Did I do something wrong? (Struck at me.)

Hello! This is my first post here, Figured more mundane questions would be better suited on a forum like this rather than the breeder forum I usually browse.

So, I'm a newbie snake owner! I've got a gorgeous little Firefly, August 2012 I believe, and a Butterbee on hold I'll be picking up soon. However, just a couple weeks ago I picked up something of a rescue. Her name is Luca, her owner couldn't keep her any longer due to financial trouble and she's been a real sweetheart since I got her. Her last owner told me that she's approx. 3 years old she thinks (She got her from someone else about a year ago.) and has never struck at her, always eats well, etc etc. I got her for next to nothing so I didn't ask questions, she's been really gentle with me for the most part and I've really enjoyed getting to know her.

I purchased a rack the day before I got her, I can't remember the model at the moment but it's made for adult balls and she fits in it perfectly. she's got a hide, a large water dish, And I'm sure to check the temps regularly (I've got a Thermostat for it, don't worry.) to be sure they're where they should be. She's always in her hide when I check in on her, and she's seemed pretty happy. she ate and everything, and things were good.

However, this week she's been very hissy with me. Whenever I pull out her tub to socialize with her and remove her hide to see her, she hisses at me right away. The first couple times she did it I backed off, figuring she was in a bad mood and to let her have her peace. A couple times she's hissed and I've gently taken her out for just a moment anyways to make sure she wasn't serious about being angry and she's seemed okay afterwards, but all the same... I had to feed her tonight, and here's where the problem happened.

I opened her tub same as ever, removed her hide so she'd be able to have space to strike properly and see the prey. She hissed at me, same as usual, ducked away from the rat at the beginning when I offered it but she took it finally. After she took it, I started to carefully slide the tub back in again... as I did so, she uncoiled from the rat, hissing as she did so, and then struck at me. I backed away, thinking she thought Iw as trying to take her rat away from her. But even though I was a few steps back from the rack, she struck again, actually trying to jump out of the rack to get at me.

I backed away to the other side of the room, she was still poised to strike and tracking me with her head, so I grabbed an empty box (We're moving soon, so plenty of folded up boxes in that room at the moment.) And gently covered the tub with it so I could get close enough to close it. I'm not even sure if she's taken the rat at the moment, I'll have to go back in to check on her soon but I'm still shaken up, and scared if I open the tub she's going to jump at me right away.

What was my mistake here? Is it the environment, was it me hovering too close when she'd taken the rat? She's been so sweet, I'm scared I've done something wrong and she's going to strike at me like this again.

Thanks for any advice, I appreciate it!

Is it possible that she is going into shed?

What is the temperature of the room that the rack is in?

Has anything else changed at all?

^ I'll bet it's shedding or getting close.

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It's possible that she is going into a shed, when this happens they have a tendency to get rather ill tempered because they are unable to see as clearly. Has she gone milky at all? I have a ball python that hisses as well, he is a yearling and all I do is pick him up even if he hisses at me. His scare tactics do not worry me, he gets over it immediately after I take him out and hold him for a bit, then he becomes very feely and won't sit still. He does this no matter what part of his cycle he is in. He could be freshly shed or about to start sloughing skin and he would do it. Just work with her and I'm sure she will come around though. Good luck!

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Originally Posted by The Serpent Merchant

Is it possible that she is going into shed?

What is the temperature of the room that the rack is in?

Has anything else changed at all?

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Thanks everyone for responding firstly, this one had the most questions soooooo..

It is very possible she's going into shed, again these are my first snakes and I've yet to WITNESS a shed in person yet, but she seems to be getting a TINY bit on the milky side. If she is, it's very faint still, she'd JUST be going into it. I expect her to be grumpy around shed time, but the FEROCITY that she struck at me with, she could very clearly sense where I was and she was NOT about letting me get away.
The room she's in is about 20c, but her hot spot is about 90f in the rack.
As for anything else changing, Nope. As I said, I've only had her a couple weeks. First week there were no problems, this week she's been grumpy and now the striking. Honestly I'm still shaking, I'm leaving her rat in there tonight and if she hasn't taken it when I check her tomorrow I'll wiggle it again for her, but for now I'm still a bit too shaken up to open that tub again. I checked in on her a bit after posting this thread and she was still right at the front of her tub, so I wasn't going to risk her bad mood too quickly to open it. I'll let her settle down and then see her again tomorrow after she's chilled out a bit.

My first thought too was that she is heading into shed. Typically with a shed cycle the get a pink belly, a few days later go blue, a day or so later clear up, then shed a day or a few days after clearing up. It's a process, that takes awhile. And one of mine in particular will be grumpy before I can tell a shed is coming. Her mood usually tips me off first.

