I have reptiles and I have a 4 year old child. My son knows to ask to touch the snake when I have him out. He was not allowed to come near him for until Fat Albert was acclimated to his new home with us. I made sure I could handle him first and that the snake trusted me. There are other times when my son has to accept that he needs to leave Fat Albert alone, upsizing the cage for example. I always supervise interaction between kids and reptiles, including simply looking in the terrarium, which for the ball is in my room. These are skittish animals that are named after their defensive action. They are meant to be your pet, not your kid's. There are other species of critters that are not as gun-shy of the fast movement and energy kids naturally poses. I am lucky my ball python is very friendly and curious, but I do take the time to be patient with him. I leave him alone when he seems to just want to hide out. And I definately limit what my son is allowed to do with him. When Fatso wants to slither up to him thats fine, but my son is instructed to hold still and just let him crawl. He is not to grab him, giggle and shake, ect or his time is done.
does the noise of the fan have anything to do with it?? or the smell of our airfreshener (glade small places) just wondering!! let me know
The noise wouldn't have anything to do with it, but is it a ceiling fan or a box type fan that sits on the floor? If you have one of those, and it's too close to his cage, then it may be vibrating his cage. Imagine how nervous you would be, if you got uprooted from your home, switched to a different place, with people reaching in to grab you all the time, people running around outside your window, and your entire home vibrating all the time. I'm not trying to be catty, just trying to get inside the situation. I would first of all, take the heat rock entirely out of the cage. They are dangerous both for the snake and for you as they tend to get electrical shorts and can start fires. Second, put the cage somewhere where there isn't a lot of activity and leave the snake totally alone for at least a week. Trying to handle the snake too soon after he has eaten will definitely earn you a bite. My snakes are all very sweet, but if I were to reach my hand into their cage right after they had eaten I would most likely get bitten. They are still in what I call "prey mode" which is basically when anything that is warm and moving is considered prey. Including your hand. Leave the snake alone for at least a couple of days after they have eaten, both to avoid bites and to let them digest their meal. How do you have the cage set up? Is there a place both on the warm side and cool side where the snake can hide? What kind of light are you using and how high is the wattage? How big is the cage? What kind of bedding are you using? Do you have any other pets that the snake might consider food, such as mice, rats, hamsters, ect.? Your snake is not mentally unstable, I promise. Something is causing this behavior. At worst he has just been neglected and is not used to being handled. Try and answer my questions if you can. I'd like to help you.
The cage is about the length of a love seat, and about as tall as 3 feet. there is not a warm side and a cool side. The heat rock is all the way to the right and next to that is his water dish (big bowl he can crawl in) then beside that there is his hiding rock and he is in there 24/7 and on the other side of that is his rubbing branch (real we think) his bedding is different, its like little pellots of bedding... the light on top of his cage is like a long light with a switch, it doesnt give out that much heat, we set it on top of the cage, he really likes it. the heat rock has been off for about a week now and the kids left the house on friday so he has had some alone time with no visiters in there to bother him, we have him in the bedroom so most of the time it is only him in there, and the fan is on the other side of the room on top of a footstool.. but its high powered and on the same side as his cage. hope this answers all your questions, if not let me know.... Tony
Well the first thing I would do is to get him a undertank heater. The heat rock is off (as it needs to be) and it sounds like the light you have is just a flourescent, which gives no heat to him and is pretty much just lighting up the cage. Ball pythons are noctornal animals. Having his cage lit up all the time may be stressing him as well. He needs what is called a heat gradient which is having one side of the cage cool and one side warm so that he can go back and forth as he needs to. Place the undertank heater on one side of the cage and leave the other side unheated. Put a hide on both ends so that he can have a secure place to warm up and to cool off. Be sure not to put the water bowl on top of the undertank heater. The bedding is probably aspen pellets, which I personally don't care for as they hold no humidity and it tends to grow mold if it gets wet. Get him some cypress bedding (you can buy it at a garden supply place but be sure to freeze or bake it to rid it of any parasites) or some forest bedding (comes in a block and you soak it in water) so that he can get a bit of humidity. The cage is probably too dry for him. Definitely fix the heating problem and get him some new bedding ASAP. Once his needs are being met he may calm down a bit, but even if he doesn't he still needs to be housed properly. Let me know if you have any questions.
Can you send a picture of your BP? One question are you sure it is a BP? spix14 has some really good suggestions. I would add that when you make changes to the enclosure to give a couple days rest for acculmation. Also do you have a snake hook? I am also sort of new to Ball Pythons. And have been causious with dealing with them. Only once or twice when opening up her hide box has she acted striky. I must have startled her. so I got out a smooth type hook and gently pulled her towards me. Then picked her up. sort of like a notice of intent. Good luck figureing out your problem. This group only wants the best for you and your snake.
yea with the hole biting rienforcing its also like other lizards if they do something and you pout them back they wanna keep doing it, but also im thinking of getting a bp or a corn so this is a good post for me to read so i have more infor befor i decide if i really want to get one..... i use both a uth and heat lamp for my leos which i know arnt a snake at all but like snakes leos like to have some belly heat
Dont have a ball or anything, but been readin on this post and I have heard from several people that feeding them in a separate cages helps control striking and biting, especially if feeding frozen. That way the ball dont think food everytime your hand goes in the tank! Hope this helps and is correct info, let me know if im wrong?
