Calming an adult down?

[gargoyle]

I've got an adult pair of bloods and i've never seen snakes with tempers like this! Both eat very well and are now shedding decent (uphill struggle since I bought them). But they will strike at me at every chance, I've resorted to using a 48" python hook to move them. I was just wondering if anyone has an idea on how to calm these two down without (much) bloodshed on my end?

Thanks

DC X

[CHRISANDBOIDS14]

Im just gonna take a really wild guess that they are wild caught.(Im sure they are eh?).

One thing, are you holding them up just by the hook? Cause if so you could easily be damaging them internally.

Anyways, as far as taming them down, I'll ask you a few questions to work off of:

-What/how are you feeding them?
-Where did you get them and are they WC?
-How big are they?
-What are you caging conditions?
-Do they have mites?
-How long have you had them?
-How often did you and do you handle them?

Answer those, and hopefuly we can help you because we dont know what you are doing right now that might or might not be helping.

C.

[gargoyle]

Feeding- fresh killed rats
I've had them for about a year
I'm only directing them with the hook not full support (I know better)
Origin is unknown as they were sold to me as captive but I have my doubts on that as well.
nothing in my collections has mites for over three years now.
I haven't done any handling with them, not that I haven't tried! the male is a little better than the female I can at least touch him, the female is completely phsyco. as soon as you are within two feet of her she takes the S position and if you come closer starts striking! They are both about 4' long and eating well (one jumbo rat every week no problem) they have plenty of water and the humidity is about 60% Temp is 85-88 on the hot spot and about 80 on the cool end. They are housed in 36" long rubermaids in a rack system (hopefully going to Boaphile cages soon). Rubermaids are semi transparent. There is very little activity in the room other than taking care of the critters. hope this is enough background, if not just let me know what else you need.

[CHRISANDBOIDS14]

Great.

I would reccomend bringing the humidity up to at least 70% in there(75-85% would be better IMO, though).

I would take them out at least twice between meals, after at least 48hrs, twice, maybe a third time every other week. Just start by setting them on the ground, get them used to your hands, but I wouldnt touch their tail portion/area, as I find this can get them pretty agro. If they get annoyed and pull back into as S position, back off, let them chill for a few mins, and once they move a little again, start petting again. I would do this for 15 mins each session. Hopefully after a couple months they should start to calm down.

Everything sounds good. One thing I reccomend though, is that if you arent already, feed them in a seperate cage/tank/container. Ie: Cardboard box. I did this with three snakes, and they became conditioned to only have a feeding response while in these cages. They would never show any interest in food, but as soon as they went into these cages they would go into "feeding mode". Hopefully this will decrease their feeding response when you are going into the cage. HTH.

C.

[gargoyle]

thanks and yes I feed all my snakes in a seperate container specifically for that. I'll try the floor idea and see how that goes, I hope to post some pics of these guys next week if I can get around to taking them over the weekend...

Thanks again
DC X

[Invictus]

I have never known ANYONE who has managed to calm down a psychopathic adult blood. If they aren't calmed as babies, you're going to be dealing with agression, that's about all there is to it. I may be wrong, I'm just saying I've never known it to happen.

[CHRISANDBOIDS14]

Lol.....the only one I have had to calm down was already a year old when I started. Worth a shot aint it? But yeah, I hear of people with psycopathic bloods and dont hear about them beccoming calm. Maybe its because its kind of hard to work with them to calm them cause they are already psycopathic?;)

C.

[Invictus]

The thing I love about bloods is, (in the words of a good friend who couldn't have put it better), they are the most honest snakes in the world. There is no guesswork - if they are mean, they are mean. If they hate you, you bleed. End of freakin' story. :D It's often a matter of convincing them young that you're not going to eat/harm/annoy/kill them. :)

[gargoyle]

I totally agree, I just would like the female a little less crazy so it's easier this year to remove here after she lays. Any ideas there? Love their attitude just not in this case!

[CHRISANDBOIDS14]

Dont move the female after she lays. Soon as you notice she is gravid(well no rush, but when you do, when you get a chance) take the male out. When she lays, move here off the pile of eggs if she is on it, and just take them out. Get someone to hold her back. If the cage is too small for you to do this without getting nailed if she is on the opposit end, get a bigger cage! Lol.

Ken: I've seen you quote that before, and I agree, but I think there is still a chance he could at least calm the snake a little more.

C.

Good luck.

