Mood Swings? Help!

[Jessica&Raid]

My Ball python has been acting strangely lately. He's still young, about three years old, and I've had him for nearly a year and a half. He escaped his cage near a month and a half ago and since he has been completely against any form of handling. He dislikes being held and has gone completely head shy again which I had made much progress in since I bought him.He also began striking while being held. Likewise he has begun striking when I go to feed him. I assumed it was normal as he had associated his feed tote with food. However sometimes he won't strike at all and others he strikes at everything. I've become nervous around him because I can never tell if he is going to strike or not. It's almost like he's been having mood swings. There are often children in my house and if I cannot find a solution to these "mood swings" then I will have to find his a new home as I can't risk the little ones getting bit. Any advice?

[Mangiapane85]

Do you condone the behavior? I mean, if he's snappy do you just give up and leave him alone?.. don't let them win. But also don't try to over handle.. And ditch the "feed tote". This is why it's essential to feed inside their normal enclosure. Now every time you take him out, he thinks it's eating time so he switches into feeding mode.

Just my opinion.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Stewart_Reptiles]

When BP exert this type of behavior they are trying to tell you something, the animal is either stressed (over handling, husbandry issues) or not fed enough.

It is up to YOU to investigate and find what triggers this behavior and fix it since this behavior is very unusual for any BP even one that is rarely to never handled.

And they do not like being handled they tolerate it, their human owner is the one that get enjoyment out of it.

[Coluber42]

What does he weigh, and what is he eating?

[voodoolamb]

How long was he out for when he escaped?

My adult female escaped and went on a long walk about over the summer. She was very flighty about being handled when I finally caught her. I almost dropped her when I finally cornered her because she was flailing about so much and struggling to get free. She acted so aggressively I had to drop a towel over her to move her...

After being back in her tub for a few weeks and getting some nice plump rats in her... she settled down back to her normal docile self. Now I couldn't provoke her to bite if I tried.

I assume it is because the area of my house where she was is a lot more hectic than the snake room. Dogs. Vacuums. Loud appliances. Lots of people. Scary place for a snake. Then all those meals she missed... she was hungry. All in all one crabby snake.

She's back to puppy dog tame now. I'd just make sure my husbandry was spot on. Not recreationally handle him at all for a while. And make sure he had a full tummy. Then reassess in the new year.

[Jessica&Raid]

He's about 2 feet give or take and eats three live mice.

[Jessica&Raid]

He was out for maybe a week. He had gotten into our vents and we believe he was let out by a friend while I was sleeping. He had calmed down considerably since I caught him but now he won't tolerate being handled. During feeding he is sometimes calm as can be and sometimes he snaps at anything nearby even if it's just a cup that happens to be by the tote when I put him in.

[Coluber42]

I'm not sure there's much you can do except to treat him like you would any other scared or defensive animal. Make every encounter you have with him as non-scary as you can. When you go to handle him, keep the lights low and move slowly. Don't reach straight at his face to pick him up. Better yet, open the cage and just let him sniff around for a bit before you take him out, or even let him come out on his own if he wants to. Don't reinforce handling as a scary experience. Who knows what happened while he was out, but he's just going to have to re-learn that you aren't a threat, and that might take awhile.