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Quick question about Boa's and aggression

habistatman

habistatman

New member
Just wondered do good natured youngsters generally grow up into good natured adults, or if they change personality and become aggressive is this usually down to some trauma they have experienced. I ask this in relation to Hogg Island Boa's but equally i suppose the same question applies to all snakes. What experiences do you have?.

Kindest regards

Habistatman
 
Generally, A friendly baby will be a friendly adult. But, remember these are still "wild" animals & anything traumatic can make a generally friendly boa lash out. When we moved from NC to SC 2 years ago, we put all the boas in snake bags for the 4 hour drive. By the time I got around to getting Odin out of his bag to put him back in his tank, He was TOTALLY stressed. He had been one of the sweetest babies ever. But that trip freaked him out. He came out of the bag hissing and striking at EVERYTHING that moved and I almost lost my hold on him before getting him safely to his tank. Stress can & does affect any snake`s personality. BTW- None of the other boas acted this way- only Odin.
 
SlytherynHiss said:
Generally, A friendly baby will be a friendly adult. But, remember these are still "wild" animals & anything traumatic can make a generally friendly boa lash out. When we moved from NC to SC 2 years ago, we put all the boas in snake bags for the 4 hour drive. By the time I got around to getting Odin out of his bag to put him back in his tank, He was TOTALLY stressed. He had been one of the sweetest babies ever. But that trip freaked him out. He came out of the bag hissing and striking at EVERYTHING that moved and I almost lost my hold on him before getting him safely to his tank. Stress can & does affect any snake`s personality. BTW- None of the other boas acted this way- only Odin.
Click to expand...

Gotta add here: Odin has since calmed down and is back to his old friendly self.

As for a friendly young snake turning into an aggresive adult on a permanent basis, I've never heard of that but, am not gonna tell you that it's never happened. One of our Boas is half Hog Island and I can tell you that, on feeding day, she is very aggresive. Any time we open the top of her tank, wether it's feeding day or not, her first response is - "You have food for me?" and she gets into striking position but, if I leave the top off, she quickly (within a couple of minutes) mellows out and will actually slither out. At this point, I can pick her up and have never had any problems handling her.
 
after dealing with hundreds of boas, i have NEVER seen a single boa that was once placid turn aggressive for no reason. if a normally calm boa turns defensive, there is a reason. it could be that the environment is not correct(temps or humidity), it could have an illness or injury, or could be stressed for some reason. even if a normally calm snake gets defensive, and the problem is fixed, it will revert back to its normal calm self. mites could also cause stress on a boa. even if you have a defensive adult, and it eventually calms down from handling, will not just "get mean"...they will stay calm if handled on a regular basis. once you get your baby hand calm, it will stay that way as long as your husbandry stays on point. no worries. hog island boas are generally very mellow anyway, even some adult imported ones ive seen are pretty mellow right out of the bag.
 
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