Also, did you recently move her to the new rack? She could be stressed too.

Don't be afraid of her. Bites are not that bad. It's more the shock of it, than any sort of pain.

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20c is 68F. My understanding is that racks in rooms with ambient temps below 75F will not provide a high enough ambient temp in the tub(you're shooting for upper 70's to low 80's F, ideally). I'd see what you ambient and cold side temps are in the tub.

Don't worry about feeding her until you're sure you've corrected any husbandry issues.

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Originally Posted by dav4

20c is 68F. My understanding is that racks in rooms with ambient temps below 75F will not provide a high enough ambient temp in the tub(you're shooting for upper 70's to low 80's F, ideally). I'd see what you ambient and cold side temps are in the tub.

Don't worry about feeding her until you're sure you've corrected any husbandry issues.

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Thanks, Dave, I'm terrible with conversions! Yes, 68F is about 10 degrees too cool for an ambient temperature. The OP needs to correct this first and foremost. I'm also with the others on the impending shed guess. And as Doolittle said, the bark is way worse than the actual bite with these guys, not that I would deliberately stick my hand in front of a cranky adult female! ;)

Yikes, that is too cold. I hadn't done the conversion either. Get her warmed up!

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My female fire, Nova, is convinced that when she's in her tub that she could eat a bear. And subsequently, my hand. A full grown female is probably a little more intimidating, but if she doesn't calm down with husbandry adjustments and/or shed I'd encourage you to try and get her out of the tub even if she is hissy, just to see if it's just getting out of the tub that stresses her out. Nova turns into an insta puppy dog once she's out, it's just getting her out of the tub that she's nippy and hissy.

Get your ambient's a touch up and maybe bump the humidity for a possible shed, see what happens. I promise, if she does get a bite into you it won't hurt as much as it'll surprise you, and you'll join our bite club here :gj: All of my mammal pets have given me much more painful and curse worthy injuries (my mom's pug won't bite your hands if you can see them, but mess with him and play "what's alive under the towel"? Gave me one of the worst pinch bruises I've had that hurt for weeks! I would take a hundred snake bites over that)

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Originally Posted by DrDooLittle

Don't be afraid of her. Bites are not that bad. It's more the shock of it, than any sort of pain.

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I would normally agree with this if it was a defensive bite, but when they shoot out of their tubs looking for food, LOL, I make sure to grab a paper towel roll and like a master swordsmen taking on a wingless, fire-breathless, clawless dragon, I get them away from me and back into the tub :gj:. It's much scarier with the giants! I wouldn't let my 2200 gram girl near my hand when there's a rat involved... Haha :P

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Originally Posted by h00blah

I would normally agree with this if it was a defensive bite, but when they shoot out of their tubs looking for food, LOL, I make sure to grab a paper towel roll and like a master swordsmen taking on a wingless, fire-breathless, clawless dragon, I get them away from me and back into the tub :gj:. It's much scarier with the giants! I wouldn't let my 2200 gram girl near my hand when there's a rat involved... Haha :P

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Lol, I have not had the pleasure of anybody launching out at me for food yet. However, when my enchi boy gets bigger, he may. You so much as touch that tub on feed day, and he is out, watching, and waiting.

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Originally Posted by dav4

20c is 68F. My understanding is that racks in rooms with ambient temps below 75F will not provide a high enough ambient temp in the tub(you're shooting for upper 70's to low 80's F, ideally). I'd see what you ambient and cold side temps are in the tub.

Don't worry about feeding her until you're sure you've corrected any husbandry issues.

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I should have given you guys a bit more info off the bat!
The room is at 20c, But I've double checked her cool side (In one of the other tubs, Still not bothering miss grumpy pants in there!) and it's easily in the 78f-81f range. The tubs are noticably warmer than the room when you open them, I wasn't too concerned with that at all. :] Also, I do have to mention the humidity seems like it could perhaps be high? Although that's probably because I have the water dish right beside the front of the tub. There's a bit of condensation on the front of the tub at times, And as someone who's never used a rack before I wondered if perhaps I had the Humidity a tad too high, maybe I should clean out the shavings soon from the area and put in a smaller water dish? (Not sure if that'd help.) But at the same time, if she's going into shed I'm sure she doesn't mind Humidity all that much. That might help. I think she may have a tiny spot of risidual shed left on her head from her last home anyways.

