My Ball Python wants to eat me. T_T

So, I got a Ball Python a couple months ago. When I got her she was very sweet. The previous owner had her for several years, and she had never bit anyone. Recently though, she has been acting rather strange. Twice she has tried to bite me when I was cleaning her tank, and one time she was successful. When she did bite me, she held on and wouldn't let go. I'd think that if it was because she was aggravated or afraid it would have been a quick bite and release. At the moment she has been quickly moving towards my hand, and when I try to hold her with gloves on, she wraps around my hand very tightly and bolts around. She just shed a couple weeks ago, so I don't think it has anything to do with that. I also fed her a medium sized adult rat a couple days ago. I feed her one medium sized rat about her width every week, so I don't think she is hungry. Also, I don't have a thermometer in her tank, but the temperature of the room she is in is 88 degrees at the moment....


I have also been having problems with her during feeding. She was fine when I first got her, but one day I ended up getting the scent of rat on my hand when I was putting her in her feeding tank, and she bit me. Ever since then whenever I try to put her in or take her out of her feeding tank she tries to bite me. Because of this I always have to wear gloves when I feed her.

Any idea what could be wrong? I really like her a lot, and hate having to worry about her going omnomnom on my hand when I hold her. :(

What are her hot and cold side temps?

Have you tried not taking her out of her tank to feed and just feed her inside her tank?

Is her tank wide open where a lot of traffic walks through? Does she have a hot and a cold side hide?

What you are describing sounds like hunting behavior. It does seem odd, since she eats every week. However, I have found that even younger females can become voracious this time of year as they gear up for breeding season in a few months. If on the other hand, she's a bigger girl, you may not be feeding her enough. We tend to be a little timid about prey, believing our snake cannot possibly eat something "that" big.

Does she have two tight, secure hides? If she has a heat pad or lamp, you need a thermostat for it, and a thermometer to measure your temps. Incorrect temps can result in a very cranky snake, trust me on this one.

I personally don't move my snakes for feeding. Contrary to the myth that feeding them in their enclosure will make them aggressive, if anything moving a hungry snake in hunt mode is a LOT more likely to get you bitten.

Provide us with as much information on her day to day life, and we'll try to puzzle this out for you.

Gale

Like I said, I don't have a thermometer in the tank, but the room's temperature is 88 degrees, and the temperature in her tank is about the same except for where the heat lamp is, which is kept on the side opposite of her hide. I know I'm supposed to keep a thermometer in it, have a hot and warm side, two hides and all that, but I don't have the money to buy it all. She is better off than she was before though, the previous owners never tried to keep the tank humid, and her only heat source was a very tiny heat rock. :\

I haven't tried feeding her in her normal tank because I'm afraid it will just make her start biting me anytime I put my hand in it. Her tank is currently kept in the room with the least activity.

When you first got her, she was probably calm and 'tame' because she was freezing cold. Since you've warmed her up slightly, she's active enough to be pissed off that her temperatures and house are not comfortable for her.

It really doesn't cost much to set her up properly. A cheap thermostat runs you at about $30 (http://www.amazon.com/Hydrofarm-MTPR...pr_product_top), two hides made from plastic planters with a hole cut in the side will be maximum $4, depending on what size you get (http://www.homedepot.com/Outdoors-Ga...&storeId=10051), and you can find UTH's on Craigstlist for around $10. Even brand new from pet stores, they're only $20.

I'm sure you can scrounge up $50 or so for your girl :gj:

This about everything about her and her tanks:
Her normal tank 36 inches long, 18 inches wide and 18 inches tall. On one side she has a half log hide, and on the other side she has a large water bowl and a heat lamp with a 75 wat bulb. I usually move the heat lamp to the side with the hide if it is cold in the room, or turn it off if it is hot in the room.
her substrate is about 2 inches of Petland's Jungle Mix, which is made from fir bark and peat moss. I mist the tank a couple times a day.

Her feeding tank is twenty gallons and is kept in our garage. It has about an inch of Reptibark for substrate. I feed her a live, adult, medium sized rat every Saturday in the tank. I put the rat in first, wash my hands, and then put the snake in. After she kills and swallows the rat, I give her a few minutes before I gently pick her up and put her back in her normal tank. I always wait 24 hours to handle her after she is fed.

She is about four feet long and 3 inches wide at the thickest part of her body. When she isn't trying to bite me, I like to hold her for an hour or two while I play games on the computer. :P

Craaaaap. Never meant to post anything. I got a bit confused with the edit post thing. D:
Can a mod delete this post?

I think the major reason she's cranky is husbandry. Temperatures really shouldn't be a guessing game, no matter how much worse her situation was before. I feel your pain that everything feels so expensive, especially starting out, but believe me when I say that the piece of mind it gives is worth whatever the price tag is.

Are you measuring humidity at all? Jungle mix and multiple daily mistings might leave you with really high humidity.

Lastly, I highly recommend feeding her in her enclosure. A BP will not mistake your hand for food, as long as it doesn't smell like her food. She already sounds stressed, so moving her around before and after feeding probably isn't helping her to relax.

