Snake Hissing..

My snakes been hissing at me for the past couple days everytime i try to take him out of his tank. Not sure why.. I know hes not going into shed cuz he just got out of shed 2-3 weeks ago. Awsome shed all in one piece. He has been acting a little funny. Like he will keep his body in his hide but take his head out and rest it on a log in the middle of the tank. He does this alot like sometimes all day unless suprised. Hes also been very quick to pull back into the hide. He seems stressed but im not sure from what. He also has not eaten in a little over a month but i think its semi-normal for this season. He has not been very active at night either past couple nights when i wake up hes been in his hide.

Tank info. 40gal. 2 hides same hot side hide is 88-92 cold side hide 78-81. Ambient air temp 80-83. humidity 40-60% water bowl in middle. temp controler for the UTH and a dimmer on my fluckers lamp with a red night bulb. Substrate is just paper towels because he was having a mite problem a week ago but seems controled now.

Thank you in advance.

Some of mine hiss at me all the time, they are usually more bark than bite ;)

I'm going to say maybe he is stressed out from the mites and treatment? Some seem to get stressed out over EVERYTHING and some dont care lol. Just let him be and make sure he doesnt start getting skinny or anything

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Originally Posted by LGray23

Some of mine hiss at me all the time, they are usually more bark than bite ;)

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Usually lol.

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Originally Posted by pigfat

Usually lol.

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LoL I cannot emphasize usually enough, my OG male is a jerk :rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by LGray23

LoL I cannot emphasize usually enough, my OG male is a jerk :rolleyes:

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He's not a jerk. The poor guy is just misunderstood.....lol

Yes, I misunderstood that he hates me and doesn't care if I'm just changing his water bowl for him :rolleyes: lol I love him to bits either way :love:

2 king snakes, 2 ball pythons and a boa, none of them hiss me so far. One king snake just strike without hissing. Practically, I have never heard of my own snake hissing. Sometimes I want to know how its feel like... LOL

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Originally Posted by LGray23

Yes, I misunderstood that he hates me and doesn't care if I'm just changing his water bowl for him :rolleyes::

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Mine does the same thing! As soon as I pull his drawer out hes crawling out ready to defend his water bowl haha.

Mine just hissed at me for the first time this morning! All I was doing was checking his temps, and I scooted his butt to move his hide, and he hissed twice. I was so surprised, he's usually a little skiddish but generally pretty chill. He also hasn't eaten in over a month, and had mites and treatment recently. So yours sounds exactly like mine. Except that mine does have pink belly, so I'm expecting a shed soonish.

Yea im not sure why he's been so grumpy. I never take him out of the tank when he hisses thou cuz its basicly him telling me to leave him the hell alone. Even when hes out and about doing crazy stuff in the tank an i try to take him out he hisses at me lol. I know he dosen't hate me cuz hes not a mamal and dosen't have feelings or anything.

My humidity does drop down to 30% sometimes because i have a screen top. Can someone link me to the thread about covering it with aluminum foil cuz i cant seem to find it!.

Any other tricks to keep the humidity up. I feel like when i mist his tank he gets pissed off as well lol

Humidity was a huge battle for me as well. It's hard when you have to use a lamp for ambient temps, they fix one problem by creating a new one. :rage:

My solution was a humid hide. Solved ALL of my shed problems. I just have it in there all the time, and my snake knows exactly when she needs it. I still give the tank a mist every few days, and yes, my snake HATES it, and will generally hiss at me if I try to touch her afterwards. Personally, I figure it is better to piss them off for a few seconds with a misting than let humidity drop tooooo low. No, they don't like, but tough. You could do your misting when the snake is out of the enclosure, when you are holding it or something, just when it is convenient, I really don't think it traumatizes them too badly.

Also, sorry about your mite problem. I just got through dealing with that myself. PAM is truly a miracle product. I think your snake's stress is mite related, mine was soooo stressed the week I was waiting for PAM to come in the mail. I felt terrible for her.

