PYTHON TIPS! (Handling and taming)

[armadillo]

Please Help me with my python!

Hey guys,

I am very new to this site and just thought I'd post a new thread asking for handling and "taming'? as such, tips.
I have a spotted python and have had her for about two months now, when i first got her she was very good at handling, never worried about me picking her up out of her enclosure, but recently every time i go to pick her up she will strike and has bitten me. I haven't changed a thing and she has shed twice, never refused a weekly feed.

Am i feeding her too often? I feed her in a seperate tub, although i'm going to be honest her last feed i fed her in her own tub because she was waaay too hard to get out. (I know i shouldn't feed her in her tub though so she doesn't associate my hand with food)

But i'm just wondering if i should be trying any techniques to make her like me? I read somewhere if you put one of your old worn shirts in their enclosure they become familiar with your scent and become comfortable? does anyone know if this can work or is it just a myth?

Any feedback or tips or techniques or anything i'm doing wrong will be much appreciated!

Thanks!

 

[Sparky85]

How often have you been handling her? Maybe she is a little stressed due to over handling? Maybe leave her alone for a few days and try again then. Otherwise you could try getting a snake hook and picking her up with that? that way she isnt associating every time you open the cage with feeding, and mistaking your hand for food.

 

[saintanger]

how old is she and what size is the mice/ rats you feed her and how many per feed.

 

[Darlyn]

No need to remove her from her tub to feed her. Shedding twice in 2 months seems irregular, what is your feeding regime?

 

[armadillo]

How often have you been handling her? Maybe she is a little stressed due to over handling? Maybe leave her alone for a few days and try again then. Otherwise you could try getting a snake hook and picking her up with that? that way she isnt associating every time you open the cage with feeding, and mistaking your hand for food.

I don't hold her often at all since she has started snapping, but usually before that i was holding her once or twice a week, three times max. I use a snake hook to pick her up with but as soon as she comes close she will snap and as soon as she is on the hook she will reach out as far as she can trying to get me.

- - - Updated - - -

how old is she and what size is the mice/ rats you feed her and how many per feed.

She is 13 months old and i am feeding her pinkie rats, and i give her one every sunday.

- - - Updated - - -

some days it's not difficult at all to get her out of hr enclosure, some days as soon as i have opened the lid she will come straight out and stretch out as far as she can to try and reach me. I'm not sure if she is trying to bite me or if she is just curious. but as soon as she gets close enough to me or picked up my scent or whatever, she will coil back quickly.

 

[Darlyn]

Pinkie rats have little nutritional value for your snake. Up the size of your rats, stop worrying about your inability to handle her
and get her a decent feed. Monitor her sheds as well as 2 sheds in 2 months doesn't sound right.

 

[Skelhorn]

As said above, def up her food sized, my smaller specied Stimsons were on hopper rats at 8 months a 13 month spotted should be on the same.

Good luck and patients

 

[saintanger]

pinkies way to small for her age plus have very little nutritional value. definatly up the size to fuzzies. a feed should leave a nice sized bulge in their stomache. and offer her a secound one if she is hungry she will eat another, i offer another on always 5 minets after they have finished the first.


i have a 10 month old spotted, and he eats 2-3 fuzzy rats or mice depending on what i have every week.

 

[caliherp]

No need to remove her from her tub to feed her. Shedding twice in 2 months seems irregular, what is your feeding regime?

I have had snakes shed twice in one month on a proper diet of 15-20% body weight every 7-10 days. Hatchlings grow quick.
Edit: I do agree with you though, it's not all that normal.

 

[harlemrain]

Remember the 3 P's:

Patience
Patience
Patience

She may just be feeling a bit stressed and/or cranky so as mentioned above try covering her tank and leaving her alone apart from feeds for a week or two, that helped alot with my young one, she still bites and snaps but not half as much as she did before covering her.

 

[Sparky85]

Also how are you feeding her? by hand or with tongs etc? if you are feeding by hand or handling the food to much, maybe she has mistaken your scent for food? increasing food size is a good idea too. if she is hungry maybe thats why she is snappy too

 

[NTNed]

Could be too hot, I know how happy I'd be in an enclosure in the heat across most states ATM.
Hygeine, washing your hands before handling etc.

Also 2 months isn't really that long in the scheme of things, you just need to relax and keep doing what your doing, but keep doing it is the thing. If it's the same after 6 months, it maybe cause for concern.

I've got a couple of snakes, a Coastal and a Jungle that were just nasty as youngsters and they came good almost overnight, I literally put them away one night and they were all bitey, the next night they were like a totally different animal.

Also if you have "fear" when your handling them, they'll sense that and play on it, I just got a 2 yo BHP last Thursday from a family that was terrified of it, it bit me once around at their place and hasn't even looked like biting again. I can only "assume" that's because no-one at my place is scared of her, or being bitten. She's a pussy cat, open her enclosure and she climbs out onto me (or anyone else for that matter). A couple of times she's just fallen asleep in my lap, that's in less than a week.

Just MHO.