Hey guys apologies may sound like a dumb post but bought my first snake a full grown adult jungle carpet python 3 days ago, he is very very aggressive but has been fed properly about a week ago. He’s been in a big plastic tub since I got him and I’m trying to move him into my enclosure but don’t know how to go about it. He’s constantly ready to strike and if I open the lid he’ll instantly go up and if I poke my finger in he instantly strikes. He’s constantly ready to strike and If he sees me move at all he will strike at me and Hit the plastic tub multiple times. Any ideas on how I can calm him / move him and be able to start handling him soon and if this behavior is normal? Thankyou
Aggressive carpet python
- Thread starter Cb123
- Start date
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Someone will probably rant at you about this not being 'aggressive' behaviour... according to the dictionary definition it does count, but some people like to say snakes are never aggressive, and what you're describing actually is classic defensive behaviour (it's scared and striking out of fear, as opposed to wanting to attack you or eat you etc).
Jungles are often just like this, so yes, for a Jungle, this is quite normal. Some of them never calm down, some of them eventually do. If you're really good at reading snakes and know how to handle them in ways that keep them calm you might get somewhere with this one, but if you want a snake to handle for the fun of handling a snake, this probably isn't the best one to do it with and you're probably better off keeping this one as a pretty snake to look at and getting another one to play with.
Some snakes will respond well to handling and get better over time, but high strung snakes which hate humans like you're describing often get worse with handling because it freaks them out, they bite you until you put them down, they interpret that as biting you having saved their lives because you presumably picked them up because you wanted to eat them, and they successfully scared you away, so they should do the same thing next time. So, the more you handle, the more you teach them to bite you. Sometimes a change of environment or a different person handling them in a different way suddenly makes them change, but it's hit and miss, and most often trying to handle an adult which is still snappy is just an unpleasant, stressful experience for both the snake and the handler.
Jungles are often just like this, so yes, for a Jungle, this is quite normal. Some of them never calm down, some of them eventually do. If you're really good at reading snakes and know how to handle them in ways that keep them calm you might get somewhere with this one, but if you want a snake to handle for the fun of handling a snake, this probably isn't the best one to do it with and you're probably better off keeping this one as a pretty snake to look at and getting another one to play with.
Some snakes will respond well to handling and get better over time, but high strung snakes which hate humans like you're describing often get worse with handling because it freaks them out, they bite you until you put them down, they interpret that as biting you having saved their lives because you presumably picked them up because you wanted to eat them, and they successfully scared you away, so they should do the same thing next time. So, the more you handle, the more you teach them to bite you. Sometimes a change of environment or a different person handling them in a different way suddenly makes them change, but it's hit and miss, and most often trying to handle an adult which is still snappy is just an unpleasant, stressful experience for both the snake and the handler.