And where are the pictures, no thread is complete without pics! :snake:

I agree with the temps: they really need to be exact. She needs a gradient: warm side 90-92 degrees and a cold side, not a constant 88 degrees ambient through the whole tank. She should also have two exact hides, again one on the hot and one on the cold.

How often do you handle her? Sometimes prolonged handling or constant handling will make BPs stressed out and possibly act defensive (or "aggressive").

room is 88 plus a 75 watt bulb? shes probably waaaaay too hot!

People keep saying that enclosure feeding doesn't lead to cage aggression, but I do have one big dumb male black pastel that exhibits CLASSIC cage aggression. If you're already having to use gloves, I'm going to argue that there's no harm feeding in a separate enclosure for a month or two, and seeing if that improves her behavior the rest of the time. (And if you do try that, and it does help, I'm going to also suggest developing a signal at the end of feeding, so that she knows eating time is over and doesn't go for your hand when you try to put her back. I use a cardboard box for feeding George: when I'm out of rats, I turn the box on its side and dump him out on the table. It ain't dignified, but at least George knows meal time is over and stops with the idiotic biting.)

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Originally Posted by lefty

room is 88 plus a 75 watt bulb? shes probably waaaaay too hot!

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x2 I am surprised this wasnt the first thing that was addressed. If she doesnt have a cool side she cannot regulate her body heat. They move from their hot sides to their cool sides because believe it or not they do need to cool off. you should try to drop the heat in your room to around 80. I get cranky when I cant get cool on a hot summers day! lol.

@Lefty
Her lamp is off right now. If the room is hot I turn it off....

I'll try to save up for all the proper stuff, but it might take a while. :\
I hold her about two hours every day, except when she is getting ready to shed or if she ate recently. I'll start feeding her in her normal enclosure now.

BTW, here are a few pics of her and her tank:
http://i.imgur.com/zJyiC.jpg (this pic was taken when I first got her)
http://i.imgur.com/zbSrO.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/gDkRA.jpg
Sorry they are bad quality, they were taken with a cell phone. =P


I'm curious though, is it normal for her to hold on when she bites? The few times she has bitten me, she wouldn't let go. Is that normal for them if they bite when they are aggravated?

Dang, I can't keep up with all these comments. I finish writing a reply to one comment and then realize there are three more. xD

I'm wondering... what room are you keeping her in your house that has an ambient temp of 88? :weirdfaceJust curious really cause that's flippin' hot lol. Is there another room you can move her to that is cooler maybe? My office/now reptile room is kept at a constant 80 by adjusting the flow of A/C via the floor vent. That being said, my snake enclosure only fluctuates between 80-82. I also have a 75 watt infrared heat lamp that keeps the hot spot at 90-92. You really do need a way to measure the ambient, hot spot, and humidity. Most people on here suggest the Accurite thermometer... Walmart carries these for $12. The box part measures the ambient temp/humidity and it has a sensor that can be placed on the hot side so everything can be monitored by one device. Sounds like you only have the one hide on the one side.... might be a good idea to get to identical hides, a hot hide and a cool hide for each side of the tank. They're not huge fans of the hides like the logs; one way in, one way out hideys seem to work better. Leave the heat lamp on one side. Hides don't have to be fancy or expensive... pots for plants, shoe boxes with a hole in the side, etc work fine. Mine currently has 2 identical terra cotta pots that were like $1.50 at Lowes. Just chiseled the drain hole larger and smoothed the edges with sand paper. :) There is even a hidey project in the DYI part of this forum that's pretty cost effective. Good luck to you.

BTW, waiting 2-3 days for handling after a feed seems to be the standard advice to keep the snake from getting too stressed.

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Originally Posted by Solstice

I'm curious though, is it normal for her to hold on when she bites? The few times she has bitten me, she wouldn't let go. Is that normal for them if they bite when they are aggravated?

Dang, I can't keep up with all these comments. I finish writing a reply to one comment and then realize there are three more. xD

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Lol! I have only been tagged by my babies and they only bite and let go all quicklike. Maybe she just likes how you taste? :)

@LadyWraith
AC doesn't work upstairs in our house, so all the rooms up here are around 88 degrees. She is not the only one who is suffering from the heat. :P
I would move her downstairs where it is cooler, but my dad doesn't want guests to get scared when they see her.


Does anyone know if she might get annoyed by wind? I can move her beneath a ceiling fan, that might cool her down some...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Solstice

@Lefty
I'm curious though, is it normal for her to hold on when she bites? The few times she has bitten me, she wouldn't let go. Is that normal for them if they bite when they are aggravated?

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Yeah, that's a hardcore feeding bite, not a defensive bite. Not even a feeding "mistake", because even my stupid George lets go after he bites me instead of his rat. Sorry, man those suck. I've only really gotten the latch-and-wrap once, from someone else's ball python. The animal was basically starving because some vet had told the owner it was obese and needed to be fed a single rat once a month. That's fine during winter, but then the poor snake was going out of its mind with hunger in the summer. :mad:

So, I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that she's hit her summer pre-breeding growth spurt, and she's just SUPER hungry. Ball pythons get dumber the hungrier they are, and they really only do a bite-and-latch if they're ready to eat an entire rat colony. I would keep feeding weekly, but I would start offering multiple prey items. Try two or three rats. That's pretty typical for a female getting ready for breeding. If she downs those, consider offering four.

