Adult boa extremely defensive

Need some help. I have a BIG adult boa that won't let me go near her. I've dealt with defensive snakes before and have had no issue calming them down but never a snake this size. Getting bit is no big deal, but when the snake's head is the size of your hand and hits like a truck...you get the idea.

I'm really unsure as far as what to do. I managed to pick her up and inspect her (with much effort, she's super heavy and wouldn't stop striking) and there are no injuries at all. Since she's spent a ton of time hissing at me I can clearly see inside of her mouth and it's immaculate. As far as I can tell this is a perfectly healthy snake that just wasn't handled regularly. Her temps are perfect (82 ambient, 90 hot), cage is perfectly clean, always had fresh water, been eating without any issues, so I'm certain it's not a husbandry thing.

The question is how to deal with it. With smaller snakes it's easy to say "go about business like normal, let them bite you so they know it doesn't work", but she tagged me the other day and I had to take a break from cleaning for a while. I've never dealt with a snake this big that was this defensive. ANY advice would be greatly appreciated.

Is she any calmer after feeding? I know that the conventional wisdom is not to handle while they are digesting, but I have a jumpy female who is a lot easier to handle when she's not hungry....

And gloves.... thick gloves

(Or maybe even a large snake hook and bin as though she was a hot - it's possible she will never allow handling and you'll just have to settle for moving her without harm).

Once she is in hand, does she continue to be defensive or does she start trying to get away?

You can start hook training. I'd suggest using a shield when you need to pull her out to avoid the extra stress to both of you trying to get in there with her striking all over.

She may get over it in time or she may not, as Helen says, sometimes that's just how they are.

Originally Posted by Helenthereef

it's possible she will never allow handling and you'll just have to settle for moving her without harm.

^This is what I'm sincerely hoping isn't the case but I know it's a possibility.

Learned about gloves the hard way, with her I throw on thick leather gloves, leather armguards, and a facemask. Last time I kind of picked her up she bit my thigh about an inch from my "tenders", so thick pants now as well lol.

She seems about the same after eating. I'm going to try giving her something bigger this weekend, idk. Even if I don't mess with her, if I open the cage she turns on the vacuum cleaner hiss.

I'm going to keep working with her and just keep my fingers crossed that she'll get used to me and calm down. Just never had to work with a defensive snake that I genuinely thought could hurt me so it makes me nervous.

To anyone reading this, this is exactly the reason why you handle your snakes when they're babies. Very frustrating situation.

Originally Posted by AbsoluteApril

Once she is in hand, does she continue to be defensive or does she start trying to get away?

You can start hook training. I'd suggest using a shield when you need to pull her out to avoid the extra stress to both of you trying to get in there with her striking all over.

Once she starts striking she keeps going until I close the tub, then she strikes at the tub. By far the most defensive snake I've ever seen. I've been using a shield when I need to clean and water and it definitely helps me. Having her out of the tub makes no difference, last time I managed to get her out into my arms she twisted every way she could to try to get an angle on me to bite. She was striking so much that she was biting herself just to try to get me. No idea how to proceed with this other than not handle her, which to me is not really an option.

And really, she's too big for me to handle on my own once she's out. If she were perfectly calm it would be ok, but there's no way I can control her while she's striking. Unfortunately I don't have the help so I'm kind of stuck.

I presume this is one of your recent "large lot" pick ups mentioned in another thread? Maybe you do have to give her a quiet month or so to settle in before you try handling?

Originally Posted by Helenthereef

I presume this is one of your recent "large lot" pick ups mentioned in another thread? Maybe you do have to give her a quiet month or so to settle in before you try handling?

Correct to some extent. I acquired a large amount of snakes including this one but they're all snakes I've been working with for the last 6 months and only recently took on as my own. Kind of an odd situation, but they're all still in the same enclosures that they were so it's not as if they've moved and are stressed out. They've been in the same place for the last 2 years so that's definitely not the issue.

So did she behave like this when you were working with her before you moved her?

Edit - sorry, I thought you had moved her enclosure to a new location, now re reading your last post I presume they are in exactly the same place as they have been for the past 2 years. But still - has she been like this the entire time you have known her?

Yea I took on the whole facility, so literally nothing has changed. The problem is that my involvement previously only consisted of helping with breeding plans, sexing, ID'ing morphs (the ones I knew anyway), examining for any health issues...only now am I doing the full spectrum since they're mine so I can't say for sure how she's been in that regard. He told me that he never had a problem with her, but it might just be that he wasn't trying to handle her? I really don't know to be perfectly honest.