aggressiveness

My normal Bp is just under two feet and I feed her every Thursday a little mouse from pet co. I have had for about a month now and she has never given me any problems. Up until I was gone for a weekend and I didn't handle her. I normally handle her for about 5 minutes a day. She's never been aggressive until Monday the following weekend after I got back where she struck at me and grazed my finger just a little bit. And like I said I feed her Thursday's so i don't think she's hungry but then again I'm a newbie and am open to any information. So any incite is appreciated.

How did you approach the snake? Maybe she was sleeping and tou startled her. How old is she?

Well I was handling her about ten minutes prior to the strike but I lifted the hid and let her adjust them just simply picked her up like always. She's about a year and a half.

I pick up my ball pythons from behind to avoid any potential bites. I've been bit before when I have reached for them straight on. Also I don't mean to sound like a broken record but is your husbandry all good? Snakes can get stressed if temps/humidity aren't correct.

A year and a half old female should not be fed a little mouse. She's probably starving.

Yea I missed that part about her eating mice. She really should be on rats even as a hatchling. Do you know how much she weighs? Length is not that important.

What do you suggest?

How much does she weigh?

I suggest switching her to rats. Do you have a picture of her and her set up? Did people at the petstore tell you to feed mice? I don't want it to seem like people are ganging up on you. It's just we see simple husbandry issues all the time and sometimes it's the case of misinformation.

Her hot side is at 89 with at uth and ceramic heat lamp both are connected to a zilla temperature controller and the cool side sits around 79 and humidity is frequently between 55-60 and she's in a 20 gallon

I don't know how much your BP weighs, but I'm usually able to feed small rats by a year and a half. Sounds like she's definitely hungry.

How much does she weigh, in grams? By 18 months old a female BP should at least be on small rats not small mice.

Okay i am going to give a quick bio on myself and my normal ball python, Delilah. I have always had an obsession with snakes from when i was about 9 because that was when i caught my first one and so on and so forth, i am now 19. i wandered into petco about a month ago looking for a dog toy and walked out with a Delilah, a uth, a 20g tank i mistakenly bought the 20 high one and plan on switching to the 20L soon. The people at petco informed me that she had been there about 4-5 months prior to me purchasing her so i dont truly know how old she is i am sorry that i made the mistake of guessing but im a newbie and nervous. but shen i had bought her thery noted to me that she was aggressive and has bitten the handler 5 times including once in the face. Now i have done research before because i had always wanted a bp but never got around to actually getting one, even knowing the stuff about bp's and knowing the responsibility i still asked questions especially about feeding... what they fed her and how often they feed her and the lady told me they were giving her the live mice that they had in the store, and that i should keep her on those for a while. so i get home and set her tank up with a thermometer mid-height on the basking side and at the bottom in the middle for ambient. both are reading in the ideal areas along with the humidity being between 50-60. she has never refused a feed and always would strike it within minutes of being in her feeding tote. she has never been agressive with me after feeding either but like i said after being out of town this past weekend when i got home today to take her out she was a bit on edge and struck at me. i truly have a passion for snakes and with more experience i would like to have numerous ones so please any information is greatly appreciated. i would like to follow up with pictures but i dont know how to get them on here yet.

http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...3/3/snake2.jpgthis is her as of today

Keep asking questions, that's how most of us learn :) I find the people at the big chain pet stores to be well-meaning, but don't always give the best advice.

As everyone else here said please get her on rats ASAP. She is most likely hungry. I have never seen an aggressive ball python. They can be defensive and they can be crazy hungry but not aggressive. Given the chance a ball will hide or "run" away. This may seem like a play on words if you have an animal that it is striking, but it is not. It is key to understanding the behavior of the animal. A good example of an "aggressive" snake is a cottenmouth. They will come at you rather that running away. Anyway, in my experience, if a ball is comfortable in its environment and it is not super hungry it is not going to strike.

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Originally Posted by Nsmith

i wandered into petco about a month ago looking for a dog toy and walked out with a Delilah, a uth, a 20g tank i mistakenly bought the 20 high one and plan on switching to the 20L soon.

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Save yourself some money, go to Lowes/Home Depot/WalMart/Target/etc. and get a latch box style tub with locking handles instead - something like this:
http://www.lowes.com/pd_579877-62860...uctId=50150118

It will be much easier to keep heat and humidity inside of it than a tank, and your BP will outgrow a 20L soon anyway.

Also you said you have a UTH but do you have a thermostat to regulate it? Not a thermometer to measure the temperature, but a thermostat to keep the UTH from overheating? If not it can get hot enough to burn your snake.

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Originally Posted by bcr229

Save yourself some money, go to Lowes/Home Depot/WalMart/Target/etc. and get a latch box style tub with locking handles instead - something like this:
http://www.lowes.com/pd_579877-62860...uctId=50150118

It will be much easier to keep heat and humidity inside of it than a tank, and your BP will outgrow a 20L soon anyway.

Also you said you have a UTH but do you have a thermostat to regulate it? Not a thermometer to measure the temperature, but a thermostat to keep the UTH from overheating? If not it can get hot enough to burn your snake.

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Will a UTH melt that plastic?

I had an UTH melt onto the tub. No snakes were in there but I found out for sure that it needs to be regulated.

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Originally Posted by Meech

Will a UTH melt that plastic?

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Only if it's unregulated by a thermostat. Regulated it shouldn't get hotter than 95*F.