I got Sauron as a belated Mother's Day gift in 2019. He was an owner surrender and crammed into a too-small cage at the pet store I was working at. In that cage, he became incredibly stressed and incredibly defensive as a result. He struck at pretty much every staff member willing to open that cage. He bit half of my coworkers, he may have even tagged a couple of customers. He bit one employee so good on the arm that it bruised!
When I got Sauron home, he had a 55 gallon enclosure and nearly immediately calmed down. He wasn't strike-happy anymore, and he never really tried to bite me. He did have one quirk: He doesn't like to feel people's skin. Yeah, you read that right. I handle him with gloves and let him choose whether or not to touch bare skin.
Over six years, Sauron went from refusing to come into contact with bare skin at all to me being able to take the gloves off after he was out of the enclosure. It took quite a long time to get him to that point.
This past weekend, I took him to n=one of my local Herp Society's meetings. We have a couple of Show and Tell style meetings a year and I wanted them to meet Sauron. Sauron on the other hand was not feeling the field trip vibes. He was so stressed out he was constantly winding his body and attempting to regurgitate. When I picked him up, I didn't have gloves and this set him off even more. He was gaping his mouth wide and winding himself even in my hand.
I put him back into the travel bin and covered him with a jacket. He remained undercover for the rest of the meeting, as well as the drive home. I donned the gloves for him while I put him back into his enclosure and the familiarity of his home calmed him down almost immediately.
The new problem is, Sauron has taken to recoiling and winding himself in defense when he sees my hands now. I may have undone 6 years of work in less than a single evening with him. A few more days of letting him relax and getting him one of his favorite meals might remind him that we're cool, but I'm worried that I've undone all of our work to build that trust. Only time will tell.