Attitude change.. not good!

[Ginevive]

We recently moved our BPs into a rack.. now here's the problem. My 1800+g female, Ginger, has taken a HUGE attitude change, for the worse. Last week, she bit/constricted my thumb.. OK, so maybe she was hungry, though she did eat the night before.. so I fed her again 2 nights ago, and all seems well. Now I go in to take her out today for a little handling, and WHAM, she strikes.. luckily now I did not let her get ahold of me; before, she had actually struck/coiled after I had her out of the tub and she was seemingly relaxed in my hands..
So why the sudden attitude change? I did have her in w/ one of our males, though he did not attempt breeding her; could this play a part? Or maybe my pastel did lock up with her and I just didn't noticed (we had him in for three days.) So would this cause her to be snappy?
I really don't care about it that much; not any changes in animals like this uaually frighten me into thinking something's wrong.. I would never get rid of her; at the worst, I'll just keep her for breeding.

[Nate]

my medium sized girl did that to me Friday night...i think it was just me opening her cage and pulling her hide off her that kinda frightened her and she struck at me...i gave her a second to figure out what was goin on and i picked her up to weigh her and she was completely calm. I think I just scared her at first. dunno if you could be just moving too fast for her comfort?

[Evan Jamison]

If she is striking and coiling (or attempting to), I'd say it is a feeding response. I have had girls that have been off of feed for a couple months start eating voraciously after contact with a male. One of our poss het axanthic girls only ate a few times after laying before refusing food for a couple months. I put our male in with her a couple weeks ago, and she has downed 7 small rats in two weeks and is constantly leaping out of her tub for more whenever I open it. Contact with a male seems to give some girls a jump start.

I've also had girls that were off feed start feeding again after being moved into a new rack. (Though more often they stop eating when they are moved). I would guess it is a combination of a few things, but don't worry, she'll calm back down with a little time and/or food.

-Evan

[Nate]

Now that you mention that Evan, it makes me want to back up what you're saying...my girl has been off feed for about 2 months, expressing absolutely no interest in food...last week she ate for the first time in 2 months, so your theory is valid