Sudden extreme aggression in all pets??? Help??

[Thatamericanwolf]

So i have owned snakes for a while now. I have 5, and all of my snakes were fantastic except for my boa who was a bit nippy. I have 4 ball pythons and a bci. About 2 and a half, maybe 3 weeks ago if not more, i moved all of my snakes into a rack system. I still check on them daily, interact with them daily, but now, EVERY single one is aggressive. Every one. "Kicking" me, hissing, striking, nothing has changed except for the fact that they went from open glass tanks to a rack. And they stay aggressive, even once i have them out. They all have 2 hides, 78° ambient temp, 90° hot spot, fresh water every other day, on aspen, fed appropriate sized food once a week, and like i said, I interact with them daily. This is so, so unusual and I haven't been able to find anything like this on the net. Please help, i love my snakes more than anything and want to interact with them but they are all just insane now and I don't know what changed

[blondiee411]

I am a new BP owner but it sounds like they are all unhappy. Going from a tank where they can see outside their enclosure to a container where they don't interact with anything and are in solitude. Maybe keeping them in a see-through tank kept them happy, especially seeing the other bp's? Not sure what to tell you, but that's my two cents.

[melcvt00]

I would treat moving them like getting a new bp, and not handling them at all for the next week or two and see what happens.

[ballpythonluvr]

You just moved them into them new enclosures. Give them some time to adjust.

[Thatamericanwolf]

I would treat moving them like getting a new bp, and not handling them at all for the next week or two and see what happens.

I totally forgot to mention in the original post, and because i have gotten 2 comments saying this, for the first week i did leave them alone. My apologies i was totally unclear

[Thatamericanwolf]

You just moved them into them new enclosures. Give them some time to adjust.

My apologies, i forgot to specify but i did give all of them a full week to adjust i forgot to mention that in my original post

[ballpythonluvr]

No problem. Just give them some more time. Some snakes are more easily stressed and ball pythons tend to be like that.

[cchardwick]

That's really interesting. I had just the opposite experience, when I moved them to a rack system they all mellowed out. What kind of rack is it? Are the tubs solid or clear? I have an ARS rack with solid grey tubs, I've seen people have success with the clear tubs but I would think that would stress out the snakes. Is your rack system stable, does it move around at all? The rack I have weighs several hundred pounds and is as solid as a brick. Maybe a wobbly rack system would do that? Does it have any weird smells? I don't use any hides at all, but I do know that when my snakes are under a hide and I take it off of them real quick sometimes they freak out and get very aggressive.

I would try taking out all of the hides (as long as you don't have clear tubs). I usually slide open my tubs and if I see my snakes all balled up with their head buried I don't mess with them. If they pop their head out and look like they want to explore I take them out. Now I don't use any hides at all, I just use the built in water dish system with Dixie cups, nothing else. I even have very small hatchlings in big 70 series tubs, they just ball up in the back and are perfectly happy and have been eating twice a week. Sorry to hear about your aggression, there's nothing worse than an unhappy snake.

[Thatamericanwolf]

That's really interesting. I had just the opposite experience, when I moved them to a rack system they all mellowed out. What kind of rack is it? Are the tubs solid or clear? I have an ARS rack with solid grey tubs, I've seen people have success with the clear tubs but I would think that would stress out the snakes. Is your rack system stable, does it move around at all? The rack I have weighs several hundred pounds and is as solid as a brick. Maybe a wobbly rack system would do that? Does it have any weird smells? I don't use any hides at all, but I do know that when my snakes are under a hide and I take it off of them real quick sometimes they freak out and get very aggressive.

I would try taking out all of the hides (as long as you don't have clear tubs). I usually slide open my tubs and if I see my snakes all balled up with their head buried I don't mess with them. If they pop their head out and look like they want to explore I take them out. Now I don't use any hides at all, I just use the built in water dish system with Dixie cups, nothing else. I even have very small hatchlings in big 70 series tubs, they just ball up in the back and are perfectly happy and have been eating twice a week. Sorry to hear about your aggression, there's nothing worse than an unhappy snake.

Thank you for all of the tips! Ill try them out and let you know how it goes. My tubs are almost clear, but have a tiny bit of a "foggy" or translucent-esque effect to them. It is very stable, i can walk around and even bump into it without having any movement. The only weird smells I could think of would be my geckos, but my snakes were acting this way before i got the geckos. Usually my snakes look all antsy and ready to explore, until i go to pick them up or let them out, at which is the point where they either frantically try to get away, or hiss and bite. I used to be able to handle them perfectly fine, im not sure what happened.

[bcr229]

This is actually normal behavior. You have given your snakes a nice, warm, comfy home in a rack and when the tub slides open they don't want to leave it so they act all pissy.

Eventually they will adjust and learn that even if you remove them they will be going back shortly, and they'll settle down.