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KnightMiner

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Welp, my dad and I definitely need to do some work with his Darwin.

Came home to find the thermostat beeping at me for the second time in two days, so opened to take a look and found it was under her kriter krumble - reached in, not thinking about it, to move it out in the open again and she tagged me from her shelf...

Not completely sure if it was a defence bite or a food bite that didn't latch on cause my hand moved when she hit it. But we've definitely got to get her to calm down a bit about people reaching, pry made a few mistakes in terms that she usually sees movement, the door opening and such as feeding time - also think maybe she's feeling hungry despite getting two adult rats at a time these days (she's about 5 years old, around 2.7 metres).

Sorta already feel like part of what needs doing is working to break the association she has with those things mentioned above being related near solely to food. She's also somewhat cage defensive since most bites we've coped have been the 'mouth wide open, hit, retract' type.

Any tips would be gratefully received.
 
My 14 month old Diamond has never tagged me but at one point she became very eager about food. She could smell it even before I opened her enclosure and started coiling and striking at my movements, even though I was on the other side of the glass.
So I stopped offering her food. I started hiding mice in toilet roll tubes and dropping the tubes around her enclosure, forcing her to search for her food instead of serving it to her.
After a few feeds, it broke the association between my hand = food.

I’m her case, this behaviour happened only when she smelled the food, but I wanted to nip that behaviour in the bud before it escalated.
 
Said Darwin, looking rather hungry I think
My 14 month old Diamond has never tagged me but at one point she became very eager about food. She could smell it even before I opened her enclosure and started coiling and striking at my movements, even though I was on the other side of the glass.
So I stopped offering her food. I started hiding mice in toilet roll tubes and dropping the tubes around her enclosure, forcing her to search for her food instead of serving it to her.
After a few feeds, it broke the association between my hand = food.

I’m her case, this behaviour happened only when she smelled the food, but I wanted to nip that behaviour in the bud before it escalated.
We tend to offer Sadie hers on the end of one of those 'claw grabbers', think though she's still got an association with the door opening overall.
 
She is still associating hand with the food, even with the claw in between. I either toss in the mouse hidden in the tube, or chuck a rat into a plastic tub for my Bredli, so by the time the smell reaches them, I’m out of the picture already.
 
She is still associating hand with the food, even with the claw in between. I either toss in the mouse hidden in the tube, or chuck a rat into a plastic tub for my Bredli, so by the time the smell reaches them, I’m out of the picture already.
Okay, might explain why I've been able to get her out a couple of times when my hand's been covered by a towel or gloves.
 
You might find that if she is in her Hide, you can get her out easily not bites and no fuss. If she is out and about she could be hungry and tag you to see if your food, it is a quick tag. What I do with my MD is find a spot of his back and give him a gentle pat away from his head, he then knows it is me and doesn't bite. He is a very enthusiastic feeder and will come out at me with Mouth fully open so I figured out that I had to let him know somehow that I am not food and a Rat is food. He responds to touch, so he gets lots of pats when he is out. It took a while but he now knows and I had to train my wife how to recognise his moods and what to do. A lot of others like to feed their Pythons in a feed tub because of bites but I never handel them the day of their feed. I hope some of this helps you
 
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