Crazy behavior?

[SuddenEclipse]

Hi guys, I'm new to this site (and snakes) so I hope I posted this in the correct spot. Anyway, my ball python did something really weird the other day so I tried to give as much detail as I could think of. Hope I didn't write too much, but here is my problem:


I have a female ball python. I was told she was 4 months old when I bought her. ( I got her on July 23rd.) She's about 20" long. She eats 1 adult mouse every Friday, no problem. Anyway, she did something very bizarre the other day when I was holding her. There was a kid around who accidentally touched her face and kind of startled her. It didn't hurt her and she was fine and it really was not a big deal. About a full minute later, she went bonkers! She wrapped around my wrist, pretty tight for her, and I think she was constricting. She kind of flipped and rolled over and I could see a lot of her belly. Her head was off to the side just sort of flailing around. I didn't know what in the world she thought she was doing so I got her off of my wrist real quick and set her down, still holding the back half of her but letting her front half move freely. She immediately stopped the rolling around thing, but had it in her mind to book it.

She gets handled almost every day (except for a day or two after she eats.) Usually she is held for 20 minute sessions (give or take) and usually 2-3 times a day. She is used to being handled. This is a snake that when I first bought her was so laid back I didn't even bother putting her in a box when my friend drove us home from the store! (I had the box ready if she did anything but she was just chillin the whole time home.) I don't move around a lot and am careful not to jostle her around if I walk with her. So I was just wondering what your take was on her crazy moment.

The girl at the store (we get our mice from there) said she may have seen something in her peripheral vision that scared her, and that it was only a scared reaction. She didn't seem to think it was anything to be alarmed at... Oh, something else! It was on a Friday...which is her feeding day... but I always feed her inside her enclosure so she knows that it is not feeding time if she is being handled. She is fed regularly so shouldn't have been totally starving and certainly shouldn't confuse my wrist for food!!!

I have never been bitten and I didn't know if that was the next thing that was going to happen when she freaked out or not, so I wasn't going to take any chances. Sorry if this is lengthy, just wanted you guys to know the details! Please let me know what you think! :-)

-Dawn

[sho220]

Weird...unless she does it again, I wouldn't worry about it...

unless she's a Spider, then that's normal behavior...
j/k...

[loonunit]

Sorry, don't really know! Young snakes do often make dumb and even bizarre feeding errors, like mistaking your hand for their mouse. But if she didn't bite you, then it probably wasn't constriction.

So I'm going to assume it was some kind of stress response triggered by something in her environment. Give her a week off, resume handling as normal? If she's still eating, she's probably fine?

(young snakes are also more easy to stress out. I've had a couple of new snakes COMPLETELY FREAK OUT when I put them in their new homes after shipping: Shaking their tails, rolling over, balling, snapping at everything. Adults almost never do that. But then again, I've never seen a young snake do it after they've had a month to acclimate.)

Definiltely let us know if she does it again! (or better yet, if she does it again, see if somebody can catch it on video with their cell phone.)

[SuddenEclipse]

She ate her mouse that very evening, no problem. I hope she doesn't do it again! Scared the crap outta me! LMAO, you experienced snake people probably would have laughed at my reaction, but it was really really weird! Okay, I will give her a day (I just put her in a new enclosure yesterday, the really nice acrylic kind) so I will let her chill in there for a while. I was bad when I first got her and ignored the "leave her alone for a week rule." But she didn't really seem to care anyway.