Our Dumeril's has lost his mind

We adopted our boy Sage about a year and a half ago and he was very calm and sweet. He never acted aggressive towards us in any way. About a year ago, he came down with an RI and we had to treat him with oral antibiotics for a month. Before we even gave him the antibiotics, he had become pretty reactive to anyone approaching within reach and would strike out if you were holding him and someone came close. Since getting antibiotics, he has remained super aggressive and strikes at his cage just about any time we are in the room. He has been doing it consistently for about a year now and it doesn't seem to be letting up. Once we get him out he is okay, but still defensive against anyone moving around nearby.

Lately he has taken up to feed-striking his water bowl when we are in the room, including wrapping it and dumping all the water.

Even when we covered his window completely, he continued to strike blindly at people who moved by him at more than a few feet away. Once being held, he is never aggressive toward his handler.

Has anyone experienced this or have any ideas on how to work him out of it?

He's currently being fed a large rat every two weeks (same schedule as all of our boas), though he always seems hungry and we give him extra snacks from time to time.

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach..._214512-X2.jpg

Sorry i can't say i really know what to do. I'm not sure if any one does. My best advice would be handle him more and just give it time and hope he grows out of it. Maybe change things up. Like the set up in the enclosure and maybe change where you keep him. The idea is to break the routine he is use to. And maybe that will help him stop.

I've absolutely no idea what's going on but if you decide to start handling him more as just suggested -make sure you take loads of videos lol :)


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Kinda like EDR thinks, I'm curious if he will keep acting that way if you set him up in a new enclosure, like a temporary tub for example. The 3 foot sterilite ones or 5 foot iris ones would work, I'm assuming he might be huge if he's eating large rats LOL.

And if he does break out of the habit, maybe wait a few months before moving him back to his old enclosure, and clean it all out so no old scents or memory remain? Idk either, just thinking how changing things up completely may help if it's really just to break habit.

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Originally Posted by redshepherd

Kinda like EDR thinks, I'm curious if he will keep acting that way if you set him up in a new enclosure, like a temporary tub for example. The 3 foot sterilite ones or 5 foot iris ones would work, I'm assuming he might be huge if he's eating large rats LOL.

And if he does break out of the habit, maybe wait a few months before moving him back to his old enclosure, and clean it all out so no old scents or memory remain? Idk either, just thinking how changing things up completely may help if it's really just to break habit.

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Oddly enough my psychotic Thai Bamboo Rat snake has tamed down remarkably since I moved him into a bigger Viv ..


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I, too, would try to change around its routine as much as possible.

Also maybe use a heavier waterbowl that it can't tip over or drag and he may eventually give up trying.

Could there be something else wrong with him that hasn't been diagnosed yet? If he's in pain somehow, that would make anybody aggressive. Or if he's lost some sort of sense making his world seem very unbalanced? I know they can't hear, but maybe blind in one eye or something? I don't know. I'm not a vet, nor have any sort of knowledge on snake illnesses other than what is commonly discussed. Just thinking out loud? I hope he calms down for you. Poor thing. Again, from a layman's perspective (I am super new to snakes), it seems like he may be in some sort of distress. But I hope I'm wrong and he's just a "cranky old man". :weirdface Good luck with your baby.

Could he be craving a female ?

Just a long shot ?!?'


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I know a guy who has quite a few of them and he has one female that does the same thing. They are known for having a strong feeding response but he just chalked it up to her being a little kooky lol. I'm not sure you can come up with a logical explanation on this one.

i just wanted to pop in and say the photo is kind of hilarious lol, tho i am sorry your snake is experiencing some eccentric behavior. this seems very odd from what i've read of Dums!

I know personally that hungry Dumerils can be pretty aggressive. But that seems a tad extreme, not to mention you say you are feeding large rats. Maybe it’s the old joke, a snake is a snake? They all can’t be docile, good luck. Hopefully a change of scenery will do him good.

Thanks for all the input. We have actually tried many configurations for his habitat. When he was in quarantine we had him in an Iris x-mas tree tub on paper with hides and belly heat. He seemed to do well with this, but when he did make a mess it got so wet and humid so quickly that his RI symptoms would start to come back. He has also been in the big Iris tub on substrate and is now in an AP T8 on cypress mulch with an RHP for heat.

I worry that he still has a latent infection and on our vet's orders we have been keeping his warm side a little warmer at 90 degrees to help him fight it off if it's still there. He's not currently drooling or exhibiting symptoms, but his "bad attitude" has remained in every enclosure configuration since around the time he first had the RI.

