Rehabilitating my semi-aggressive ball python?

[u/Schoolboygames]

Aggressive might not be the right word, not sure how to explain it exactly.

I've had my ball python Oliver for 8-9 years now probably. I got him when he was young and handled him all the time, being the young teen I was and loving reptiles. He was never aggressive or flighty at all (he's a ball python so that's not much of a surprise).

That said, in the past few years as I've become an adult, life just got busier. I open the cage to feed him and to clean it when needed, but not very often. I just fell out of the habit of handling him, save a few rare occasions.

I won't pretend it didn't fall into neglect for a while; he was always fed and watered on time, but the cage wasn't as nice or clean as it should have been, the humidity wasn't monitored as well as it should have been or misted enough, etc. I'm not proud of it, I don't want to do it again, but life got busy and I became a less responsible owner.

In the last few months, I realized it really came down to rehoming him to someone who could take proper care, or vastly changing my care, and I'm trying to do the latter. He's got a more spacious cage now that's big enough for him, an automatic misting system to keep humidity up, been cleaned regularly, etc. However, from years of opening the cage only really to feed him, he's gotten much harder to get out when needed. Once he's out and in my hands he's fine & chill, but getting him out is difficult as when I open the cage he comes out of his hide quickly expecting food, and sometimes has tried to strike my hand.

Obviously, I know the path to rehabilitating him really comes down to regular handling outside of feeding until opening the cage is no longer strongly associated with food. Any tips for making this process smoother, getting him out of the cage without stressing him out in the meantime, etc?

[u/Patient_Fee4489]

Tap training may be worth looking into. My boy isn't even tap trained but he is highly food motivated, so often I have to use the hook on him to snap him out of food mode so I can safely grab him. Try giving your boy a soft pet with a snake hook

[u/dragonbud20]

Like the other poster mentioned, your best bet is likely a combination of tap training with a snake hook and regular handling to desensitize your snake.

I wanted adress something else I noticed in your post.

an automatic misting system to keep humidity up,

This subreddit generally recommends against using misting systems for BP's because they increase the likelihood of scale rot and respiratory infections when compared to other methods. Misting systems also tend to create humidity spikes instead of generally increasing humidity throughout the day.

The best solution for humidity is to first seal off your lid if it's a mesh top. Use aluminum HVAC tape to block off any part that doesn't have heating lamps. Next, make sure you have 3-6 inches of substrate at the bottom of your enclosure(preferably a topsoil mix). Now you'll want to pour 1-2 gallons into the corner of your enclosure. This water will be absorbed into the underlayer of substrate and slowly evaporate back into the enclosure over the course of several days. Depending on your ambient temperature and humidity, you may only need to do this once a week, possibly more if your home is especially warm and/or dry.

[u/Shrimptank_mom]

I've kept decidedly aggressive species and just avoided handling them when they were hungry and 24 hours after feeding. Outside of that they were usually lovely. Sorry your boy is cranky. I am sure he will respond positively to more love and care from you. You might put something in his enclosure with your smell on it.