Advice on taming an aggressive yearling burmese

[Jess]

My neighbor up the street has 2 10ft albino burms, 2 red tails and 1 yearling albino burm, which my husband and I adopted. I feel horrible for all these snakes as they are not kept well. The one we adopted had no substrate and the tank was covered in feces. The only time the enclosure was opened, was when he got fed. Also, this guy is feeding jumbo rats to his adult burms. If I'm not mistaken, they should be eating rabbits?

Anyway, we've cleaned the snake up as much as possible and gave him a water bowl to soak in. Everytime I pull the tub out, he hisses very loudly and he's already tried to bite my husband. I'm assuming we need just start handling him? He's fine once you get him out, it's just getting him out. What's the best way to go about doing this?

A friend of ours who has a ton of experience with snakes is taking the adult burms and the red tails. I'm thinking I may end up letting him take the young burm that we have as well b/c we aren't experienced with burms. I do want to learn and hope to own one someday. I do know how large they get and I think they're beautiful creatures. I just feel so bad for these animals that people get and have no idea what they're doing. This guy thinks he knows but obviously has no clue.

 

[KSTAR]

I was in the same situtaion as you when someone had gave away a burm that was being fed mice when he was 4 and a half feet and very aggressive so everyday it may sound crazy but I would stick my hand in the enclosure and leave it there and have a glove on until he became comfortable with something going in and I began to feed out of the enclosure to decrease tank aggression and after about a month or so he was good to go...hope this helps