My Pastel Tried to Kill My Spider!!!!

They have been breeding on and off since October and the pastel (female) has refused food for the past two weeks. I went to put the spider (male) in with her today and she shot out of the tub grabbed him and started constricting!!!!! I have NEVER seen anything like this. It was like full blown feeding response on her poor boyfriend. I started harassing her until she let him go and came after me....I really didn't know what else to do and I was kinda panicking.

Anyway, I got her back in her tub and inspected him. He seems as shaken up as a ball python can be...and he's got a really nasty bite around his neck. I went ahead and put neosporin on it...if it starts to swell I'll take him to the vet on Monday.

But seriously!!! I am just like OMG right now.

:O

Wow....amazing! I personally have never heard of that but then again....I have not gotten a chance to breed yet. There are lots of ppl on here that will be able to answer what happened. I will be interested to see what they say.

My uneducated guess...is she building right now?

Poor lil guy....he thought he was gonna get some action and she went all bobitt on him.

I honestly thought that she was probably close to or slightly past ovy. She eats like a beast, so her refusing two meals in a row is definitely a sign of some sort. BUT, this most certainly seemed like a feeding response. I wasn't feeding at the time so other than the rats that are always in the room...nothing should have been saying "DING DING DING...come and get it!"

I would think just like human women.....they may get a little cranky during pregnancy. Again just me guessing....... but holy cow!!

Have you tried to offer her food again?

Thank god you were there when it happened

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Originally Posted by BPelizabeth

I would think just like human women.....they may get a little cranky during pregnancy. Again just me guessing....... but holy cow!!

Have you tried to offer her food again?

Thank god you were there when it happened

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Besides the spider you mean, right? :rofl:

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Originally Posted by pavlovk1025

Besides the spider you mean, right? :rofl:

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:O.....oye! She is like the black widow and the prey mantis that once they mate offs the male.

I have read of this happening to someone else on another forum. So what I do and a suggestion to the OP is when you go to introduce the male keep him back away from the tub and touch her a few times to let her know its not feeding time. Then put the male in. This seems to work for my overly excited/aggressive snakes.

Black Widow Pastel...that sounds like the name of a new morph...haha

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Originally Posted by BLong7211

I have read of this happening to someone else on another forum. So what I do and a suggestion to the OP is when you go to introduce the male keep him back away from the tub and touch her a few times to let her know its not feeding time. Then put the male in. This seems to work for my overly excited/aggressive snakes.

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Yeah that's a good suggestion. She's always been a pretty aggressive feeder (comes after me like that all the time), but I bred them all last year and most of this year and NOTHING like this has ever happened. So I really wasn't even thinking that I needed to let her know its not feeding time...:rolleye2:

Holy cow i have seen some grouchy females with PMS but never one before SEX :rolleyes:.Glad the little guy is ok :gj:.I wonder what he was thinking the whole time? :O

Had it happen to me this year..she didn't constrict but this female normaly bites first and asks questions later..As I was moving males around she poped him twice. It's not an everyday thing but it does happen.

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Originally Posted by joepythons

I wonder what he was thinking the whole time? :O

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Buzz Kill....

I had a female come shooting out of the tub last Friday when I was about to put Winston in with her. I think that she thought I was bringing a rat offering, not a boyfriend offering. I touched her a few times so that she realized that it was not food, and then I was able to put him in with her.

it's a feeding response,most probably caused by either movement or the heat of your hand or both. Soundslike she just had one of those react before thinking/smelling moments. I hope your spider boy does ok!

Wow, that is crazy... I hope this never happens to me, but if it does at least I know what to do!

Hope the spider recovers!

Poor guy, he got some action alright sheesh. Hope he heals fine

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Originally Posted by bman123

Poor guy, he got some action alright sheesh. Hope he heals fine

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He is probably scared of her :P.I mean cmon he wanted to play and she ATTACKED him :rolleye2:

reminds me of the movie species were the human/alien would refuse a non perfect male and kill him lol..

or she some clanner that controls the gene pool and he failed the muster this trip.

I had a Dumerils Boa that would attack anything that went into her enclosure. Rat, boyfriend, me, etc. This snake has been the only snake I've ever had to hook train. I quickly learned to put her into the male's enclosure. I do believe you will find this type of behavior is somewhat typical for female snakes. Since this happened, I have always put the female into the male's enclosure and I've never had this problem since.

Something to ponder.
Jim Smith

had the spider fed recently?
was there any smell of food in the air?
had you been handling prey species?

any of these could've triggered the response...

That sux I hope the spider guy is ok!!!

Perhaps you could give her a lesson that she is not a kingsnake, nor even a kingpin, and that although her mate is a spider, he is not of the black widow species? :D

Not that I'm recommending experimenting, but I wonder what would have happened if you had not interfered? Would she have realized her mistake? Or would she have killed the spider and eaten him?

I have had them come at the male fast, even strike, but never constrict.

Happened to my 2x last season, same male and female both times. Gave me quite a scare and the 2nd time took about 30 secs to get her to uncontrict... male is fine.

Lesson learned. Make sure the female knows she's not getting fed before adding the male.

Justin

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Originally Posted by Freakie_frog

Had it happen to me this year..she didn't constrict but this female normaly bites first and asks questions later..As I was moving males around she poped him twice. It's not an everyday thing but it does happen.

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LOL! Sorry for laughing but she must have been hungry...poor boy :D

With BPs being such picky eaters, I am surprised these thing happen.

October is a little early to start breeding!

Thanks for all the replies!! The spider looks ok. There's no swelling, but you can still see the teeth marks on him...poor fella. Also, to clarify some things:
-When this happened I hadn't fed in over a week...so no he did not smell like rat. lol
-My spider is 1500+ grams and the pastel is 2000+ grams, so this was particularly startling since both are rather large...however, I do wonder if it had been a smaller male if she would have seriously hurt him?
-I also wonder if I hadn't been there if she would have killed him...I don't think she would have eaten him, but she may have been "in the zone" enough to kill him...
-Thanks to those who said this has happened to them before...nice to know I don't have the only psycho snake...haha

Thanks again! I feel like he'll be ok. Not sure if he'll ever want to breed again, but physically ok...:rolleyes: