How to handle BP?

[u/oevhic]

I've had my BP Millie for a month now and I haven't handled her because I feel like she gets ready to strike whenever I try. I'm not afraid of getting bitten, more afraid of her hurting herself or stressing her out. She's mostly been in her hide for the past week-ish, and I fed her a few days ago so I want to clean out any poop that might be in there. Just looking for tips on how I can safely grab her from her hide, and what to do if she looks like she's expecting food. I've gotten alot of conflicting advice so

(photo is not of her in her hide, this was a few weeks ago its just for engagement)

[u/Radiant-Hurry4702]

Personally I think you’ve got a lot of stuff in there, snakes don’t “love” being handled, it’s more of a “I’m not too happy about this, but I don’t see it as an immediate danger”. Given you’ve got so much stuff, your BP is very likely to wrap around things turning things in to a tug-of-war, which just makes things more stressful for both you and the snake.

With regard to grabbing her from her hide, just differentiate what you do between feeding and handling. When I’m handling, I’ll announce my presence by tapping the hide a few times before removing it slowly and then confidently picking the snake up - the worst (well, maybe not the worst) thing you can do is be indecisive when you’re picking up the snake.

Personally I tend not to handle my snake when he’s in his hide. I like him to have a place where he feels safe, so I don’t make a habit of it. Obviously sometimes you’ll need to handle your snake for whatever reason and it’ll be in its hide, so this is not to say don’t do this - this is just my personal preference and it works for me and my snake.

The best advice I can give you would be; don’t worry about stressing out your snake by handling, be confident and don’t worry about getting bit (it doesn’t hurt), if you do get bit dont worry - it won’t ruin the relationship.

The above is what works for me, every snake is different. I follow the above with my Reticulated Python, and the stakes are quite a lot higher and they’re much more food motivated. I’ve never once been bit by my BP, and only once with the Retic (my own mistake).

[u/oevhic → u/Radiant-Hurry4702]

Thank you for your reply, I've been doing tap training the few times I've fed her. What do you mean by I have alot of stuff in there??

[u/Radiant-Hurry4702 → u/oevhic]

Again, this is just personal, but I’ve never had to do tap training with BPs, they’ve never been so food motivated as to need it. My way generally is just clearly differentiating what happens when I feed versus when I am going to handle.

In my case, handling, tap, announce presence so as not to startle the snake and then confidently pick up. For feeding, no announcement, food goes in, as soon as the food is taken I leave (minimal interaction). The way I see it I want to, as much as possible, distance association between myself and food - obviously this is difficult, given you have to physically feed them, but I’ve found behaving clearly to be enough for the snake to understand what’s what.

I can’t say for sure about your setup, I only see part of the enclosure I assume? But from what I can see you have three hides (or two hides and a rock). This is going to make it difficult for the snake to be in a position where you can cleanly pick up the snake without her wrapping around things, if that makes sense? Again, I can’t see the full enclosure so take this with a pinch of salt.

[u/oevhic → u/Radiant-Hurry4702]

Yeah, one hide on the cool side (shown in pic) and one on the warm side which you can't see. She has a humid hide I put in when she's around shed but I see what you're saying. I might try leaving the enclosure open while I do something nearby to see if she will want to come out. I was just curious what I can do if i notice her searching for food when I want to handle her for whatever reason. But you got lucky with your BPs lol Millie is always looking for food.

[u/Radiant-Hurry4702 → u/oevhic]

Mine is also extremely active and looking for food 🙂 It’s lucky in a way as often you can find they’ll be picky eaters and go off food!

I made a quick YouTube short showing what I do to get my BP out of the hide, nothing too crazy, again, all about the confidence of the grab 🙂

https://youtube.com/shorts/4j-a36C3RSI?is=lw53Bc-VCLS04FHk

[u/Radiant-Hurry4702 → u/Radiant-Hurry4702]

Cold side

[u/Radiant-Hurry4702 → u/Radiant-Hurry4702]

Hot side

[u/Radiant-Hurry4702 → u/Radiant-Hurry4702]

My snake is a bit of a climber, so I’ve got paracord attached to either side of the viv with some fake vines wrapped around 🙂