Oh yeah, as a proud corn snake keeper myself I can confirm on the eagerness to give fingers a try lmao! They usually figure it out… but you can definitely see the gears turning in their little head
I've started placing my hand in my BP's enclosure periodically throughout the day just to see how he'll react (as opposed to just picking him up) and he does this as well. The closer to feeding day it is, the more curious he gets. Since he likes leaving his cage so much, I'm curious if I can "train" him to associate me with enrichment and come to me willingly.
Sometimes my BP Dufresne will do this with her meal on days when she's not so "hungry". She will slowly approach the rat until she almost bumps into it. She will then either immediately bite it or pull her head back and need more convincing. So when she slowly approaches my fingers in the same fashion. I will usually move my hand back around her underside or pull away myself haha. Tbh im never that worried as i take that behavior as curiosity / not really being sure if its food.
Oh hey, I remember Dufresne from a comment you left on one of my videos a while back. Hope she's doing well! Interesting that she displays that kind of behavior towards food. Mine doesn't - if she's not hungry she tends to give the food a sniff and then moves away to the other end of her enclosure. Curious how snake's personalities can vary like that. I encountered someone else who has a very strike-happy ball python that they can't handle in the evenings because of the strong feeding response. I would definitely not attempt such a game with an animal like that.
@@CatharticOutlet Thats so cool you remembered! Shes doing great lol. I hope your lovely BP the same. And yeah that isn't her typical feeding response. I'd say she only does that < 20% of the time. Most of the time she's zoned in and will strike at her rat soon as she is in range. I think it might be the scent of that individual feeder or perhaps I didn't get the temperature right. But yeah its very interesting how their temperaments all differ. I had heard from a YT keeper that no other snake species had landed as many nips on them as ball pythons. It was hard for me to believe. I wonder what determines that for them. Nature, nurture, or environmental stress? Dufresne has never ever tried to strike at my hand from her enclosure. Closest thing I got to that was small hisses the first two weeks I got her. She would get alarmed when id reach in to handle her. Have you noticed behavioral changes in your BP from the day you got them?
@@BrayanR918 with a name like that, it’s hard not to remember her! Glad to hear she’s doing well! My snake was definitely very stressed when I first got her. She was very active all day and didn’t eat for the first few months I had her. After I upgraded her terrarium to a much bigger one she became more relaxed. I also started implementing things like choice based handling, where I only handle her if she decides to come out, which also helped. Interestingly she never hissed, the closest thing she’d do is occasionally huff like an out-of-shape person doing sport, usually when she was out climbing or exploring (though she hasn’t huffed in a while, I presume she’s more fit now). And though she’s on the sensitive side, I’ve never seen her ball up. Regarding nature vs. nurture, it’s definitely a combination of both, but it’s hard to tell exactly how much influence these factors have individually. What I can say is the fact that many ball pythons (and snakes in general) are kept in ways that do not let them express their full range of natural behaviors, especially in regards to space and enrichment, which (research seems to indicate) can lead to behaviorally stunted animals.
Oh yeah, as a proud corn snake keeper myself I can confirm on the eagerness to give fingers a try lmao! They usually figure it out… but you can definitely see the gears turning in their little head
I've started placing my hand in my BP's enclosure periodically throughout the day just to see how he'll react (as opposed to just picking him up) and he does this as well. The closer to feeding day it is, the more curious he gets. Since he likes leaving his cage so much, I'm curious if I can "train" him to associate me with enrichment and come to me willingly.
cute lol shows you bp knows u n your hand n not food reaction
I do this with mine, she will come half way out on my hands then go back in, back & forth 😅
Fascinating! So there are at least two ball pythons that act like this 😄
Sometimes my BP Dufresne will do this with her meal on days when she's not so "hungry". She will slowly approach the rat until she almost bumps into it. She will then either immediately bite it or pull her head back and need more convincing. So when she slowly approaches my fingers in the same fashion. I will usually move my hand back around her underside or pull away myself haha. Tbh im never that worried as i take that behavior as curiosity / not really being sure if its food.
Oh hey, I remember Dufresne from a comment you left on one of my videos a while back. Hope she's doing well! Interesting that she displays that kind of behavior towards food. Mine doesn't - if she's not hungry she tends to give the food a sniff and then moves away to the other end of her enclosure. Curious how snake's personalities can vary like that. I encountered someone else who has a very strike-happy ball python that they can't handle in the evenings because of the strong feeding response. I would definitely not attempt such a game with an animal like that.
@@CatharticOutlet Thats so cool you remembered! Shes doing great lol. I hope your lovely BP the same. And yeah that isn't her typical feeding response. I'd say she only does that < 20% of the time. Most of the time she's zoned in and will strike at her rat soon as she is in range. I think it might be the scent of that individual feeder or perhaps I didn't get the temperature right.
But yeah its very interesting how their temperaments all differ. I had heard from a YT keeper that no other snake species had landed as many nips on them as ball pythons. It was hard for me to believe. I wonder what determines that for them. Nature, nurture, or environmental stress? Dufresne has never ever tried to strike at my hand from her enclosure. Closest thing I got to that was small hisses the first two weeks I got her. She would get alarmed when id reach in to handle her. Have you noticed behavioral changes in your BP from the day you got them?
@@BrayanR918 with a name like that, it’s hard not to remember her! Glad to hear she’s doing well! My snake was definitely very stressed when I first got her. She was very active all day and didn’t eat for the first few months I had her. After I upgraded her terrarium to a much bigger one she became more relaxed. I also started implementing things like choice based handling, where I only handle her if she decides to come out, which also helped. Interestingly she never hissed, the closest thing she’d do is occasionally huff like an out-of-shape person doing sport, usually when she was out climbing or exploring (though she hasn’t huffed in a while, I presume she’s more fit now). And though she’s on the sensitive side, I’ve never seen her ball up.
Regarding nature vs. nurture, it’s definitely a combination of both, but it’s hard to tell exactly how much influence these factors have individually. What I can say is the fact that many ball pythons (and snakes in general) are kept in ways that do not let them express their full range of natural behaviors, especially in regards to space and enrichment, which (research seems to indicate) can lead to behaviorally stunted animals.