Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey i got a baby albino granite burm from steel city constrictor sand she is awesome and great colors, she is about 5 or 6 moths old and went from 1.5ft as around as a hotdog to 4 to 4.5 ft and eating medium rats already . but i was sending this to fing out are all baby burms mean when babies. she hisses like crazy trying to get her out of the cage and poops all over her cage most of the time never really strikes but has an attitude. I have a bigger burm 9ft normal and he is the sweetest thing ever. but got him big so how do i get her tamed down, i hold her just about every day after 30 mins of holding her she'll mellow out a little. plz help thanks corey

I also have Albino Granites, they are beautiful especially when they are young, her orange will eventually fade to all yellow as she gets older.

Keep on doing what your doing is my advice. Taking her out often and having good experiences with you holding her should tame her down. Some are cage aggressive even into their adulthood. Babies do tend to be abit more hostile. I find that as the snake gets larger it feels more comfortable with everything. And sometimes you will find a snake that is just Pissy.

I have an extremely cage aggressive 15ft normal female that moves on you as soon as you open the enclosure. Once she is out of her cage she is a big baby though.

I use a sheet for her or a towel for my smaller burms, to cover their heads before I start to take them out. I do this to let them know its time to come out and not feeding time. It a bit of a "sissy" move but it works. And it helps me not get bit. A bite is always a bad experience for the snakes. And in my experience its been my fault everytime. I dont even get freaked out by it anymore, i'm just like "A [bleep] I got blood on the carpet thats guna be fun to get out"

Good luck with your pissy burm, I think she will come around once she is about 6ft which shouldnt be that far off. I use lemon juice mixed with vodka in a spray bottle, to get them to release the bite. Always let the snake let go of you and back her teeth out try not to be pulling back because she will need to move her jaws forward to release her backwards angled teeth.

Never ever Pull the snakes head away/off of your hand/arm which will probably be the part she bites. It will pull her teeth off and leave them in your skin. And that will also make the wound alot worse.

You probably already know alot of these fun facts but i thought i would share anyway. Again good luck with her.

Sweet Thanks Mike yeah thats what im thinking with in time she will calm down wehn shes alittle bigger many people have mentioned that to me as well. I had a 16 ft burm a big girl bite me one time cause the guys who had her didnt tell me she had been fed that day so she got pissed and latched down ha. i made sure not to pul her off but we did unwrap her from me pretty quick though=)

Corey,
My first suggestion is to double, triple, check the cage temperatures. High temps can cause that type of behavior. I'm not claiming that this is your problem, but it's quick & easy to rule out and therefore a good starting point. You should also consider reducing the amount of food you're feeding her in order to keep her within a manageable size for the time being.

The problem you're having stems from her lack of trust in you, period. Poop slingin' hissy fits are one of their defense mechanisms. She sees you as a threat to her life. You can't force a reptile to trust you, no matter how hard you try. You have to earn their trust.

Could be something in her cage setup, something about the way you remove her from her cage, handle her. Ninety-nine percent of the time it's one of these instead of the snake's individual personality.

How long have you had her and has she been this way from day one?

Have you tried hook training her?

Is she getting spooked from whatever movements it takes to open her cage?

Personally, I believe you're handling her too often & for too long each time. I wouldn't even handle my calmest snake every day for 30 minutes at a time. I don't mean that stern towards you, as if I'm getting onto you. It's about the same as the Jolly Green Giant ripping off the roof of my house every day so he could handle me whenever he wants.

Not to insult your intelligence or experience, by any means, but to make sure that everyone reading this understands - handling or holding a snake doesn't mean to physically restrain it. Even most calm snakes don't like to be restrained, to be held behind their head or to be tightly gripped anywhere within their body to the point that restricts their ability to move about freely. Also, no sudden movements around her, in & out of her cage. Especially not towards her head from the front, top or side.

Support the majority of her body with your hands & arms and let her crawl through your fingers/hands. As she crawls out of one hand keep it below her belly and slowly place it in front of your other hand. Fairly slow & steady movements.

Five to ten minutes for the first several handling sessions - done about every 3 days. Generally, if they calm down after a few minutes of handling, to the point that I know they're beginning to trust me holding them, I'll go ahead and put them up within a minute or two of them calming down. You don't want to hold them for so long that they begin to get anxious again.