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Originally Posted by Sonny1318

I know personally that hungry Dumerils can be pretty aggressive. But that seems a tad extreme, not to mention you say you are feeding large rats. Maybe it’s the old joke, a snake is a snake? They all can’t be docile, good luck. Hopefully a change of scenery will do him good.

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Yeah, I wonder if he just wants more food. We don't know his age at all as he was a rescue, so it's possible he's just undersized and not getting enough food. I have tried giving him a medium rat every week for a month to see if that changed anything, but it was no different. He seems always super defensive, yet it can turn into a feed strike on a whim.

I think we have resigned to him just being a punk.

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Originally Posted by treaux

Yeah, I wonder if he just wants more food. We don't know his age at all as he was a rescue, so it's possible he's just undersized and not getting enough food. I have tried giving him a medium rat every week for a month to see if that changed anything, but it was no different. He seems always super defensive, yet it can turn into a feed strike on a whim.

I think we have resigned to him just being a punk.

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Well I hope he snaps out it for you. Like I previously mentioned, sometimes a snake just wants to be a snake. But who doesn’t love a Dumerils :)

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Originally Posted by treaux

I worry that he still has a latent infection and on our vet's orders we have been keeping his warm side a little warmer at 90 degrees to help him fight it off if it's still there. He's not currently drooling or exhibiting symptoms, but his "bad attitude" has remained in every enclosure configuration since around the time he first had the RI.

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Dums really don't need to be all that warm. Does he have a place to go to cool off? If not that may make him pissy.

Also the higher heat may be boosting his metabolism so he could very well be hungrier than a Dum kept at more typical temperatures.

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Originally Posted by bcr229

Dums really don't need to be all that warm. Does he have a place to go to cool off? If not that may make him pissy.

Also the higher heat may be boosting his metabolism so he could very well be hungrier than a Dum kept at more typical temperatures.

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His cool side sits below 80 usually, however he's often on the warm side. It's possible that from heating him higher to fight the RI his appetite increased. Just fed him another large rat today and he managed to strike in a most ridiculous way (hit the tongs first, then wrapped the rat, so I had to leave the tongs in there with him until he released). His aim while striking seems pretty terrible. He just swings his head around till he gets something in his mouth (often not his actual prey).

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach..._135851-X2.jpg

Well at least he has personality in spades.:P Good luck hopefully he'll knock it off and as long as you guys can put up with the striking and he doesn't hurt him self i guess the situation could be worse.

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Originally Posted by bcr229

Dums really don't need to be all that warm. Does he have a place to go to cool off? If not that may make him pissy.

Also the higher heat may be boosting his metabolism so he could very well be hungrier than a Dum kept at more typical temperatures.

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I was thinking that very same thing as I get real cranky when I get too warm .....

To the op - what kind of device you're using to take the temps on the warm spot and the cooler side ??

Is it one of those stick on the side plastic thermometers ?

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Originally Posted by treaux

His cool side sits below 80 usually, however he's often on the warm side. It's possible that from heating him higher to fight the RI his appetite increased. Just fed him another large rat today and he managed to strike in a most ridiculous way (hit the tongs first, then wrapped the rat, so I had to leave the tongs in there with him until he released). His aim while striking seems pretty terrible. He just swings his head around till he gets something in his mouth (often not his actual prey).

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LOL mine do the same thing. There's a lot of ready-fire-aim in them!

I read about snakes getting snippy and weird when temps are too hot sometimes. I keep my dum at 84 hot spot, and the cool end can go down to 75. Not that 90 is necessarily too hot to make all dum's weird, but maybe it would help yours? They're a chillier species than ball pythons! I'm just guessing around things I might try if he were mine, because that sounds wild LOL

I have one more suggestion...just a guess...but snakes with internal discomfort don't have any way to know what the problem is, they just lash out. You gave
him antibiotics for a month or so...but did you think to follow them with some reptile pro-biotics (like Bene-Bac) ? Maybe he has a tummy-ache? Are his stools
looking normal?

Have you had his stools analyzed for anything else that might be going on? Parasites can ruin anyone's day...:O

If the RI is no longer an issue I personally would drop his hot spot 5 or 6 degrees and maintain humidity at 70-80 percent . I know my boy Champ does great in those conditions. You would need to decrease prey size or offering frequency as( most) Dumerils are slow metabolizing boids and in my opinion are more easily prone to obesity anyway. Well hydrated and a little cooler may help.

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