My almost 3-year-old male, Cali, who has always been a sweetheart, has suddenly turned extremely aggressive and antisocial. He used to be a dream, I could handle him as much as I wanted, and would almost every day. For about a month now, his personality has completely changed for the worst. I don't know what to do and I fear I'm doing something wrong. The fact that I am afraid to handle him is causing other problems such as my inability to properly clean his cage. I will try to explain in the best detail the conditions and events that may have led to this. I also have a few ideas of what the problem could be, but this is my first and only snake I've ever owned, so I can't be sure.

I bought Cali about a year ago off of a friend. He has always been very healthy and docile. He has never bitten anyone or taken a strike at anything except for a mouse. When I bought Cali, I also bought a large amount of frozen mice that my friend had as well. They are about medium-sized and he had been feeding them to him for a while. He did well on one a week for a while, but soon I saw he was beginning to get bigger and the mice appeared to be too small. However, I still had SO MANY of these mice that I had to try to get rid of as many as I could before I moved him up to rats, etc. After awhile I started to feed him two mice a week, the same day about twenty minutes apart.

About three months ago, he seemed as if he needed more than two mice; he was always still very active after eating. I was hesitant to feed him three, because I felt it may be too many separate prey items at once. So, I started to alternate, feeding him three mice some weeks, and two mice others. He seemed as if he was doing fine until about a month ago. After feeding him two mice, he was still extremely active, looking like he needed more. I had fed him three mice the previous week, however, so I denied him at first. I waited two days to handle him, as I normally do. He was out of his hide, and I walked over to the cage. This is when I first noticed he was acting strange. He was immediately on me, stalking me almost. He had his head in the air, and he just kept following me, looking very aggressive. When I opened the tank, he immediately lunged down into strike position.

I have read that you should not feed a snake outside its weekly schedule, but I was afraid that he was really hungry and was acting this way because he was stuck in "eat mode." I panicked and fed him two more mice that day; I had been reading that mice have less nutrients than rats. I usually would never do something like this, but I was afraid that he was starving and I had to do something. I waited two more days to handle him again, and this time when I went to put my hand under him he started almost "shrugging me off." He did not want me to hold him AT ALL, and this is when I first began to get extremely scared.

I had my boyfriend go to the pet store that day and get me a few prepackaged small rats. I then waited until Cali's normal feeding day to try to feed him one (this was about four days after the last two mice). Once again, I would normally never do this, but out of fear of his possible malnutrition, I really wanted to attempt to feed him the rat. He took it readily, and then I waited two more days - still extremely aggressive. This was a week ago, and I have tried to pick him up twice since. He immediately recoils and runs into his hide when I open the tank. He is still being aggressive, but also acting like he is now terrified of me. And I am very afraid that the longer I go without handling him, the more antisocial he will become and I will not be able to handle him anymore without getting attacked.

I have no idea what the problem could be, but I have a few ideas:

1. My original thought: he was eating too little and is now stuck in "feed mode" because he is always hungry.
2. Maybe, on the other hand, I was feeding him too much (too many prey items, and especially the mistakes I made in the last two weeks).
3. Climate: I live in Pennsylvania, and lately our weather has been very strange. It is autumn, but it has been 80 degrees every day.
4. Mating season: Cali was too small last year, with his old owner, to be sexually mature. I don't know how ball pythons act during mating season, but I have read that it is during autumn/late autumn. (ALSO: a friend of mine, who also has a male python of the same age and size, is experiencing the EXACT SAME problems with her snake as I am.)



PLEASE, if you have any ideas on what the problem could be, please tell me! I considered my snake to be my best friend and this is truly hurting me. Thank you.