If you're currently using a hide in her cage get rid of it. None of my Burms have ever seen a hide. If the cage is in a very low-traffic area I suggest moving it to a slightly higher traffic area. Not Grand Central Station, but some place that has a bit of traffic so the snake's not sitting in complete solitude all the time.

Being housed with other snakes can cause this type of behavior sometimes. There are kaboodles of other possibilites that could cause her to act that way.

Hang in there!
HH
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Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

www.natures-signature.com

HappyHillbilly thanks for the info yeah she has been like this since i got her at the expo the breeder said some of the same things that yo just said. im thinking its because shes still a little smaller and that i just need to give it time im more of a monitor person but i love ablino granite burms. Also her cage is maybe a tiny bit war so ill check that out and as soon as she is out of her cage she calms down tremendously, might hiss a bit but i can deal. So i guess i need to try different tactics and give it some more time thanks for your info=)

"...are all baby burms mean when babies"

"...im thinking its because shes still a little smaller and that i just need to give it time..."

"...im more of a monitor person ..."

From a snake person that understands & keeps monitors, too, "monitor-taming (not a good choice of words)" rules do not apply to snakes in general. Especially not Burms. Burmese Pythons are also referred to as "Gentle Giants". There's not a specific timeframe that Burmese Pythons will be aggressive/defensive within. It's very possible to have one pretty much calmed down at two - three days old.

Out of several clutches over the last few years, my personal experience has been pretty much as follows:
Fresh out of the egg, about 95% of Burmese Pythons are striking machines. With just a few minutes of handling, a couple of times per week, about 90 - 95% of them cease striking.

They'll all hiss at one time or another, but mostly it's not a defensive hiss. Burms will hiss when they're unsure of their surroundings. It doesn't always mean that they're about to strike. In fact, most strikes come without a hiss (warning). There's a noticeable difference between a "I'm not too sure about this" hiss and a "I do NOT like this".

Anyway, once in awhile a known-docile snake's disposition changes from one owner to the next. I sold a hatchling a few years ago that had never struck at me within the 3 - 4 months that I had it. A few weeks later the new owner asked for taming tips because it was striking left & right. The problem was within its setup (temps, sense of security, etc...).

Typically, it can take a few weeks for a new animal to adjust to its new environment. You're well past that two weeks and the behavior you're describing isn't typical Burmese Python behavior. Keep searching, checking the temps, etc... You'll get it figured out. And let us know when you do, and what you did. You never know how it may help someone else later down the road.

Hang in there!
HH
-----
Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

www.natures-signature.com

I have a theory (unproven of course) that some of the snakes that are selectively bred for genetic mutations, with many of those characteristics, may also carry a vision defect (as in the one-eyed boa myopic defect). They may be seeing their keeper as larger than life and real scary. There could be a magnification or some other visual distortion.

Or they just may have acquired a distantly recessive personality gene that exhibits itself as a hair trigger, extremely defensive and extremely aggressive towards humans.
For example, something found in most wild Blood Pythons, as they are so often hunted for the skin trade. Makes sense that the meanest ones with the hair trigger would be most likely to survive in that environment.

Just my thoughts.

jsc
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"As hard as I've tried, just can't NOT do this"
John Crickmer

I also believe that any snake has the potential to remember a traumatic event for a very long time, perhaps for life, same as the Parrots.

The meanest snake (boa) I have went through a traumatic experience early on with regurge and mites. Blames me and has never forgiven me. Also have another boa that regurged a rat once and will no longer eat rats, just mice.

It is a Stimulus Response thing. Non-intentional Operant Conditioning. Behavior modification on the subconscious level.

Something may have occurred before you owned the snake.

Just another theory.

jsc
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"As hard as I've tried, just can't NOT do this"
John Crickmer

Hey, John!
That's funny that you mention that.
I have an albino boa that I got as a baby.
She was fine too until she had an episode with regurging. I got her through it, but she has hated me ever since. She's now about 20 pounds and it's not so cute anymore.
I have always felt that she blames me, too.
Too funny!
Aaron
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www.voodoomagicboas.com