Newly Aggressive Spider Ball..

It is very possible! Is it only during feeding?

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Originally Posted by Shifty11

She still has her original hide in the terrarium on the cool side and only injury is the cut she has on her head, which baffled everyone who saw it, but its all healed up now so no idea why it would still be affecting her..

When we take her out to be handled we normally just let her roam about on our bed or couch, she is normally really good being handled, doesn't seem bothered by it, just slowly slithers around like she would in her hide.

Had people maybe suggest that could just be the season change bothering her.

Shifty

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A weight/length/picture showing size would really help because there is a chance she is just hungry. I worked with some breeder females that would take 2 large ASFs plus if I had any f/t smalls left over. Switch to feeding in the enclosure like you planned, substrate ingestion is little to worry about. If she has never been exposed to a male and is still eating normally, then I doubt it has anything to do with the breeding season. Do you know what caused the scratch? Also, remember, you secret pheromones and all kinds of other chemicals depending on your mood so if your GF approaches her anxious then that can very well trigger defensive behavior in the animal.

Feed her in her home.
She is defensive and like any other snake not aggressive.

Feeding time would be the best time to likely get bit, sounds like a good eater :)

look at all the positive stuff you got going on.

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Originally Posted by Naom9Anne

She might be stressed by the change in hides and the house move possibly? A hide change could be a big deal and that is all I can really think of as to why the sudden change.

The only other option I could think of is injury which could bring on aggression but that doesn't seem to fit here - in all honesty I'm baffled! Everything I'm saying is speculation at this point.

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Yup..two cases,I tried switching my black pastels hide last week,he went in and came right out. I woke up in the morning to find him sleeping behind it,I changed it right back to the old one,came home from work and he was in it...

my ghost just recently shed and while in blue I changed his hide. After all was said and done he shed and came right out of the hide and every night when the lights went out for almost 3 nights he would roam the tank all night,which he never does and he wasn't hungry either,I tried feeding him and he actually wouldn't eat...I was getting nervous,finally after 3 nights he settled in and is back to normal. He's ate 2 time in the last7 days after he settled in :). These snakes can make you a nervous reck

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Originally Posted by Physician&Snakes

A weight/length/picture showing size would really help because there is a chance she is just hungry. I worked with some breeder females that would take 2 large ASFs plus if I had any f/t smalls left over.

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Excellent point, I have a male & female that only eat ASF's that are about the same age as the OP's snake, both are good solid feeders and will take a large ASF each week and look for more. Both are just over 1000 grams, and the male has been breeding this season and never skipped a meal.

I wouldn't be so quick to say you're conditioning the snake to be aggressive out of the tank if you feed her in a separate enclosure. Because conversely, if you fed her in the tank, she would become aggressive when you'd go to pick her up, because a hand in the tank would mean food.

If the ONLY thing you were doing when taking her out of the tank is feeding, then yes, you'd be slowly conditioning her to be aggressive. Same case with feeding in the tank. But because you're doing different things when taking her out, like handling her and letting her roam around, she isn't being conditioned.

I'd be willing to agree that it's simply a grumpy, stressed out snake.
You're more than welcome to try feeding her in the tank, as I don't think either method (in-tank or separate enclosure) has any real impact on aggressive behaviour, but I would definitely handle her a little less.

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Originally Posted by Capt.Britain

I wouldn't be so quick to say you're conditioning the snake to be aggressive out of the tank if you feed her in a separate enclosure. Because conversely, if you fed her in the tank, she would become aggressive when you'd go to pick her up, because a hand in the tank would mean food.

Not if you use tongs. ;)

If the ONLY thing you were doing when taking her out of the tank is feeding, then yes, you'd be slowly conditioning her to be aggressive. Same case with feeding in the tank. But because you're doing different things when taking her out, like handling her and letting her roam around, she isn't being conditioned.

Pavlovian conditioning involves setting certain stimuli to produce certain responses. For example, when I go to handle or perform maintenance on my retics, I show them my snake hook and rub it gently against them, then I proceed to do my business. If I am feeding, the hook is nowhere to be seen and the only thing they see is me, the tongs, and the rat. The only difference with my other specimens is they just see my hand when it's not feeding time. It is more than possible to condition multiple behaviors.

I'd be willing to agree that it's simply a grumpy, stressed out snake.
You're more than welcome to try feeding her in the tank, as I don't think either method (in-tank or separate enclosure) has any real impact on aggressive behaviour, but I would definitely handle her a little less.

I have a scrub who has always been like that; however, this specimen has apparently went from relatively placid to slightly aggressive, and the accepted axiom is that every response has a stimulus, therefore something has caused a change and should be identifiable.

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See bolded.

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Originally Posted by Physician&Snakes

See bolded.

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Good points!
I hadn't considered using a snake hook to help signal that difference for in-tank. That would make quite a difference.
But I don't use snake hooks, and we don't even have one on hand for our education snakes at the zoo since they're all so handle-able, so I wouldn't have ever thought of that. Plus feeding time is usually weekly cleaning time as well, so having snakes out of the tank lets me kill two mice with one stone.

What I was trying to get across, though, is the same thing you're saying. There are different parameters. Taking a snake out and letting it chill on the couch with you is different than taking it out and putting it in a separate feeding tank, so that act of taking the snake out alone wouldn't make it aggressive due to out-of tank feeding, and just as you pointed out, entering the enclosure wouldn't automatically cause aggression for a snake fed in-take.

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Originally Posted by Physician&Snakes

A weight/length/picture showing size would really help because there is a chance she is just hungry. I worked with some breeder females that would take 2 large ASFs plus if I had any f/t smalls left over. Switch to feeding in the enclosure like you planned, substrate ingestion is little to worry about. If she has never been exposed to a male and is still eating normally, then I doubt it has anything to do with the breeding season. Do you know what caused the scratch? Also, remember, you secret pheromones and all kinds of other chemicals depending on your mood so if your GF approaches her anxious then that can very well trigger defensive behavior in the animal.

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Couldn't figure out how to attach a pic to this thread, although here is a link to a picture from today while she was out.

http://motor-obsession.tumblr.com/post/69446371440


Shifty

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Originally Posted by Capt.Britain

What I was trying to get across, though, is the same thing you're saying. There are different parameters. Taking a snake out and letting it chill on the couch with you is different than taking it out and putting it in a separate feeding tank, so that act of taking the snake out alone wouldn't make it aggressive due to out-of tank feeding, and just as you pointed out, entering the enclosure wouldn't automatically cause aggression for a snake fed in-take.

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Yes the problem is, if I feed in a separate enclosure and I remove the animal from the cage, then the animal is in a state of "what is happening". The animal does not know it's handling time until the owner gets to the couch or walks around for awhile...in this little time window, you have major room for error; however, if I feed in the cage, then out of the cage automatically means no food.

I hear you on large collections, I used your "feed and clean" method at the store too simply due to the sheer volume of animals. One reason why I am keeping my collection under 30 specimens...I like the idea of being to instill behavioral cues in my animals