# baby common boa constrictor angry :-/



## suvvy23 (May 24, 2015)

Hi all in need of desperate help proud new owner of a baby common boa and she is very aggressive anyone help at all to try tame starting to get my partner into reptiles but her seeing the baby aggressive is putting her off my burmeese python was alot tame when he was a baby but this boa she got a grudge would really appreciate your help and advice on how to tame her many thanks 

suvvy23


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## Badgerroy (Mar 16, 2015)

99% of baby reptiles are "angry" all the time. Look at life from their point of view. Your huge and their tiny, it's it there genetic makeup to fight anything that comes near them as chances are it's going to eat them. It's a case of going as slow as they want you to and gaining their trust. Iv had babys that tamed down in a week or two and others that have taken over a year. It's been my experience that boas as baby's are very snappy but tame quite quickly. This time of ownership is very important though as it will decide how the snake acts as an adult. If it snaps when you open the Viv do not stop what your doing, if it bites when you pick it up, don't not pick it up as this will teach it if it don't want picking up then just bite you, and that is a habbit you don't want it to carry through to an adult. Stick with it and go slow slow slow. Also you said your a proud new owner, how new is new? The 1st couple of weeks after getting the snake it's best to just leave it alone to settle in, just give it water daily and forget about it for a month.


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## kbonnington (Mar 15, 2015)

Badgerroy said:


> 99% of baby reptiles are "angry" all the time. Look at life from their point of view. Your huge and their tiny, it's it there genetic makeup to fight anything that comes near them as chances are it's going to eat them. It's a case of going as slow as they want you to and gaining their trust. Iv had babys that tamed down in a week or two and others that have taken over a year. It's been my experience that boas as baby's are very snappy but tame quite quickly. This time of ownership is very important though as it will decide how the snake acts as an adult. If it snaps when you open the Viv do not stop what your doing, if it bites when you pick it up, don't not pick it up as this will teach it if it don't want picking up then just bite you, and that is a habbit you don't want it to carry through to an adult. Stick with it and go slow slow slow. Also you said your a proud new owner, how new is new? The 1st couple of weeks after getting the snake it's best to just leave it alone to settle in, just give it water daily and forget about it for a month.


i have to totally disagree with some of this, this animal sounds frightened and by forcing it out doesn't sound like a very good way of building trust to me. i agree going slow is the way forward but if its trying to bite you before you even go in carrying on after the warning just seems stupid to me. if its trying to bite you leave it alone its the only way it can tell you that its frightened and i think you should listen. time i think is the way to stop this, show it that you aren't a predator. i agree if you keep pulling away when it tries to bite it will teach it to go for you to get you to go away but i think you shouldn't be pushing it that far in the first place. 

let it settle in and calm down you cant just force the thing to be handled. this is normal really a few months and it wont be like this. 

its not a domesticated species these animals are basically still wild even if they were raised in captivity.


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## suvvy23 (May 24, 2015)

*She is much better now*

Thank you all for the help I fed her couple days ago left her to chill for a bit and now it's like she is a new snake she keeps coming to the glass wanting to get out I risked it and decided to get her out awaiting a tag but she was so docile even let's me scratch under her chin thanks again for advice my confidence is back once again and appreciate all the advice cheers 

Levi


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## Badgerroy (Mar 16, 2015)

kbonnington said:


> i have to totally disagree with some of this, this animal sounds frightened and by forcing it out doesn't sound like a very good way of building trust to me. i agree going slow is the way forward but if its trying to bite you before you even go in carrying on after the warning just seems stupid to me. if its trying to bite you leave it alone its the only way it can tell you that its frightened and i think you should listen. time i think is the way to stop this, show it that you aren't a predator. i agree if you keep pulling away when it tries to bite it will teach it to go for you to get you to go away but i think you shouldn't be pushing it that far in the first place.
> 
> let it settle in and calm down you cant just force the thing to be handled. this is normal really a few months and it wont be like this.
> 
> its not a domesticated species these animals are basically still wild even if they were raised in captivity.


 So your saying if it try's biting to back of and leave it alone? Sorry but you are wrong there, what your doing in doing that is teaching it if it bites you then it gets its own way and left alone. And with a snake that's gona get big that is a bad road to go down. No reptile actually wants you to handle it but it's a case of going ahead and doing so anyway and it will in time learn to accept its going to be handled but that's it's not going to get hurt. Iv tamed dozens of reptiles over the years and everyone has ended up as a nice calm anNimal at the end. It's entirely up to the op who's advice he follows but if he follows your advise which in the long run I think is dangerous advise, I can see there being yet another large difficult to handle reptile at the end of it. You say my advise is "stupid" but I think you need to take a look at your own advise before deciding that. Iv just spent 25 mins searching similar threads just to check my advise was correct and you was the only person to say it's best to back of when a baby snake try's to bite. At what point would you says it's ok to force handling then? Why not just wait until it's fully grown and when it bites it can really do some damage! personally I'd rather risk the bites as a baby when the worst it can do it draw a pinprick of blood rather than as an adult when it could in reality break an arm. As you said yourself it's not a domesticated species so you will be waiting a damned long time for it to just decide your nice and friendly of its own accord. You have to persevere and to a certain extent force trust by picking it up when it doesn't want you to but not hurting it so it learns to accept it.
Also if you had taken the time to have read and digest what I wrote then you would have read that I did in fact say to leave it alone for the 1st few weeks after getting the animal. I think maybe you should take a bit more time on reading a thread before giving advise that's either wrong or just basically saying the same thing as what's already been said.


