Aggression

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Originally Posted by ewelch

I included the basking spot in the temperature (its 98) his worm side is 86 (dropping to about 83 at night) at the moment and his cool side is 78 but it usually drops to 74 or 75 at night. I noticed that he started to get more aggressive when I made his enclosure more secluded (I covered the sides of his tank with black construction paper) before that he wouldn't even S-up at me.

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TOO hot, enclosure TOO big he needs a much smaller enclosure as mentioned above, and the only move in the 40 gallon when full grown.

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Originally Posted by Deborah

Ok downsize to a 15 quarts tubs, get a DIGITAL thermometer/Hygrometer (analog are far from being reliable), provide 78/82 on the cool side and 88/92 on the warm side, and no more handling for a while.

The aggression is stressed related the cause can be found in your husbandry and happened over time.

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I just ordered a digital thermometer/hydrometer with duel probes, I will house him in a smaller tub that I have (although I won't move him till tomorrow to give him some time to calm down after striking at me today.) I will decrease his basking spot temp(I have a smaller bulb I can use). Hopefully he'll be the sweet snake he once was in a couple of weeks :) What do I do about feeding? Tomorrow is his normal feed day and he has been feeding fine even after he started getting aggressive. Should I wait a few days to feed him? He's moved enclosures before and has been fine with eating even the same day after moving enclosures (I had him in a 10gL tank for a few weeks before I got the 40gL for him).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ewelch

I just ordered a digital thermometer/hydrometer with duel probes, I will house him in a smaller tub that I have (although I won't move him till tomorrow to give him some time to calm down after striking at me today.) I will decrease his basking spot temp(I have a smaller bulb I can use). Hopefully he'll be the sweet snake he once was in a couple of weeks :) What do I do about feeding? Tomorrow is his normal feed day and he has been feeding fine even after he started getting aggressive. Should I wait a few days to feed him? He's moved enclosures before and has been fine with eating even the same day after moving enclosures (I had him in a 10gL tank for a few weeks before I got the 40gL for him).

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Problem is that stress does not always translate into an animal not feeding, it can also translate into aggression and sometimes both.

Once he move I would give him a week to settle before offering food, no handling for a week or two and than limit your handling to about twice a week and see how he does.

In no time he will be back to a normal behaving BP I am sure ;)