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My Snake is Acting Odd
Hello, this is my first post and I am super new to snake ownership. I did all the research I could and googled all the stuff about snakes and RTBs but my girl is definitely a snake with her own personality and I just have to take time to learn her behaviors and stuff. A little about her, she is a 6 ft female RTB (but after research I'm starting to think she is more of a BCI or maybe even some type of morph) and I adopted her from my friends who have had her sense she was a little noodle. She has always been really sweet and really calm when I handled her at their house, but sense moving to my house (which she moved in about 3 or 4 weeks ago now) her behavior has sense changed...I know the move and the new environment and new smells and a new owner was a bit much for her as it would be for any snek, so I just left her alone for a week, then I tried to feed her and she wouldn't take the rat (frozen thawed) so I let her be for a few more days and then tried feeding her again and she ate it! She wasted no time either! I was so excited! So I let her digest and chill out for about 3 days and I took her out on Tuesday and she was more energetic and tenacious then I have ever experienced her being...usually she likes to perch herself on my shoulder or rest her head on my hand and hangout but she was more so trying to climb things and get away...she didn't put all her effort into escaping cause I still had a handle on her without any issues but it didn't stop her from trying constantly...the only way to get her to chill was if I stood in the middle of the room away from anything she can climb or crawl into...if I walked around the house with her, she would stretch out about 1/3 of her body just straight upwards like she was trying to find something she can hook onto...is this behavior indicative of her just being curious about her surroundings and wanting to explore or is she still freaked out about the move and she is trying to tell me shes not happy about being handled? I read that after a few weeks they should be fine but if she is indeed still stressed about the move then maybe she is just one of those sneks who need a little more time to adjust?...would it be a good idea to take her out more often so she can explore and get more used to the new house and new smells and me? As far as her enclosure, she has the exact same one that my friends kept her in (they let me take it when I adopted her) and I haven't changed anything, so the only real newness is my home. She has never once hissed or struck at me sense I got her but there was this one incident the second week I had her, before she ate, where I had her out and she stretched onto the coffeetable and then started to puff up and hiss a little bit (well it sounded like a hiss sorta...its kind of hard to explain) but once I took her off the table she was fine, but I still put her back in her enclosure just to be on the safe side cause I didn't know if that was an early warning of an unhappy snek or if she just didn't like being on the table cause maybe it was cold or it was to smooth and she didn't have traction... but she didn't "S" up or open her mouth or anything like that. Also, I think she might be going into a shed, but I have been thinking that for the past month and still nothing has happened...she is looking darker and duller than normal and shes getting this greenish blue shiny hue to her and her belly is super pink! but I check her all the time and her eyes haven't grayed out yet and I was curious as to how long normally does it take between seeing the first signs of a shed to when she should actually start shedding...I thought it was only maybe two weeks and this is going on 4 weeks now and the only thing that has changed is the signs I already mentioned are getting more pronounced...(she has always had a healthy shed)...
I am sorry for such the long post but am I just overreacting a little and being a helicopter parent to my snek? lol
The temps in her cage are perfect! she has a hot spot that is just under 90 and a cool spot that is about 78 and overall temp that is mid 80s and her humidity varies between 65-75%...she also has daytime and night time lights that I switch between the time I wake up and the time I go to sleep. She has a hide but she never uses it...and if I make to fast of a movement she will stop dead in her tracks and I can see her eyes like watch me and then after a few seconds she will go back to flicking her tongue and going on about her business which I thought was kind of odd but that usually happens when I go to her enclosure and check her temps and water and stuff is that normal? She also tenses up when I go to first get her out of her enclosure :(
another thought I had that could be contributing to her odd behavior is that it is getting on winter time and the temps are dropping outside, would that have anything do with her acting different as well? between the move and the seasons changing and her about to go into a shed is just being grumpy and its a miracle she hasn't struck at me yet lol what about breeding season? would that be a factor as well to her high energy and impulse to really want to go explore everything?
any advice on whats happening is greatly appreciated!! and thank you for taking the time to read this super long post! (:
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Its normal for boas to stretch out and stand up when out. They want to explore. Mine do it a lot if i'm doing stuff with them on me. It's worse outside. They will try and grab anything I walk by like rain gutters and branches. Also on my deck in the summer time, my big girl will sometimes try and grab the gutter to the roof lol.
As for hissing on the table, it might have just been her breathing. Some larger boas can get vocal when out and about or excited. it's just them breathing. It sounds like air escaping from a hose lol. You will know when a big boa hisses at you or so I've been told as none of my girls have ever hissed at me but my big girl does breath heavy sometimes when shes out and about and determined to get places I don't want her to get lol.
Temps and stuff are fine. She stops and watches you and tenses up when you pick her up means she doesn't trust you yet. Give it time.
She sounds like a normal acting boa to me. Mine do pretty much the same thing except the stop and tense up part but I've also had them for years so they are used to me and the house so they just go about their business even if someone walks by them. most of the time, if someone walks by, they will actually try and check it out or just ignore it lol.
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