Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have three ball pythons and two of them are really nice. One of them is a real [bleep]. I've had her for 4 or so months and handle her as often as I handle the others but she's always striking at the cage when I walk by.

Any ideas on how to calm her down?

I think I'm going to smoke out the house and see if that helps.

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edited for language.

Edited on October 4, 2004 at 21:44:37 by phwyvern.

I really like the aggressive ones. Ball pythons are much too laid back. Well anyway, does she calm down once you have her out of the cage? Does she have plenty of hides? Her cage needs to be in a low traffic area. She's just defending herself against a perceived threat. Continue to handle her and eventually she'll calm down.

actually that is a great way to look at it. I have been aggravated that she's not as easy going, but it is always fun to watch her because she coils back and checks me out.

thanks, I needed that perspective.

I've noticed that some of my more aggressive balls are better feeders. Yeah, they want to rip my bloody hand off but at least the rats aren't going to waste.

IMO said to place her in a low traffic area. I do understand the reasoning here, but if she was my snake and I wanted her to calm down while in her cage I wouldn't move her at all. Why? Because then she will hopefully become accustomed to you/people/pets/whatever walking by. She will eventually learn that what goes on outside of her cage is of little threat to her.
My opinion is that if you move her "out of sight out of mind" she will take much longer to calm down if she ever does.

One thing I've seen work for snakes like yours is to place a hide in her cage that allows her to feel completely hidden while at the same time gives her a view of what is going on around her. Simply make or buy a hide that is actually LARGER than what is recommended (make sure she has one or two that are of appropriate size) then face the opening toward the front of the tank. You'll want the hide to have some size to it simply because that way she can sit in the shadows at the back of the hide and with it's larger opening it will give her a greater view of the room.

It's worth a try if nothing else.
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It's actually not that I love or even like snakes. I just hate rodents.

That's another great idea. I actually have a few good hiding places in her cage. She's actually taken to tunneling around in the aspen bedding which is kinda cool. which reminds me, I'm going to post a new thread on that one.
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The only times I have experienced really aggresive Balls is because they are hungry. Have you tried feeding it when it does this? Some snakes have much bigger appeties than others. Especially females. Maybe you are not feeing this particular one enough.
I worked with a guy that complained his Ball was nasty. he could not handle it so he brought it to our zoo. The problem....He was not feeding it enough. This Ball would strike repeatedly at the glass enclosure it was in whenever you walked by. Once we got more food into it, it relaxed.
Hope this helps.
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that's a really good point. I try to feed her two small mice every saturday, maybe it should be twice a week.
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