Bp went psycho for the first time

so normally when I feed rocky I put the mouse by his cage to get him interested and when he comes out I pick him up and put him in a separate container then put the mouse in there and he is totally chill when I pick him up and put him in the feeding tank.

But today when I went to feed I followed my same routine of putting the mouse by his cage to pre sent the room and he came out like he always does and when I went to grab him he started striking at me and going all over the place so I fed him in the tank cuz we wouldn't let me go near him and when I came in tonite he was out of his hide and usually when I put him back he goes in his hide and I dont see him for two or three days.

The temps and humidity are perfect so idk whats going on I've had him since august and he has never even come close to being aggressive. Is something wrong with him?

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Nope. Nothing is wrong. Nor is he aggressive.

He smelled the mouse and thought your hand was prey.
Your hand probably smelled like the mouse too.

Being out of the hide doesn't necessarily mean something is wrong. Balls are nocturnal so they're more active at night. If you notice anything else abnormal, then perhaps it may be time to worry a bit. Really active balls may mean they are stressed.

And having a separate feeding enclosure isn't necessary. He won't develop cage aggression if you feed in the main enclosure.
I've been feeding a number of balls in their tubs and they're still docile puppy dogs.

Might want to try not feeding in a separate container. Moving them is stressful, and poses a risk of conflict if there's already rodent smell about the room and they know it's getting close to feeding time.

I'm not sure if what you're describing was defensive or not. It could just be a crazy feeding response. I have a snake who strikes from inside her tub every time I walk past if she's wanting to feed.

Since he ate later in his tank, I'd say he's not too stressed out and there's not much to worry about at this point. Hopefully feeding will go more smoothly next week. ;)

If the room smells of mouse, anything moving has your BP's attention, and may cause it to strike at you. Now that you've been feeding this way, pre-scenting the room for a certain amount of time, your BP is probably becoming overly-eager to eat the second he smells the food.

I was once told that it is safest to sometimes wait a few hours or longer after feeding before you handle your BP. I am new to this so I'm not sure, but maybe a veteran can answer this for both of us.

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Originally Posted by UrbanSlayer

I was once told that it is safest to sometimes wait a few hours or longer after feeding before you handle your BP. I am new to this so I'm not sure, but maybe a veteran can answer this for both of us.

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You need to wait 48 hours after feeding to handle any snake. You can move them from a feeding tub back to their enclosure, but there should be no other interacting for 48 hours.

That said, I agree with everyone else that feeding outside the enclosure is unnecessary. All feedings should just be supervised, especially if you have a substrate that could be ingested, you want to keep an eye on your snake incase you need to pull a wood chip off their food before it is swallowed.

I've always fed Pretzel in her viv and she's never been viv defensive over it. Always with the tongs, and I'm straight in and straight out again to leave her alone once she's eaten it.

Thanks everyone the only reason I feed outside the tank is I don't want him to ingest substrate because I've seen some of the horror stories about it on here and here in laramie wyoming the only substrate readily available is aspen but maybe I will just start feeding in the tank

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Even if he digest a bit of aspen or even a mouth full he will be fine. We obviously don't want them eating chunks and chunks of it but he knows how to get bedding out of his mouth if it gets in. On top of that they digest bone... A little plant matter won't hurt him. Leaving him in his enclosure during feeding will make things much less stressful for both of you. And you won't run the risk of an accidental bite. Most bites happen moving the animal into the feeding bin or after.


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just feed in his tank. a little bit of subsrtate ingestion will not hurt him. and doing this wont make him more aggressive at all.:)