do start handling him, just be patient and learn to read his body language. A snake being 'tame' usually has more to do with your time and effort than the snake's origin. Just my opinion.

have a good day,
carole

thats a nice lookin snake.thanks for the pic and advice i will use it. i think thats super cool that your a girl that is really into snakes,,,hard to come by in my parts hahahah. yeah i am sure i will get him to calm down in the future. thanks again

Jeff

Wait for him to settle in his cage for another week or two. Then if your comfortable put on some gloves and start handling. Start with 10 or 15 minute sessions and always make sure to put them back on a good note. I've found bloods to be much more defensive in their cages than outside of them. Once he gets used to you coming to pick him up and handling he should start to calm down.
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"It's my snake, I trained it, so I'm going to eat it!" - Mad Max, The Road Warrior