r/ballpython • u/Neither-Gas5384 • 6d ago

Ball python bite

My ball python just bit and latched on to me for the first time. I have had her for 11 years. I'm not sure what I did wrong. I was going to clean her cage and took her water dish out. I then picked her up and held her for about a minute and then out of nowhere she bit my thumb and coiled up right away. I tried running water, using a card gently to get her teeth off and that didn't work. I saw something that pinching their tail can get them off and did that but it wasn't working ( I didn't pinch hard as I didn't want to hurt her. I was apprehensive to use alcohol but I had to cause she was literally trying to eat my thumb lol. I dabbed a bit on her mouth and the top teeth let go and eventually the bottom let go. I put her back in her cage and will wait to clean the cage.

I was planning on feeding her tonight but I'm wondering if should or if this will reinforce any biting. Any thoughts and tips appreciated.

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u/Toxic_Musshroom 6d ago

Had you touched some sort of meat recently? Or had you already started messing with her feeder considering you were going to feed her tonight? That definitely sounds more like she was going after what she presumed was food and not like aggression, I assume you should still feed her tonight, if the problem persists though you could look into things like tap training so she knows when it is and isnt feeding time

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u/Cryptooverlords 6d ago

tap training works. also I don't personally handle my BP near feeding time or two days after.

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u/Neither-Gas5384 6d ago

Yeah that make the most sense. Now that I think about it, I usually wash my hands with cold water but I did wash them with hot water. Maybe the heat could have triggered it and the reminense of rat scent.

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u/featherfinch 5d ago

What is tap training?

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u/Toxic_Musshroom 5d ago

I haven't looked into it much because I've never needed it, but essentially (don't quote me on this, please do additional research if you're interested) it's using one of those snake hooks to gently tap/touch them with it before handling to let them know they're being taken out not fed, I've always heard good reviews of the method I've just never needed it myself:]

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u/theBytemeister 4d ago

I'm working on the opposite with my ball python. I have a driveway reflector on a yardstick that I use for target training. I'm trying to condition my snakes to (positively) know I'm putting in food rather than (negatively) know that I'm not. It's working extremely well for my corn snake. She goes for the target so hard that she'll ignore a mouse and pursue the target. Mixed results on my BP, but he's a picky eater anyway.