Does anyone have any advice for how to get my 7 year old Ball Python Chester more used to me handling him? I got him late the night before last. He bit me yesterday before I was able to feed him, I fed him a small rat, and I was gonna give him a few more days (say Monday) to digest before I tried to handle him again. My friend I got him from said he is a complete sweetheart and its unlike him to bite, he was probably just really hungry. :/ I don't have any problems with my corn but ball pythons are a new thing for me.
never mind. i am happy to report we worked out our differences and are okay partially thanks to Cammy's guide to ball pythons.
**update After doing some more background on Chester I learned the kid got him from actually was not taking good care of him at all. not feeding him nearly as often as he should have and did not handle him very frequently. Chester has started warming up to me. He allows me to hold him, but i can tell he is still (untrusting?). He also started striking again at about 2 weeks after he was fed. I'm thinking about every two weeks i will give him a rat.. does anyone have any suggestions or things i should watch out for? I feel bad for my little guy and i wanna make sure he is totally happy now
Oh, well that stinks that he wasn't being taken care of, but at least you know why he is how is he is and can hopefully make him learn that he doesn't have to strike out to get food. Have you thought about offering him smaller food items more often? I only suggest that since he seems to be getting ornery when he's hungry... Or maybe something like a rat every 2 weeks or so, or a rat one week and a mouse the next, then a rat again - so on and so forth....
so far a small/medium rat every two weeks seems to be working well. He has definitely gained bulk and when i take him out between feedings he resists going back in his tank and likes to slither back up my arm (aww :] ). he seems to be getting progressively less ornery when he's hungry. I'm guessing/hoping getting him some time to explore and letting him learn on his own that i will feed him regularly is the best i can do. maybe youre right, a mouse snack in between rats is a good idea. thanks! i wonder if hes gonna get bigger too since i believe he is on the smaller side.
