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I have a 12 year old female boa that I have had all of her life. Before about 6 years ago, she was the tames thing you ever did see. Only thing is I moved out of my mom's house 6 years ago and left her there. My mom and step-father said that they would feed her while I was looking for another place to live. I did find another place to live, but the landlord wouldn't allow a snake. Since my fiance and I were desperate to find a place to live and get out of her mom's house after we just had a baby, we took the apartment. So my parents again said that they would feed her, as long as I came by to clean her enclosure. We lived 2 hours away and I didn't go by nearly as much as I should have, but we didn't always have the funds to make the trip. Finally, we have gotten our own house and I have my Boa back, but she has become very pissy. She is food agressive and when you take her out of the cage she will hiss, but I have never given her the chance to bite us. I have control of her head at all times.

What I would like to know is, can she be tamed back to the way she was? When I say tame, I guess what I mean is tolerant of being held. Or you can say tame if you like. She would sit in my lap for hours and never would hiss. How can I get her back to her old self or some resemblance of her old self? Any tips on how to do this?

LoneGreyWolf20

Can anyone help me out?

Hello. I'm not sure if she will ever tame down to the point that you can just reach in and pick her up again, but she can mellow out. What you said you are doing, holding her by her head is, in my experience, a good thing. It will stress her out a little, but eventually she will get use to being held, and eventually you can ease up off her head. You don't want to hold her everyday. Twice or three times weekly is enough. If you take her out everyday she could become way stressed out, and possibly become even more aggressive. Keep her well fed too. Even though she is an adult, you may want to feed her once weekly for a little while just to make her comfortable. Are you feeding her in her cage? If you are you should really try feeding her in something else, that way she learns that just because you are going in the cage doesn't mean that she is getting fed. Take baby steps though, when you change her water pet her a little, to get her use to being touched. And don't be deterred if she does tag you it happens to all of us. I have a macklot python who was super dog tame, then I got some really mean and really big tegus, and I focused more on handeling them then her. As a result, a few months later when the tegus had calmed down, I reached in to pick her up and she had my whole arm totally coiled in a second. And these are the things that I did for her to mellow out and they seem to work pretty good. Hope this helps!
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Alone, alone, all, all alone. Alone on a wide, wide sea.
-Rime of the ancient Mariner

Get a snake hook so you can take her out without locking down on her head. If it the only way to control her it will stress her out and she might go off feed. use a snake hook to keep her head out of biting reach until she gets use to handling again. Do feed her in a seperate container to help reduce the feeding response she has. Try not to have any quick movements or loud noise around her ( kids and other pets) . Try to make her feel safe and secure. If she doesn't have a hide in her cage put one in there. Hope this help Paul

Good advice from the others. Gentle, consistent handling along with using a snake hook to get the boa out may work wonders. In my opinion I recommend feeding inside the cage. I have 42 constrictors including BCI, Locale BCC, carpets, bloods, and the big ones: burms, retics, afrocks, and a green anaconda. All of them are fed in the cage and I rarely get bit-they all handle easy. Years back I got bit often when moving a snake back into its cage after it ate-the feeding response is there hours after it eats. The only virtue of feeding outside the cage is preventing substrate injestion if you use loose substrate. Moving a snake after eating is stressful on the animal and dangerous for the keeper. What feeding outside the cage does is tell the snake it may eat when ever it is taken out for handling. I would sooner deal with a snake that thinks it may be about to be fed contained in its cage rather than outside and uncontained.

If you feed inside the cage touch the snake with a hook every time the cage is opened except at feeding time-the snake should never see a hook during the feeding process. Soon a touch of the hook will cancel the feeding response and and you won't have a problem getting the snake out. I wish you the best. Bill
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...three years ago it was just another snake cult...
The Retic is King.
Anacondas-the other Dark Side.
Afrocks-the dark side of the Dark Side.

You have received some good advise the most important things is to feed in a separate container and to get a snake hook to remove her from her cage.
Good luck