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Defensive 1 year old......

B

Bethstang

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I have a 1 year old male hypo boa that I've had since he was a few months old. He is very defensive and squirrelly when I handle him. Also he's unpredictable in his behavior, one day he's ok, today he tags me a few times. My question is if this is due to him still being a youngster or is he going to be a boa that needs consistent handling. As a side note, I don't handle any of my snakes on a daily basis, do I need to do this with him to get him past this issue? 2 months ago I handled him every day except the day before and 2 days after feeding, I did this for 3 weeks and I felt like we made progress and then I went 2 weeks without and we were right back to square one. Help!!
Thanks so much
Beth
 
Beth, the things that are key to taming a snake are age and regular, gentle handling. If you go too light on the second, especially with a snake that is not thrilled with the idea of being handled to start, you may have problems. I'd try the daily or every other day routine again for a while and see if it helps. That said, some snakes just never warm to the idea. Good luck!
 
He will probably need a brief handling session every day except for just before feeding and for a few days after so he can digest. With my defensive babies the session is just a few minutes or even a few seconds since I put them back immediately when they behave, as that way they don't associate defensive behavior with going back into their home.

I reserve the longer handling sessions for when they are older and have settled down.
 
I have two BCL. Both of them have a extreme feeding response. They will strike at anything, they will hit it hard and destroy it.

The problem? Convincing them I am not food.

If I handle them 48 hours after they feed, they are pretty good shape, handle them 1 or 2 days before they are to be fed, they are not.

You might have a heavy feed response snake. It bites because it wants food.

I trained mine with a snake hook. When I enter the cage, I first give them time to adjust to the change, if I feed them, I do it right away.

If I want to handle them, I take a snake hook and genitally pet them.

Only use the snake hook when you want to pick them up. Only feed them when you want to feed them.

After a while, they will learn, snake hook, no food.

It has worked for me.
 
Good point on the snake hook, I have a male SD retic that tends to hit first and ask questions later. The hook always goes into his enclosure first if he's not getting fed. Once he's in-hand though he's fine to handle.
 
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