How Do I Convince My Woma Python That I Am Not Food?

SerpentineDream · 03-31-16, 10:27 AM

Ophelia, my juvenile woma python, has been home about 2 weeks now and is eating well. So well, in fact, that she would like to eat me. I wash my hands before handling her to get any scents off, so maybe I just smell tasty. I pick her up and she promptly begins constricting my hand. Then she slowly and deliberately opens her mouth and makes a move to bite and presumably swallow whatever part of my hand is conveniently close. I use my other hand to get a hold of her neck and restrain her, but the second I let her go she's at it again. I have half a mind to just let her bite me. After a few not so fun minutes she should (I hope) realize that I am not edible and let go, and should (I hope) not try it again. Python bites suck. I'd rather not. Any other ideas?

PsychoSnake · 03-31-16, 11:06 AM

Feed her more. Grow the beast until she bursts!

That's usually the only way I can get some of my very food aggressive rosy boas to calm down. I look like a floating drumstick to them. I can even see it in their eyes. The intense stare! They have no other concept than food goes in the belly and everything is food. One of them even tried to eat a comforter for an hour and just would not give up. They flail their mouths open crazily whenever something comes by them.

Brumating in the winter seemed to help too.

IW17 · 03-31-16, 12:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SerpentineDream

Ophelia, my juvenile woma python, has been home about 2 weeks now and is eating well. So well, in fact, that she would like to eat me. I wash my hands before handling her to get any scents off, so maybe I just smell tasty. I pick her up and she promptly begins constricting my hand. Then she slowly and deliberately opens her mouth and makes a move to bite and presumably swallow whatever part of my hand is conveniently close. I use my other hand to get a hold of her neck and restrain her, but the second I let her go she's at it again. I have half a mind to just let her bite me. After a few not so fun minutes she should (I hope) realize that I am not edible and let go, and should (I hope) not try it again. Python bites suck. I'd rather not. Any other ideas?

Wish I could help. My water python does the same thing after more than two years. I've just decided she's for display purposes. Fine by me. However if you're not OK with that, I can see the problem.

REM955 · 03-31-16, 03:01 PM

Have you done tap training? I am only "parrotting" a youtube video series by a woma breeder who does this regardless of age.

SerpentineDream · 03-31-16, 03:13 PM

I confess ignorance. I don't know about tap training, but I am all ears!

Albert Clark · 03-31-16, 03:20 PM

Try washing your hands in very cold water instead of hot bc the heat signature in your hands is another trigger. It may help. But yeah , definitely feed him a larger prey item or increase the feeding frequency. Consider a hand sanitizer as well before handling.

REM955 · 03-31-16, 04:09 PM

https://youtu.be/gkrPpwLRnR8
Here is the guy I'd like to get a Woma from. He goes over tap training here as well.
Basically, tap with a snake hook before going to pick them up.

jpsteele80 · 03-31-16, 04:16 PM

When i got my rough scale pythons they were both really into biting me, the male settled down fairly quickly but the female would continue to take a shot at me any chance she could get, i just took the bites and she finally is starting to settle down, last time i had her out i got no bites, its hard to tell as each animal is different. you could try handling her with gloves and see if that helps, if she bypasses your hands but goes for your arms most likely she is hungry and is biting the heat source. You may also just have an animal that is always going to be aggressive, only time will tell.

**Tsubaki** · 04-01-16, 03:50 AM

All my retics think I'm made of food, tap training is the only thing that works

macandchz · 04-01-16, 08:00 AM

just be thank-ful it loves to eat! i get tired of trying to coax mac to eat well. he does great for a few then off for a few. i wonder how he keeps gaining weight?

SerpentineDream · 04-01-16, 09:30 AM

My ball python can require a great deal of convincing. Not so with Ophelia.

So I offered her another and slightly larger mouse. She's been eating hoppers, but I looked at her body width and figured she could step up. Unfortunately I failed to account for the little bitty woma head. She took a small adult mouse with gusto and I immediately realized she would have some trouble, but at that point there was no getting it back. She didn't give up. She got that mouse down, and it stayed down. But it was a big stretch for her mouth and since then she's been yawning a lot and rubbing her face on things. I think she might have strained her jaws. Will she be OK?

I learned from that mistake and will stick to hoppers for now, just feeding more often. Tap training will commence forthwith. I'll try the cold water handwashing and sanitizer too. Alcohol kills my skin but I suspect the alcohol scent is probably a deterrent so will have to deal. I'm also ordering welding gloves, which I hope will be enough to stop bites if she keeps it up. BTW it is really hard to find welding gloves in my size. I take a women's small or extra small (I have to shop in the children's department for winter gloves... for years my winter gloves had a Hannah Montana motif). Welding gloves, raptor gloves--all the heavy duty stuff--are made for people with giant hands. Sigh.

PatrickT · 04-02-16, 03:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SerpentineDream

Ophelia, my juvenile woma python, has been home about 2 weeks now and is eating well. So well, in fact, that she would like to eat me. I wash my hands before handling her to get any scents off, so maybe I just smell tasty. I pick her up and she promptly begins constricting my hand. Then she slowly and deliberately opens her mouth and makes a move to bite and presumably swallow whatever part of my hand is conveniently close. I use my other hand to get a hold of her neck and restrain her, but the second I let her go she's at it again. I have half a mind to just let her bite me. After a few not so fun minutes she should (I hope) realize that I am not edible and let go, and should (I hope) not try it again. Python bites suck. I'd rather not. Any other ideas?

its a snake and not a rabbit. Watch her and don´t grab her. I never had any issues with my womas. I let them crawl on my arm and thats it.

Karilyne · 05-19-16, 03:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by REM955

https://youtu.be/gkrPpwLRnR8
Here is the guy I'd like to get a Woma from. He goes over tap training here as well.
Basically, tap with a snake hook before going to pick them up.

I love this guy! I've used hook training with my Woma since I brought her home and she is puppy dog tame.

**Andy_G** · 05-19-16, 03:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SerpentineDream

My ball python can require a great deal of convincing. Not so with Ophelia.

So I offered her another and slightly larger mouse. She's been eating hoppers, but I looked at her body width and figured she could step up. Unfortunately I failed to account for the little bitty woma head. She took a small adult mouse with gusto and I immediately realized she would have some trouble, but at that point there was no getting it back. She didn't give up. She got that mouse down, and it stayed down. But it was a big stretch for her mouth and since then she's been yawning a lot and rubbing her face on things. I think she might have strained her jaws. Will she be OK?

I learned from that mistake and will stick to hoppers for now, just feeding more often. Tap training will commence forthwith. I'll try the cold water handwashing and sanitizer too. Alcohol kills my skin but I suspect the alcohol scent is probably a deterrent so will have to deal. I'm also ordering welding gloves, which I hope will be enough to stop bites if she keeps it up. BTW it is really hard to find welding gloves in my size. I take a women's small or extra small (I have to shop in the children's department for winter gloves... for years my winter gloves had a Hannah Montana motif). Welding gloves, raptor gloves--all the heavy duty stuff--are made for people with giant hands. Sigh.

I think your woma would be fine on adult mice. Furthermore, I am uncertain what washing with cold water will achieve in this circumstance because womas lack heat pits. They eat a lot of reptiles as well as mammals in the wild and anything that touches any part of their body can result in a feeding strike type response due to how they would react if something touched them in a burrow in the wild. It doesn't have to be something warm touching them to trigger this response. Keep up with the tap training and your woma should eventually get that your pinkies aren't actually pinkies.

pet_snake_78 · 05-19-16, 09:50 PM

I consider a strong feeding response a good thing, I wish every snake I owned were so aggressive in feeding!