Has this ever happened to you?

I have a super pastel male that's breeding for the first time this year. About a week ago he shed and I immediately put him in with a female, a couple of days later straight from that female's bin to another one. He'd been out of his cage for almost a week.

I put him back in his cage and he goes wild. I mean he's having violent spasm, and throwing his water bowl around. Total chaos.

I take him out and he shoots straight up and is still convulsing.

I put him in a holding area while I take it all in and hope that it's not something that I brought back home from the reptiles show. In the holding area he calms right down and acts normal. I check out his cage and notice that I didn't take his shed out at the beginning of the week.

Suddenly it dawns on me that his behavior looks very much like the behavior of male ritualistic fighting.

I take the now calm snake and put him back in his cage. Again he flips out. I take him out and a 30 seconds late he's OK.

I put him back in the holding area, clean his cage with soap and water (remove the shed) and prove my theory right....all aggression is gone.

It seems that he didn't recognize his own smell after being out of his cage for a while. Very interesting.

Has anyone ever experienced this?

Denis
denjenn reptiles
www.pythonregius.ca

It does sound like he was so tuned into breeding, that he smelled the hormones on the shed and didn't know that it wasn't his own. The behavior does sound like male combat behavior.

I think you likely keyed into the source of the problem.

Thanks for sharing that experience, it may help someone in the future! :)

No but I have had them start the battling thing with my arm when I've reached in and grabbed them out of a tub with a female. Normally this happens when I grab them from the top. If I scoop under them they seems fine but there's something about things being ontop of them they dislike.

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Originally Posted by Freakie_frog

No but I have had them start the battling thing with my arm when I've reached in and grabbed them out of a tub with a female. Normally this happens when I grab them from the top. If I scoop under them they seems fine but there's something about things being ontop of them they dislike.

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Leave it to Ed to have a male combat his arm! :P

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Originally Posted by rabernet

Leave it to Ed to have a male combat his arm! :P

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I'll take that over biting any day of the week.

Wow that is odd. That says alot for the pheramone(spelling) theory about leaving shed in while breeding. Thanks for sharing.

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Originally Posted by West Coast Jungle

Wow that is odd. That says alot for the pheramone(spelling) theory about leaving shed in while breeding. Thanks for sharing.

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Sounds like my breeder females are going to be trading sheds in the future!!!
Thanks for the info!!!!!!!

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Originally Posted by patenaud

I have a super pastel male that's breeding for the first time this year. About a week ago he shed and I immediately put him in with a female, a couple of days later straight from that female's bin to another one. He'd been out of his cage for almost a week.

I put him back in his cage and he goes wild. I mean he's having violent spasm, and throwing his water bowl around. Total chaos.

I take him out and he shoots straight up and is still convulsing.

I put him in a holding area while I take it all in and hope that it's not something that I brought back home from the reptiles show. In the holding area he calms right down and acts normal. I check out his cage and notice that I didn't take his shed out at the beginning of the week.

Suddenly it dawns on me that his behavior looks very much like the behavior of male ritualistic fighting.

I take the now calm snake and put him back in his cage. Again he flips out. I take him out and a 30 seconds late he's OK.

I put him back in the holding area, clean his cage with soap and water (remove the shed) and prove my theory right....all aggression is gone.

It seems that he didn't recognize his own smell after being out of his cage for a while. Very interesting.

Has anyone ever experienced this?

Denis
denjenn reptiles
www.pythonregius.ca

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just wanna say thanks for sharing....good info:gj:

Very interesting. I'd never thought about that, but I guess it makes sense. Thanks for sharing.