red tail boa care

Question
I currently purchased a red tail boa and it was in a pre shed phase and i was holding her slowly moving her out of her cage. and she bit my fore arm and released me was it something i did im not really familiar with boa behavoir thank you

Answer
Well it's hard to say for sure of course, only the boa knows that. But some possibilities are that it's very hungry, that's it's eyes are clouded up from it's pre-shed and was just in a defensive posture, or perhaps it's not being used to being handled. Biting is a defense mechanism to get you to put the snake down. So for now, don't handle him again until it shed. Then make sure you give him a really good meal, appropriate for his size. Wait 3-4 days for it to digest, then try holding him again, maybe with some heavy-duty gardening gloves (just in case). If he tried biting again, then you know he's not hungry or in a shed, so it means he hasn't been handled much and is probably a biter. The only way to really change that is with frequent handling.