Aggression

Rosie's been acting up lately.

I got her around Christmas and either mom or I have been handling her everyday since. Lately, though, she's been striking at the glass whenever someone even looks her way. A few minutes ago I was looking at her and she struck about four times and then just sat there with her mouth open hissing at me. Last night she bit me. Not a big deal, but it's all happened very suddenly. Very docile, then very aggressive.

She ate a mouse every week fine, but this week we moved her to two mice.
Temps are fine. 80ish ambient, 90ish basking.
Two hides.
UTH and infared heat bulb.
10 gallon tank. [looking to upgrade in the next month or so.]

I'm getting more and more scared of her as the days pass.. I don't want to get rid of her, so if anyone has any experience with this.. help?

It's been our experience (limited though it is) that BCI's grow so quickly that one mouse a week may simply not be enough for Rosie right now. They aren't usually prey specific so perhaps a move up to an appropriate sized rat would calm her if these strikes are hunger induced. She'll eventually have to move up since an adult female BCI is not going to do well on mice (well unless you want to feed a huge number of mice to a big snake LOL). Also we noticed with our BCI's that if they are in high traffic areas with a lot of movement and vibration of feet, they can get snitzy. Does Rosie have hides she uses?

Sorry just noted you said two hides. How big is Rosie? How does she seem in comparison to the 10 gallon tank?

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

It's been our experience (limited though it is) that BCI's grow so quickly that one mouse a week may simply not be enough for Rosie right now. They aren't usually prey specific so perhaps a move up to an appropriate sized rat would calm her if these strikes are hunger induced. She'll eventually have to move up since an adult female BCI is not going to do well on mice (well unless you want to feed a huge number of mice to a big snake LOL). Also we noticed with our BCI's that if they are in high traffic areas with a lot of movement and vibration of feet, they can get snitzy. Does Rosie have hides she uses?

Sorry just noted you said two hides. How big is Rosie? How does she seem in comparison to the 10 gallon tank?

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She uses her two hides, yeah.
Rosie's almost two feet. The 10 gallon seems just the right size for her, whereas it was HUUUGE when I first got her. If she keeps it up, she'll outgrow it in a month or two.

Gosh, I didn't know they ate that much! Guess I'm making the switch to frozen sooner than expected.

Well my son's BCI is about 18 months old or thereabouts and is well over 3 feet long. He eats one good sized weanling rat each week if that gives you any idea. Generally the females are bigger at maturity than the males. The female we fostered was about 5.5 feet when we took her in and is now around 7 feet in length at around 3 years of age.

Where did you purchase Rosie from, and did you have her gender determined by a professional or are you just guessing it's a girl?

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Originally Posted by tigerlily

Where did you purchase Rosie from, and did you have her gender determined by a professional or are you just guessing it's a girl?

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Profressional.
My mom's fiance is friends with a couple breeders [no clue who] and he got her from one of them.

I would try Jo's suggestion of upping his food, and see if that helps. If all the cage conditions are correct, I'd look at the food. It's worth a try. :yes:

Maybe rosie just think's you taste good :-D lol

You're away message is up now so I'll ask here, did she start showing agression before you upped her food or after?

Also, it could be all that poor quality music you make her listen to ;)

Jo is right. When RTB's go through their "growth spurt" they will eat like pigs for months and strike at anything warm if not fed right. I usually feed my babies to yearlings every four days with a rat that leaves a comfortable lump in them each time.

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Originally Posted by Holbeird

Maybe rosie just think's you taste good :-D lol

You're away message is up now so I'll ask here, did she start showing agression before you upped her food or after?

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Before.