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## werewolf (Dec 26, 2009)

Wow, this is completely backwards advice! Aggressive behaviour is often a sign of stress so you should be doing the total opposite of forced interaction!! In fact this is more likely to promote a permanent aggressive response to handling :bash::bash::bash::bash:

Baby boas are notoriously hissy when young, it's mainly bluff but some are little nippers too. It should pass with age and much of the behaviour will probably be down to stress of a new home/being moved.. it can take weeks even months for a new snake to get used to it's home. Be patient. Limit contact for the first few weeks then start gentle interaction.


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## Badgerroy (Mar 16, 2015)

werewolf said:


> Wow, this is completely backwards advice! Aggressive behaviour is often a sign of stress so you should be doing the total opposite of forced interaction!! In fact this is more likely to promote a permanent aggressive response to handling :bash::bash::bash::bash:
> 
> Baby boas are notoriously hissy when young, it's mainly bluff but some are little nippers too. It should pass with age and much of the behaviour will probably be down to stress of a new home/being moved.. it can take weeks even months for a new snake to get used to it's home. Be patient. Limit contact for the first few weeks then start gentle interaction.


 another one who disagrees but than basically says the same as me about leaving alone for a few weeks before handling. I give up, seems no one is able to actually read all the way threw before disagreeing!

Funny how no bugger seems to be willing to give advice until someone else does than all you do is disagree with the advise that's been given. Where was you both 4 days ago when the op actually asked the question?


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## pk93 (Jan 26, 2010)

Leave it to settle in, get 2-3 feeds out the way, then start handling it, snakes hiss thats what they do, they dont enjoy being handled (fear of an entirely new debate).

Maybe the word forced has got peoples back up, if its extremely stressed and striking and hissing, leave him be for 30 mins, but leaving the snake to mature wont help, it will learn that aggressive behavior gets results.


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## kbonnington (Mar 15, 2015)

Badgerroy said:


> So your saying if it try's biting to back of and leave it alone? Sorry but you are wrong there, what your doing in doing that is teaching it if it bites you then it gets its own way and left alone. And with a snake that's gona get big that is a bad road to go down. No reptile actually wants you to handle it but it's a case of going ahead and doing so anyway and it will in time learn to accept its going to be handled but that's it's not going to get hurt. Iv tamed dozens of reptiles over the years and everyone has ended up as a nice calm anNimal at the end. It's entirely up to the op who's advice he follows but if he follows your advise which in the long run I think is dangerous advise, I can see there being yet another large difficult to handle reptile at the end of it. You say my advise is "stupid" but I think you need to take a look at your own advise before deciding that. Iv just spent 25 mins searching similar threads just to check my advise was correct and you was the only person to say it's best to back of when a baby snake try's to bite. At what point would you says it's ok to force handling then? Why not just wait until it's fully grown and when it bites it can really do some damage! personally I'd rather risk the bites as a baby when the worst it can do it draw a pinprick of blood rather than as an adult when it could in reality break an arm. As you said yourself it's not a domesticated species so you will be waiting a damned long time for it to just decide your nice and friendly of its own accord. You have to persevere and to a certain extent force trust by picking it up when it doesn't want you to but not hurting it so it learns to accept it.
> Also if you had taken the time to have read and digest what I wrote then you would have read that I did in fact say to leave it alone for the 1st few weeks after getting the animal. I think maybe you should take a bit more time on reading a thread before giving advise that's either wrong or just basically saying the same thing as what's already been said.


so what your saying is basically to dominate an animal and make it tolerate you? im sorry i disagree ive never taken that approach and never will. i think if you read what i put properly you would see basically what other people have said to leave it alone for a bit and let it calm down then it probably wont be like this anyway. theres another way to do this without putting the animal through stress, that obviously works cos ive done it multiple times. you can say what ive said is wrong all you like but i stand by it and i personally think your wrong. 

and no i agreed that if you back off when it tries to bite it would teach it to keep biting you, whos not reading things through? 

"Funny how no bugger seems to be willing to give advice until someone else does than all you do is disagree with the advise that's been given. Where was you both 4 days ago when the op actually asked the question?"​
why would i post if i thought you were right? as you said " just basically saying the same thing as what's already been said.[/QUOTE]" why would i do that.


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## Sayba (May 13, 2015)

suvvy23 said:


> Thank you all for the help I fed her couple days ago left her to chill for a bit and now it's like she is a new snake she keeps coming to the glass wanting to get out I risked it and decided to get her out awaiting a tag but she was so docile even let's me scratch under her chin thanks again for advice my confidence is back once again and appreciate all the advice cheers
> 
> Levi


Is she still alright with being handled? I'm glad it sounds like she's taming down. 
When I brought my hognose home he was a puppy dog, I left him alone for a few days and one day saw he wanted to come out so I thought I would let him, he was lovely again. Feeding day rolls along and he turned into a demon before he even smelt the mouse. 

Persistent handling worked wonders for me, if he struck at me I would pick him up and now almost a month down the line he is the lovely puppy dog I met on day one again.


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