It's not that I'm terrified of her! I mean I expect to get bitten eventually, but yes a full grown female is a tad on the intimidating side. If my Baby bit me, I'd probably think she was being cute. But Luca has a very loud bark, Haha. XD

Oh, and I just opened the tub a crack to check if the rat was gone and it is. Guess once she scared me off she felt better about eatting. What a jerk. XD

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Originally Posted by Valentine Pirate

My female fire, Nova, is convinced that when she's in her tub that she could eat a bear. And subsequently, my hand. A full grown female is probably a little more intimidating, but if she doesn't calm down with husbandry adjustments and/or shed I'd encourage you to try and get her out of the tub even if she is hissy, just to see if it's just getting out of the tub that stresses her out. Nova turns into an insta puppy dog once she's out, it's just getting her out of the tub that she's nippy and hissy.

Get your ambient's a touch up and maybe bump the humidity for a possible shed, see what happens. I promise, if she does get a bite into you it won't hurt as much as it'll surprise you, and you'll join our bite club here :gj: All of my mammal pets have given me much more painful and curse worthy injuries (my mom's pug won't bite your hands if you can see them, but mess with him and play "what's alive under the towel"? Gave me one of the worst pinch bruises I've had that hurt for weeks! I would take a hundred snake bites over that)

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XD What an exclusive club, I'm sure I'll be a card carrying member eventually.
Well that makes me feel a whole lot better that a dog bite is worse than a snake bite. I've had plenty of those from dogs of all sizes. XD I've just yet to experience the reptile equivalent! I was just so shocked when she ACTUALLY tried to jump out after me, she was not a happy camper! At least she's eatten that rat, I was worried she was going get grumpy at me if I had to wiggle it again. I'll let her digest for a day or so and then see if grumpypants feels better.

On an unrelated topic to sound a bit happier, When I fed Baby (Yes, her name is Baby, my firefly. She's named after the Impala on Supernatural, if anyone gets that. Ha!) She decided she was going to take her rat on the side. I come back in 10 minutes later to check on her, she's migrated to it's butt and is sitting there, thoroughly confused, as to why she can't get it in her belly when she's got it's legs on either side of her big mouth. I tried to gently take it from her to set her right but she was determined she was going to eat that rat tail end first, it was really amusing even though I know not exactly SAFE. She finally dropped it, I wiggled it for her and she finally took it nose first, but it was REALLY adorable watching her try so hard to get that rat down for a good 15 minutes after I came in.

http://img577.imageshack.us/img577/4350/derpderprat.png
DERP. NO UNDERSTAND? Y NO IN TUMMY?
SO CONFUSED, HALP.
RAT WHY?
D:

She could have gotten it down butt first. They do that sometimes. I would have just left her alone, she will manage.

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Originally Posted by DrDooLittle

She could have gotten it down butt first. They do that sometimes. I would have just left her alone, she will manage.

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Oh she certainly tried! I just read up after she took it that way if it was dangerous, and heard that it's POSSIBLE to hurt their throats on the legs. And since the rat was a bit on the big side for her size (Appropriate, but not a LOT of wiggle room.) I thought I'd try nudging it around with the tongs to see if she'd get the idea. She certainly did not, she just squeezed it tighter. I only gave it to her the right side after she'd already dropped it on her own later. :]

It was still one of the cutest things I've ever seen.

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Originally Posted by Reedwillow

On an unrelated topic to sound a bit happier, When I fed Baby (Yes, her name is Baby, my firefly. She's named after the Impala on Supernatural, if anyone gets that. Ha!)

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That just made my day! My boyfriend and I instantly point out any black Impalas we see around :D (Hell, I'm not a car person but I can ID those cars just by tail lights now)

And Dr. D is right about the snake figuring it out. I gave up trying to watch my mojave male eat completely just because he turns it into such a complicated matter. Strike and attempt to swallow sideways, give up and examine for 20 minutes, eat butt first. Every. Single. Time. I just leave it now after he takes it and check in the morning to confirm he didn't give up completely

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Originally Posted by Valentine Pirate

That just made my day! My boyfriend and I instantly point out any black Impalas we see around :D (Hell, I'm not a car person but I can ID those cars just by tail lights now)

And Dr. D is right about the snake figuring it out. I gave up trying to watch my mojave male eat completely just because he turns it into such a complicated matter. Strike and attempt to swallow sideways, give up and examine for 20 minutes, eat butt first. Every. Single. Time. I just leave it now after he takes it and check in the morning to confirm he didn't give up completely

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Oh heck yes! -highfive-
Supernatural fans unite. I just groan when I tell people my snake's name is Baby though, it sounds so girly until I explain it. XD She isn't girly! She's super cool! Rock music! And black leather! YEAH!

And ohboy, Sounds like a funny snake. XD I just watched her for the longest time, At first I was like. Yes, go for the butt Baby. Go for the butt. Dean Winchester would be so proud of you. But the slowly it devolved into WOW, My snake is SUCH A GENIUS. Smartest snake by far, I'm /so/ sure. And I laughed, a lot.