Viper, is your snake very young? I was going through Jackson's logbook and when he was a little thing he shed every 3 weeks to a month. So if he's a baby, he might be about to shed...?

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Originally Posted by viper8940

Yea im not sure why he's been so grumpy. I never take him out of the tank when he hisses thou cuz its basicly him telling me to leave him the hell alone. Even when hes out and about doing crazy stuff in the tank an i try to take him out he hisses at me lol. I know he dosen't hate me cuz hes not a mamal and dosen't have feelings or anything.

My humidity does drop down to 30% sometimes because i have a screen top. Can someone link me to the thread about covering it with aluminum foil cuz i cant seem to find it!.

Any other tricks to keep the humidity up. I feel like when i mist his tank he gets pissed off as well lol

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My first bp was in a tank with locking screen. Had the whole humidity problem like normal. I'm sure there are alot of member's that can tell you there trick's. I had to ghetto rig my top to keep the humidity right (which never reallly worked). Misting daily is a pain and is temporary, once it evaporates your back to were u started.
You could try and put a nice size water bowl on you hot spot. Or, you can convert to a tub with a snapping lid. Solves the humidity and ambient temp issue.

If I walk too quickly, or move too quickly while in the snake room, I occasionally get a hiss from some unidentified area of the racks...I think they just get startled.
One female of mine hisses whenever she's being picked up or moved, but never tries to strike, or even ball up. Just letting you know she's not pleased, lol.

My snakes about 2 years old and about 3 ft long. I just recently saw the alumium foil trick with the tape and did that for the screen. Let me tell you that did help alottttt. Also put a bunch of moss around his water bowl so when he goes into it for a bath an it spills out it collects in the moss. I have an electtric oil heater in my room that i keep next to his tank to help keep him warm but it makes my room so hot i just always wear shorts an tang top in my room now. But it is winter. And i do live upstate NY. lol

I had a similar issue with humidity, as it gets desert-dry in my section of the world in the winter. I've been able to hold it steady at 50% for the last few weeks by covering just under half of the screen with a damp dish rag with a large book over it (the book is more for cage security, lol). Probably 2/3 or even 3/4 of the screen top is completely covered by the rag/book setup, heat lamp & a smaller book to help secure the other side of the cage. A daily spritzing on his fake plants & re-wetting the towel once per day is all the extra work I've needed to do. & Anicho hates the spritzer with a passion. I try to focus the spritzing on whichever side of the tank he's not on, with limited success.

My little guy was sitting on his poop when I went to give his cage the inspection. Gave me a little hiss and I said to myself "Seriously? You are mad that I am cleaning up your crap?"

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Originally Posted by blueberrypancakes

Viper, is your snake very young? I was going through Jackson's logbook and when he was a little thing he shed every 3 weeks to a month. So if he's a baby, he might be about to shed...?

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I think Fang is like at least four or five months and shed last on Feb 2nd so could he be going into a shed after 2 1/2 weeks because it looks like his belly is getting pink again?

Has anything in the environment outside of the cage changed or become stressful? I know it sounds crazy, but when we have friends with kids over, or when my hubby and I fight ( :rolleyes: ) my BP gets stressed, even if nobody is even looking in her direction that day/night. She's never hissed or struck, but she's much more tense and hides deeper inside her hide than normal. Same thing when we're doing home repair--anything that will cause good reverberations through the structure of the house (stomping, slamming doors, even vacuums sometimes) will cause her to act differently than under normal circumstances. Her normal behavior is to just hang out in her hide. At night she'll poke her head out almost all the time--hungry or not.

As far as humidity, mine HATES it when I mist. It really got in the way of our relationship. I stopped misting and started using a humid hide. I dampen a wad of moss and keep it in her hide. I also keep dampened moss that I situate on a piece of decorative driftwood, and make sure the water bowl is large enough and situated under the lamp. She's never had a bad shed doing this, and it definitely doesn't stress her out nearly as much as misting.