[Stockwell]

I think Invictus is right. I had a nuts blood with only one working pupil and yes it was wild caught. I tried for months to calm it down and thought I was gaining ground.
Then one day I had it out and with no warning signs, it stuck my wife right in the face, then chomped my arm, right into an artery which squirted blood about 3 feet. That ended my days of blood keeping, and gave new meaning to the term "blood" Python
I ended up calming my bloods down, by shipping them to the states..LOL
I still love bloods and many CB ones are dog tame.
But watch out for wild caughts.
You know we used to sex them by the sheer fact that right out of the bag males would have their purple penes hanging out while po-going across the floor like wound up springs.
Ken I'm not so sure about the honest thing.. I think they're honest like a Retic is honest..lol

[daiyoukai]

let me at it and I'll calm them down. last october I was at a show and they had a year old blood on display. I asked about seeing about 12 other animals so the blood didnt seem to far fetched to examine. I got her out and was petting her and feeling her belly and what not then her owner came by and looked at me like I was walking on water and told me that he has never been able to hold her more then to move her from one spot to the other. I just took it slow and "skooped" her up. I find pythons to not be inclinded to bite the perch in which suports them. so if you can get you hands under the snake, maybe with a hook around the neck area to keep the ehad away from your hands and gently left the belly up alil and let the bloods slither over your hands it may help build some trust. Because I have found snakes to be calmer when you are under them rather on top.

[CHRISANDBOIDS14]

Yeah, definetly true daiyoukai.

I have very little dought that any of my bloods are CB, maybe my youngest, but otherwise I believe them all to be wild caught.

They are all very calm, and I can do almost anything with them, though they were slightly agressive when first aquired and still are on occasion, they are very calm for me. One of the reasons people shy away from bloods is because of these agressive wildcaught ones. Some CB bloods are fairly agressive though.

Roy: My boy shows his hemipenes off even when he is calm. Lol, its quite funny, you will pick him up and he just lest them out.

I think they will calm with time, as Mr. Stockwell said, but they can turn on you for the slightest thing they dont like. The striped female I used to have was fairly calm, but if you did anything she didnt like, she would spaz! She came very close to nailing Sid and I several times. Some days you would just open her cage and she was ready to strike. She did calm down abit though. We took her out about once or twice a week. She was pretty lazy for the last month we had her.

IMO, it is LIKELY that you can calm an agressive adult blood down at least a litte bit. Even though they may still be an agressive animal, they could probably still be calmed a little.

Gargoyle: You have only had your snakes for a year, and havent handled them much. So I believe with regular handling, they should at least learn to trust you, they will probably still be agressive, but hopefully not as much. Good luck.

C.

[gargoyle]

Thanks for all the info and help here. I"ve been giving it a shot and was able to get one hand and the hook at the front on the male today without much problem, but the female didn't want any part of it and just kept striking. Maybe with time. Hopefully will be getting them in larger (Vision possibly) cages within the next month or so, so with the extra cage room that might make it a little easier to handle them and get them in and out easier.

Again thanks for all the help and even with the attitude, I wouldn't give up on them for anything, they are awsome looking snakes and the personallity just adds something to it. Mind you if they were capable of getting to the size of say a burm, with that, I'd be thinking twice. Anyways thanks.

[CHRISANDBOIDS14]

Lol. If they were all very agressive and got to the size of a burm..................wow! Maybe with the female, just sit there with the cage open, let her chill. She will realize that you arent hurting her and stop striking after a minute. I would sit with her like that and see how she responds. Good luck! Hope they get at least a little better!

C.

[gargoyle]

ya but that whole bitting the artery thing is now going to make me a little jumpy. I can handle a bit from other snakes I've had from hognose to bums but what are they like in comparison? And would gloves help?

[CHRISANDBOIDS14]

IMO, hands on, no gloves. For me it gives me a better feel of the snake, and less slippage. I feel I have more control and can understand the snakes movements more clearly. Also, if the snake pulls back on gloves I think the teeth are more likely to fall off than with your skin. Unless the blood is chewing, its probably going to be a bite and release, and I dont think it would hurt to much. I have had my boa bite me(gently, it was kind of funny), and his teeth are a little smaller than my bloods, and it didnt hurt very much(IMO same level of pain as a strong crested gecko bite). HTH.

C.

[malaysianbloods]

Thankfully I have not been bitin by one of our large females, but I have been bitin by my little female blood and it was so quick I didn't even feel it. Although I do think that getting bit from a big blood would hurt because of there size.