evil normal female!

[RaltsXIV]

I got a lil dinker about 6 months back. She was reduced, very dark and best of all female so I had to have her. She was very skinny almost emaciated so I did my best to get weight on her. She was shy, taking around 10 minutes to even begin moving when out of her tub. I guess she was probably 2-3 years old when I got her. Her head was big compared to her body.

Now, 6 months later she is to a very healthy size. The deal is she's freakin evil. Tub striking constantly, I haven't even been able to handle her for a few weeks now. And her strikes have been full blown feeding strikes, with her waiting to strike every time I even come near her tub. My other snakes in the same rack are all off feed.

As a test instead of her weekly small/medium rat, this week I attempted to feed her EVERYDAY a weaner/small rat. She took the rat everytime, sometimes striking the rat before it even hit the ground and on several occasions coming out of the tub and striking at anything with a heat signature.

This can't be normal, I don't believe there's anyway she's still hungry but even as I type this she sits in her tub ready to maul anything that moves. And she just ate 20 mins ago. Any ideas?

[twistedtails]

I got a lil dinker about 6 months back. She was reduced, very dark and best of all female so I had to have her. She was very skinny almost emaciated so I did my best to get weight on her. She was shy, taking around 10 minutes to even begin moving when out of her tub. I guess she was probably 2-3 years old when I got her. Her head was big compared to her body.

Now, 6 months later she is to a very healthy size. The deal is she's freakin evil. Tub striking constantly, I haven't even been able to handle her for a few weeks now. And her strikes have been full blown feeding strikes, with her waiting to strike every time I even come near her tub. My other snakes in the same rack are all off feed.

As a test instead of her weekly small/medium rat, this week I attempted to feed her EVERYDAY a weaner/small rat. She took the rat everytime, sometimes striking the rat before it even hit the ground and on several occasions coming out of the tub and striking at anything with a heat signature.

This can't be normal, I don't believe there's anyway she's still hungry but even as I type this she sits in her tub ready to maul anything that moves. And she just ate 20 mins ago. Any ideas?

You can overfeed a snake, be careful. They are opertunistic(spelling?) feeders and will eat whatever comes in front of them. They only encounter rats maybe once a week in the wild and don't want to miss out on feeding. So, naturally they take what they can get and its your job to monitor it in captivity.

[RaltsXIV]

Well it was mostly to rule out hunger as a reason for the striking. The only snakes I've had that eat like that are hatchlings.

[zeion97]

You can overfeed a snake, be careful. They are opertunistic(spelling?) feeders and will eat whatever comes in front of them. They only encounter rats maybe once a week in the wild and don't want to miss out on feeding. So, naturally they take what they can get and its your job to monitor it in captivity.

I wish our female was like this! She has only eaten twice since we got her almost 7 months ago. And she acts just like the OP snake, irony she's a darker normal female 3 years old.. lol...


To the OP. Ours is just like yours EXCEPT she won't eat.. your best bet (if you want to try and calm her down), grab some gloves and handle her. As Mike said, some will eat anything they can whenever they can. That being said, if you want her to stop looking for.food, then I would say just try to get her on a schedule of "regular" eating. Good luck with her!