That made me laugh 
so hard! It’s so true, my 14’+ female loves to look at it and go towards it if on! My smaller sd male wants to climb it even if it’s off! They definitely have a thing for the ceiling fans!! Great, and funny advice! Thanks for that!
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I have kept Retics on and off for 20+ years. The biggest piece of advice I can provide is to control your approach. I would start with sliding the tub open when you want to hold him and giving him a gentle tap on his side or nose as a distraction. Then slide another hand under him and lift him up. This will let him know it isn’t feeding time. Let him crawl freely thru your hands and keep him away from your face. Once you do this he should calm down after a bit. Keep doing this and he will eventually get used to it. They are highly intelligent and always thinking. They recognize their owners.
I had a 13’ foot male who would bite anyone in the room but me as it’s all in the technique. (He would bite me too if I didn’t approach him properly) The good news is, your BP feeding issues are OVER!
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Love your motley gc! Retics are food motivated. I suggest hook training him so he knows its not time to eat. Esp because you’re looking at a 10 or 11ft adult. Also the bigger the enclosure the better. I like to give them some height as well because they do enjoy climbing. I have a 50% sd goldenchild. I give him a boop with the hook then put hands on him. Also in a tub you seem more like a predator as you’re coming in from above
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Just about all the advice here is extremely sound. When I first got Bubble, our Sun-Tiger mainland who’s pushing 13-14 feet now, she was pretty defensive, but a few defensive bites and a lot of handling later, she’s a puppy dog. I do have hooks, and I’ve used them in the past, but it’s very, very rare that I have to do that now. Now I understand that our relationship isn’t completely typical, but with retics you have to think outside the box, they’re thinkers, and with that ability comes the chance for situations and interactions that you wouldn’t normally expect or prepare for from a snake. They’re a fair amount of work, a fair amount of a challenge, but they are so worth it in the long run. I love being able to just reach in an give her some rubs, but again, this is not something anyone new should be doing until you’ve built up that relationship. But we’ve got 2 1/2 years of bonding behind us, so I’ve learned what I can, and can’t do. I’m still very, very aware of her body language when I engage with her, and if she seems tense or upset, I dust off the hook and just give her a bit of a rub. But like I said, this isn’t very frequent.
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They are defensive bites, or striking. He’s only bit me once when I first got him. 100% my fault, I reached into the bag and just pulled him right out. 
With my BP’s, that was fine. I didn’t even think about it, but I quickly learned that wasn’t the way with him.
I got two hooks and I’m going to try ‘tap’ training and target training for his food. Essentially showing him a blue target and having him interact in some way(other than bite) before offering food. I’m hoping that also teaches the concept of “no target no food” as well as tap training.
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What do I do if he doesn’t move at all? Lol
I rub him with a hook, his head, his body. He doesn’t do anything. He doesn’t move away or do anything. I stood there petting him with the hook for like 5 minutes and nothing.
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In that case, use the hook to control his head and keep it pointed away from you. Then reach in and grab him around the midpoint of the body, watch his body language closely, and make sure he’s not squaring up or positioning to strike. If he is positioning to strike, you’re just going to have to work with him on a regular basis to get him understanding the hook and understanding your behavior without picking him up. If you get no threat reaction when you pick him up handle him for five or 10 minutes and put him down before anything has a chance to go sideways
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Okay. Thats actually what I did yesterday. Picked him up with the hook and transferred him to my hands. He was doing fine, not being defensive or anything, for about 5 minutes until he out-of-nowhere bit my face. I held him for another minute after, while blood ran down my face because I didn’t want to put him back right after and teach him that’s how he gets rid of me.
Assuming that may happen again, is there something better I could do in that situation?
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Without being able to see it’s body language (and yours) hard to say why it did that on a root level. On a simple level, it bit you because you gave it a target. If you present something warm at a moderate distance from it’s face, you’ve given it a ‘target’. ANY warm object, including cell phones, held 1-3’ in front of it’s face is going to trigger a response in a young and/or unsocialized animal. Retics will generally always hit a target if it’s hot and within striking range. For many this goes away with time and handling. Some retics will never stop biting for triggers, but you can usually learn to avoid their triggers.
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@ballornothing said it well!
The one thing I wish to add is about the snakes body language. It takes time and experience to understand, and each snake can be different but pay attention if it quite moving, tongue stop flicking, body tense ups, etc. not all body language is simple to understand such as hissing and s shaped strike posing. Also like @ballornothing said about not giving him a target. Keep any unfamiliar/new snake away from your face as much as possible, and try to keep them moving(which is usually easy with retics) there mind is on exploring and new scents instead of stopping to think if there is a threat or target. You can even slightly move your body side to side so the snake is always slightly moving, they usually don’t like to strike in mid movement. Hope all this helps, keep trying it is so worth it!
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Lucas Bagnara and Myself run an educational podcast called The Retic Lounge and we have a handful of episodes that address some of your issues! Feel free to check it out on YouTube, Google, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts. We also have a discord channel for patreon members for as little as $5 a month where you can talk with a bunch of people new and old to keeping Reticulated Pythons!
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If you send me a message with a link to where your podcast can be heard/viewed, and a brief description, I will update it on the podcast thread as well.
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Love this! My dwarf goldenchild “uno” is a puppy dog too. I don’t use hooks but I’ve had him since a hatchling he’s 1.5 now. And i work with him alot
They are so intelligent
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