Defensive Ball python

[SnowBunny]

Okay so I got this Beautiful 3 month old Mojave bp about a month ago from a reptile store( he was a little underweight but I got him putting sum on)
And the kept him in a tub when they got him so I took him home put him in a tub then realized that it doesn’t close good so gues who ended up in bed with my bf
Who was not amused lol, so I took him out and put him in a 15gal with 2 hides and a water dish and the he got A hot spot in upper 80s like 88 degreesAnd the tank temp is like 75
Well at first I could pick him but after 3 feeds he just defensive and ima be honest I’ve own about 2 corn snakes and 5 bp 3 were rescue and they never struck at me or hissed at me and now I don’t trust this snake to even hold longer then 5 mins now I tried the hold him technique and whole time he’s in a strike position and tense the whole time I knew snakes bite but I never had a “problem child” before I’m not sure wat to do ...im thinking maybe it’s the tank that’s causing this or if I just messed up the getting him to see me as a safe person I’ve been bit by a adult python when I was like 15 so I know that the bite doesn’t hurt but in my head I’m still really nervous

[chairman]

My guess it that your snake is not feeling secure, hence the defensiveness. I would either move him back in to a tub (look up Sterilite Gasket Boxes or similar products made by other companies) or add more clutter to the 15 gallon aquarium. The snake may also prefer a tighter hide, you could try a cork flat, snakes seem to like having pressure on their bodies while hiding.

Another option is tap training the snake. Every time you open the cage tap the snake on the nose/head with a snake hook. Then remove the snake, change the water, clean the cage, whatever it is that you need to do. Do NOT tap the snake when you are feeding it. Tap training is usually used to "turn off" feeding mode in snakes like carpet pythons, reticulated pythons, etc, but I don't see why it couldn't be used to help a ball python calm down as well.