aggresive diamond x jungle.

[asgrande]

Hi I'm new to the carpet python scene I was curious if anyone had any advice to calm down and aggresive yearling.

[exwizard]

Hi I'm new to the carpet python scene I was curious if anyone had any advice to calm down and aggresive yearling.Frequent handling and handle him some more. That is the key. Thats how I got my Macklots to tame down when they were babies and it didnt take long as you can see. :) Macklots are some of the biteyest babies around but it wont take long to calm them down if they realize that even thoiugh they may bite, you dont react. They soon learn to accept the fact that you are going to pick them up no matter what.

[theapexgerman]

Yea just hold them they will learn soon that your going to pick them up any ways so they just deal with it lol

[exwizard]

These pics are of my first pair of Macklots when they got bigger, except the first pic. which is of Merlin last year. They are puppy dog tame now but when they were babies, they were even biteyer than the other pair.

Now about your Carpet. I would suggest doing this while hes still relatively smaller. The bites dont hurt as much and it works quicker when they are little.

[MoreliAddict]

it's normal for a young carpet python to be aggressive, and you've come to a great place for advice

the best thing you can do (imo) is handling him/her regularly (at least once or twice a week). gently bring him out of the enclosure with confident movements and handle him for 10-15 minutes. DO NOT put him back down if he bites, or he'l learn that biting gets people off of him. if he's really a bad biter and it hurts you could use gloves and long sleeves to avoid really getting bit, once he's more comfortable with you try bare hands, but be aware that snakes pick up on your body heat and it may startle him a bit more at first.

eventually he will learn that you are not trying to eat him and he will tolerate you a bit more - simple as that. some carpets stay aggressive for life but the vast majority calm down once they reach about 3.5 feet, and from then on they're "tame"

hope this helps

[asgrande]

This ones about 3.5 to 4" now. But he/she was at a breeders so I don't think it was handled much. But thanks for the advice

[exwizard]

Oh yeah, hes plenty small enough to do this. :)

[UwabamiReptiles]

Carpets can be bitey when they are younger. Most will calm down into puppy dog tame snakes if you keep working with them. I have five carpets and all of them are extremely tame now. They weren't always like that, but I kept working with them and now they are not aggressive at all.

The best advice is to handle them a few times a week, just try to not handle them everyday because that will stress them out. Also, did you just get this carpet recently? If you did, let the snake settle in to its new home and that should help out with the snake being bitey.

[asgrande]

And before I had a BRB that was billy but nothing like this one.

[Lankyrob]

Some carpets never calm down but most will with time, we have found that once ours is out of the enclosure he calms down very quickly so got a snake hook to get him out - after about 6 months with the hook this last time we handled him we had zero bites :)

[Terranaut]

Many other snakes will jerk their heads back or look away quickly from things they feel threatened by but carpets strike first then see if its safe. You must unlearn this by handling and taking some for the team. You will get bit but the more relaxed you are and the less reaction you have to the bite the sooner they learn it's useless to do and you mean them no harm. Once they realize this they calm right down. But do it now before the bites actually hurt :)

[exwizard]

^^^^what he said^^^^ I totally agree with this

[asgrande]

so is a snake hook a good investment? or is it pointless

[exwizard]

It is a good investment when you have bitey snakes that tend to stay that way. I even use one for Euryale to tell her its not feeding time but shes almost ready for me to put it away. I will experiment with that in a few days and see if shes progressed to that point yet.

[marvelfreak]

I use a misting bottle. If they act aggressive i just mist them lightly and they calm right down. It works great for my Carpets. Just never try it with a Retic or Blood pythons they will freak out and start strike madly.

[CDN_Blood]

It's all about earning it's trust. One of the best ways to do that (if you have a secure space to do it) is to let it come to you on it's own. I don't' think I've ever taken one of my Carpets out of it's enclosure - I've always let them come out on their own.

They don't particularly like being touched, so if you can convince it that you're not a threat, it'll eventually come out by itself and then it's easier to handle them because they're mildly distracted by the surroundings they can explore and don't seem to mind being gently picked-up at that point.

If you do have a secure space that it can roam, let it do a few laps of that space while you slowly go about your business. It'll get used to your movements, sounds and gestures as you do your thing and it'll eventually learn that you're not out to hurt it. Once it's been out for a while and is exploring, wait for the opportune time to gently pick it up and put it back. If it wants back out, awesome, let 'r rip and repeat this a few times to it gets to understand that you're not the enemy.

Of course, when you do handle it, slow and gentle is the key. Never shuffle a snake around from hand to hand or flip it around so that it can't gain it's balance because that's how they learn to really dislike people ;)