Please Help! V Aggressive Jungle

[medlock86]

Hello all,

I bought a 12month old female jungle last night. She's originally from scales and tails, solid black with pale yellow (getting brighter every shed apparently) Having 2 very placid Bredli's I'm not used to bites lol. Since last night shes bitten me 4/5 times and drew blood. The previous 2 owners both got her out of her enclosure with gardening gloves, handled her for 5 mins in them, then took the gloves off (still getting bitten sometimes).

I want her to get out of the glove habit and also want her to calm down a bit. I know they can be naturally aggressive but is it too late to stop her biting??? Any help much appreciated!!!!

If i can't settle her down in a few months she's unfortunately going to have to go!

P.S when I was holding her at the guys house last night, his little daughter walked bye and she went for a bite to her HEAD! It even went for the dog 2m away! Help please.

Daniel

[leighr33]

thats a jungle for you..

my question is you obviously new it was so aggressive why not go for a tamer one? not knocking your choice or anything
perhaps you will just have to keep trying and ignore the bites until she eventually stops... if she does

[leighr33]

my jungle is the same, bites flat out hell it even bites itself

[medlock86]

I Fell In Love With Her Colours. I Thought I Could Be A Hero And Calm Her Down Eventually. I Might Just Let Her Settle In Her New Home For A Week And Try Again???

[Tatelina]

Definetly let her settle in first! Poor thing is probably not used to her new surroundings yet.

[leighr33]

sounds the idea, give her some time to settle

[turtle]

Dont touch her for 2 weeks..

[PilbaraPythons]

Some jungles never get used to handling and can be defensive all thier captive life.
Generally speaking though, most pythons tend to get better the more regularly you handle them.
Having said that however, over handling can have the reverse effect i.e. stressed out aggressive snake.

[Matty01]

youve got it for a minimum of 6 months as you need to keep it this long before you can sell it.
i highly doubt NPWS will let you sell it early just because it bites.
cheers Matt

[medlock86]

Ok I'll Try That And See How I Go. Gotta Be Brave And Put My Fist In Without The Glove I A Couple Of Weeks.

I Know The Bites Don't Hurt Its Just Natural Human Instinct Not To Be Bitten!

Thanks All

[Julie-anne]

Let her settle in for awhile and then try getting her out with a snake hook (or wire coat hanger bent into hook shape), this is a lot less threatening to them. Or even just leave the door to the enclosure open (with you there, of course) and see if she will come out herself.
She may get better with regular handling, if not just dont handle her. You can still admire her colours from afar. It would be a shame to have to get rid of her so soon.

[Jones of the Jungle]

Hello again. (we were the couple there last night looking at her, the ones handling her without gloves!)
So you ended up buying her did you? We were just talking about her today, and how one day she'll make a nice little Jungle.
Ok some tips, well looking at his set up last night I can tell you that the all glass aquarium was a big mistake, she would of felt very vunerable. Also neither of us can remember seeing a hide cave. Also we noticed when he did handle her, all he would do is sit with her on his hand, so technically she wasn't really being "handled" just having a perch to sit on.

I'll give you the run down on my Jungle's set up. At the moment I have 3 in the one enclosure, because while they're small, I'm keeping running costs down, they have heaps of branches and vines, as Jungles are an aboreal python. They also have 2 hide caves, 1 large and a smaller one, but most of the time they all share the larger one. The enclosure is made out of MDF, and has glass front sliding doors, this particular enclosure is on legs so the dogs and cats running past it constantly doesn't bother the snakes.

When you handle her be sure to always have her moving, you know the hand over hand method. When I was taming my Jungles, both were yearlings and jumpy as hell, I always tried to keep them on the go, that way they weren't fixtuated on the one thing. Also when they went up into the S shape I used slowly bring my free hand from underneath and behind them, and put it within the bends of the S, and slowly try to move them out of that position. Other times I used to face them directly in front of a wall where there is no movement, and they'd slowly relax a keep exploring.

And when getting her out of the enclosure try holding a bit of paper in front of her so she can't see your hand coming to get her, I say paper cos it wont hurt her if she decides to strike it. I still use this method with one of my females every now and then when she's having a moody day, and it works a treat.

Don't think about getting rid of her just yet, give some time to settle in. being out of that house full of animals and children running around will probably do her a world of good!

Here's a pic of my Proserpine's enclosure, the Jungles have the same enclosure just different decor.

[medlock86]

Thanks "jones of the jungle".

yeah i agree about the enclosure. I've put her in a smaller enclosure now. It is still a glass one but has a background on 3 of the sides so there's more privacy and lots more hides and branches.

I'll give the coat hanger and paper method a go. I do believe after a while she will become a nice snake after all. Just lots of time and dedication!

Sorry what were your names again?

I'll keep you posted on how i go with her. thanks again!!!

[Matty01]

nice enclosure jones of the jungle, BUT, you should have your branches, running across the tank left to right, all morelias love to sit coiled up off the ground, mine sit in a tight ball on there favourite branch.
cheers Matt

[Oxyuranus microlepid]

Originally Posted by PilbaraPythons

Some jungles never get used to handling and can be defensive all thier captive life.
Generally speaking though, most pythons tend to get better the more regularly you handle them.
Having said that however, over handling can have the reverse effect i.e. stressed out aggressive snake.

^^^^

also, correct me if im wrong, but there is a product called bitter apple, it tastes TERRIBLE, it is designed to stop pets biting things/hands, would this be suitable for reptiles?