To echo and elaborate on what others have suggested - make friends with these:
Gloves
Hooks
Hide Containers
How many people here have tame 30 pound blood pythons, much less wild ones that size? Has anybody here actually ever manipulated any 30 pound snake on two hooks by themselves– that is, lifting it up and moving it around? I sure can’t. I’m way too weak. Hell, those big boa hooks with the nice wide jaws weigh a ton all by themselves. With regular hooks you’d run the risk of injuring a wide bodied snake like a big blood python if you tried to lift and carry it using only one thin, standard hook.
I’ve always been a big fan of leather gloves when handling specimens which have shown a propensity for striking – and not just because I’m a sissy about being bitten by a big python (which I most definitely am
). You usually get far less of a startled/defensive response when you lay a gloved hand on a fearful snake as opposed to a HOT bare hand – especially from an animal with heat pits. Use gloves! Wear long sleeves! Whatever it takes to give YOU confidence will contribute to a calm, deliberate handling technique. If that snake is as big and as wild as you say, then it is a major handful for one person.
The most effective technique I use for managing difficult snakes has to do with their husbandry. Almost all of my larger snakes are provided with a hide box that is a Rubbermaid-type container with a hole cut in the lid - a variation on the trap or shift box used by many venomous keepers. But I started doing it just because it seemed like an easy way to provide extra security for the snake while still allowing me to view it. We all know to use hides for smaller snakes in open caging. Why should that concept not apply when species that get big grow up? I use plain paper, slightly dampened CareFresh or sphagnum moss in the hide, and many of my blood pythons spend most of their time inside during daylight hours. So all you have to do is cover the hole and lift the box out in order to service the cage. Conversely, when the snake produces waste in the box, it usually crawls out of it afterwards, so you can just lift out the (mostly) empty box to clean it.
Regarding picking up a large blood python which is not tame - I usually use a hook in one hand to keep the head away from me while I get my other hand under the rear half of the snake. Then I put the hook down and gently scoop up the front half and try to keep that business end with the teeth pointed away from me. And don't forget to direct your hot breath away from the snake, too! Sometimes, the worst is over at that point. Of course, if the snake is calmly coiled up inside its hide box, it is a whole lot easier to approach from above than if you have to drag it out of its cage. Please do not try to pin an animal that size, or try to restrain it by gripping its neck. You risk causing injury or even death from trauma to its spine.
I’m sure you know she’s not really “mean,” as you put it, but frightened and threatened by you. Still, if I dread interacting with a snake, there’s a good chance it will receive less than optimal care. And you definitely want to keep a blood python’s substrate clean. So I recommend you consider using that box within the cage method. I promise that your day-to-day maintenance will become a lot less exciting if you give it a try.
The photo below shows ‘Nasty,’ a usually cranky Burmese python I got as an adult in 1979. Since that underbed storage box became his hide container, both of us have become less stressed when we have to deal with each other.
Good luck,
Joan
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