Ball Pthyon seems to be very aggressive suddenly

[Lana's_mom]

I'm sorry for more questions. I am trying to learn as much as I can I have a Male Ball that was given to me a while back. I let him settle into his tank for a week or so before handling him. When I did handle him he was great, really calm and gentle. 3 weeks or so I had brought him out and he was tense and I was rushing, I put him in his feeding tank and gently pushed him off my hand, and he tagged me. I understand that it was my fault and all. I fed him and he ate and I when to get him out I used a hook to block his head from spinning around on me, I didn't push him with it or anything it was just there in mid air to block him, and he struck at it. I got him back into his tank and let him be for a few days, and he just seemed cranky so I got him a small rat and he ate that with gusto. When I went to feed him last week he was in shed so I left him alone. He shed yesterday and so I figured I would feed him today. As soon as I put him in his tank he bit himself. I have never had a snake do this. Could he really be that hungry? I mean I guess he can be. The people who had him before fed him a mouse a week. I know he went 2 weeks between feedings this time due to shedding, and I wondered if they were under feeding him by accident which is why I went up to small rats. But should he calm back down to where he is easy to handle again? And what size meal do you tipically feed a ball that is close to 4 foot? The meal today was a full grown ASF. Should he be eating a meal that size every week, every 2 weeks? Thanks for the input

[CustomChevyGuy]

I went thru this for a bit with my BP roughly a year ago. He was about the same size as yours is now.
One of the things that I realized was that I had changed how I acted around him. I had been really busy with work and hadn't been holding him much. So I'm guessing he was associating the tank lid movement with food, and that set him into the striking frenzy.

Another thing I had done was changed where I fed him. I lost count at how many times he struck at me, but remember the time he caught my thumb! I think this might have set him into the striking mode as well, because every time I took him out of the cage, he was ready to eat, even if i wasn't taking him into the other room.

Eventually I broke him of this annoying habit but it took time. I made it a point to open the cage every day for about a month. Once he seemed to calm down, I would stick my hand in and move it around, like I was cleaning. From there, I would begin to pet him slowly, despite his hissing.

Another thing I did was go back to feeding him in his own cage. Since then, he has been my cuddly lil buddy, the same way he was when I first got him. (only about 3 foot longer )

[rperry03]

Did you feed him again in a separate container?

How much does your 4 ft bp weight?

1 asf (my adult asf's are 60-70 grams) would not be enough for mine in one sitting let alone last 2 weeks.
My bp is probably the same length as yours and weighs 1825 grams. It eats 100-125 gram rats every 7-10 days. I can tell by the way he is acting when he is hungry.
I also feed all of mine in their own cage and have no issues with cage aggression.