Black Blood Advice

[IAHerper]

I just got a beautiful SST from NERD for christmas and was wondering how to get her more handlable(sic). Shes never actually bitten me but when I touch her she snaps around and even nailed my hand a few times, without teeth, Should I hold her more, or just let her settle? She has eaten so I don't think shes really stressed.


Thanks, Terry

[killer Cichlidz]

I am assuming it is a baby.......I would say give it a week to settle down and then after that pick him up from time to time. I have a baby black also and he was a little nippy during the 1st weeks but now is doesnt even get into strike position.

It just takes alot of TLC and being extremely gental with him. I found that taking my little guy out of the cage and then putting him on the bed or sofa where you can let him wander around and have a towel that he can go under if he feels like it, and just let him explore and he will be curious by nature and start smelling you. From there you can start handeling him more and more.

One thing I don't do is associate my hands with his food items. I take him out of his cage and place him on the floor. The mouse is already killed and I drop the mouse in front of him. I do that simply because I dont want him to think my hands are food, because when he gets big enough Im sure he wouldn't mind taking a bite out of my hands. LOL


Hope this helps a little,

Lu

[axwielding1]

I purchased a Sumatran Red Blood in September. At 15" she was pretty young. I gave her a few days to settle in, handling her very little for short periods. I then began to take her out and let her lay on my chest with my hand partially covering her for an hour at a time,2-3 times a day. I found that if I laid her on the bed or on the floor, she felt insecure right away and would flatten out defensively, and poise herself for attack. I think the "openness" of being totally unsheltered is not good until they gain some confidence. Now, 4 months later, she is 26" and at good heft, she's not headshy at all and I can rub her gently on the nose. She's actually tamer than my 2 ball pythons. She was a slow starter at feeding, taking 5 weeks for her first meal, and now eats a large mouse every 3-4 days(FT) except when in a shed( she takes 2 weeks from start to finish) Once i figured her out, she was great, and easy to please. She is turning out to be very orange/yellow now, which actually looks really nice, and she also changes her head color from a deep brown to pink/tan. I haven't figured out exactly what spurns the change, but it's fairly quick(1-2 min.) I would definitely start yours on FT prey to eliminate the strike reflex. I put a little drop of clean bacon fat on the back of the neck of the mouse to entice her and she can't resist! I named her Lapar which is Indonesian for "hungry" which is what she's been since she started feeding.