Your wrong, I thought that at 1 point too but you grow and learn. If a snake was to associate food with everytime you opened the cage then it shows that you never clean it, or handle it otherwise it would associate that just as much.
I agree with both of you. Feeding in a seperate container is a waste of time. All of my snakes are fed in their cages, and not one of them shows a feeding responce when my hand goes in, for routine maintinence. Most of them come over to check me out and smell my hand, but they never make an agressive move. My Mexican Black King has such a strong feeding responce, that once she smells food, or has eaten, she goes psycho and will strike at anything that moves. If I fed her in a seperate container, I would have to wait for over an hour before I could get her back in her cage. Ok back to the original topic. It is possible that you just have an agressive snake. Some snakes never stop biting no matter what you do. Be patient, but you might have to accept the fact that your ball will be a display animal only.
sorry for goin off topic, but thanks for the advice, now that i think of it, sounds right that feeding in a separate container really doesn't help thanks guy and gals
Are you sure this snake is a Ball Python? I ask because you did state you are new to BP's It was given to you. And I have seen in other posts in the past where the snake in question turned out not to be a BP. By the way. I feed my snake in her enclosure. But inside the enclosure is hides. And she normally strikes and eats (FT) in the hides. I am causious when opening up a hide to handle her. But I call that common sense. I do not stick my fingers in the openings. I make sure my hands are clean and do not smell of food/rats. You know common sense. LOL
she (he) is definitly a ball python, and its very pretty and has since doubled in size since we have had it. We are going into town on thursday to buy some different things for the tank. we are going to switch to the hot cool thing you put under the tank and change the bedding. The snake is now eating two mice a week, and has calmed down a lot, it comes out at night and plays in the cage and hides during the day. we moved the fan and have been keeping the children out of our bedroom. not much handling going on, but using snake hook to get him in and out once in awhile, we let him play in the bath tub the other night while we cleaned the tank and he seemed to chill out a lot. not sure what the problem was, but he is alot better now. also, should we wash him if the mice pee on him?? the other day was the first time one of them actually started peeing and it was all over the snake!!
Good to hear that your ball is calming down. Sometimes it just takes a while for a snake to get used to a big change like changing owners. It's also nice to hear that it's eating well. Just keep on this track (especially changing the set-up) and it will get better. And on a note to artpac2004-just like Tux & the others have said, it is not necessary to feed in a seperate enclosure. It really boils down to your preference. I only have 4 snakes, so I see how it could be a big ordeal for someone with many more snakes to feed in a seperate enclosure. I personally do feed in a seperate enclosure, though. My snakes are still fairly young, so I am very particular in monitoring how much they eat, what days, and how long it takes them to recongnize and complete the meal. (I know I sound crazy, but I swear that I'm not.) After my corn bit and pulled a pinkie inside one of his hides and I found it the next morning because he hadn't eaten it, I thought it would be easier for me to do a seperate enclosure. Only my kings are really aggressive eaters, so this was my preference. I also have them on aspen, and I'm terribly paranoid about them accidentaly eating it. Now, as they get older, I may very well switch over to feeding them in their enclosures. So, do whatever you find easier.
two mice a week that may be one paet of the problem, mice are too small for balls. Our baby ball start right off with rat pups, one week after leaving the egg. One food item mice/rats/whatever must be equal in girth to the fattest part of the ball python body. In an earler post you said that the snake was mental and was striking at every thing. If you notice every thing that it was biting was warm. Pythons have heat decting pits on there lips, and they are not very smart. When a python is really hungry I have seen one bite at anything warm, untill its fed and content. sounds liek normal ball python behavior to me! Yes that would be a good idea to give it a bath after getting peed on.
thanks, im not sure what the heck was with the last mouse that peed all over, but it friggen stunk up the tank after we cleaned it and the snake and the tank got cleaned again, it might have been the pellets that smelled so bad mixed with the pee. now that we have everything changed he is acting a bit wierd again, but we think he is getting used to his new things, he is drinking a lot of water, and where we live they dont sell rats, only feeder mice...and we dont do the whole order online thing. he seems to like the feeder mice though, he eats them with no problem... and that is what the people before us fed him. ..... he seems to be going to the top of the cage alot, like he wants to get out of it, he never did this before, and when he knows that we spotted him he either freezes (like we cant see him anymore??) or hurry up and gets down, i think that he knows what he is trying to do, The top of the cage is reinforced so he can push all he wants, but do all snakes do this, is he looking for food or does he really want out? I think that he wants in the bath again, He loved the bath tub...... couldnt get enough of it!! well this is getting long, talk to you all later and thanks for all of the help! Tony
I agree, all the above suggestions are on point. Try not to get too defensive when someone suggests giving him up, because i have also seen animals that were agressive and subsequetly ignored, then neglected. I think if you follow the advice above, he will mellow out and not strike so much if he knows you are good to him. I would also add that if he doesn't calm down in a month or so, you may neeed to take him to a reliable reptile vet and make sure he doesn't have an infection or illness that is causing him pain. Som animals can become extremely agressive when they are hurt. I hiope this is not the case for him! best of luck! ~jessi
