snappy diamond

[Icarus]

hey guys
firstly, thanks to everyone who gave me some help on finding breeders and setting up for my new/first snake!
i bought a high yellow diamong the other day, she's beautiful (although only a few months old so not yet yellow) and i just cant stop watching her!
i've only had her for a week, fed her once (she was due for a feed) and she ate very well and quickly. the only thing is she is SNAPPY, and i mean snappy. you can't hold her for more than a few seconds without her biting, and she's biting 2 or 3 times a minute. i'm gentle with her, supporting her weight, letting her slide around in my hands but making sure she doesnt drop. what am i doing wrong?? will she grow out of this, or have i just picked a particularly angry python? it's making me avoid picking her up =(

 

[cement]

Is she jumpy when you hold her and try to launch?
You might just be holding her too tightly, they hate the feeling of being squeezed. It takes a while to learn the right pressure to make them relax.

 

[mungus]

did you tell them it was your first snake ?

 

[Darlyn]

You've only had her for a week, let her settle in.

 

[Icarus]

cement - i'm pretty sure i'm not holding her too tightly. I'm used to handling reptiles so i don't think that's the problem. thanks for the advice though =)
mungus - yeah, they knew it was my first snake and the person who sold it to me was very helpful about the whole process.
darlyn - i hope you're right and that when she's settled in she'll calm down

 

[PhilK]

Alot of people say to not even touch your snake for the first 3 weeks or so. Think of it from the snakes point of view.. it's just been moved into a scary new place with scary new sounds and smells and you're trying to grab it all the time.. I'd probably bite you too.

 

[Icarus]

PhilK - yeah, i've been doing some reading on the net tonight and that seems to be the generally thought. I think i'll leave her for another week or two and see how she goes.

 

[fabregasreptiles]

as they get older, they will seem to tolerate handling. by the time they are a year old, usually, if they have not calmed down since then, they probab;y wont get out of the habit, if they do become calm, they should always be calm

 

[MoOrelia]

LoL they are carpet !! Morelias are not colubrids.... most of them get cool with time but its normal that a young one is snappy. Eveyr feeding time (each week maxi or every 10 days) u can handle it a bit = letting her moving on your hands, arms... and little by little she might get used to like most of the Morelias.

 

[cockney red]

You got a chainsaw lol most Diamonds calm down very quickly. I got 2 little Bredli that are still chomping on me, big time, after 4 months...

 

[captive_fairy]

I'd say let it settle in a bit longer as well, but just a thought, what temps have you got for it...I found my diamonds became very agro when they were too hot...

 

[J-A-X]

head to the 'tips for newbies' thread, lots of helpful tips there

 

[tasha00]

Just a thought but have u got any odors on yr hands, i use a product called repti-hand, it stinks to high heaven but the reasoning is that it eliminates all odors from yr hands ?

 

[pythrulz]

Some snakes take a month to settle into there new home if its overly snappy just leave it alone and when you do handle keep to about 2 minutes slowly increas handle time that will allow your new pet to be comfortable with you

 

[Snakelove]

Some snakes take a month to settle into there new home if its overly snappy just leave it alone and when you do handle keep to about 2 minutes slowly increas handle time that will allow your new pet to be comfortable with you

lol but some never settle down.

 

[Icarus]

update: she handles beautifully now! it seems like she just needed to grow out of it. thanks for all your helps! xx

 

[JimWetherall]

Congrats on calming her down, got any pics?

 

[Icarus]

first photo is her in her water bowl (during the heat wave we just had in newcastle!) and the second one is me holding her out in the sun

 

[JimWetherall]

Very pretty, Diamonds are definitely on my wish list!

 

[SYNeR]

update: she handles beautifully now! it seems like she just needed to grow out of it. thanks for all your helps! xx

I know the feeling. My Jungle was completely evil the first week or two I had her. I think I was bitten around 40-50 times.
She settled down quickly, though.