She'll get fat, and then she'll stop the crazy eating abruptly in October or November or December. She might even fast for a couple months, which is ANOTHER way ball pythons drive their owners bananas. But let's cross that bridge when we get to it...

ps. How old is she? Or if you don't know, how big is she?

- - - Updated - - -

Oh, what kind of water bowl do you have? I have some big ceramic ones, and the females will wrap themselves around them or even park themselves in the water when they get really hot. Not as good as getting the A/C fixed, but it's better than nothing.

Oh, hey! I just got a latch-and-wrap bite 30 seconds ago from the world's nicest piebald male, as I was moving him from his girlfriend's tub into another one, while carrying a rat in my other hand. Stupid. Ow, ow, ow.

Yeah, it's all summer hunger. Just feed her multiple items.

I feed in a separate tank, put snake in first then the mouse!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I think a gradient is important. You want to mimic the natural habitat as best you can. If you don't have a thermometer, how do you know it's 88 degrees up there? With a heat lamp it could get way over 100... not ok.

This is what you're aiming for, never below 70 and never above 90:

http://74.54.19.227/GHP/img/pics/60806502.gif
Source:http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePag...hy/climate.php

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Solstice

@Lefty
Her lamp is off right now. If the room is hot I turn it off....

xD

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thats good. but the problem is that if the whole room is 88 then the snakes enclosure is at 88 without any cool area. 88 is plenty warm but the snake must have an area to cool down. i keep mine at 88-91 on the warm side and 76 on the coolest side. this is done in a room thats at 72 degrees. i use a UTH and a 40 watt bulb in a 20l size tank. even in an 80 degree room, with the 75 watt light on, im sure i ts climbing to 100 degrees or higher. that will=cranky unhappy and unhealthy snakes. i'd say your best bet is a therm. and temp regulation. i bet she calms right down.

as for feeding in their tanks, i've done it for 20 years. never been bitten. the only times i've been struck at were when something funky had happened to temps(burned out bulb, worn out uth....)

If you want a cheap and easy way to cool down the room you could try getting one of those big box fans and put a couple two liter bottles filled with ice (freeze them) behind the fan to help circulate some cool air.


I know money can be tight sometimes but there are a few simple pieces of equipment you just can't skimp on. You NEED a thermometer in that cage. Time to gather up your pennies and get one! The best thermometer for your money is the Accurite weather station. It has a probe for measuring the hot spot, and also measures humidity and temperature at the unit. It costs about $11. If you can't afford something that is required and only costs $11, then I don't know what to tell you. I hate to say that you should pass on the snake to someone more financially stable, but that would be my advice. I know you are trying to do the best with what you have, but you do need a little bit more.

Also, I would defiantly get her some new hides. The half log hide does next to nothing for making your snake feel secure. Here is what I would suggest. Head over to the dollar store (surely you have a dollar?) and buy yourself two plastic bowls that you think the snake would fit snugly under. I usually find these bowls in a two pack which is awesome since you want two identical hides. Cut a small hole for an entrance and smooth the cut edge with a lighter. Then cover the back and sides of your tank with some black construction paper. Any color will do really. The idea is to make your snake feel less exposed.

A few simple adjustments can really make a difference in the snakes behavior, but it will take a week or two to notice the difference. Snakes can get stressed and pissy when you make changed to their environment. Good luck!

Thanks for all the help everyone. =)
I fed her another rat, got her two new hide boxes, moved the tank downstairs where it is cooler, and got a thermometer and hygrometer. Currently the cold side temperature is 82 degrees, the hot side is 88 degrees and the humidity is 51%.

ATM she is sitting in her hide with her head poking out the entrance. She looks like she is waiting for food or something. I guess maybe she is still hungry?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Solstice

Thanks for all the help everyone. =)
I fed her another rat, got her two new hide boxes, moved the tank downstairs where it is cooler, and got a thermometer and hygrometer. Currently the cold side temperature is 82 degrees, the hot side is 88 degrees and the humidity is 51%.

ATM she is sitting in her hide with her head poking out the entrance. She looks like she is waiting for food or something. I guess maybe she is still hungry?

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Much better!

If you just fed her then she is probably full. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Solstice

Thanks for all the help everyone. =)
I fed her another rat, got her two new hide boxes, moved the tank downstairs where it is cooler, and got a thermometer and hygrometer. Currently the cold side temperature is 82 degrees, the hot side is 88 degrees and the humidity is 51%.

ATM she is sitting in her hide with her head poking out the entrance. She looks like she is waiting for food or something. I guess maybe she is still hungry?

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good job. she should mellow out and become a happy snake.

WTG! Your BP will be so much happier with the cooler temps and a way to monitor them. :)